The Impact Of Corporate Environmental Performance On Bank Credit Decisions—Evidence From Listed Companies In Heavily Polluting Industries

Under the background of ecological civilization construction,the implementation of green credit policy and environmental regulations’ enhancement in China make commercial banks pay more attention to the environmental risks of heavily polluting enterprises.However,existing studies have not paid enough attention to the relationship between environmental performance of heavily polluting enterprises and bank credit decisions.In view of this,this paper adopts the two-way fixed effect model and stepwise regression method to discuss how listed heavily polluting enterprises’ environmental performance influencing bank credit decisions and the specific mechanism.In addition,in order to control the disturbance caused by the endogeneity of the model,this paper use the two-stage least squares regression method with instrumental variables and the hysteretic variable method to perform robust tests.Empirical results show that,in the context of green credit policy,good corporate environmental performance has a positive impact on bank credit decisions,and helps to improve the credit financing ability of listed heavily polluting enterprises in China,which is manifested by easier access to more new loans,lower loan interest rates and longer loan terms.Further research shows that there is heterogeneity in the impact of listed heavy polluting enterprises’ environmental performance on bank credit decisions,which is mainly concentrated in state-owned heavy polluting enterprises and small and medium-sized heavy polluting enterprises.In addition,the impact from listed heavy polluting enterprises’ environmental performance is more significant when the heavy polluting enterprise local in high environmental regulation regions.In addition,the risk of debt default and the quality of environmental information disclosure play intermediary role in the process of listed heavy polluting enterprises’ environmental performance influencing bank decisions.By discussing the specific mechanism of listed heavy polluting enterprises’ environmental performance influencing bank credit decisions,this paper not only provides help for heavily polluting enterprises’ financing in China,but also helps commercial banks to further understand the hidden environmental risks during the process of credit decisions,so as to avoid the occurrence of unexpected losses.The marginal contribution may exist in the following three aspects :(1)This paper Enriches the research on the influencing factors of bank credit decisions from the perspective of corporate environmental performance,and provides further evidence to the economic consequences of corporate environmental performance.(2)This paper analyzes the practical effects of green credit policy from the perspective of corporate credit financing,and provides policy reference for relevant departments.(3)This paper discuss the specific mechanism of how listed heavily polluting enterprises’ environmental performance influencing bank credit decisions,enriching relevant literatures.