Abstract: How to prevent risk has become the focus of attention at the stage of high-quality development, so it is very important to clarify the relationship between ESG disclosure (environment, society and governance) and risk. Therefore, taking stock price crash risk as the breakthrough point, this paper examines the impact of ESG disclosure on stock price crash risk based on the data of Shanghai and Shengzhen A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, the research results indicate that ESG disclosure can decrease the stock price crash risk, and it mainly acts on that through reducing agency costs and improving agency efficiency. The cross-sectional test results show that, this impact of ESG disclosure is even more significant in non-SOEs, non-polluting enterprises, and enterprises with higher information disclosure quality. The conclusions provide empirical evidence for ESG disclosure to restrain stock price crash risk, and have certain implications for avoiding stock price crash risk and stabilizing the development of capital market.

Key words: ESG disclosure, stock price crash risk, agency costs, agency efficiency, information disclosure quality