董事高管责任保险能提升企业ESG信息披露吗？ ——诉讼风险感知的中介作用

Does D&O Liability Insurance Promote ESG Disclosure? Evidence from the Mediating Effect of Litigation Risk Perception

摘要:

在ESG披露监管持续强化、资本市场对企业非财务信息透明度要求不断提升的背景下，D&O保险作为兼具风险分担与外部治理属性的制度安排，是否会影响企业ESG信息披露，仍有待进一步检验。本文以2010—2024年A股上市公司为研究样本，实证考察D&O保险对企业ESG信息披露的影响，并检验诉讼风险感知的中介作用。研究发现：相较于未购买D&O保险的公司，购买D&O保险的公司具有更高的ESG信息披露水平；在经过多种稳健性检验后，该结论依然成立。机制检验表明，诉讼风险感知在D&O保险影响企业ESG信息披露的过程中发挥了部分中介作用，即D&O保险在一定程度上通过缓解管理层对潜在诉讼后果的担忧、降低信息披露的预期风险成本，进而提升企业ESG信息披露水平。进一步分析显示，该促进作用在非国有企业、机构持股比例较高的企业、由非国际四大会计师事务所审计的企业以及分析师关注度较高的企业中更为显著。分维度结果表明，该作用主要体现在环境和社会维度，治理维度虽系数为正但未达到统计显著。本文从外部治理视角拓展了D&O保险经济后果及企业ESG披露影响因素的相关研究，并为理解保险治理机制如何影响企业非财务信息披露提供了经验证据，也为完善D&O保险制度与ESG披露监管协同提供了实践启示。

Abstract:

Amid intensifying ESG disclosure mandates and escalating capital market demands for non-financial transparency, whether directors' and officers' liability insurance (D&O insurance)—an institutional arrangement combining risk-sharing and external governance attributes—influences corporate ESG disclosure remains empirically unexplored. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2024, this study examines the effect of D&O insurance on corporate ESG information disclosure and tests whether litigation risk perception mediates this relationship.We document that firms with D&O insurance exhibit significantly higher levels of ESG information disclosure than those without such coverage. This finding withstands a battery of robustness tests, indicating that D&O insurance generates an overall incentive and disciplinary effect rather than a purely opportunistic one. Mechanism analyses reveal that litigation risk perception partially mediates the effect of D&O insurance on ESG disclosure. Specifically, D&O insurance enhances disclosure by mitigating managerial concerns regarding potential litigation consequences and reducing the expected risk costs of information disclosure.Cross-sectional analyses further indicate that this positive effect is more pronounced among non-state-owned enterprises, firms with higher institutional ownership, firms audited by non-Big Four international accounting firms, and firms with greater analyst coverage. Disaggregated tests by ESG dimension show that this effect is concentrated in the environmental and social pillars, whereas the governance dimension, though positively signed, is statistically insignificant.This study extends the literature on the economic consequences of D&O insurance and the determinants of ESG disclosure by underscoring the external governance function of insurance mechanisms. It provides novel empirical evidence on how risk-sharing institutions shape corporate non-financial transparency and offers policy implications for coordinating D&O insurance institutional design with ESG disclosure regulation.