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Based on the provincial panel data of China from 2011 to 2020, this paper explores the relationship between two-way FDI and green technology innovation and examines the moderating role of digital finance in the impact of two-way FDI on green technology innovation. The results show that (1) two-way FDI can significantly enhance the level of green technology innovation. (2) Digital finance plays a moderating effect in the process of two-way FDI to enhance the level of green technology innovation. The conclusion is still robust by replacing the dependent variable, eliminating special samples and shrinking the tail. (3) The results of sub-dimensional analysis show that the three sub-dimensions indicators of the digital finance also have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between two-way FDI and green technology innovation. (4) The results of sub-regional regression show that the moderating effect in the central and western regions is greater than that in the eastern region. The results of the study can provide reference for governments to formulate policies about digital finance, which is conducive to achieve high-quality opening-up and realize green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rampant corruption exists in China's energy-intensive industries. However, we know little about the nexus of corruption and enterprise green innovation in China's energy-intensive industries. This paper discusses the impact of anti-corruption on enterprises' green innovation and its effect margin. Analyzing the panel data of Chinese listed enterprises in energy-intensive industries from 2009 to 2017, we find that anti-corruption played a positive role in stimulating enterprises' green innovation investments in energy-intensive industries. Then we adopt the instrumental variable approach and difference-in-differences model to alleviate the endogeneity problem. Moreover, we find that research and development investments from state-owned, high-tech enterprises and enterprises in the regions with more government intervention or weaker intellectual property protection were more prominent after the anti-corruption campaign. Finally, political connection played an intermediary role in this process, in which only the government-official political connection worked. Our results highlight the roles of enterprises' attributes and environmental characteristics as important factors in the relationship between anti-corruption and green innovation investments. Policymakers should enhance the control of corruption to boost green innovation in energy-intensive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper analyzes the impact of digital finance on green technology innovation. • Digital finance significantly promotes green technology innovation. • Manufacturing and non-state economic development help to better exploit the green technology innovation effect of digital finance. • As the level of environmental decentralization increases, digital finance strongly promotes green technology innovation. Financial development is an important driving force for promoting green technology innovation. However, traditional finance faces obstacles in supporting these innovations, and it is unclear how this dilemma can be solved. This paper seeks new solutions using digital finance to solve this dilemma. Using panel data on listed companies and cities in China, this paper analyzes the impact of digital finance on green technology innovation. The results show that (1) digital finance significantly promotes green technology innovation, and this finding holds even through serial robustness tests. The promotion effects are attributed to a reduction in corporate financing constraints, industrial structure upgrading and manufacturing development. (2) Digital financial development has a greater positive effect on green technology innovation in small-scale enterprises. Digital financial development can better promote green technology innovation in regions with higher pollutant emission intensity and where local government has stronger governance capacity. In addition, manufacturing and nonstate economic development help to better exploit the green technology innovation effect of digital finance. (3) With the improvement of environmental decentralization, digital finance strongly promotes green technology innovation, indicating that the downward trend of environmental responsibility will better alleviate the mismatch between the supply and demand of green innovation investments. In order to strengthen enterprises' green technology innovation capacity and solve serious environmental pollution problems, it is suggested that traditional financial institutions should actively embrace this digital trend. Meanwhile, government should develop differentiated innovation incentive policies to increase the technological innovation investment of manufacturing and private enterprises while also promoting the reform of the environmental decentralization system and strengthening supervision of central environmental protections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of dealing with the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and green innovation for sustainable development is being highlighted. However, since FDI can have both positive and negative effects on sustainable development, coupled with regional differences and different development conditions, there is uncertainty about the relationship between FDI and green innovation. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2018, this paper uses the two-tier stochastic frontier model to decompose the positive and negative effects of FDI on green innovation in different time periods and provinces, and considers the role of regional conditions that lead to regional differences in the green innovation effects of FDI, in order to better provide precise research findings for analyzing the relationship between FDI and green innovation in different provinces in China. First, empirical research shows that the inhibition effect of FDI on green innovation efficiency is smaller than the promotion effect, which makes the combined effect not obviously positive. The average inhibition effect of FDI on green innovation efficiency is 0.0041 and the average promoting effect is 0.0047, which makes the combined effect averaged 0.0006. Second, there are regional differences in the driving effect of FDI on green technology innovation. The western region's FDI has a greater drive effect on the efficiency of green innovation than the central and eastern regions. Third, the promoting effect character of FDI on green innovation efficiency is a "U" type with 70% percentile of the environmental regulation intensity as the inflection point. Due to the imperfection of China's economic structure at this stage, China's relatively developed regions have not yet established the market and industrial structure advantages to fully release the green innovation effect of FDI. Based on the research conclusions, to better promote green innovation efficiency, it is necessary to overcome the disadvantages of the green innovation process dominated by the central government, cultivate and develop green innovation markets, adopt incentive initiatives for foreign enterprises with green technology spillover effects, implement policies to address regional differences, and strengthen the interaction mechanism between FDI and green technology innovation in home countries. • Analyze the bilateral effects of FDI on green innovation efficiency. • FDI not only promotes but also restrains the efficiency of green innovation. • The inhibition effect of FDI is smaller than the promotion effect. • The combined effect of western regions is greater than eastern regions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms of green finance on green innovation, focusing on their spatial and non-linear relationships. Using panel data of 30 provinces of China during the period of 2009–2017, a green finance index is constructed, and the spatial Durbin model and panel threshold model are used. The results reveal that: (1) Green finance and green innovation had significant positive autocorrelation, and the development of green finance in provinces of central and western China were still in the lower-level range. (2) The coefficients of the direct effect and indirect effect of green finance on green innovation were significantly positive, which indicated that green finance was conducive to enhancing green innovation in local and adjacent provinces during the research period. (3) Double threshold effects of green finance on green innovation were observed, which demonstrated that the driving effect of green finance was decreased with the raising of intensity of environmental regulation. The implication of these results is that government should make full use of the radiation and trickle-down functions of green finance and green innovation to narrow regional gaps in sustainable development while maintaining a moderate intensity of environmental regulation. • A green finance index of 30 provinces of China during the period of 2009 to 2017 was constructed on the basis of green credit, green securities, green insurance, and green investment. • The heterogeneity of region and time for green finance were analyzed employing the spatial exploratory analysis, which manifested that the spatial evolution of green finance in China presents a gradient decreasing pattern from east to west. • The impact of green finance on green innovation was explored by the spatial Durbin model, which proved that the direct effect and the spatial spillover effect were significantly positive. • Moderate intensity of environmental regulation helps green finance promote green innovation and this value should not exceed a maximum of 0.935. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although green growth has become the economic development strategy of many countries in the world, and studies have analyzed the influencing factors of green growth from multiple angles, there are few literatures devoted to the impact of fintech and green finance on green growth. From the perspective of fintech development, this paper tries to construct a comprehensive index to evaluate the green growth of regional economy based on the in-depth analysis of the influence mechanism of green finance on green growth. At the same time, China's provincial panel data from 2011 to 2018 are selected to test the impact of fintech innovation and green finance on green growth, and its mechanism. It turns out that fintech and green finance significantly promotes green economic growth. At the same time, the impact of fintech and green finance on green growth has obvious regional heterogeneity, that is, the impact in eastern China is significantly stronger than that in central and western China. Further research shows that fintech innovation mainly promotes green economic growth through green credit and green investment. Therefore, fintech innovation can promote green economic growth by improving the development level of green finance, which has great reference significance for most countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]