International Journal of Finance & Economics最新文献

CSR decoupling practices undermine the legitimacy of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, prompting a desire to use legitimacy-enhancing techniques, like external assurance (BIG4) of CSR reports. Our study uses the international sample of 34 countries from 2006 to 2019, and results indicate that good audit quality (BIG4) can significantly reduce the CSR performance and disclosure gap (CSR decoupling practices). Further, these results still hold even when using the alternate proxies of CSR decoupling (i.e., SUM) and audit quality (i.e., audit fee), and they emerge mainly in unqualified audit reports. Additionally, we use the GMM and PSM regression analysis to control endogeneity concerns, and the results are still consistent. Overall, our findings suggest that BIG4 auditors assure the legitimacy and dependability of their auditees' non-financial disclosures (CSR disclosure), as evidenced by their stringent auditing practices. Finally, our study's key implications are that companies are prone to a lower level of CSR decoupling when their external auditor is one of the BIG4 auditing firms. Our findings are particularly apparent to scholars, regulatory agencies and corporate practices.

Biodiversity is the foundation for human survival and development. Based on birdwatching data, this paper describes bird species richness of Chinese regions. Furthermore, this paper empirically examines the relationship between the China pilot free trade zone (PFTZ) and biodiversity. The results show that the establishment of PFTZs promoted the protection of biodiversity. The effects of PFTZ on biodiversity are heterogeneous, and there are significant differences in the richness promotion effect of different bird orders. The establishment of the PFTZs has enhanced the bird species richness in the pilot zone by promoting the reduction of industrial pollution, promoting the construction of urban environmental infrastructure, increasing the urban green area and enhancing public awareness of environmental protection. The PFTZ does not have a radiation effect on the surrounding areas. This study provides an important basis for understanding the environmental effects of trade and policy references for the government to formulate policies to promote the coordinated development of opening up and ecological environmental protection.

Carbon inequality has become a significant challenge for sustainable natural resource management and global environmental sustainability. This study aims to explore the impact of natural resource depletion on carbon inequality, using data spanning from 1990 to 2020 for both developed and developing countries. The study employs sophisticated econometric methods for empirical analysis, such as second-generation cointegration techniques, AMG, CS-ARDL, the quantile regression method, and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test. The findings reveal that natural resource depletion and consumption expenditures increase carbon inequality in the overall sample of countries. However, in a separate sample, natural resource depletion and consumption expenditures increase carbon inequality in developing countries, while they have a decreasing impact in developed countries. In addition, globalization and population growth emerge as significant contributors to carbon inequality in all three groups. In the quantile regression analysis, the results are the same at both the lower and higher quantiles in all three groups, except for natural resource depletion at the upper quantile. The causality analysis also supports the econometric findings. Based on these results, policy recommendations are proposed for both developing and developed countries. These include encouraging sustainable resource management, renewable energy infrastructure, sustainable consumption, environmental considerations in economic policymaking, technology transfer, and sustainable urbanization. These proposals may reduce carbon disparity, promote sustainable growth, and create a ecologically sustainable future.

This study investigates the influence of TMT R&D functional background on corporate social responsibility (CSR), using data from Chinese-listed family firms from 2010 to 2020. The results demonstrate that the CSR performance of family firms is negatively influenced by the R&D functional background of TMT. These conclusions continuously demonstrate robustness following endogeneity and robustness tests. Furthermore, the primary channels via which the TMT R&D functional background influences CSR performance are digital transformation and family control channels. The TMT R&D functional background exerts a more significant adverse impact on CSR in family firms with multiple shareholding or actual controllers not serving as the chairman or general manager.

In the context of frequent trade frictions and geopolitical conflicts, the increase in economic policy uncertainty highlights the application value of digital technologies. Digital finance business development originates from applying achievements in financial technology innovation and is also rooted in specific economic policy environments. This work explores the relationship between regional economic policy uncertainty and digital finance. Using data from 2011 to 2021 across 30 Chinese regions, we discover that economic policy uncertainty positively impacts digital finance and that there is regional heterogeneity. Economic policy uncertainty effectively drives government investment. Meanwhile, government investment plays a mediating role in economic policy uncertainty and digital finance. According to the threshold regression test, economic policy uncertainty's impact on digital finance demonstrates a double threshold effect dependent on the economic development level. As economic development levels rise, the promoting role of economic policy uncertainty in digital finance gradually strengthens. Further analysis reveals that digital finance has a significant spatial positive correlation and that economic policy uncertainty can drive the development of digital finance in neighbouring areas through the spatial spillover effect. Consequently, financial institutions should actively develop digital finance to strengthen their risk resilience in the face of shocks to economic policy uncertainty. Simultaneously, the government may facilitate the orderly and healthy development of digital finance through augmenting investment, optimising the layout of digital infrastructure, and boosting interregional collaboration.

The study explores the effect of China's Green Financial Reform and Innovation (GFRI) pilot zone policy on corporate ESG performance from 2012 to 2021. Utilising a double/debiased machine learning (DDML) model, we find that the policy enhances ESG performance by mitigating financial constraints, improving environmental practices, and reducing short-sighted management behaviour in Chinese corporates. Heterogeneity analysis reveals varied effects based on resource endowments, geographic locations, ownership properties and life cycles. This study underscores the significance of the GFRI policy in advancing China's dual-carbon goals. It further illustrates the potential of this policy to serve as a model for similar initiatives globally, offering empirical evidence that supports environmental governance and remediation efforts at both regional and corporate levels.