Investigating Whether Employee Wage Levels and Corporate Carbon Disclosure Levels Exhibit an Inverted U-Shaped Relationship: An Empirical Analysis Based on Selected Chinese Enterprises

Zixi Lin

doi:10.54254/2754-1169/2025.LD28960

Advances in Economics, Management and Political SciencesOpen access

Investigating Whether Employee Wage Levels and Corporate Carbon Disclosure Levels Exhibit an Inverted U-Shaped Relationship: An Empirical Analysis Based on Selected Chinese Enterprises

Research Article

Open Access

Investigating Whether Employee Wage Levels and Corporate Carbon Disclosure Levels Exhibit an Inverted U-Shaped Relationship: An Empirical Analysis Based on Selected Chinese Enterprises

Zixi Lin ^1*

¹ South China University of Technology

^*Corresponding author: linzixicam24@163.com

Published on 5 November 2025

AEMPS Vol.237

ISSN (Print): 2754-1177

ISSN (Online): 2754-1169

ISBN (Print): 978-1-80590-507-3

ISBN (Online): 978-1-80590-508-0

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Abstract

Against the backdrop of global warming, carbon emissions have increasingly become a focal point, making research on their various influencing factors a hot topic in academia. To explore the relationship between corporate carbon emissions and employee compensation, this study investigates whether an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between Chinese enterprises' carbon emissions disclosure index and their employees' wage levels. Employing empirical analysis, this study conducts regression analysis on data from selected Chinese enterprises. It utilizes Lind-Mehlum's triplet and slope tests to validate the inverted U-shaped relationship between the two variables. It also analyses industry heterogeneity to examine whether a significant inverted U-shaped relationship exists across different sectors. The findings demonstrate that the impact of employee compensation levels on carbon emissions disclosure is not monotonically increasing but follows an inverted U-shaped pattern—initially promoting disclosure before inhibiting it—with significant heterogeneity across industries. This research offers practical guidance for enterprises seeking to reduce carbon emissions and optimize their carbon disclosure indices. It also provides insights for balancing environmental pollution concerns with employee compensation issues while developing different types of enterprises.

Keywords:

Carbon emissions disclosure, Corporate employee compensation levels, Carbon emissions volume, Empirical analysis

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References

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References

[1]. Corporate Carbon Disclosure Index, data.scmar.com

[3]. Doan MH, Sassen R. The relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: A meta-analysis. J Ind Ecol. 2020; 24: 1140–1157. https: //doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13002

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Cite this article

Lin,Z. (2025). Investigating Whether Employee Wage Levels and Corporate Carbon Disclosure Levels Exhibit an Inverted U-Shaped Relationship: An Empirical Analysis Based on Selected Chinese Enterprises. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,237,16-26.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of ICFTBA 2025 Symposium: Strategic Human Capital Management in the Era of AI

ISBN: 978-1-80590-507-3(Print) / 978-1-80590-508-0(Online)

Editor: Lukáš Vartiak, Anil Nguyen

Conference website: https://www.icftba.org/London.html

Conference date: 4 November 2025

Series: Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences

Volume number: Vol.237

ISSN: 2754-1169(Print) / 2754-1177(Online)

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