The Impact of Institutional Investors on Firm Carbon Information Disclosure: Evidence from Chinese Industrial Listed Firms

In recent years, climate change mitigation and sustainable development have gradually become an important consideration in global economic and social governance. Firms’ carbon information disclosure is of great significance in global warming alleviation, drawing widespread attention from stakeholders, including institutional investors. However, limited attention has been devoted to how institutional investors in China affect such disclosure practices. This paper aims to explore the influence and underlying mechanisms of institutional investors on the quality of firms’ carbon information disclosure by employing fixed effect regression and mediating effect analysis on panel data that covers industrial firms traded on the A-share markets of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges (SSE and SZSE) over the period from 2013 to 2023. The results suggest that institutional investors contribute to higher-quality firm carbon information disclosure, with analyst following serving as a mediating channel. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that institutional investors’ positive influence is stronger among state-owned firms. Overall, the study highlights the role of institutional investors in advancing firms’ low-carbon development and offers practical guidance for improving carbon information disclosure.