School of Economics and Management, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Dec;29(59):89498-89521. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-22072-2. Epub 2022 Jul 19.
Digital finance realizes the combination of finance and technology, makes up for many deficiencies of traditional finance, and brings opportunities for green and innovative development. However, systematic research on regional digital finance and green innovation is still lacking. Based on this, this study aims to analyze the impact of digital finance on the regional level of green innovation. For the analysis, the fixed-effect model, the mediating effect model, and the moderating effect model are used to perform regression on the panel data of Chinese cities. The results show that digital finance can significantly improve the level of regional green innovation. Improving the level of regional green financial services is its main mechanism, but the intermediary role of industrial structure optimization and upgrading fails to pass the test. In addition, the results of heterogeneity analysis show that digital finance plays a greater role in promoting green innovation in areas with high levels of traditional financial supply and Internet infrastructure construction. It is worth noting that digital finance does not really play the role of universal benefit, widening the regional green innovation gap. The main contributions of this study are to prove the positive effect of digital finance on green innovation at the regional level, clarify its transmission mechanism and urban heterogeneity analysis, and find that the current digital finance cannot bridge the gap of regional green innovation.
数字金融实现了金融与科技的融合，弥补了传统金融的诸多不足，为绿色创新带来了发展机遇。然而，针对区域数字金融与绿色创新的系统研究仍较为缺乏。基于此，本研究旨在分析数字金融对区域绿色创新水平的影响。为此，本文使用固定效应模型、中介效应模型和调节效应模型，对中国城市的面板数据进行回归分析。结果表明，数字金融能够显著提升区域绿色创新水平。提高区域绿色金融服务水平是其主要机制，但产业结构优化升级的中介作用未能通过检验。此外，异质性分析结果表明，数字金融在传统金融供给水平高和互联网基础设施建设好的地区，对绿色创新的促进作用更大。值得注意的是，数字金融并没有真正发挥普惠效应，反而扩大了区域绿色创新差距。本研究的主要贡献在于证明了数字金融对区域绿色创新的积极影响，厘清了其传递机制和城市异质性分析，并发现当前数字金融无法弥合区域绿色创新差距。
