The impact of ESG performance on equity financing costs of A-share listed companies and its mechanisms

This study uses A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2011 to 2024 as a sample to investigate the impact of corporate ESG performance on equity financing costs. The results indicate that improved ESG performance significantly reduces the cost of equity financing, and this conclusion remains robust after variable replacements and the exclusion of samples from the COVID-19 period. Commercial credit and earnings per share serve as transmission mechanisms between