The quality of corporate carbon information disclosure and investment efficiency

Utilizing a panel of 8,899 firm-year observations drawn from eight carbon-intensive sectors in China over 2014–2024, this study investigates whether and how the quality of corporate carbon disclosure shapes investment efficiency. Constructing a text-mining-based disclosure index from CSR reports, we find that corporate carbon information disclosure exerts a significant negative impact on overinvestment behavior, which generally contributes to the improvement of enterprise-level resource allocation efficiency. The channel operates through eased financing constraints: better disclosure lowers information frictions, relaxes credit rationing, and unlocks capital for value-enhancing projects. This governance channel is pronounced among state-owned enterprises but muted in private firms, suggesting that ownership structure conditions the external-governance value of carbon transparency. Our findings carry direct implications for China's mandatory disclosure regime and ESG-oriented capital allocation.