Research on the Environmental Effect of Green Finance Policy Based on the Analysis of Pilot Zones for Green Finance Reform and Innovations

Haifeng Huang and Jing Zhang
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Haifeng Huang: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100020, China
Jing Zhang: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100020, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: In this study, taking the pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations set up in 2017 as the objects, a quasi-natural experiment is conducted to assess the environmental effects of green finance policy using the difference-in-difference propensity score matching (PSM-DID) method based on the panel data in 30 provincial-level administrative regions from 2011 to 2019. In addition, further efforts are made to investigate the differences of green financial policies in environmental effect. According to the research findings, the set-up of green finance pilot zones can reduce the environmental pollution, and green finance policy is conductive to environmental enhancement. Meanwhile, a partial mediating effect exists between a region’s innovation capability and industrial structure. On the whole, green finance policy plays the most significant role in improving the eastern region’s environmental pollution, followed by the central region, but barely enhances the environment in the western region. To sum up, the more serious the environmental pollution is, the better the effect of green finance policy.

Keywords: green finance; policy research; PSM-DID method; environmental effect; pilot zones for green finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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