The Impact of Directors’ Foreign Experience on Environmental Information Disclosure: Evidence from Heavily Polluting Chinese Firms

Abstract

Based on manually collected data relating to board internationalization, measured as directors' experience gained in developed countries, this paper explores the relationship between directors' foreign experience and the environmental information disclosure of Chinese heavily polluting firms from 2016 to 2019. We find that directors' foreign experience has a significant positive impact on environmental information disclosure. These findings are robust and consistent across various analytical models. In addition, empirical evidence shows that the positive effect of directors' foreign experience on environmental information disclosure is more significant in state-owned enterprises and firms with foreign ownership. Our research has important implications for policy-makers and regulators.