| Since the reform and opening-up policy,China has vigorously developed its economy and achieved remarkable results,becoming the world’s second-largest economy.However,rapid economic development has also brought about serious environmental problems,including severe pollution,high environmental risks,and significant ecological losses.According to the 2019 China Ecological Environment Status Bulletin released in June 2020,approximately one-third of cities in China had excessive ozone levels,toxic and harmful gases polluted the air,and ozone pollution was particularly prominent in the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.Under the increasingly severe environmental pollution,people’s physical and mental health as well as their daily lives have been seriously threatened.Environmental protection has become a major strategic task for China’s socio-economic development.The most prominent contradiction in environmental protection lies in the conflict between environmental protection and economic development.The long-term difficulty in solving China’s environmental pollution problem lies in the failure to strike a balance between the two.In recent years,although China has made positive progress in environmental protection,such as energy conservation,emission reduction,and clean energy,there are still serious structural problems in economic development.These problems not only breed new environmental pollution but also hinder the progress of environmental protection.In this context,it is necessary to gradually shift the development mindset and actively pursue green economic development to achieve a win-win situation for economic development and environmental protection.Green finance,as an economic activity that supports environmental improvement,promotes industrial structure upgrading,and facilitates green economic development,plays an important role in environmental governance.In February 2021,the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Sound Green,Low-carbon,and Circular Development Economic System," which explicitly called for the establishment of a sound green,low-carbon,and circular development economic system to promote comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.Driven by top-down policies in China,the concept of green development has deeply penetrated people’s minds,and green transition has become an urgent need,leading to the rapid development of green finance.To better support the green transformation and development of the economy,the central bank has successively introduced a series of new monetary control policies since 2013,such as the Medium-term Lending Facility(MLF)established in 2014 and the Targeted Medium-term Lending Facility(TMLF)launched in 2018.These new monetary policy tools require qualified financial assets as collateral,thereby optimizing the structure of China’s credit market.In June 2018,the People’s Bank of China decided to expand the range of collateral for MLF by including green bonds in the framework.This new collateral expansion policy can synergize with green finance policies,optimize the institutional environment for green innovation,and attract more funds into the field of green and low-carbon development.This reflects the central bank’s high regard for the development of green finance and support for green economic development,as well as the policy intention to achieve this development strategy.Enterprises are the mainstay of economic production,and their green transformation and development are the key to China’s green economic development.Therefore,studying the role of green finance in the green transformation and development of enterprises is essential to clarify its micro mechanisms in promoting China’s green economic development and to find effective paths for green finance to support the green transformation and development of the economy.In this regard,this article presents the following questions: Can the development of green finance promote green innovation in enterprises and achieve a green and low-carbon transformation of the economy? What is the internal mechanism behind the promotion of green innovation in enterprises by the development of green finance? Does the green innovation behavior of enterprises enhance their value and environmental performance?Can new monetary regulatory policies strengthen the policy effects of green finance?The resolution of these issues not only helps us to correctly understand the policy effects of green finance and new monetary policies in empowering the green development of enterprises but also contributes to further exploration of the integrated development model of green finance,policy support,enterprise innovation,value creation,and environmental protection,which mutually promote each other.It is of great theoretical and practical significance for China to achieve its "dual carbon" goals,promote the green development of enterprises,and facilitate green economic development and ecological civilization construction.The main research content and conclusions of this article are as follows:(1)From the perspective of enterprises issuing green bonds,this article investigates the mechanism and effects of green bonds on corporate green innovation.Focusing on the green innovation of enterprises issuing green bonds,this article examines the micro mechanisms and effects of the influence of issuing green bonds on their green innovation from the perspectives of the behavior of participants in China’s green bond market,information asymmetry,the positive externalities of corporate green innovation,the moral risks it brings,and the new perspective of "free-riding." The research findings indicate that the influence of enterprises issuing green bonds in China on green innovation is merely superficial and mediocre,as it can only promote mediocre green innovation but not high-level green innovation.There are loopholes in the regulation and institutional construction of China’s green bond market,and the motivation for the majority of enterprises to issue green bonds is to extract the value of the franchising rights of issuing green bonds and obtain policy benefits,rather than pursuing high-level green innovation.As a result,there are issues of "greenwashing" and moral risks,exacerbating information asymmetry and hindering enterprises’ highlevel green innovation and green transformation.The study shows that R&D investment by enterprises issuing green bonds has a significant promoting effect on their high-level innovation but not on mediocre green innovation.Issuing green bonds does not promote R&D investment by enterprises.The study also reveals that mediocre green innovation cannot create value for enterprises or improve their environmental performance,whereas high-level green innovation can create value for enterprises and improve their environmental performance.High-level green innovation is the real driving force behind corporate green transformation and value enhancement,which solves the theoretical puzzle of whether China’s corporate green transformation and high-quality economic development can be sustained and strengthened.(2)This study examines the policy effects of the 2018 central bank collateral expansion policy on the green innovation of companies issuing green bonds.Using data from the Guotai An database,China Bond Information Network,China Research Data Services Platform(CNRDS),and financial data of listed companies from 2010 to 2020,the study employs the Difference-in-Differences(DID)method to analyze the impact of the central bank collateral expansion policy on green innovation in green bond companies.The research results indicate that the implementation of the central bank collateral expansion policy significantly promotes the number of applications for green utility model patents and green invention patents by companies issuing green bonds.After robustness tests such as placebo tests,the above conclusions still hold.Compared to non-green bond issuing companies,the number of applications for green invention patents by green bond issuing companies increased by 140.4%,and the number of applications for green utility model patents increased by 157%.Heterogeneity analysis,distinguishing by company type and size,reveals that the collateral expansion policy has a more significant effect on non-state-owned enterprises,non-heavy polluting enterprises,and small and micro-enterprises in terms of green innovation.The collateral expansion policy can alleviate the financing difficulties of non-state-owned enterprises and small and micro-enterprises,promote their green innovation development,but its effect on the green transformation of heavily polluting enterprises has not achieved the desired results.The findings from the mechanism analysis suggest that overall,the central bank collateral expansion policy improves the financing availability,reduces financing costs,and increases research and development investment of green bond companies,thereby promoting their green innovation activities.(3)This study examines the overall impact and mechanism of green finance on corporate green innovation.Using unbalanced panel data from 2058 listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2011 to 2020,the study empirically investigates this issue using a Poisson distribution model.The baseline model regression results show that the development of green finance has a significant promoting effect on corporate green innovation,with an overall increase of 30.8% in the level of green innovation after the implementation of green finance policies.However,the study differentiating by patent type finds that the development of green finance has no significant effect on green invention patents,but has a more significant promoting effect on green utility model patents,indicating that China’s green finance is still in the early stage,and the country’s green development lacks independent innovation in terms of intellectual property rights.This conclusion holds even after considering potential endogeneity issues and conducting a series of robustness tests.Heterogeneity analysis reveals differences in the impact of green finance on corporate innovation among different company types and regions.Mechanism analysis finds that the development of green finance can promote corporate green innovation activities by alleviating financing constraints.Further research shows that green invention patents can significantly improve a company’s financial and environmental performance.The aforementioned research provides clues to understand the role and pathways of green finance in corporate green innovation and serves as a reference for the development of green finance in China.This study investigates the roles and effects of green bonds,new monetary policies,and green finance on corporate green innovation and transformation.It systematically and thoroughly explores their effects and influence channels,and identifies shortcomings in policy formulation and implementation through heterogeneity tests of policy effectiveness.The research in this study provides decision support for improving China’s green financial system,optimizing credit market structure,and better utilizing the regulatory effects of monetary policy. |
PDF Full Text Request