Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2023.2218461
The impact of carbon risk on real earnings management
Weiwei Han
Fangying Yuan
Chuming Wang
Dongqing Luan
Hong Wang
Abstract
Carbon risk has aroused widespread concern in society. With the
implementation of carbon policy and the development of carbon
market, the research on the impact of carbon risk on corporate
financial behavior has become an important academic frontier
issue. We examine the impact of carbon risk on firms’ real earnings
management before and after the Paris climate change
agreement, signed by China in 2016. A difference-in-differences
model is deployed by using a sample of Chinese A-share listed
companies. We find that high-carbon-intensive firms engage in
significant upward real earnings management compared to lowcarbon-
intensive firms to offset the negative impact of carbon risk
by conveying the message of good corporate development to
investors after signing the Paris Agreement. The above research
findings still hold after the robustness tests. Further heterogeneity
analyses show that the impact of carbon risk on firms’ real earnings
management is greater in the sample of non-state-owned
firms. The above impact is more significant in firms with weaker
corporate governance, implying that strong corporate governance
constrains managers from engaging in real earnings management.
Therefore, policymakers and regulators should pay attention to
the ‘strategic response’ to earnings management of carbon-intensive
firms, taking into account the nature of property rights, corporate
governance to reasonably improve the policy design and
regulatory direction
Keywords
carbon risk; real earnings management; difference-indifferences model
Hrčak ID:
314888
URI
Publication date:
8.6.2023.
Visits: 587 *