The Impact of Mandatory CSR Disclosure on the Cost of Debt Financing: Evidence from China

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huifeng Xu ◽  
Xiaodong Xu ◽  
Junli Yu
Keyword(s):  
Debt Financing ◽  
Cost Of Debt ◽  
Csr Disclosure ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Does opening high-speed railways affect the cost of debt financing? A quasi-natural experiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-496
Author(s):  
Hongling Guo ◽  
Keping Wu
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Debt Financing ◽  
Cost Of Debt ◽  
High Speed Railway ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Financing Cost ◽  
Debt Market ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how opening high-speed railways affects the cost of debt financing based on China's background.Design/methodology/approachUsing panel data on Chinese listed firms from 2008 to 2017, this study constructs a quasi-natural experiment and adopts a difference-in-difference model with multiple time periods to empirically examine the relation between the high-speed railway openings and debt financing cost.FindingsOur results show that opening high-speed railways reduces the cost of debt financing, and this negative correlation is more significant in non-state firms, firms with weaker internal control, and firms that hire non-Big Four auditors. Besides, we explore the impact mechanisms and find that opening high-speed railways improves analyst attention, institutional investor participation, and information disclosure quality, which in turn lowers the cost of debt financing.Research limitations/implicationsThe results imply that the opening of high-speed railways helps to alleviate the information asymmetry and adverse selection between firms and creditors and ultimately reduces the cost of corporate debt financing.Practical implicationsThis paper can inform firms and stakeholders about the impact of opening high-speed railways on debt financing cost: it improves the information environment, reduces the geographical location restrictions of debt financing, ensures the reasonable pricing of corporate debt, and thus promotes the healthy and sound development of the debt market.Originality/valueThis paper provides theoretical support and empirical evidence for the impact of infrastructure construction on the information environment of the debt market in China, which enriches the research on the “high-speed railway economy.” In addition, as an exogenous event, the opening of high-speed railways instantly shortens the time distance between firms and external stakeholders, which gives us a natural environment to conduct empirical research, thus providing a new perspective for financial research on firms' geographical location.

scholarly journals Mandatory CSR Disclosure, CSR Assurance, and the Cost of Debt Capital: Evidence from Taiwan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1768
Author(s):  
Lopin Kuo ◽  
Po-Wen Kuo ◽  
Chun-Chih Chen
Keyword(s):  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Cost Of Debt ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Taiwan Stock Exchange ◽  
Debt Capital ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Csr Disclosure ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

This study examined the impact of mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure, CSR assurance and the reputation of assurance providers (accounting firms) on the cost of debt capital. Our difference-in-difference research design in conjunction with univariate and multiple regression analysis was assessed using a large sample of firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange. Our empirical results revealed that mandatory CSR assurance on CSR disclosure provided by accounting firms tended to reduce the cost of debt capital. However, contrary to expectations, the reputation of the accounting firm (Big 4 accounting firms vs. non-Big 4 accounting firms) tasked with providing CSR assurance did not have a significant effect on the cost of debt capital. These results have implications for firms seeking an assurance provider as well as for Big 4 accounting firms. These results also provide specific evidence relevant to government agencies seeking to update policies and extend the scope of mandatory CSR assurance to other environmentally sensitive industries.

Extending the benefits of ESG disclosure: The effect on the cost of debt financing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Raimo ◽  
Alessandra Caragnano ◽  
Marianna Zito ◽  
Filippo Vitolla ◽  
Massimo Mariani
Keyword(s):  
Debt Financing ◽  
Cost Of Debt ◽  
The Cost

scholarly journals ESG Scores and the Credit Market

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ga-Young Jang ◽  
Hyoung-Goo Kang ◽  
Ju-Yeong Lee ◽  
Kyounghun Bae
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Credit Ratings ◽  
Debt Financing ◽  
Corporate Bond ◽  
Cost Of Debt ◽  
Rating Agencies ◽  
Bond Returns ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship

This study analyzes the relationship between Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores and bond returns using the corporate bond data in Korea during the period of 2010 to 2015. We find that ESG scores include valuable information about the downside risk of firms. This effect is particularly salient for the firms with high information asymmetry such as small firms. Interestingly, of the three ESG criteria, only environmental scores show a significant impact on bond returns when interacted with the firm size, suggesting that high environmental scores lower the cost of debt financing for small firms. Finally, ESG is complementary to credit ratings in assessing credit quality as credit ratings cannot explain away ESG effects in predicting future bond returns. This result suggests that credit rating agencies should either integrate ESG scores into their current rating process or produce separate ESG scores which bond investors integrate with the existing credit ratings by themselves.

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