Environmental Information Disclosure Quality and Green Technology Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Listed Enterprises

This paper investigates the relationship between environmental information disclosure (EID) quality and green technology innovation (GTI) using panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies over 2008–2024. EID quality is measured by a 27-indicator index, and GTI by the number of granted green patents. Based on 39,075 firm-year observations with firm and year fixed effects and firm-level clustered standard errors, the results show that EID quality is significantly and positively associated with GTI, and this association remains robust to a series of checks, including the exclusion of municipalities, a one-period lagged explanatory variable, propensity score matching, and entropy balancing, among other approaches. The mechanism analysis provides evidence consistent with two channels: EID quality is positively associated with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance and analyst coverage, each of which is positively associated with GTI. The EID–GTI association is also stronger under stronger board environmental expertise, audit quality, government subsidies, and market competition, and in firms with higher managerial myopia. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive association is stronger in state-owned enterprises and weaker in heavy-polluting industries and in regions with higher marketization. The study offers updated micro-level evidence on the role of EID quality in corporate green transformation, with implications for regulators and practitioners.