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Financial Development and Energy Environmental Performance: Evidence from China’s Regional Economies

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Abstract

Financial development makes many contributions to promoting economic growth. With the deterioration of the ecological environment, scholars have begun to consider the role of financial development in sustainable economic development. This paper investigates the influence of financial development on China’s energy environmental performance (EEP) by utilizing panel data from 2002 to 2017. The findings demonstrate that financial development has a significant impact on regional EEP, and the results remain robust through a series of assessments. The technological innovation level and human capital are the transmission paths through which financial development affects regional EEP. Furthermore, using the difference-in-differences (DID) method, we not only prove the causal relationship between financial development and EEP but also show that the allocation of financial assets can significantly affect energy consumption efficiency. Finally, heterogeneity analysis shows that financial development has varying impacts on energy efficiency in distinct regions across China. The influence of financial development on EEP displays a clear “Matthew Effect”. To the best of our knowledge, our findings offer greater insight into the energy-saving and emission-reduction effects of financial development.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet were not included in our group due to missing data.

  2. The eastern region includes Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Tianjin, Liaoning, Hebei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan. The central region includes Heilongjiang, Anhui, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Jilin, Hubei, Henan, and Hunan. The western region includes Guangxi, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Chongqing, Yunnan, Qinghai, Shanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang and Ningxia.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Qingdao Postdoctoral Funding Program (Grant numbers QDBSH20220202195).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Yiran Chen & Xinyue Tan

  2. School of Economics, Ocean University of China, Tsingtao, China

    Shaopeng Cao

Authors
  1. Yiran Chen
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  2. Xinyue Tan
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Contributions

Yiran Chen: Methodology; Formal analysis; Investigation; Writing - Original Draft; Software. Xinyue Tan: Conceptualization; Validation; Project administration. Shaopeng Cao: Resources; Conceptualization; Supervision; Writing - Review & Editing; Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Shaopeng Cao.

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Chen, Y., Tan, X. & Cao, S. Financial Development and Energy Environmental Performance: Evidence from China’s Regional Economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 76528–76542 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27575-0

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