The “Double-Edged Sword” effect of air quality information disclosure policy—Empirical evidence based on the digital transformation of Chinese listed companies

Enterprises' digital transformation (DT) has become crucial to enhancing competitiveness and fostering economic development. However, alongside economic progress, the issue of air pollution on a global scale has garnered widespread attention from governments and the public alike. In addressing the air pollution challenges amidst economic development, the Chinese government enacted the Air Quality Information Disclosure Policy (AQIDP) in 2012. While this policy is generally seen as an effective measure to improve the environment, its impact on microeconomic factors, particularly the digital transformation of enterprises, remains unclear. This paper employs a difference-in-differences model to study the effect of AQIDP on DT using a sample of 3347 Chinese-listed companies from 2012 to 2021. We find that AQIDP significantly inhibits DT, a result that holds even after a series of robustness tests. Our mechanism tests reveal that AQIDP weakens DT by increasing economic policy uncertainty in companies, reducing human capital, and exacerbating the crowding-out effect of environmental protection investments. Heterogeneity analysis shows that AQIDP exerts a more significant inhibitory effect on DT in cities with stricter environmental regulations, more backward industries, and companies with non-high-pollution, high-tech characteristics and non-state-owned. Further analysis reveals that although AQIDP significantly restrains DT, it leads to positive environmental effects, such as promoting pollution reduction and carbon emission reduction in companies. Based on these findings, this paper proposes policy recommendations to improve the digital transformation of companies.