Yongliang Yang

Green innovation is key to achieving the strategic goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. High-carbon enterprises account for a substantial proportion of carbon emissions. Yet, prior literature overlooks the unique features of high-carbon firms in the green transition. We develop an integrated framework for this analysis. Using Chinese A-share listed textile enterprises from 2010 to 2023 as the sample, this study finds that green innovation significantly increases the cost of equity capital of high-carbon enterprises by increasing cash outflows and agency costs. However, greater willingness to innovate and stronger regional green finance development can mitigate these adverse effects. Furthermore, green innovation’s upward effect on the cost of equity capital is statistically significant among enterprises facing tight financing constraints, with weak human capital, receiving limited attention from institutional investors, and operating in regions with significant climate-risk concerns. Further analysis shows that once high-carbon enterprises’ green innovation level exceeds a certain threshold, investors may reduce their required cost of equity capital. By focusing on Chinese textile enterprises, this study provides practical evidence for high-carbon enterprises to pursue green innovation. It offers guidance on broadening access to long-term capital and promoting sustainable development.

Corporate greenwashing has become a growing concern because it may weaken policy incentives for real emissions reductions and environmental investment. However, it remains unclear whether firms’ financial strategies influence their environmental communication strategies. This paper shows that corporate tax avoidance significantly increases corporate greenwashing, with the effect primarily reflecting symbolic environmental communication rather than improvements in substantive environmental practices. Mechanism tests indicate that tax avoidance facilitates greenwashing by increasing information asymmetry and appointing managers with environmental backgrounds. Further analyses reveal that this effect is more pronounced among firms with higher pre-event levels of greenwashing. Moreover, tax avoidance does not improve substantive environmental performance, providing no evidence for the alternative explanation that tax avoidance reduces greenwashing by increasing internal resources available for environmental investment. These findings provide implications for environmental governance, ESG disclosure regulation, and corporate sustainability management.

Biodiversity loss poses a threat to corporate performance and social welfare. Biodiversity disclosure enables investors to evaluate firms’ biodiversity status. However, it remains unclear whether and how biodiversity disclosure affects capital market efficiency. In this paper, we employ a binary variable derived from a word-frequency analysis of annual reports to determine whether a firm has disclosed biodiversity information. Using a panel of Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2022, we provide robust evidence that Companies that disclose biodiversity information have experienced sustained improvements in stock liquidity. Furthermore, the effect is significantly amplified after the 2020 UN Biodiversity Summit, suggesting that investors respond positively to biodiversity disclosure. Channel analysis reveals that higher inventory turnover reinforces this positive effect, while greater financing constraints and higher management ownership weaken it. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that this effect is more pronounced among firms with higher environmental information asymmetry, lower supply chain transparency, and lower patient capital. This study sheds light on how biodiversity disclosure affects market efficiency and offers important insights for future research and policy.

Climate change undermines progress toward sustainable development goals. This paper uses a two-way fixed-effects model to examine whether and how climate change affects firms’ operating risk from the perspective of heat exposure. The sample comprises 29,128 firm-year observations of Chinese listed firms for the period 2010 to 2021. The main results are as follows: (1) Increased heat exposure leads to higher corporate operating risk. (2) The impact of heat exposure on operating risk varies on firm characteristics. Specifically, manufacturing firms, small firms, and firms located in less developed cities are more susceptible to heat exposure. (3) The mechanism analysis shows that heat exposure exacerbates operating risk by affecting operating income and inventory management. This paper contributes to prior research on the economic impacts of climate change. In the context of climate change, these findings are of significant value in raising corporate awareness of climate change and motivating corporate involvement in low-carbon initiatives that contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.

Residents’ choices of green assets typically involve investing in or selecting environmentally beneficial products. How does climate change affect these choices? This study empirically finds that residents’ perception of climate change significantly enhances their adoption of green assets. This positive effect is particularly pronounced among women and residents who are familiar with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles. Moreover, residents’ ecological values (i.e., their willingness to spend more on environmental protection) mediate all hypothesized relationships. Focusing on green assets in the context of green consumption, this study reveals patterns in residents’ green asset choices across different quantiles. Furthermore, it integrates ecological values into the research framework and provides reusable instrumental variables for future studies. Finally, tailored policy recommendations are proposed based on population heterogeneity to encourage the adoption of green assets.

In the context of global climate change, this study examines the performance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in response to increasing high‐temperature risk. Using data from Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2020, we find that companies located in cities with higher climate risk exhibit a marked improvement in their CSR practices, and this conclusion is robust after conducting a series of robustness tests. Moreover, high‐temperature risk has a greater impact on CSR for companies that face higher financing costs, have a high equity concentration, or are particularly temperature‐sensitive. This study also provides evidence that increased exposure to high temperatures causes a decline in firms' financial performance, and the heightened CSR lessens such negative effects. These findings indicate the importance for both policymakers and firms to increase their awareness of climate risks, with a specific focus on integrating CSR strategies to enhance climate resilience.