Capital Market Opening and ESG Performance

Abstract

This research uses a quasi-natural experiment of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading system and takes 2011–2019 A-share listed companies as the sample to construct a DID model that empirically proves the improvement effect of capital market opening on corporate ESG performance through external monitoring mechanisms. This effect is also heterogeneous due to firm characteristics. This study presents the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading system as a breakthrough, reveals the mechanism of capital market opening on ESG, and provides new empirical evidence for the study of micro-firm behavior.