Impact of Information Technology and Industrial Development on Corporate ESG Practices: Evidence from a Pilot Program in China

Utilizing an exogenous policy shock, the Pilot Program of the Integration of Informatization and Industrialization (PPII) in China, this paper employs a stacked difference-in-differences method. This method elucidates that IT and industrial development significantly bolsters ESG practices in manufacturing firms. Corporate ESG practices metrics are obtained from the CSI ESG rating system. PPII data are manually compiled from the list of pilot projects published by China’s MIIT. Data pertaining to firm characteristics, corporate governance, and regional-level variables are sourced from the CSMAR. After setting global paths as per the root setting instructions, proceed to run the main.do file following the sequence provided in the project directory. This process will guide the execution through each phase of the analysis.