Can and How Government Environmental Attention Curb Greenwashing? An Empirical Study of Chinese-Listed Firms

Examining the impact of government environmental attention (GEA) on greenwashing is crucial for advancing corporate environmental responsibility and promoting sustainable development. Using a sample of A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2021, this study investigates how GEA affects corporate greenwashing behavior and explores the underlying mechanisms and heterogeneity of this relationship. Empirical results show that heightened GEA significantly curbs greenwashing among Chinese-listed firms. This effect is robust to instrumental variables, Heckman two-stage models, propensity score matching, and other sensitivity tests. Mechanism analyses suggest GEA operates through increased negative media coverage, improved environmental disclosures, stronger green innovation, and greater executive environmental awareness. The effect is more pronounced in state-owned firms, non-high-tech firms, environmentally sensitive industries, and firms with advanced production capacity. These findings offer implications for designing collaborative governance, incentive-based frameworks, and supervisory environmental policies.