Local Protectionism and Firms' ESG Choices: Evidence From the Judicial Independence Reform

ABSTRACT Local protectionism has been closely linked to corporate behavior. This paper exploits quasi‐experimental variation from the elimination of local protectionism through China's 2014 judicial reform to examine its impact on firms' Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure. The results show that the reform increases ESG disclosure scores for treated firms, particularly city‐level state‐owned enterprises. A potential mechanism is the increased legal risks caused by the reform. However, there is no evidence that the reform improves actual ESG performance, including metrics related to carbon emissions.