| Technology innovation is an important strategic which support for improving the social productivity and comprehensive national power.Promoting technology innovation is the inevitable choice to promote green transformation of manufacturing industry and promote the carbon peak and the carbon neutral.Meanwhile,promoting innovation of manufacturing industry is a new path for the harmonious development of economy and environment under the dual pressure of economic slowdown and environmental degradation.Manufacturing enterprises are the key subjects of promoting technological innovation,but also the main source of industrial pollution.As the demand for ecological quality increases,environmental regulation is not only a major tool of dealing with the negative externalities of industrial pollution,but also an important means to promote green development.Increasing attention to environmental governance has brought dual pressure to enterprises:on the one hand,internalization of the externalities of pollution bring about high environmental costs.On the other hand,manufacturing enterprises in China are in a critical period of core technology breakthroughs,thus the financial demand for innovation continues to increase,behind which the contradiction between environmental governance and corporate innovation is increasingly prominent.R?D activities demand sufficient and solid financial support,and financing is a crucial source of funds for corporate innovation,thus optimizing the corporate financing environment is an effective way to solve this contradiction.Neo-Schumpeterian Theory has emphasized the symbiotic relationship between the financial sector and the real sector,with financial development being crucial to corporate financing environment.However,the relative lag in financial development in China has pushed enterprises to face financing problems,leading to the stagnation of corporate imovative activities.From the perspective of corporate investment and financing,environmental regulation and financial development do not exist in isolation,but are mutually reinforcing or restricted.Corporate innovation investment relies on corporate cash flow,thus stimulating firms' willingness of innovation alone is not sufficient to stimulate innovation,but rather to guarantee the capital foundation of innovation.The new development philosophy emphasizes that "coordinated development focuses on addressing unbalanced development,while green development focuses on harmony between man and nature".At this current stage of policy formulation,the impact of environmental regulations and financial development on corporate investment decisions is rarely considered simultaneously,resulting in a failure to harmonize environmental policies and financial policies,which exacerbates the financial pressure on enterprises.In October,2021,the "Planning Outline for the Construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle" has been issued,which is an important initiative that pushed the construction and development of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle into the limelight.According to the requirements of the Planning Outline,the ChengduChongqing Economic Circle will shoulder the multiple tasks of building an important economic center,a scientific and technological innovation center,a new high ground for reform and opening-up,as well as a pleasant place for high-quality living.Therefore,the ecological environment construction and independent innovation capacity enhancement of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle are especially crucial.Concentrating on the above issues,this paper constructed a theoretical analysis framework about the impact of environmental regulation and financial development on corporate innovation input from the perspective of corporate investment and financing.Firstly,this paper explored the intrinsic mechanisms and pathways through which environmental regulation and financial development act on corporate innovation input,using logical deduction and the system dynamics model.On this basis,the GMM dynamic panel model is used to empirically test the effect of environmental regulation and financial development on the innovation input of listed manufacturing enterprises locating in the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle,as well as its differences with the test results of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebe Region,Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta.Then the heterogeneity tests and DID models are applied to search for the causes of these differences.Furthermore,by using the mediation model and the moderated mediation model,the intrinsic association between environmental regulation,financial development and corporate innovation inputs is examined.The above studies show that:(1)Environmental regulations have an impact on firms' willingness of innovation and the financial support of innovation activities through the mandatory control,market regulation and signaling functions.In particular,the impact of environmental regulation on the financial support of corporate innovation activities arises through both direct effects on corporate financing constraints and indirect effects on corporate financing costs.For enterprises with lower pollution,the internalization of the positive externalities of environmental protection by environmental regulation provides a sustained incentive for innovation.For enterprises with heavier pollution,the correction of the negative externalities of environmental pollution by environmental regulation exacerbates their financial pressures.During the above process,financial development,through its five functions including information integration,savings mobilization,corporate regulation,transaction facilitation and risk diversification,improves the efficiency of savings-toinvestment conversion,facilitates the flow of capital to high-risk investment projects,and also promotes the transparency of regulatory information,which consolidates the signal transduction function of environmental regulation.For enterprises with lower pollution,financial development improves their financing environment and strengthens the role of environmental regulation in promoting corporate innovative inputs.However,for enterprises with heavier pollution,financial development strengthens the screening and elimination mechanisms of environmental regulation.(2)Manufacturing enterprises account for 61.3%of listed enterprises in the ChengduChongqing Economic Circle,yet the total volume of listed manufacturing enterprises in this area is much lower than that of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebe Region,Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta.The average level of R?D investment of listed manufacturing enterprises in the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is lower than that of other economic circles.Besides,the overall level of environmental regulation in the ChengduChongqing Economic Circle is higher,and the differences in the level of environmental regulation between cities in this area are smaller.Meanwhile,the financial development of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is relatively lagging.(3)The results of the empirical tests show that environmental regulation failed to effectively improve the innovation investment of listed manufacturing enterprises in Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle,which is contrary to the test results of enterprises in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebe Region,Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta.Financial development is an important way to mitigate the negative effects of environmental regulation.Compared with other economic circles,the improvement of financial development level in Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle has a stronger facilitation in innovation investment of listed manufacturing enterprises.(4)Environmental regulation only promotes the innovation input of state-owned manufacturing enterprises in Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle,but inhibits the innovation input of non-state-owned,small-scale and lower-cash-holding manufacturing enterprises.Meanwhile,the Water Pollution Control Action Plan and the Air Pollution Control Action Plan have put greater environmental pressure on manufacturing enterprises subject to their control,which exacerbated the negative effect of environmental regulation.Environmental regulation has increased the operational cash flow of manufacturing enterprises,but exacerbated the financing constraints and increased the financing cost at the same time,which made these manufacturing enterprises having less money available for innovation after paying environmental costs,thus forcing them to reduce their innovation investment.These mediating effects has been verified in the listed manufacturing enterprises in Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.In the meanwhile,the increasing level of financial development could weaken the negative mediating effect of financing constraints and financing cost.On the basis of the above findings,suggestions for promote the innovation inputs of manufacturing enterprises in Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle are proposed,from the perspective of environmental policy and financial policy.To improve the innovation environment of manufacturing enterprises,it is also necessary to refine the design of environmental regulations,promote the participation of financial institutions in the implementation of environmental regulations,push the financial system to provide support to manufacturing enterprises,take the government as the leading force of technological breakthroughs promotion,as well as strengthen the joint cooperation between universities,enterprises,government and financial institutions. |
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