Abstract
This article proposes a difference-in-differences empirical research framework that utilizes the Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone (GFRIPZ) implemented in China in 2017 as an exogenous shock to identify the incentive and synergy effect of green finance (GF) on enterprise green innovation (GI). The results indicate that GF effectively stimulates enterprise GI and significantly influences the allocation of external and internal funds among industries. GF effectively stimulates GI in clean and non-polluting industries by increasing debt financing and productive investment. However, it has a punitive effect on debt financing of heavy-polluting industries, and the GI effect on heavy-polluting industries is insignificant, although it enhances R&D investment among industries. GF can produce a good synergistic effect with green policies, but the synergistic effect on non-green policies is not obvious. GF mainly promotes GI in non-state, big, and enterprises in areas with high marketization. Moreover, only the heavy pollution industry presents significant environmental performance.
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My manuscript has associated data in a data repository.
Notes
In 2019, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, announced the establishment of additional GFRIPZ. However, this article focuses on the first batch of GFRIPZ, and therefore, all the GFRIPZ referred to below refer to the eight cities in five provinces, excluding Lanzhou City, Gansu.
The data presented in Fig. 1 were manually compiled by the author using information released by the People’s Bank of China.
The placebo test is based on a two-way fixed effect of adding control variables to the full sample.
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This work received support from the National Social Science Fund in China, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (Grant No. 21&ZD120 and Grant No. 202210408).
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Huang, J., Zheng, K. & Han, C. Green finance and enterprise green innovation: incentive effect and synergy perspective. Environ Dev Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03803-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03803-y