Cheng Zhao, Zhu Chengcheng
School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China.
School of Management Science & Real Eatate, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China.
Heliyon. 2024 Jun 28;10(13):e33714. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e33714. eCollection 2024 Jul 15.
After long-term development, the global economic level has improved significantly, but environmental issues generated by early extensive development seriously threaten the survival of human beings. China, in particular, urgently needs to promote sustainable development through green finance policies. For this reason, this paper regards the 2017 eight pilot zones in five provinces for green finance reform and innovations (GFRIs) as a quasi-natural experiment, and explores whether it can encourage investment in environmental protection in heavily polluting enterprises by using difference-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) model. The paper finds that: First, GFRIs can bolster investment in environmental protection in heavy polluting enterprises. The results remain consistent after several robustness checks, covering the placebo test, PSM-DID test and so on. Second, mechanism tests find that the policy promotes environmental protection investment by alleviating financing constraints and cutting financing costs. Third, heterogeneity analysis shows that the promotion effect of GFRIs on environmental protection investment is more pronounced for provinces with higher percentages of secondary industry GDP, large-scale enterprises, and enterprises with better ESG management. This paper demonstrates the beneficial influence of GFRIs on promoting the transformation of heavy polluting enterprises and provides suggestions for the improvement of such policies.
经过长期发展，全球经济水平显著提高，但早期粗放式发展产生的环境问题严重威胁着人类的生存。特别是中国，迫切需要通过绿色金融政策推动可持续发展。为此，本文将2017年五省八市绿色金融改革创新试验区作为一项准自然实验，运用双重差分法（DDD）模型探究其能否促使重污染企业增加环保投资。研究发现：第一，绿色金融改革创新试验区能够促进重污染企业的环保投资。经过包括安慰剂检验、倾向得分匹配法（PSM-DID）检验等多种稳健性检验后，结果依然稳健。第二，机制检验发现，该政策通过缓解融资约束和降低融资成本来促进环保投资。第三，异质性分析表明，对于第二产业GDP占比更高、企业规模较大以及环境、社会责任和公司治理（ESG）管理较好的企业所在省份，绿色金融改革创新试验区对环保投资的促进作用更为显著。本文论证了绿色金融改革创新试验区对推动重污染企业转型的有益影响，并为完善此类政策提供了建议。
