Abstract Taking the non-financial listed companies in China’s A-share market from 2009 to 2022 as the research sample, this study empirically examines the impact of corporate ESG performance on leverage manipulation and explores the moderating role of abnormal managerial tone. The research finds that corporate ESG performance can reduce leverage manipulation, while environmental and governance aspects have a significant impact on reducing leverage manipulation, while the impact of social performance is relatively weak. Abnormal managerial tone hinders the governance effect of corporate ESG performance on leverage manipulation. Further research reveals that corporate ESG performance mainly reduces the benefits of leverage manipulation through financing channels and increases the costs of leverage manipulation by attracting external supervision, thereby ultimately suppressing the motivation for leverage manipulation. Economic consequence studies also find that corporate ESG performance reduces the bankruptcy risk arising from leverage manipulation.
ZHANG Xiaoyu,XIN Chunhua,WANG Xinyi. Research on the Impact of Corporate ESG Performance on Leverage Manipulation[J]. Chinese Journal of Management, 2025, 22(4): 709-.
