Does Water Matter? The Impact of Water Vulnerability on Corporate Financial Performance

Abstract

This study aims to understand the potential relationship between water vulnerability and corporate financial performance for listed companies in China. Studies have argued that water risk has begun to affect the sustainability of firms, but few studies have included water conditions in the research framework to examine whether and how water conditions have a direct impact on firms. In addition, studies on environment governance have emphasized the impact of government environmental regulation on firms. This study focuses on both regulation and government investments that have been previously neglected. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2016 to 2020, this paper uses pooled cross-sectional regressions with year and industry fixed effects to examine the effects of water vulnerability on corporate financial performance and analyze the mechanism of government water governance (which can be divided into water regulation and water investment) on the relationship between water vulnerability and corporate financial performance. This study finds that water vulnerability could negatively impact corporate financial performance, and water regulation can intensify but water investment couldn’t significantly relieve the negative impact. The relationships above differ between SOEs and non-SOEs and water-intensive and non-water-intensive industries.