Air Pollution and Media Slant: Evidence from Chinese Corporate News.
DOI
10.1080/1540496X.2021.2013196
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of air pollution on the media slant of publicly listed firms in China. Using a large panel of air quality and media data at the city level, we find that lower air quality generally leads to a more negative media slant. When the air quality falls from lightly polluted to heavily polluted, the number of negative sentences in a news article increases by about 1%. Our subsample analysis shows that the effect of air pollution on media slant is similar for news articles covering large and small firms, SOE and non-SOE firms and for official and non-official newspaper articles. Furthermore, the effect of air pollution on media slant is stronger for firms in heavy polluting industries. These results suggest that air pollution affects media slant.
Document Type
Restricted Article: Campus only access
Publication Date
12-16-2021
Publisher Statement
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1540496X.2021.2013196
The definitive version is available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1540496X.2021.2013196
Recommended Citation
Wang, Xinjie, Ge Wu, Zhiqiang Xiang, and Jianyu Zhang. “Air Pollution and Media Slant: Evidence from Chinese Corporate News.” Emerging Markets Finance and Trade (December 16, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/1540496X.2021.2013196.