From attention to action: How public environmental concern shapes corporate green investment in China

In information-driven environmental governance channels public environmental attention, as a soft constraint, translates into tangible environmental investment by heavy-polluting firms remains underexplored. The study identifies the impact of public environmental attention on environmental investment and its mechanisms by using data on China's A-share heavy-polluting firms from 2010 to 2023. The findings unleash that public environmental attention significantly increases firms' environmental investment; a one-standard-deviation rise in attention raises investment by about 8 percent relative to the sample mean. The effect is stronger for firms with lower financial risk, in more competitive industries, and in non-resource-based cities. The results show that public attention simultaneously lifts investor attention and non-investor public attention, both of which translate into higher investment; green disclosure quality amplifies both the formation of attention and its translation into investment. These results suggest that improving green disclosure and mobilizing public attention can magnify market and social oversight without increasing direct regulatory costs, thereby encouraging heavier polluters to invest more in environmental protection.