Jie Ouyang;Jie Li;Ying Zheng;

• 1:School of Business
• 2: Hong Kong Baptist University
• 3:Institute of Industrial Economics
• 4: Jinan University

Abstract：

We construct a heterogeneous firm trade model with the consideration of firms' ESG ratings. Based on the highly disaggregated data at the firm-destination-country-product level of China's A-share-listed firms in the period of 2009—2015, we then empirically test the impact of firms' ESG ratings on their product export behaviors and the intrinsic mechanisms. Finally, this paper conducts quantitative analyses for structural estimation. First, a firm's ESG rating has a positive effect both on its product export value and export product scope. This core finding is still valid after robustness tests such as replacing the measures of the core explanatory variable, considering sample selection issues, and mitigating endogeneity issues. Second, the foreign demand expansion effect and the export-quality enhancement effect are two important channels through which ESG rating improvement promotes the export of firms' products. Third, our heterogeneity analyses show that for firms exporting to destination countries with higher levels of sustainable development, for non-state-owned firms, as well as for firms exporting non-green and low-carbon products, the contribution of higher ESG ratings to their product exports is more pronounced. Fourth, further expansive analyses show that the positive effect of higher ESG ratings on the export value of firms' products is mainly reflected in an increase in export quantity rather than an increase in export price. Besides, the export-boosting effect of rating advantages is more significant in the “social” dimension, where the public effect is stronger. Finally, our structural estimation and counterfactual analyses reveal that an one-unit increase in a firm's ESG rating will increase its product export quantity, export value, and export product scope by 16.70%, 16.68%, and 18.02%, respectively. This paper systematically reveals, from the level of product markets, how firms can promote high-quality exports with ESG as a key, thus providing new insights for China to cultivate new-quality productive forces and expand high-level opening-up to the outside world.

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Foundation: 教育部哲学社会科学研究重大课题攻关项目“畅通国内大循环、促进国内国际双循环的市场设计研究”（批准号：21JZD025）;; 国家自然科学基金面上项目“中间品贸易自由化对我国企业自主研发和国际研发合作的影响：机理、效应与政策分析”（批准号：72173055）;国家自然科学基金面上项目“社交媒体平台中的非专业分析师与资产定价效率：基于信息效用的视角”（批准号：72072190）;; 广东省基础与应用基础研究基金项目“ESG评级分歧与融资约束”（批准号：2024A1515013153）的资助

Authors: Jie Ouyang;Jie Li;Ying Zheng;

References：

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• ① 来源：《中共中央国务院关于完整准确全面贯彻新发展理念做好碳达峰碳中和工作的意见》(2021年9月22日)。 (1)ESG评级(ESG rating)往往被公布在各大评级机构网页、终端或其他信息传播媒介上,并在全球范围内具有可见性。 (2)模型假设企业的ESG评级是完全公开的,即消费者在做出购买产品决策之前能观测到产品所属企业i的ESG表现,ξi。 (3)由于允许贸易不平衡,Td不意味着等于d国的总产出。 (4)企业华证ESG评级数据来自Wind数据库,企业层面的财务信息来自CSMAR数据库。 (5)其中,企业相对规模的最小值为取小数点后三位数,完整的最小值为0.0003618。 (6)本文从考虑样本选择问题、更换核心指标以及考虑企业进入退出可能的影响等角度展开稳健性检验,见附录A,附录可通过中国知网检索并下载。 (7)ESG分项评级结果见附录B,附录可通过中国知网检索并下载。 (8)本文同样采取替代弹性=5和10进行检验,结果依然稳健。 (9)数据来源于www.sdgindex.org. (10)出口量同样满足这一结论,理论模型命题1得以验证。 (11)通过中国知网可以检索并下载附录。