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Financial information, green certification, government subsidies and green bond credit spreads–evidence from China

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Abstract

In the context of green bonds playing an increasingly vital role in the green financial market, this study selects 61 green bonds issued in China from 2016 to 2021 as samples to examine the factors influencing green bond credit, including financial information and ratings of issuers, green certification, and government subsidies. First and foremost, based on AHP and entropy method, the financial composite index is constructed to evaluate the issuers’ finance. Additionally, the differences in the cost of green bonds issued by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and semi-enterprises are explored by adding the property rights variable. Empirical results indicate that the issuer’s rating could significantly affect the credit spread. In addition, the green bond credit spreads of SOEs are more competitive than those of semi-enterprises. When the issuer is a SOE, green bond credit spread has a remarkable negative correlation with finance information. Furthermore, green certification and government grants are not the main factors. Finally, the green bond market, crucial to controlling the green financial system, is presented with specific recommendations for its growth in this study.

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Data availability

The questionnaire questions can be provided on request to the lead author - zengshouzhen@nbu.edu.cn.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Social Sciences Planning Projects of Zhejiang (21QNYC11ZD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Shouzhen Zeng & Junfang Hu

  2. Economics Teaching and Research Department, Party school of CPC Ningbo Municipal Committee, 315032, Ningbo, China

    Fengjuan Gu

  3. Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería Mecánica (CIIM), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 4602, Valencia, Spain

    Llopis- Albert Carlos

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  1. Shouzhen Zeng
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  2. Junfang Hu
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  3. Fengjuan Gu
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  4. Llopis- Albert Carlos
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Correspondence to Shouzhen Zeng.

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Zeng, S., Hu, J., Gu, F. et al. Financial information, green certification, government subsidies and green bond credit spreads–evidence from China. Int Entrep Manag J 19, 321–341 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-022-00822-5

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