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Low-carbon pilot city (LCPC) plays a pivotal role in stimulating green innovation among enterprises. However, relying solely on policy often proves less effective, necessitating support from financial development. Yet, current research frequently overlooks the impact of financial development on LCPC policy. Drawing on economic, management, and organizational psychology theories, we investigate the influence of the financial development level on enterprise green innovation in LCPC, utilizing data from listed companies between 2010 and 2018. The main finding is that LCPC facilitates institutional-level green innovation. Concurrently, financial development augments the effectiveness of LCPC policy, further expediting green innovation activities among enterprises in these pilot cities. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that financial development significantly promotes green innovation, particularly among state-owned enterprises, those with myopic management, non-high technology industries, and businesses in the southern region within LCPC. Mechanism tests identify enterprises' financing constraints and R&D investment levels as key pathways through which financial development fosters green economic development in LCPC. This study provides micro-level evidence from China elucidating the effects of environmental policies and offers practical implications for the low-carbon transformation of the manufacturing sector amid peak emissions and carbon-neutral targets. Additionally, it provides valuable guidance for other emerging economies seeking enhanced resource and environmental protection through the implementation of energy-saving and emission-reduction fiscal policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid evolution of the digital economy has significantly accelerated progress towards achieving green and sustainable processes, particularly in the field of green production. While existing research has delved into the effects of the digital economy on Green Innovation (GI) and the consequences of digital transformation on Corporate Value (CV), there remains a notable gap in the literature regarding the potential for synergistic enhancements in firms' GI&CV through the ongoing digital revolution. This study utilizes an evolutionary game model and employs system dynamics methods to simulate the dynamic evolution trajectory of the influence of the digital economy on the synergy between GI&CV. Subsequently, it empirically assesses the interconnected synergies between GI&CV using a dataset comprising information from Chinese listed firms spanning from 2011 to 2020, examining the impact of the digital economy on these synergies. Moreover, the study delves into the analysis of the transmission mechanism and conducts an extended investigation to further explore this phenomenon. The findings of this paper including: (1) The digital economy acts as a driving force behind the synergistic enhancement of firm GI&CV. Moreover, this effect is further augmented by governmental environmental regulation and green subsidy policies. (2) Drawing upon the information asymmetry theory and the resource-based theory, the regional marketization level and firms' digital transformation play intermediary roles. (3) The heterogeneity test indicate that firms situated in eastern regions and those classified as non-heavily polluted benefitted to a greater extent. This study sheds light on the incentive implications of digital economy for the synergistic upgrading of GI&CV, thereby extending the breadth of study on the consequences of digital economy. Moreover, it offers actionable suggestions for enterprises to leverage digital economy development towards achieving a synergistic improvement of GI&CV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reveal the impact of pilot free trade zones policy on green development, we use multi-period difference-in-difference estimation and fixed effect model to explore the impact and impact mechanism of the establishment of free trade zones on the green transformation of enterprises from the micro perspective, based on the panel data of China's A-share listed companies from 2009–2021, The results show that pilot free trade zones policy significantly improves the green transformation of enterprises in the zones. Pilot free trade zones policy affects the corporate green transformation through industrial agglomeration and financial constraints. The green transformation of state-owned enterprises, non-heavy polluting enterprises and high-tech enterprises are significantly impacted by pilot free trade zones policy. Urban innovation and green subsidies play a positive moderating role in the impact of free trade zones on enterprises' green transformation. The research conclusions provide a valuable policy basis for how to promote the green transformation of enterprises under the free trade zones policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government's environmental protection policy can significantly contribute to alleviating resource shortages and curbing environmental pollution, but the impact of various policy instruments implemented by the government on energy efficiency is unclear. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2021, this paper analyses the impact of environmental regulation and the industrial structure on energy efficiency from the perspective of resource taxes. The U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and energy efficiency and between the optimization of industrial structure can significantly improve energy efficiency, and the optimization of industrial structure is conducive to weakening the initial inhibitory effect of environmental regulation. In addition, the analysis of regional heterogeneity showed that the impact of environmental regulation was stronger in the central and western regions, while the impact of industrial structure was stronger in the eastern and western regions. The conclusions of this study can help to expand the understanding of the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial structure on energy efficiency, provide policy enlightenment for the realization of green development and high-quality development, and provide Chinese examples and experiences for developing