Does Non-financial Information Disclosure Promote Firm's Exports? Evidence from China's Mandatory CSR Reporting Regulation

Description

Although prior literature provides evidence on information technology's role in international trade, whether and how a firm's non-financial information disclosure affects export is underexplored. Using China's mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure as a quasi-natural experiment, we find firms binding to the requirement significantly boost exports compared to their non-reporting peers. The effects are more substantial when firms are inferior in reputation, information transparency, and financial constraint before the regulation. Heterogeneous analyses indicate that firms with prior-low ESG disclosure levels increase their exports more significantly, especially from export volumes. Moreover, we show that the export increase is concentrated in countries with a more stringent disclosure requirement, reflecting a reporting distance gravity. Overall, our findings highlight that international integration could be a key benefit for policymakers to promote a more transparent CSR disclosure in developing countries.

Period	7 Mar 2023
Event title	ECON Brownbag Seminars
Event type	Seminar
Organiser	Department of Economics
Location	Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ChinaShow on map