Protecting environment has become a vital responsibility for corporations. Based on manually collected data of China's A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2017, this study investigates the effìct of corporate political connections (PCs) on corporate environmental protection-related investment (EPI). Our findings suggest that PCs negatively influencÎ firms' EPI. Specifically, the more politically connected top executives are hired or the higher the political hierarchy of such executives, the lower would be the firm's EPI. We further find that the negative influence on EPI originates from the executivesrelated PCs compared with directors-related PCs. Additional tests first reveal that firms' EPI fails to prompt up corporate value. Second, the establishment of committees under the board could alleviate the negative influence of PCs on EPI. Finally, government regulation mitigates the negative effects of PCs on EPI.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.