How does smog affect firms' investment behavior? A natural experiment based on a sudden surge in the PM2.5 index

This study examines the effect of environmental regulations on the investment behavior of high-polluting enterprises.Our data are from A-share listed ?rms in China from 2006 to 2014.We use a sudden surge in the PM2.5 index as an exogenous event to conduct a natural experiment.We?nd that after the event with a series of regulatory policies introduced,investment expenditure declines signi?cantly in local state-owned enterprises(SOEs)and non-state-owned enterprises(non-SOEs),whereas investment opportunity declines signi?cantly in non-SOEs compared with SOEs.However,there are no signi?cant changes in central SOEs’investment expenditure and investment opportunity.Further analysis shows that investment expenditure and investment opportunity decline for high-polluting enterprises located in East China but increase for those located in West China.Our study is the?rst to investigate the effect of smog on enterprises’investment behavior.Our?ndings reveal that environmental regulation has in?uence on the investment behavior of enterprises with different property rights and regional differences.