countries to improve energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions have become a global challenge, and China, as the world's largest developing country, has a serious emissions problem. Developing green buildings is an important way of reducing carbon emissions. China's low-carbon city pilot policy may be an effective way of promoting green building development and reducing these emissions. This study uses the low carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and employs the staggered difference-in-differences method to investigate its impact on green building development. The results show that the low-carbon city pilot policy promotes green building development, and this policy promotes it by enhancing regional green innovation capacity, improving green total factor productivity at the firm and regional levels, and reducing the financing constraints of firms in the construction and real estate sectors. In addition, the promotion effect of the policy on green building development is stronger in western and non-resource-based regions and large-scale cities in China. This study contributes to the literature related to environmental policy, green building, and carbon emissions and supports the promotion of green building development and the reduction of carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the continued advancement of the green economy transition, the proactive pursuit of carbon emissions reduction and the early attainment of carbon neutrality goals have emerged as essential components in promoting high-quality economic development. Not only does it contribute to the creation of a community of human destiny, but it is also vital to the realization of sustainable development for human civilization. A dynamic evolutionary game model, which encompasses the interactions among government, enterprises, and the public, was constructed to examine the inherent impact mechanisms of the behavior of three players on the development of a green economy under the context of energy saving and emission reduction subsidies. The results showed that the incentive and punishment mechanisms served as effective tools for harmonizing the interests of system members. Within the mechanisms, the public demonstrated a higher sensitivity to rewards, while enterprises exhibited greater responsiveness to fines. Consequently, the government could influence the behavior of enterprises by incentivizing the public to serve as a third-party inquiry and oversight body. Simultaneously, the government could encourage enterprises to expedite green technology innovation by employing a combination of incentive and punishment mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordinating policies is an essential guarantee for carbon emission reduction and sustainable development. Based on the theoretical framework of the policy paradigm, we quantitatively analyze 266 policy documents on promoting carbon emission trading and green financial policies from 2011 to 2022 using the content analysis research method. Based on the matching network of "policy objectives-policy tools," we analyze the synergistic characteristics of carbon emission trading policies and green financial policies in promoting carbon emission reduction targets and reveal the matching mode of "objectives-tools" of green financial policies by using social network analysis. It is found that, first, from the perspective of policy objectives, the main policy objectives of carbon emissions trading are to promote green innovation of enterprises, and the main policy objectives of green finance are to promote green development, which reflects the consistency and endogenous motivation of policy objectives. Secondly, command-control and market incentive policy tools are the main policy tools in the structure of policy tools. The proportion of public participation policy tools is small, and there is a structural asymmetry. Third, carbon emissions trading tools focus on supervision, adjustment, and platform construction. The green financial policy tools have the characteristics of guidance, public welfare, and externality. The two constitute a complementary, embedded, and integrated ' double synergy ' carbon emission reduction policy. Based on this, this paper puts forward some suggestions to promote policy coordination and provides a reference for China to achieve the dual carbon goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the intensification of global industrialization coupled with the enterprise's production and operating activities have caused pollution, increasing the current environmental pressure. Relevant government departments in China have instituted several stringent measures (environmental protection sensitization and awareness activities, training sessions, and exchange activities targeted towards enterprise managers) to address these rising environmental problems. Though these measures have gained traction over the years, there is a dearth of research on their effectiveness on the green innovation performance of enterprises. To bridge the gap, this research explores the effect of environmental awareness training, knowledge exchange activities, and commitment on green innovation performance with survey data from 285 medical equipment manufacturing companies in China. It further expands the theoretical application of environmental awareness training, commitment, and innovation performance from the lens of the Knowledge-Based View. The findings depict a positive relationship between environmental awareness training and innovation performance. It also finds a mediating influence of environmental commitment in the relationship between environmental awareness training and green innovation performance. Furthermore, environmental knowledge exchange activities positively moderate the relationship between environmental awareness training and environmental commitment. These findings offer valuable insights for the green development of medical equipment manufacturing enterprises and the government to formulate environmental protection policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green credit policy serves as a crucial instrument for achieving the dual objectives of optimal resource allocation and green development. It plays a pivotal role in curbing inefficient investments in innovation by enterprises. This research employs the PSM-DID method to effectively explore the practical effects of the green credit policy on the innovation inefficiency investments of heavily polluting enterprises in China. Examining the impact from the perspectives of environmental regulation and financial constraints, the study utilizes panel data from listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares markets spanning from 2010 to 2020. