Empirical Research On Relationship Between Green Credit And Provincial Green Economy Efficiency In China

Associated with rapid economic development since reform and open,long-term factor-input extensive economic growth has generated accumulated resource bottleneck and significant environmental problems.Concerning the serious practical challenges faced by the development of green economy,at the 18 th National Congress,Chinese government raised the construction of ecological civilization to the strategic level and introduced green development into the development concept of the "five major";The 19 th National Congress and the 14 th five-year plan further sublimated the outline of green development.Therefore,promoting the transformation of China’s economic structure and improving the efficiency of green economy have been on the sword.In detail,green credit mobilizes more funds to gather and integrate into environmental investment through differentiated monetary and financial policies such as credit preference and floating interest rate,so as to promote the development of green economy.In addition,green credit does not grant loans for high pollution and energy extensive projects,while provides green support for energy conservation and environmental protection,which reduces the financing cost of green enterprises,and promotes the optimization of industry-economy-energy structure.Subsequently,it becomes the driving engine for the green economy efficiency promotion.However,there exists few studies exploring the relationship between green credit and green economy efficiency,and there is a lack of research on its impact mechanism.Based on the above background,this research regarded promoting green economy efficiency as the principal line,and explored the relationship between green credit and green economy efficiency.In detail,relative theories were firstly clarified as research foundation.The super efficiency SBM model was introduced to capture the provincial green economy efficiency in China and clarify the spatial evolution characteristics as well as convergence trend.Integrating theory with practice,embedding analytical tools and theoretical models of management,spatial measurement and other disciplines,the impact mechanism of green credit on China’s provincial green economy efficiency was analyzed.Particularly,green credit and green economy efficiency were treated as core variables;panel data of selected cities and provinces from 2008 to 2019 was collected to explore its impact mechanism through SYS-GMM model,intermediary effect model and threshold model.On the other hand,taking green innovation,industrial structure and green investment as research dimensions,the intermediary transmission mechanism between green credit and green economy efficiency was clarified,while the nonlinear relationship was further explored considering environment regulations and marketization degree.Therefore,the comprehensive analysis of the path of green credit to green economy efficiency was presented.Main research results are as follows:(1)China’s provincial green economy efficiency has significant characteristics of space-time evolution:(1)Under the dual support of green policy and ecological civilization construction policy,China’s provincial green economy efficiency index shows a significant increasing trend.However,subject to the differences among regional social-economic-cultural systems,there exist significant regional differences: the green economy efficiency of coastal provinces is higher than that of inland provinces.From the perspective of spatial evolution characteristics,China’s provincial green economy efficiency is mainly concentrated in the first and third quadrants,showing a trend of high-high and low-low agglomeration.(2)According to the nuclear density analysis,China’s provincial green economy efficiency presents a trend of shifting to the right as a whole,reflecting the overall improvement of green economy efficiency,while there exists efficiency polarization.In addition,it can be seen from the nuclear density and kurtosis that there exist objective regional differences regarding green economy efficiency,and the "club" convergence has not yet been formed.(3)Further convergence analysis shows that there exists absolute convergence(-0.122***)in China’s provincial green economy efficiency.However,due to the difference of factor system,the coastal provinces show significant absolute convergence characteristics(-0.198***)while the inland provinces fail to show the convergence characteristics.Conditional convergence test also verifies the convergence characteristics of China’s provincial green economy efficiency(-0.404***).From the perspective of convergence strength,conditional convergence is significantly better than absolute convergence,while the coastal convergence effect is greater than that in inland areas.From the perspective of time dimension,driven by the national green policy,conditional convergence was significantly greater than that before 2013,which is consistent with the spatial dimension difference of absolute convergence characteristics.(2)Green credit can significantly improve the green economy efficiency,while there exist regional differences: According to the analysis of spatial econometric model,green credit significantly improves the efficiency of green economy.However,from a regional point of view,there exist inland-coastal regional differences in the path of green credit to improve green economy efficiency.In detail,for every 1 percentage point increase in the level of green credit,the green economy efficiency of inland and coastal areas will increase by 0.3589 and 0.1259 percentage points respectively.On the other hand,in terms of the level of green credit,green credit has a network effect.When green credit is at a higher level,it has greater value space for the positive promotion effect on the efficiency of green economy.Compared with inland areas,coastal areas enjoy higher level of green credit,where the high-density spatial network has formed due to information exchanges,and the transmission and sharing of various credit policies are more intensive,thus improving green economy efficiency.With reference to green credit policy,it reduces the pressure on the capital cost of green industries,thus releasing positive impact on green economy efficiency.The green credit systems in coastal provinces are significantly better than that in inland provinces.Therefore,the impact of green credit in coastal provinces on green economy efficiency is more specific and efficient.At this stage,the inland provinces should regard coastal provinces as the guide to improve the green credit system,narrow the green credit gap,and subsequently improve the efficiency of regional green economy.(3)There exist intermediary transmission effects during the impact path of green credit on green economic efficiency:(1)Green credit improves green economy efficiency by promoting green innovation,where the application and development of green credit capital reduce the innovation cost of enterprises,enhance the connection among industrial departments,improve the cooperation efficiency among industries,accelerate the release of green innovation knowledge spillover and spillover effect,and improve the provincial green innovation.Moreover,green innovation can improve the efficiency of green economy through comprehensive utilization of resources as well as reducing waste emission and energy consumption.(2)Green credit promotes green economy efficiency through industrial structure upgrading.Green credit has penetrating effect,which can promote industrial integration,increase industrial output efficiency and proportion of green industries,promote the industrial structure upgrading as well as effective circulation of resources,thus reducing waste emission and promoting provincial green economy.(3)Green credit improves green economy efficiency by promoting green investment.Green credit provides credit funds for green investment through targeted credit policies,and facilitates capital flows from low value-added and heavily polluting industries to high value-added and environmentally friendly industries,thus reducing the proportion of pollution intensive industries and promoting green economy efficiency.(4)There exists nonlinear relationship between green credit and green economy efficiency: During the promoting process of green credit on green economy efficiency,environmental regulation plays the role as policy leader,which promotes the improvement and development of green credit system,and further improves China’s provincial green economy efficiency.In particular,environmental regulation presents positive regulatory effect,which can be more significant only when environmental regulation reaches a reasonable threshold range(ER>2.497).In addition,reasonable degree of marketization(MD>7.600)contributes to comprehensive green credit system and transformation of industry-economy-energy structure,through optimizing the allocation of credit resources and strengthening the availability of green credit resource elements.Subsequently,regional green economy efficiency can be improved.The research conclusions not only broaden the theoretical system of green economy,but also provide references for the government and other decision-making units,which facilitate local governments to formulate scientific and reasonable green credit policies,improve the green credit system,optimize the path to improve green economy efficiency as well as high-quality development of provincial green economy,and thus promoting the construction of China’s provincial ecological civilization.