Publication Type
Working Paper
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
3-2025
Abstract
We examine the spillover effects of high-profile environmental lawsuits on industry peers. We find that compared with control firms, industry peers experience a decrease in chemical releases and an increase in pollution-related disclosures after the lawsuits. These results are more pronounced for the industry peers who have higher levels of chemical releases in the pre-lawsuit period and who are the peers of firms sued for damage to human health. Lastly, we provide confirmatory evidence that industry peers increase abatement activities after the lawsuits and experience a decline in financial performance, likely due to the increase in abatement costs.
Keywords
Environmental lawsuits, peer effects, chemical releases
Discipline
Accounting
Research Areas
Corporate Reporting and Disclosure
Areas of Excellence
Digital transformation
First Page
1
Last Page
52
Identifier
10.2139/ssrn.5389081
Publisher
SSRN
Citation
CHEN, Xia; CHENG, Qiang; PENG, Xuefan; and ZHAN, Ziliang.
The spillover effects of environmental lawsuits on industry peers. (2025). 1-52.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/2102
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5389081