ESG Performance and Cost of Debt in Chinese A-Share Firms with Dual Rating Evidence and Ownership Heterogeneity

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-701-9_70How to use a DOI?

Keywords

ESG Performance; Cost of Debt; Cash Holdings; State Ownership; Panel Regression

Abstract

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, as a core indicator of corporate sustainability, has increasingly been integrated into debt pricing mechanisms. This study uses 2015–2024 data on A‑share listed companies in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing and employs dual ESG ratings from Huazheng and SynTao Green Finance to examine the effect of corporate ESG performance on cost of debt and the moderating role of cash holdings. The results indicate that ESG performance is significantly negatively associated with cost of debt, and this effect is concentrated among non‑state‑owned firms. Moreover, higher cash holdings attenuate the marginal benefit of ESG in lowering financing costs, suggesting that cash reserves and ESG reputational capital may serve as substitutes in reducing expected default losses. The findings offer quantifiable empirical guidance for regulators to design differentiated green disclosure requirements, for non‑state‑owned firms to develop mechanisms linking ESG performance to interest savings, and for growth firms to consider reputational commitments as partial substitutes for certain financial solidity thresholds.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Linxu Ying
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/30
TI  - ESG Performance and Cost of Debt in Chinese A-Share Firms with Dual Rating Evidence and Ownership Heterogeneity
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 11th International Conference on Social Sciences and Economic Development (ICSSED 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 683
EP  - 693
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-701-9_70
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-701-9_70
ID  - Ying2026
ER  -