Research On The Impact And Heterogeneity Of Green Credit On Regional Green Total Factor Productivity

The 19th Party Congress report put forward the concept of green development,emphasising that ecological protection is the basis for sustainable economic growth.As China’s economy shifts from a stage of high growth to a stage of high-quality development,improving green total factor productivity has gradually become a new direction for future economic transformation and development.China formally began implementing a green credit policy in 2012,with a view to using financial instruments to enhance China’s green total factor productivity and boost high-quality economic development by applying differential credit to different types of enterprises.However,differences in the level of financial development,government intervention and economic growth pressures between regions have led to heterogeneity in the impact of green credit.Therefore,it is of practical significance to study the role of green credit and its heterogeneity in the process of enhancing green total factor productivity in China,so as to provide insights for the further improvement and implementation of green credit policies in a targeted manner.To test the effectiveness of green credit policies,this paper first measures the green total factor productivity of 30 Chinese provinces(excluding Tibet)from 2006 to 2020 using the SBM-DDF model,and then examines the impact of green credit on green total factor productivity using a two-way fixed effects model.This study also uses green technological innovation and capital allocation efficiency as mediating variables to verify the mechanism of green credit’s impact on green total factor productivity.To further explore the heterogeneity of the impact of green credit,this paper also uses region,level of financial development,degree of government intervention and economic growth pressure as the basis for heterogeneity grouping.The results found that:(1)the increase in green credit significantly improves regional green total factor productivity in China;(2)green credit contributes to the improvement of green total factor productivity by enhancing regional green technological innovation capacity;(3)green credit contributes to the improvement of green total factor productivity by improving the degree of regional capital mismatch and enhancing regional capital allocation efficiency;(4)in the heterogeneity test,in the eastern(4)In the heterogeneity test,the promotion effect of green credit on green total factor productivity is stronger in the eastern regions,regions with a higher level of financial development,regions with a lower level of government intervention and regions with less pressure on economic growth.Based on the above findings,this paper makes recommendations:(1)continue to actively develop green credit policies;(2)implement differentiated green credit policies for different regions and strengthen the effects of policy implementation;(3)improve the assessment mechanism of local governments to avoid short-sighted behaviour and excessive government intervention.