Exploring the mechanism and constraints of Green Finance on high-quality economic development is of great significance to achieve the strategic goal of carbon peak and carbon neutral. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2019, this paper uses the epsilon-based measure model and entropy method to measure the total factor rate of green economy and the development level of green finance. It then brings green finance, technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading, environmental supervision and high-quality economic development into a unified research framework for the first time. By constructing a panel two-way fixed effect model, regulatory intermediary effect model and threshold effect model, this paper empirically tests the action mechanism and constraints between green finance and high-quality economic development. The results show that: (1) The spatial evolution of green finance in China presents a gradient decreasing pattern from east to middle to west, coastal to inland, and the spatial evolution presents an obvious southwest-northeast pattern. (2) Green finance does have a significant role in promoting high-quality economic development, in which technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading play a part of the intermediary role. This conclusion is still valid under the robustness test of lagged explanatory variables and after the possible endogenous problems are alleviated by the difference-in-difference model (DID). (3) Environmental regulation plays a non-linear regulatory role in the relationship between green finance and high-quality economic development, and there is a single threshold value. Too high intensity of environmental regulation will weaken green finance, resulting in the innovation compensation effect being more diminutive than the circular cost effect. At this time, the high-quality economic development presents a state of diminishing marginal benefits.

A Study on the Sustainable Relationship among the Green Finance, Environment Regulation and Green-Total-Factor Productivity in China

As the continuous changes in environmental regulations have a non-negligible impact on the innovation activities of micro subjects, and economic policy uncertainty has become one of the important influencing factors to be considered in the development of enterprises. Therefore, based on the panel data of Chinese high-tech enterprises from 2012–2017, this paper explores the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on firms’ green innovation from the perspective of economic policy uncertainty as a moderating variable. The empirical results show that, first, market-incentivized environmental regulation instruments have an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation output, while voluntary environmental regulation produces a significant positive impact. Second, the U-shaped relationship between market-based environmental regulation and innovation output becomes more pronounced when economic policy uncertainty is high. However, it plays a negative moderating role in regulating the relationship between voluntary-based environmental regulation and innovation output. This paper not only illustrates the process of technological innovation by revealing the intrinsic mechanism of environmental regulation on firm innovation, but also provides insights for government in environmental governance from the perspective of economic policy uncertainty as well.

Economic Policy Uncertainty, Environmental Regulation, and Green Innovation-An Empirical Study Based on Chinese High-Tech Enterprises.

Using the ecological civilization demonstration zone as a quasi-natural experiment, this study has explored the effect of it on air pollution in China by employing the difference-in-differences model and the spatial difference-in-differences model, and further tested the political promotion tournament in China by employing the binary logit model. The results show that the ecological civilization demonstration zone has basically and effectively reduced air pollution, except for carbon monoxide and ozone. In addition, the spatial spillover effects of the ecological civilization demonstration zone on air pollution are not only basically supported among the treated cities, but also extremely established in the untreated cities neighboring the treated cities. Furthermore, no clear evidence supports the establishment of the political promotion tournament in China, while local cadres tend to cope with the assessment of higher officials passively rather than actively. Overall, this study sheds light on the coordination of economic development and ecological civilization from the perspective of the career concerns of local cadres.

Ecological Civilization Demonstration Zone, Air Pollution Reduction, and Political Promotion Tournament in China: Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment.

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Do Environmental Regulations Improve Industrial Efficiency

China and other emerging market countries have suffered from the problem of environmental pollution while developing rapidly in the past few decades. In recent years, many countries have introduced strict environmental regulations in order to achieve sustainable development. This paper discusses the relationship between environmental regulations and corporate green innovation from the perspective of regional leaders’ promotion pressure. The empirical results show that direct policy regulation within the region stimulates green innovation on the part of enterprises, and the promotion pressure of city leaders has a further positive moderating effect on the positive correlation between environmental regulations and enterprises’ green innovation. The conclusion of the study proves that a strict environmental policy can promote the effectiveness of an environmental performance appraisal system in the sustainable development plans of cities and enterprises. This paper not only reveals the influence path of official promotion pressure on the sustainable development of enterprises in the administrative area from the micro perspective but also sheds some light that may improve government governance and promote the transformation of enterprises.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/7774/pdf

Yufeng Zhang

Papers

Environmental Regulations and Corporate Green Innovation in China: The Role of City Leaders' Promotion Pressure.