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Does green credit affect the green innovation performance of high-polluting and energy-intensive enterprises? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

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Abstract

Taking the green credit policy in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper applies the methods of propensity score matching and Difference-in-Difference (PSM-DID) to investigate the relationship between green credit policy and enterprises’ green technology innovation performance based on Chinese industrial enterprises database and green patent database. The results show that the implementation of “green credit guidelines” policy has significantly improved the green innovation performance of high-polluting and high-energy consuming enterprises, which indicates that the incentive effect of green credit policy on enterprises exceeds the constraint effect and leads to “Porter effect.” Moreover, the green credit policy has significantly increased the number of non-invention patents rather than invention patents. In addition, the green credit policy has a more significant effect on the green innovation performance of high-polluting and energy-intensive enterprises that are state-owned and have weak market power. Mechanism test shows that green credit policy can change the credit financing constraints and R&D investment allocation to affect the green innovation performance of high-polluting and energy-intensive enterprises.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.

Notes

  1. SA index is calculated as (-0.737 * Size) + (0.043 * Size2) - (0.040 * Age), where Size denotes the log of inflation-adjusted assets and Age is the number of years the firm is listed.

  2. policy1 is “Opinions on Implementing Environmental Policies and Regulations to Prevent Credit Risks” which was released by the State Environmental Protection Administration of China in 2007.

  3. policy2 is “Guidelines on Building a Green Financial System” which was jointly issued by the seven ministries including the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance of China in 2016.

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Funding

This research work is supported in part by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (71803033), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2019A1515011581), Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project of Guangdong Province (GD20SQ12), National Social Science Fund of China (19ZDA079), Guangzhou Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project (2020GZYB42, 2020GZGJ158), and Educational Science Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2020KZDZX1152).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Studies for the Greater Bay Area & Center for Cantonese Merchants Research, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China

    Sheng Liu

  2. Faculty of Social Science, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, 999078, China

    Rongxin Xu

  3. School of Economics and Trade, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, 510521, Guangdong, China

    Xiuying Chen

Authors
  1. Sheng Liu
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  2. Rongxin Xu
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  3. Xiuying Chen
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Contributions

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows. Conceptualization: S.L., R.X., and X.C. Methodology: R.X. and S.L. Software: R.X. Formal analysis: S.L., R.X., and X.C. Investigation: S.L., R.X., and X.C. Writing, original draft preparation: R.X. and S.L. Writing, review and editing: S.L., R.X., and X.C. Visualization: R.X. Supervision: S.L. and R.X. Funding acquisition: S.L. and X.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rongxin Xu.

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Liu, S., Xu, R. & Chen, X. Does green credit affect the green innovation performance of high-polluting and energy-intensive enterprises? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 65265–65277 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15217-2

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