全国统一大市场建设与企业ESG表现

National Unified Market Construction and Corporate ESG Performance

摘要:

加快推进全国统一大市场是加快构建新发展格局和推进高质量发展的关键举措,其不仅为构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制提供制度支撑,还深刻影响着企业的可持续发展行为决策。既有对全国统一大市场的研究集中于评估经济效益,忽视了具有企业可持续发展意义上的ESG表现的系统评估。本文以我国2012-2022年A股上市公司为研究样本,实证检验全国统一大市场对企业ESG表现的影响效应及其作用机制。研究结果表明,全国统一大市场建设能够有效提升企业ESG表现,该研究结论通过系列稳健性检验和考虑内生性问题后研究结论依然成立。机制分析发现,全国统一大市场促进企业ESG表现主要通过改善营商环境、促进数字化转型、强化环境规制执行强度实现。进一步研究发现,全国统一大市场对企业ESG表现存在明显的分化效应,体现为有效促进了企业环境责任和公司治理表现,而对企业社会责任的驱动效应尚未明显体现,且全国统一大市场能通过提升企业ESG表现进一步促进企业绿色技术创新；异质性分析结果显示,全国统一大市场建设显著提升了非省会城市、重污染行业、管理层年龄较大的企业ESG表现。

Abstract:

Accelerating the promotion of a unified national market is a key measure to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern and promote high-quality development. It not only provides institutional support for building a high-level socialist market economy system, but also profoundly affects the behavior and decision-making of enterprises. This article takes A-share listed companies in China from 2012 to 2022 as the research sample, and empirically proves that the unified national market effectively improves corporate ESG performance. After a series of robustness tests and considering endogeneity issues, the research conclusion still holds true. Mechanism analysis found that the promotion of corporate ESG performance in a unified national market is achieved through improving the business environment, promoting digital transformation, and strengthening environmental regulations. Further research has found that a unified national market effectively promotes corporate environmental responsibility and corporate governance performance, while there is a significant differentiation effect of corporate property rights on corporate social responsibility. Moreover, a unified national market can further promote corporate green technology innovation by enhancing corporate ESG performance; The heterogeneity analysis results show that the construction of a unified national market has significantly improved the ESG performance of non-provincial capital cities, heavily polluting industries, and older management companies.