ESG表现与企业债务融资成本关系的实证研究——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

Empirical Study on the Relationship between ESG Performance and Corporate Debt Financing Costs—Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

摘要: 我国作为全球最大的发展中国家，于2020年正式提出“碳达峰、碳中和”的战略目标，这一重大决策不仅重塑了宏观经济发展格局，更深刻影响了微观企业的经营逻辑与价值导向。文章对ESG表现和债务融资成本之间的关系展开讨论，发现良好的ESG表现能降低债务融资成本，并且E、S、G三个维度均对债务融资成本产生负向影响，但在显著性、影响强度上差异明显，其中环境维度的降成本效应最强且最显著，治理维度次之，社会维度影响最弱。在调节机制方面，信息透明度能正向调节ESG表现与债务融资成本的负相关关系。异质性分析进一步表明，ESG表现对债务融资成本的负向影响在高污染行业中更强；相较于国有企业，非国有企业通过改善ESG表现降低债务融资成本的效果更突出。

Abstract: As the world’s largest developing country, China officially put forward the strategic goals of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” in 2020. This significant decision has not only reshaped the pattern of macroeconomic development, but also profoundly influenced the business logic and value orientation of micro-enterprises. This paper explores the relationship between ESG performance and debt financing costs, finding that good ESG performance can reduce debt financing costs, and all three dimensions of E, S, and G have a negative impact on debt financing costs, but there are obvious differences in significance and impact intensity. Among them, the environmental dimension has the strongest and most significant cost reduction effect, followed by the governance dimension, and the social dimension has the weakest impact. In terms of the moderating mechanism, information transparency can positively moderate the negative correlation between ESG performance and debt financing costs. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the negative impact of ESG performance on the cost of debt financing is stronger in high-pollution industries. Compared with state-owned enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises achieve a more prominent effect in reducing the cost of debt financing by improving ESG performance.