Speaker: 武悦 (Yue Wu)

Title: How does Trade Shock from China Affect the US Firm’s ESG Performance

Schedule: June 14, Wed 1:30-3:30 PM

Location: 诚明楼 (Chengming Hall）RM 315

Introduction: 武悦，北京外国语大学国际商学院国际经济系助理教授。2019年12月于伊利诺伊大学香槟分校获得经济学博士学位，研究方向为国际贸易、劳动经济学、发展经济学、应用微观经济学。

Abstract: This paper links China trade shock and US firms’ ESG engagement. Increased Chinese import competition could in theory either increase or reduce the ESG engagement by US corporates. Exploiting a change in US trade policy that reduced the expected tariff rates on Chinese imports, we find that greater import competition from China leads to better ESG performance of US companies. The improvement primarily stems from “doing more positives” and from more involvement on environmental and social initiatives. Evidence shows that the improvement is not driven by the change in production process or outsourcing, but is consistent with product differentiation.