The Impact of Carbon Disclosure and Agency Cost on Costs of Debt Capital

• Main Authors: Ming-Shan Li, 李明珊
• Other Authors: Shu-Chin Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/a2g435

碩士 === 中原大學 === 會計研究所 === 107 === This study explores the impact of corporate carbon disclosure and agency costs on costs of debt capital. This study uses the sample of Taiwanese listed companies from 2013 to 2017. The empirical results show that carbon disclosure has a negative impact on costs of debt capital. That is, the disclosure of carbon emissions will enable financial institutions to reduce the costs of debt capital; Moreover, agency costs are measured by free cash flow and operating expense ratio, and the empirical results show that the agency cost has a positive impact on costs of debt capital. That is, the higher the agency cost of the enterprise will enable financial institutions to increase the required return for the enterprise. Additionally, this study investigated that when an enterprise conducted carbon disclosure, whether agency cost served as a moderator between carbon disclosure and cost of debt capital. The research results revealed that the interaction effect of the agency cost and carbon disclosure has a negative relationship on the cost of debt. That is, when information asymmetry existed between the enterprise and the financial institution, even if an enterprise disclosed carbon emission in the corporate social responsibility report, the financial institution would still increase the cost of debt capital.