Green Credit Policies Enhance Firms’ Innovation Performance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62051/asxzsn94Keywords:
Green Credit Policy, Corporate Innovation, Green Finance, Credit Resource Allocation, High-quality Development.Abstract
Green credit regulation embeds environmental criteria into bank lending decisions and may therefore influence firms’ financing conditions and innovation behavior. Based on Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2023, this study treats the 2012 Green Credit Guidelines as an external policy shock and evaluates their effect on corporate innovation performance. By integrating environmental risks into credit decisions, it improves resource allocation and incentivizes technological innovation. The effect works through three channels: strengthening green orientation, easing financing constraints, and promoting technological upgrading. The innovation effect is stronger in non-competitive industries, eastern and central regions, and state-owned enterprises, suggesting moderation by industry competition, regional finance, and ownership type. Green credit thus serves not only environmental governance but also firm-level technological progress. The findings provide firm-level evidence on how credit-based environmental regulation affects innovation decisions and offer implications for improving the design of green finance policies.
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