Title：Meet, Beat, and Pollute

　　Schedule: May 18, Wed 12-1 PM

　　Location: 腾讯会议 591 722 630

　　Abstract:Rising demand for environmental sustainability is a potential market-based mechanism that induces firms to internalize their environmental impact. However, given that reducing pollution yields long-term benefits, managers remain responsive to conflicting short-term pressures. In this paper, we investigate two related questions: Do firms pollute more by cutting pollution abatement costs to achieve short-term earnings benchmarks, and is this effect weaker for environmentally friendly firms? Using plant-level EPA data on toxic emissions, we find that US firms pollute more when they meet or just beat consensus EPS forecasts. However, environmentally friendly firms, which pollute less on average, pollute more when meeting earnings benchmarks. Perhaps these firms have over the long term built regulatory/reputational slack which softens the negative impact of sporadic pollution increases used to meet short-term earnings goals. Our paper contributes to the literatures on environmental externalities, ESG focus of firms and their stakeholders, and real earnings management.

　　Introduction:姚文韬，2021年9月至今为厦门大学管理学院财务学系助理教授，香港大学金融学博士，伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳香槟分校会计系访问学者。姚博士的主要研究领域为企业供应链、ESG、风险管理等视角下的公司财务与会计问题，已在 Journal of Empirical Finance 、《经济研究》《会计研究》《金融研究》等期刊发表学术论文近十篇。姚博士的研究成果曾在美国会计学会年会、美国会计学年会管理会计分会、Review of Accounting Studies 年会、世界银行与金融年会等国际会议，以及哈佛大学、哥伦比亚大学、耶鲁大学等研究机构进行汇报。姚博士曾参与多项国家自科面上项目以及国家社科重大项目，并担任British Accounting Review 等期刊以及美国会计学年会等会议的匿名审稿人。