Environmental information disclosure policy and green total factor productivity: evidence from firm level

Abstract This paper investigates the influence of environmental information disclosure (EID) policy on green total factor productivity (GTFP) of Chinese industrial enterprises, calculated by dynamic slack-based measure model. Using EID policy as the quasi-natural experiment, we first study the relationship between EID policy and GTFP, finding that EID policy significantly enhances enterprise GTFP. Further analysis shows that policy plays roles by stimulating energy transformation, encouraging upgrades of pollution control equipment, and promoting green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive effect is more pronounced for firms facing more stringent financial constraints, with high pollution emission intensity and non-state-owned enterprises. Moreover, employing the Simhash algorithm, we quantify nearly 700 urban environmental laws, confirming more positive impact of policy on GTFP improvement in regions with weaker urban environmental legislation, namely complementary effects between these two types of environmental regulations, particularly in the domains of water, air, and solid waste pollution legislation.