The impacts of ESG performance and digital finance on corporate financing efficiency in China

ABSTRACT

This article explores the interactive effects of digital finance and environmental, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG) performance on corporate financing efficiency using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and panel data analysis. Our empirical results demonstrate that higher ESG performance and digital finance enhance corporate financing efficiency at the 1% significance level, and digital finance alleviates the positive marginal effect of ESG performance on corporate financing efficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• ESG performance
• digital finance
• corporate financing efficiency
• DEA model

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• G34
• M41

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the research support from the following foundations: the Shanghai Soft Science Foundation “ Science and Technology innovation Actions” (21692108000);Shanghai Planning office of Philosophy and Social Science (2020BJB011); National Natural Science Foundation of China (71673236).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Shanghai Soft Science foundation “Science and technology innovation action” [21692108000]; Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science [2020BJB011].