This study identifies if sustainable development practices measured through ESG information disclosure are related to stakeholder confidence, leading to a lower cost of debt and equity financing. We also investigate the possible moderating role of real earnings management. We apply a fixed effects panel data analysis to 1659 firm-year observations of 177 European companies from 2010 to 2019. The results show that investors value ESG disclosure negatively and increase the cost of equity, whereas lenders value it positively and reduce the cost of debt. In addition, when the moderating effect of real earnings management is introduced, the effect of ESG disclosure on the cost of debt decreases, and the effect of ESG disclosure on the cost of equity is reinforced by increasing it. In the presence of real earnings management, investors and lenders seem to think companies use ESG disclosure to legitimise their practices or mislead financing providers.

中文翻译：

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环境、社会和治理披露以及实际盈余管理对融资成本的影响

本研究确定通过 ESG 信息披露衡量的可持续发展实践是否与利益相关者信心相关，从而降低债务和股权融资成本。我们还研究了实际盈余管理可能的调节作用。我们对 2010 年至 2019 年 177 家欧洲公司的 1659 个公司年度观察进行了固定效应面板数据分析。结果显示，投资者对 ESG 披露的评价为负面，并增加了股权成本，而贷方则对其评价为正面，并降低了债务成本。此外，当引入实际盈余管理的调节效应时，ESG披露对债务成本的影响减小，而ESG披露对权益成本的影响则通过增加而增强。在存在实际盈余管理的情况下，投资者和贷款人似乎认为公司利用 ESG 披露来使其做法合法化或误导融资提供商。