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Environmental science and pollution research international
Jun, 2023;30 (30): 74598-74611.

Study on the effect of green financial policies on low-carbon economic development based on evidence from green financial reform and innovation pilot zone.

Fengge Yao, Ying Song, Liqing Xue
Author Information
  1. Fengge Yao: School of Finance, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
  2. Ying Song: School of Finance, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
  3. Liqing Xue: School of Finance, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. aisavesnakanani@gmail.com. ORCID
PMID: 37231135 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-27658-y

Abstract

Green finance is key in supporting industries' green transformation and helping achieve low-carbon economic (LCE) development. This paper constructs an LCE development index using panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020. Based on the establishment of the first five pilot green finance zones in China in 2017 as a quasi-natural experiment, the synthetic control method (SCM) is applied to explore the impact of green finance policies on the level of LCE development and to analyze the mechanism and evaluate the policy effects. The empirical results show that (1) the synthetic analysis unit better fits the development trend before the implementation of the pilot. (2) After the implementation of the pilot reform, the level of LCE development in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guizhou provinces has a more significant enhancement effect, but the enhancement in Xinjiang is not significant, which indicates that the reform effect in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guizhou is significantly better than that in Xinjiang to a certain extent. (3) The samples were statistically significant and passed the placebo and ranking tests. Additionally, this paper analyzes the mechanism of policy effectiveness in terms of sci-tech innovation (STI) and energy consumption structure: green finance as a grip for economic transformation can provide financial support for regional STI and energy consumption structure upgrade and promote the capital flow to green low-energy industries, ultimately achieving sustainable economic development. Based on the above findings, policy insights can be provided for the improvement of green finance pilot regions.

Keywords

Green finance Low-carbon economy Mediating effect Sci-tech innovation Structure of energy consumption Synthetic control method

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MeSH Term

Economic Development
Fiscal Policy
Policy
Carbon
China

Chemicals

Carbon
Journal Article Review

Word Cloud

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