Local officials' hometown preference and enterprises' environmental investment behavior

Abstract Based on annual observations of heavily polluting enterprises of A‐share listed companies from 2012 to 2019, this paper analyzes the impact of officials' preference for enterprises' investment in environmental protection in the officials' hometowns. It is found that when the Secretary of the municipal Party Committee takes office in his or her hometown, environmental protection investment by enterprises is higher, indicating that the preference of the municipal Party Secretary for their hometown has a positive promoting effect on enterprises' environmental governance behavior. At the same time, officials' hometown preferences promote environmental investment by strengthening environmental supervision. It is further found that the longer the municipal Party Secretary works in his or her hometown, the higher his or her education level, and the older he or she is, the greater the impact of his or her hometown preference on enterprises' environmental protection investment. Compared with female Party Secretaries, male Party Secretaries have more significant influence on corporate behavior. At the same time, corporate characteristics such as enterprise scale and regional characteristics such as economic development have a certain regulatory effect on this promoting effect.