环保处罚与企业现金持有——基于中国上市公司的经验证据  

Environmental Penalty and Corporate Cash Holding:Evidence from Listed Firms in China

作　　者：任颋[1] 肖有智 REN Ting;XIAO Youzhi(HSBC Business School,Peking University,Shenzhen 518055,China;State Information Center,Beijing 100087,China)

机构地区：[1]北京大学汇丰商学院,广东深圳518055 [2]国家信息中心,北京100087

出　　处：《审计与经济研究》2023年第2期67-77,共11页Journal of Audit & Economics

摘　　要：现金作为最具流动性的资产,是企业流动性管理的重要组成部分,也是企业最为重要的财务决策之一。近年来,我国环境规制不断加强,企业受到环保处罚的可能性提升。环保处罚是环境规制的一种具体表现形式,当受到环保处罚时,企业需要及时做出反应,以确保正常经营和运转。以2010—2019年沪深A股上市公司作为研究样本,根据生态环境部的公示和公众环境研究中心的数据识别企业受到环保处罚的情况,结果表明当受到环保处罚时,企业的现金持有数量会显著增加。异质性分析发现,一般行业企业、国有企业、未进入国家重点监控企业名单的和位于环境规制更严格地区的企业,在受到环保处罚后持有的现金数量会显著增加。潜在机制分析发现,上市公司持有现金数量的显著增加主要源于公司面临的不确定性增大以及预防性动机引起的避险动机、声誉动机和资源动机,即公司为了规避由环保处罚带来的风险、获取相关资源和维持良好的声誉,进而增加了现金持有数量。As one of the most liquid assets,cash is an important part of firm liquidity management and financial decisions.Recently,the environmental regulations have been continuously strengthened in China,which increases the likelihood of firms being penalized by environmental protection authorities.As a specific form of environmental regulation,environmental penalties impact directly on firms cash holding decision,due to the fact that firms need to respond timely to ensure business operations.From the perspective of environmental regulation,as well as the theory of firm cash holding motivation,we test whether firms would like to increase their cash holding when they have been penalized by the environmental protection authorities,using the samples from A-share listed companies in China's Mainland from 2010—2019 and the publicly disclosed information of firms environmental penalty.The results show that firms significantly increase their cash holding when receiving penalties from the environmental protection authorities.The analysis of plausible channels shows that the increase of uncertainty,as well as the prevention motivations,including reputation,risk-aversion and resource-seeking motivation are the main drivers to the increase of cash holding.

关 键 词：环保处罚 现金持有 预防动机 避险动机 声誉动机 资源动机 

分 类 号：F275[经济管理—企业管理]