Frontier Advanced Seminar Series in Economics No. 22
Environmentally-Inclined Politicians and Local Environmental Performance: Evidence from Publicly Listed Firms in China
Speaker: Dr. Honglin REN (Renmin University of China)
Host: Prof. Anzhou ZHANG (Liaoning University)
Introducer: Prof. Yu YOU (Liaoning University)
Time: May 6, 2023 (Saturday), 10:00-11:30 (UTC +08:00)
Venue: Conference Room on the base floor of Wuzhou Garden, Chongshan Campus, Liaoning University
Online Venue: Tencent Meeting (Meeting ID: 3007551 6895)
Language: Mandarin/English
Abstract：We study how environmentally-inclined politicians (EIPs), i.e., politicians with prior environment-related working experience, affect local environmental performance in China. We find that firms located in cities with EIPs have lower levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. The effect is attenuated when the politician is in his/her second term and among firms that are economically important. Firms in cities with EIPs commit less environmental violations, receive more green subsidies from the local government, and choose to establish new polluting subsidiaries in cities without EIPs. Furthermore, these EIPs do not have inferior economic performance and their promotion likelihood is negatively related to local emission levels. The findings overall suggest that local officials strategically leverage their expertise in environment protection to allocate more effort on environmental causes.
Speaker Introduction: Honglin REN is a lecturer from the Department of Finance, Business School of Renmin University of China. She is an Outstanding Young Scholar of Renmin University of China. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from Georgia State University. She also holds a Master’s degree from Syracuse University and a Bachelor's degree from Fudan University. Her research mainly focuses on the institutional investors and their roles in the financial markets. She hosts a project from the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Program. Her research has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Futures Markets, and the Journal of Commodity Markets.
