Abstract

This study theoretically and empirically analyzes the impact and mechanism of corporate green transformation on accrual earnings management using a sample of China’s A-share listed companies from 2015 to 2021. The results indicate that the green transformation of enterprises helps restrain accrual-based earnings management, especially accrual-based earnings management, which increases profits, and that the inhibition effect of enterprise green transformation on earnings management is more significant in high-tech and growth-stage enterprises. The mechanism test shows that corporate green transformation can inhibit accrual-based earnings management by increasing analyst follow-up and easing financing constraints. Using China’s environmental tax law, promulgated in 2018, as an exogenous shock to construct the PSM-DID, the conclusion still holds after alleviating endogeneity. Further research has found that green transformations can also help inhibit real earnings management. This study provides new empirical evidence for a comprehensive understanding and evaluation of the governance role of corporate green transformation and provides a reference value for further comprehensively promoting the green transformation of Chinese enterprises and improving the quality of accounting information.

Introduction

With the continuous adoption of an extensive economic growth model in recent years, China has become the second largest economy in the world. However, this extensive economic growth has seriously damaged China’s environmental resources, making China’s total greenhouse gas emissions the highest in the world [1]. The green economy has always been an important tool for developing countries to achieve sustainable development [2]. Therefore, to avoid environmental degradation caused by greenhouse gas emissions and political pressure affecting sustainable economic development, the Chinese government has proposed a series of economic development strategies based on environmental protection.1 The Chinese government’s green development method of “promoting the construction of a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society” reflects the determination and attitude of the government in formulating and implementing new development policies during the transformation period of national economic development [3]. China’s listed companies have long been the main source of carbon emissions.2 Today, with increasingly serious environmental problems, the traditional “high carbon emission” development model of listed companies is unsustainable, and companies must choose a development path that takes into account both economic and environmental benefits [4], and green transformation can just become an important driving force for the sustainable development of the corporate economy [5]. Therefore, given the Chinese government’s vigorous promotion of the sustainable development of the green economy based on the “dual carbon” goal, the green transformation of listed companies has become a hot topic of concern in all walks of life.

Conclusion

Earnings management has always been a key issue in corporate governance and improving accounting information quality is an emerging market goal. As one of the most important forms of sustainable economic development in China, corporate green transformation has a governance effect on earnings management, and is worthy of study. This study selects A-share listed companies in China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2015 to 2021 as the research sample and empirically tests the impact of corporate green transformation on accrual earnings management. The results were as follows:

First, there is a negative correlation between corporate green transformation and accrual-based earnings management, indicating that corporate green transformation effectively inhibits accrual-based earnings management. Simultaneously, corporate green transformation has a strong inhibitory effect on accrual-earnings management, which increases profits. After using the environmental protection “fee reform tax” policy issued by the Chinese government in 2018 to employ a PSM-DID analysis to alleviate endogeneity, the conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests such as replacing explanatory variables and explained variables.