Nonlinear Effects of Environmental Data Disclosure on Urban Pollution Emissions: Evidence from China

Urban pollution emissions have become an unavoidable problem for China in its goal to achieve sustainable development, and environmental data disclosure is a key initiative for China to control urban pollution emissions. Based on the panel data of 120 cities in China from 2013 to 2018, this paper investigates the specific impact of environmental data disclosure level on urban pollution emissions. It was found that there is an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between the level of environmental data disclosure and urban pollutant emissions. A higher level of environmental data disclosure can alleviate information asymmetry and force polluters to take measures to ultimately reduce urban pollution emissions. However, a low level of environmental data disclosure cannot produce strong environmental constraints on polluters, although it may stimulate their speculative psychology, expand production before the advent of more efficient environmental supervision, and increase the total amount of urban pollution emissions. Therefore, the level of environmental data disclosure should be improved as much as possible, and the positive value of environmental data disclosure should be exploited to reduce urban pollution emissions. Heterogeneity shows that the impact of environmental data disclosure on urban pollution emissions is more significant in cities with higher entrepreneurial vitality, higher public environmental awareness, and stronger resource dependence. Further mechanism tests found that environmental data disclosure mainly affects urban pollutant emissions by increasing urban research investment, influencing the level of urban green technology innovation and the talent agglomeration effect, and improving urban green total factor productivity. These findings enrich the content of the literature regarding the relationship between environmental data disclosure and urban pollution emissions and present a feasible path for China to achieve emissions control goals through environmental data disclosure.