Song Yuegang, Gao Wen, Lee Chien-Chiang
School of Business, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China.
Faculty of Finance, City University of Macau, Macao Special Administrative Region of China.
J Environ Manage. 2025 Aug;390:126366. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126366. Epub 2025 Jun 26.
Against the backdrop of escalating energy and environmental challenges, examining how the green credit policy empowers enterprises to build external pressure transmission mechanisms, activate internal governance capacities, and enhance green technology innovation quality bears substantial practical relevance for accomplishing the 'Dual Carbon' objectives (i.e., carbon peak and carbon neutrality) and propelling high-quality green economic transition. China's green credit interest subsidies policy (GCISP) is an important deployment measure of green credit policy. Using green credit interest subsidies policy as a quasi-natural experiment and based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2022, this study examines the impact of green credit policy on enterprises' green technology innovation quality and the underlying mechanisms using the multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method. The conclusions of the study are as follows: (1) GCISP can effectively enhance enterprises' green technology innovation quality. This conclusion remains valid after robustness tests such as instrumental variable method, bacon decomposition, and dual machine learning method. (2) Mechanism analysis shows that GCISP can improve enterprises' green technology innovation quality by reducing the enterprises' green washing, enhancing the external pressure effect of green investors' attention, alleviating financing constraints and improving the internal governance effect of resource allocation efficiency. (3) Heterogeneous analysis indicates that the impact of GCISP on the improvement of the quality of green technology innovation is more significant in enterprises with strong local intellectual property protection and the strong green awareness of corporate executives and newly established ventures. (4) The policy coordination intensity, as measured by fiscal expenditure, can positively moderate the influence of local governments' effective implementation of the green credit policy on improving enterprises' green technology innovation quality. Meanwhile, higher green technological innovation quality can produce ecological and environmental protection and economic performance values. Overall, this study has useful policy implications for promoting green financial policies and improving the green technology innovation system.
在能源与环境挑战不断升级的背景下，探讨绿色信贷政策如何促使企业构建外部压力传导机制、激活内部治理能力并提升绿色技术创新质量，对于实现“双碳”目标（即碳达峰和碳中和）以及推动高质量绿色经济转型具有重大现实意义。中国绿色信贷利息补贴政策（GCISP）是绿色信贷政策的一项重要部署举措。本研究以绿色信贷利息补贴政策为准自然实验，基于2007年至2022年中国A股上市公司的数据，运用多期双重差分（DID）方法考察绿色信贷政策对企业绿色技术创新质量的影响及其潜在机制。研究结论如下：（1）GCISP能够有效提升企业的绿色技术创新质量。经过工具变量法、培根分解法和双重机器学习法等稳健性检验后，该结论依然成立。（2）机制分析表明，GCISP能够通过减少企业的绿色伪装、增强绿色投资者关注的外部压力效应、缓解融资约束以及提高资源配置效率的内部治理效应来提升企业的绿色技术创新质量。（3）异质性分析表明，GCISP对绿色技术创新质量提升的影响在地方知识产权保护力度强、企业高管绿色意识强的企业以及新成立的企业中更为显著。（4）以财政支出衡量的政策协调强度能够正向调节地方政府有效实施绿色信贷政策对提升企业绿色技术创新质量的影响。同时，更高的绿色技术创新质量能够产生生态环境保护和经济绩效价值。总体而言，本研究对于推动绿色金融政策和完善绿色技术创新体系具有有益的政策启示。
