Green Finance and Firm ESG Performance:Empirical Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms
Green is the background color of high-quality development,and the devel-opment of green finance is an important force to promote sustainable economic and social development.Based on the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2010 to 2021,this paper investigates the effect and mechanism of green finance on the ESG performance of enterprises by matching the green finance index at the provincial level with the micro data at the enterprise level.The study finds that green finance helps to improve the ESG performance of enterprises;The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the improvement effect of green finance on ESG performance is more significant in state-owned enterprises,enterprises in non-heavy pollution in-dustries and enterprises in high-tech industries.The results of mechanism analysis show that environmental regulation and industrial structure upgrading play a posi-tive role in the improvement of ESG performance by green finance.Based on this,relevant policy recommendations are proposed:First,accelerate the development of green finance and improve the green financial system;second,strengthen the ESG concept,increase ESG investment,and encourage enterprise ESG practices;the third is to encourage green and low-carbon transformation of enterprises and pro-mote the transformation of industrial structure to"green"and"low-carbon";fourth,strengthen the supporting role of environmental regulation on enterprise ESG,and fully release the policy effect of environmental policy.
Green FinanceESGEnvironmental RegulationUpgrading of Industri-al Structure
万方数据
维普