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) Green credit policy has proven effective in inhibiting the inefficient investment in innovation by heavily polluting enterprises when compared to non-heavily polluting enterprises. (2) Moreover, this effect is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises and regions with less financial development. (3) Mechanism testing reveals that the green credit policy can discourage corporate over-investment by influencing financing constraints and can alleviate under-investment through commercial credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world's largest emitter of carbon, China has implemented a series of environmental regulatory policies to reduce emissions. However, most of these environmental regulations have been at the expense of increased corporate environmental costs. Therefore, research on how to efficiently control these costs is of significant practical importance. This paper uses the China's carbon trading policy (CTP) implemented in 2013 as a quasi-natural experiment, utilizing data from Chinese listed manufacturing firms between 2008 and 2020. Employing a difference-in-differences (DID) model, the study investigates the impact of market-incentive environmental regulatory policies (ERP) on environmental costs. The findings reveal that CTP significantly reduced the environmental costs of firms, confirming the positive and vital role market-incentive ERP can play in environmental protection and cost control. These conclusions remain robust after a series of stability tests. Mechanism analysis suggests that the cost reductions brought by market-incentive ERP are primarily achieved through increasing green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), key polluting firms, firms with lower financial constraints, and firms with lower total production efficiency benefit more from market-incentive environmental regulatory policies. This study provides new empirical evidence for government policy-making aimed at achieving long-term sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact mechanism of different types of environmental regulations on corporate green technology innovation (GTI). The research focuses on analyzing three types of environmental regulations: command based environmental regulation (ER1), market-oriented environmental regulation (ER2), and voluntary environmental regulation (ER3), and how they affect corporate GTI. This study selected enterprise GTI as the dependent variable and measured it by the number of applications for green invention patents and green utility model patents. The independent variables are the three types of environmental regulations mentioned above. According to data from Chinese A-share listed companies. Using benchmark regression models to analyze the impact of different environmental regulations on GTI, and constructing a moderating effect model to study the role of corporate R&D investment and government support in the process of environmental regulations affecting GTI. The results indicate that (1) ER1, ER2, and ER3 can all promote enterprise GTI, and the three environmental regulatory methods have a better synergistic effect. (2) R&D investment has a positive correlation with the relationship between ER2 and GTI, and a negative correlation with ER 3 and ER 1. (3) There are differences in the GTI performance of enterprises in different regions, ownership nature, factor density, and industry types under the influence of environmental regulations. (4) The impact of environmental regulatory policies on corporate GTI is mainly short-term. This study provides a new perspective on how environmental regulations affect corporate GTI, especially in the context of developing countries like China. The research findings emphasize the role of different types of environmental regulations in incentivizing corporate GTI, while also pointing out factors that governments need to consider when formulating environmental policies, such as regional differences and corporate characteristics, which are of great significance for promoting green development of enterprises and achieving broader sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heavy-polluting industry is inexorably to responsible for the deterioration of the environment. Improving environmental performance is an unavoidable decision for heavy-polluting firms to ensure sustainable development under the policy framework of the carbon peak target. This study provides theoretical and empirical evidence for the effect of environmental protection subsidies on environmental performance. This study constructs basic and mediating effect models to measure how environmental protection subsidies affect environmental performance using panel data of China's heavy-polluting listed firms from 2008 to 2019. This is an important outcome of industrial green transformation in environmental governance and provides a scientific basis for government departments to formulate environmental policies. The results of the empirical analysis show that environmental protection subsidies can improve the environmental performance of heavy-polluting listed firms. After receiving environmental protection subsidies, firms engaged in clean and green production through green technology innovation, thereby reducing external environmental pollution and improving their environmental performance. The mediating role of green technology innovation in the relationship between environmental protection subsidies and environmental performance is significant only in state-owned firms and firms in Eastern China. The research results may further guide the direction of green development of heavy-polluting industries, and thus promote harmonious development between the environment and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]