ESG表现与企业税务激进度的影响研究——基于中国A股上市公司的证据

Research on the Impact of ESG Performance and Corporate Tax Aggressiveness—Based on Evidence of China’s A-Share Listed Companies

摘要: 基于2012~2024年中国A股非金融上市公司数据，实证探究ESG表现对企业税务激进行为的影响及传导机制。基准回归表明，ESG表现与税务激进度呈显著负相关，良好的ESG表现可有效降低激进税务筹划水平；经工具变量法克服内生性问题，并替换核心变量进行稳健性测试后，该结论依然稳健。中介效应检验发现，媒体关注在ESG表现抑制税务激进度过程中扮演部分中介角色，即ESG表现通过提高媒体曝光度、增强外部舆论监督压力，进而压缩税务激进度。异质性分析显示，上述抑制效应在非重污染行业企业及非国有企业中更为突出。以上发现印证了ESG表现通过舆论监督约束企业税务行为的传导路径，为理解外部监督在税务治理中的功能提供了经验证据。

Abstract: Based on data from China’s A-share non-financial listed companies from 2012 to 2024, this paper empirically explores the impact and transmission mechanisms of ESG performance on corporate tax aggressive behavior. Benchmark regression shows that ESG performance is significantly negatively correlated with tax aggressiveness; good ESG performance can effectively reduce aggressive tax planning; After overcoming endogeneity issues using the instrumental variable method and replacing core variables for robustness testing, the conclusion remains robust. The intermediary effect test found that media attention plays a partly intermediary role in curbing tax aggressiveness in ESG performance, i.e., ESG performance reduces tax radicalism by increasing media exposure and strengthening external public opinion oversight. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the above suppression effect was more pronounced in enterprises in non-heavily polluting industries and non-state-owned enterprises. These findings confirm the transmission pathway of ESG performance restraining corporate tax behavior through public opinion supervision, providing empirical evidence for understanding the function of external supervision in tax governance.