管理评论 ›› 2025, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (12): 79-91.

• 经济与金融管理 • 上一篇    

保险机构投资者与企业ESG表现——基于中国的经验证据

魏伟1,2   

  1. 1. 中国科学院大学经济与管理学院, 北京 100049;
    2. 国寿投资保险资产管理有限公司, 北京 100033
  • 收稿日期:2024-03-26 发布日期:2026-01-15
  • 作者简介:魏伟,中国科学院大学经济与管理学院博士研究生,国寿投资保险资产管理有限公司党委委员、副总裁(候任)。

Insurance Institutional Investors and Corporate ESG Performance: Evidence from China

Wei Wei1,2   

  1. 1. School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049;
    2. China Life Investment Management Company Limited, Beijing 100033
  • Received:2024-03-26 Published:2026-01-15

摘要: 在投资中考虑ESG因素是机构投资者的一种主流投资策略,但机构投资者能否提升企业ESG表现却存在着很大争论。本文选取保险机构投资者这一特定对象,采用2009—2021年中国A股上市公司数据,实证检验了其对企业ESG表现的影响。研究发现,保险机构投资者持股能够显著提升上市公司的ESG表现。在控制内生性后,这一结论依然成立。机制检验表明,保险机构投资者主要通过改善公司治理这一路径促进上市公司提升ESG表现。当上市公司面临严重融资约束、公司其他机构投资者的力量较大、公司所在地的法律环境较好时,保险机构投资者对上市公司ESG表现的提升作用更加明显。针对保险机构投资者特征的进一步研究发现,国有保险机构投资者、大型保险机构投资者更能促进上市公司的ESG表现提升,而外资保险机构投资者对公司的ESG表现并无显著影响。本文的发现为机构投资者影响企业ESG表现的争论提供了一个新的解释视角,丰富了保险机构投资者与资本市场领域的研究,同时,为我国监管部门完善保险机构权益投资的监管政策、促进企业可持续发展提供了参考。

关键词: 机构投资者, 保险机构, ESG表现, 公司治理

Abstract: ESG investment is a mainstream strategy for institutional investors. Nevertheless, whether institutional investors can improve corporate ESG performance has not been unanimously answered. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2021, this paper investigatesthe effect of insurance institutional investors on corporate ESG performance, and finds that insurance institutional investors significantly improve firms’ ESG performance. The results still hold after controlling for potential endogeneity. Mechanism tests show that insurance institutional investors improve firms’ ESG performance by playing a governance role. This effect is more pronounced when a firm faces severer financial constraints, when other institutional investors of the firm have greater power, and when the firm is located in an area with a better legal environment. Additional analysis on investor characteristics shows that state-owned and large insurance institutional investors are more likely to improve firms’ ESG performance, whereas foreign insurance institutional investors have no significant impact on firms’ ESG performance. Overall, the finding reveals the impact of institutional investors on corporate ESG performance from a new perspective, enriches the research on insurance institutional investors and capital market, and provides a reference for Chinese regulatory authorities to improve the supervision policy for insurance capital and promote firms’ transformation to sustainable development.

Key words: institutional investors, insurance company, ESG performance, corporate governance