Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy, Digitalization and Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility Information Disclosure

Low-carbon development is an important area that must be focused on in order to cope with climate change. Based on the institutional theory, this paper uses a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2021 and constructs a difference-in-differences model to examine the impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on corporate environmental and social responsibility information disclosure. The results show that the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy in a region where companies are located significantly promotes corporate environmental and social responsibility information disclosure, and the degree of digital transformation of enterprises in the pilot region has a moderating effect on it. The mechanism analysis reveals that the policy promotes the corporate environmental and social responsibility information disclosure primarily by enhancing the environmental performance and increasing media attention, and heterogeneity analysis shows that when the enterprise has green investors or belongs to an industry with low carbon emissions, the policy has a more significant impact. Additionally, the study finds that the low-carbon city pilot policy has a positive impact on the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure. In terms of the goals of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality, this study provides new evidence on how low-carbon city pilot policy influences corporate environmental and social responsibility, offering valuable insights for advancing the country’s low-carbon development agenda.