Greening through finance? Based on the dual perspective of external constraints and internal governance

IF 5.2 1区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

中国经济评论 Pub Date : 2025-04-14 DOI:10.1016/j.chieco.2025.102414

Xiaomeng Zhao , Yinna Chen , Jiaming Wang

{"title":"Greening through finance? Based on the dual perspective of external constraints and internal governance","authors":"Xiaomeng Zhao , Yinna Chen , Jiaming Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.chieco.2025.102414","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Green credit plays a crucial role in inducing enterprises towards green transformation and accelerating the achievement of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals”. This paper uses Chinese A-share listed enterprises to empirically examine how the green credit policy facilitates the market-driven reversed transmission mechanism based on external constraints and internal governance perspectives and further explore the micro-environmental and economic effects. The results indicate that the Green Credit Guidelines (GCG) policy significantly promotes investment in green projects among green credit-restricted enterprises, mainly driven by external credit constraints and the internal environmental awareness of management. This reverse incentivizing effect varies systematically based on external constraints and internal governance factors, being most evident in state-owned enterprises, firms in competitive credit markets or under strong public environmental pressures, large firms, and those with strong internal controls or more independent directors. Further analysis reveals that firms mainly allocate green investments to develop environmentally beneficial products and technological upgrading. As a result, polluting firms witness improvements in economic performance, green innovation performance, and environmental responsibility. This research provides empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of green financial systems and the improvement of green credit policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48285,"journal":{"name":"中国经济评论","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102414"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"中国经济评论","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X25000720","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Green credit plays a crucial role in inducing enterprises towards green transformation and accelerating the achievement of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals”. This paper uses Chinese A-share listed enterprises to empirically examine how the green credit policy facilitates the market-driven reversed transmission mechanism based on external constraints and internal governance perspectives and further explore the micro-environmental and economic effects. The results indicate that the Green Credit Guidelines (GCG) policy significantly promotes investment in green projects among green credit-restricted enterprises, mainly driven by external credit constraints and the internal environmental awareness of management. This reverse incentivizing effect varies systematically based on external constraints and internal governance factors, being most evident in state-owned enterprises, firms in competitive credit markets or under strong public environmental pressures, large firms, and those with strong internal controls or more independent directors. Further analysis reveals that firms mainly allocate green investments to develop environmentally beneficial products and technological upgrading. As a result, polluting firms witness improvements in economic performance, green innovation performance, and environmental responsibility. This research provides empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of green financial systems and the improvement of green credit policy.

查看原文本刊更多论文

通过金融实现绿化？基于外部约束和内部治理的双重视角

绿色信贷对于引导企业走向绿色转型，加快实现“碳调峰和碳中和目标”具有至关重要的作用。本文以中国a股上市企业为研究对象，从外部约束和内部治理两个视角实证考察绿色信贷政策如何促进市场驱动的反向传导机制，并进一步探讨其微观环境效应和经济效应。研究结果表明，绿色信贷指引政策显著促进了绿色信贷受限企业的绿色项目投资，这主要受外部信贷约束和企业内部环保意识的驱动。这种反向激励效应根据外部约束和内部治理因素的不同而有系统的变化，在国有企业、处于竞争性信贷市场或公共环境压力较大的企业、大型企业、内控较强或独立董事较多的企业中表现得最为明显。进一步分析表明，企业绿色投资主要用于开发环境友好型产品和技术升级。因此，污染企业的经济绩效、绿色创新绩效和环境责任都有所改善。本研究为绿色金融体系的有效性和绿色信贷政策的完善提供了实证支持。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

中国经济评论 ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

10.60

自引率

4.40%

发文量

380

期刊介绍： The China Economic Review publishes original works of scholarship which add to the knowledge of the economy of China and to economies as a discipline. We seek, in particular, papers dealing with policy, performance and institutional change. Empirical papers normally use a formal model, a data set, and standard statistical techniques. Submissions are subjected to double-blind peer review.