IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v69y2024ipas1544612324010882.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental protection taxes, audit fees and corporate ESG performance

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Fengzuo
  • Na, Pengjie
  • Wang, Xiaolan
  • Li, Xinyu

Abstract

The effectiveness of promoting sustainable development depends on the efficiency of formulating and implementing applicable policies. Based on a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2022, this study reveals a significant enhancement of the environmental protection taxes in corporate ESG performance. The finding indicates that implementing environmental protection taxes can effectively enhance ESG performance omnidirectionally. This impact operates mainly through reducing audit fees. These findings enhance and broaden the current body of literature and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of macro policies on individual agents.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Fengzuo & Na, Pengjie & Wang, Xiaolan & Li, Xinyu, 2024. "Environmental protection taxes, audit fees and corporate ESG performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:69:y:2024:i:pa:s1544612324010882
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2024.106058
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612324010882
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2024.106058?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kong, Dongmin & Liu, Chenhao, 2024. "Centralization and regulatory enforcement: Evidence from personnel authority reform in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    2. Tunahan Degirmenci & Mehmet Aydin, 2023. "The effects of environmental taxes on environmental pollution and unemployment: A panel co‐integration analysis on the validity of double dividend hypothesis for selected African countries," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2231-2238, July.
    3. He, Pinglin & Zhang, Shuhao & Wang, Lei & Ning, Jing, 2023. "Will environmental taxes help to mitigate climate change? A comparative study based on OECD countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1440-1464.
    4. Hu, Jun & Fang, Qi & Wu, Huiying, 2023. "Environmental tax and highly polluting firms' green transformation: Evidence from green mergers and acquisitions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    5. Liu, Guangqiang & Yang, Zhiqing & Zhang, Fan & Zhang, Nan, 2022. "Environmental tax reform and environmental investment: A quasi-natural experiment based on China's Environmental Protection Tax Law," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Zhice Cheng & Xinyuan Chen & Huwei Wen, 2022. "How Does Environmental Protection Tax Affect Corporate Environmental Investment? Evidence from Chinese Listed Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, March.
    7. Li, Yujie & Hua, Ziyan, 2024. "Environmental protection tax law and corporate ESG performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sun, Zhonghua & Wei, Wei, 2025. "Green technology innovation and corporate brand competitiveness: an analysis based on the role of environmental policy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Xin & Shi, Chenxiao, 2025. "How does Environmental Protection Tax Law affect corporate investment preferences?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Zhang, Jiewei & Yang, Yi, 2025. "Environmental protection interview and corporate environmental investment: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. He, Yu & Zhao, Xiaoling & Zheng, Huan, 2023. "How does the environmental protection tax law affect firm ESG? Evidence from the Chinese stock markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    4. Yu, Lianchao & Liu, Donghui & Liu, Qiang & Han, Hongling, 2025. "De-localization of environmental governance and corporate innovation structure: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PA).
    5. Zhang, Haotian & Lu, Shengfeng & Chen, Sixia, 2024. "Does centralization of tax administration regulate tax competition? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 1084-1098.
    6. Zhang, Qixin & Xiang, Zhiqiang, 2024. "New media surveillance, environmental information uncertainty and corporate environmental information disclosure," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    7. Wang, Weilong & Xiao, Deheng & Wang, Jianlong & Wu, Haitao, 2024. "The cost of pollution in the digital era: Impediments of air pollution on enterprise digital transformation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    8. Yang, Wen & Zhao, Keqing, 2024. "Cross-border capital flows and low-carbon economic development: Examining the impact of foreign shareholding," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    9. Li, Qiong & Pei, Jiuzheng, 2024. "Judicial protection of intellectual property rights and manipulative behaviors in corporate research and development expenses," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Zhang, Xinyu & Liu, Yixuan & Yu, Shaoze & Lin, Ouwen & Meng, Lu, 2025. "Impact of environmental protection tax on enterprise digital transformation: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    11. Huo, Dongxia & Bagadeem, Salim & Elsherazy, Tarek Abbas & Nasnodkar, Siddhesh Prabhu & Kalra, Akash, 2023. "Renewable energy consumption and the rising effect of climate policy uncertainty: Fresh policy analysis from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1459-1474.
    12. Huang, Xinyue & Ren, Yuning & Ren, Xiangru, 2024. "Legal background executives, corporate governance and corporate ESG performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PB).
    13. Hu, Jun & Fang, Qi & Wu, Huiying, 2023. "Environmental tax and highly polluting firms' green transformation: Evidence from green mergers and acquisitions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    14. Dai, Zheyu & Liu, Jian, 2024. "Exploring the mechanism of regional ecological legal governance's impact on corporate bond credit spreads," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    15. Deng, Youyi & Dong, Kangyin & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Xue, Jinjun, 2023. "How does environmental regulation affect the double dividend for energy firms? Evidence from China’s EPT policy," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 807-820.
    16. Liu, Ailan & Dai, Sijia & Wang, Zhixuan, 2023. "Environmental protection tax on enterprise environmental, social and governance performance: A multi-perspective analysis based on financing constraints," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    17. Qing Zhao & Chih-Hung Yuan, 2024. "Environmental Protection Tax and China’s Economic Growth: Boost or Slowdown?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-17, November.
    18. Sisi Zheng & Shanyue Jin, 2023. "Can Enterprises in China Achieve Sustainable Development through Green Investment?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-25, January.
    19. Zhang, Cheng & He, Ping & Zhou, Zhongsheng, 2024. "Environmental regulation, digital transformation, and corporate ESG performance: Evidence from the implementation of China's NEPL," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).
    20. Rui Zhu & Mengting Liu & Liyu Long & Congjia Huo, 2022. "Environmental Regulation, Political Connections, and Corporate Green Investment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-20, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:69:y:2024:i:pa:s1544612324010882. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.