Environmental Information Disclosure-Environmental Costs Nexus: Evidence from Heavy Pollution Industry in China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In the study, the Authors attempted to find a relationship between environmental information disclosure and associated costs based on information from enterprises that pollute the environment. From the point of view of the prospects for obtaining information about the impact of production on the state of the environment, the authors conducted an analysis based on the facts available to them. However, the question arises - how reproducible would the results be if the collection of information, including that which is freely available, was done by another person? And how can the information obtained for a limited number of enterprises in two regions of China be extrapolated to other regions? Although this article has little to do with the environment itself, in general, it seems to me that as an initiative for discussion, this article can be accepted for publication in a journal Sustainability.

Author Response

  Thank you for your affirmation and suggestions. First of all, the data required for this paper mainly comes from listed companies' annual financial reports, sustainable development reports, social responsibility reports, environmental reports, company websites and other channels. The data is consistent, unified and authoritative, which could ensure the accuracy and formality of data sources. Secondly, the sample selected in this paper are listed enterprises in China's heavy pollution industries, the sample covers all regions of China. As the world's largest developing country, China's practical experience in environmental information disclosure could provide reference value for other developing countries to eliminate their own resistance to environmental information disclosure and enhance the initiative of information disclosure. Therefore, the findings of this paper are representative and generalizable.

Reviewer 2 Report

The article presents a reflection on the resistance of Chinese companies to adopt policies for disclosing environmental information and their implications for environmental costs. In addition to being very informative, the paper encourages companies to adopt environmental disclosure practices. The correlation between environmental costs and environmental information was proved in the manuscript, and the correlation with enterprise size, marketization, and property right was surprising. I recommend publishing it in the Sustainability journal.

Author Response

  Thank you very much for your affirmation of the results of this paper.

Reviewer 3 Report

Manyscript is local because it applies to one specific country. There is no comparison to other countries. As a result, a broad perspective is missing. The manuscript contains a number of factual errors. They are listed below. Requires major improvement. It does not meet the basic criteria for a scientific publication.

- The introduction does not indicate what the purpose of the research is.

- Chapter 3 lacks a description of the statistical methods used. The choice of methods used should also be justified.

- In Chapter 3, developed linear regression models appeared. These are results, not methodology.

- Inference was made based on the results of the developed model. First, it is necessary to prove that the model has been formulated correctly. It must be proved that all assumptions of the method used have been fulfilled

Critical note: Chapter 4 presents the results of the research. There are no citations in this chapter. There was no discussion of study results in relation to other studies. There is no separate chapter devoted to the discussion of research results. A basic requirement for a scientific manuscript has not been met. No discussion.

Much of the content contained in chapter 4 is a description of the methodology. The chapter is not coherent.

Table 3 presents the basic statistics (min, max, sd, median) characteristic of the normal distribution. Whether the analyzed variables have a normal distribution. Without this knowledge, it is impossible to say whether the formulated conclusions are correct.

Why only linear regression methods were used. According to the current state of knowledge, there are plenty of statistical methods available that can be used to solve regression problems. Why weren't other methods used?

 

Other:

line: 61-63 - This sentence is too general. Ambiguous.

line: 85-87 - please quote references.

line: 92-94 - please quote references.

line: 94-96 - Repetition, it was already written in the paragraph above.

line: 118-122 - This paragraph is not needed.

table 1. Have charges for releasing substances into the environment been taken into account? e.g. gases, dusts, energy, etc..

Chapter 3. (Regression models) - It is not explained why data was grouped by year in this case.

Author Response

 Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript has been corrected. Comprehensive answers to questions have been formulated. I think the manuscript, in an alien form, may be published.