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The development of urbanization has brought new challenges to the ecological environment, and the promotion of green technology innovation and development is widely recognized as an essential method to achieve cities' economic benefits and environmental protection. This paper examines whether the new urbanization pilot policies (NUP) increase green technology innovation (GTI) from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. This paper examines the impact of new urbanization on GTI by analyzing data from 285 cities in China between 2010 and 2021, using the multi-period DID model with the implementation of NUP as an exogenous policy shock. The study results indicate that NUP significantly affects GTI, and the conclusion still holds after the parallel trend test, placebo test, and other robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the NUP significantly enhances GTI in low environmental pollution, non-resource-based, Medium-sized, and Central Region cities. The test of moderating effect shows that NUP has a "linkage effect" with the government's environmental attention, financial investment in innovation, and regional talent pooling. The findings of this paper provide empirical evidence and decision-making reference for promoting NUP and sustainable development of cities. [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]

The establishment of green finance reform and innovation (GFRI) pilot zone is an important measure of the Chinese government to urge enterprises to develop green transformation. This paper explores the impact of pilot policies in the GFRI pilot zone on corporate environmental investment. Based on 819 A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2020, our staggered difference-in-differences (staggered DID) estimation documents revealed that enterprises in the GFRI pilot zone significantly increased the corporate environmental investment efficiency but reduced the scale of corporate environmental investment.This conclusion remained robust after Propensity Scores Matching difference-in-differences (PSM-DID), replacing dependent variables, and shortening the time window. We contend that the increased research and development (R&D) expenditure and technological innovation are the potential mechanisms at work. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the establishment of GFRI improved the environmental investment efficiency of polluting enterprises but had no effect on green enterprises.Meanwhile, the effect of GFRI exhibited heterogeneity in the type of enterprise ownership. This paper evaluates the implementation effect of GFRI from the perspective of corporate environmental investment, and provides theoretical support and an empirical basis for green finance policy to serve China's green economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green credit is changing industrial structure and corporate behavior, but little attention has been paid to the relationship between green credit and corporate cash management behavior. Based on the typical fact that the allocation of traditional bank credit funds is biased towards heavily polluting industries and the exogenous impact event of green credit policy, this paper takes A-share listed companies in China's capital market from 2008 to 2015 as samples, and uses the DID model to investigate the impact of green credit policy on excess cash holdings of heavily polluting enterprises. The findings indicate that the green credit policy has reduced the excessive cash holdings of heavily polluting enterprises, suggesting that it can correct the issue and align their cash holdings with the requirements of normal production and operations. The mechanism test demonstrates that the green credit policy can alleviate agency conflicts and influence enterprise cash holdings. Moreover, a cross-sectional investigation reveals that the inhibitory effect of the green credit policy on cash holdings is more pronounced in large-scale and state-owned enterprises compared to small-scale and non-state-owned enterprises. Finally, an analysis of the economic consequences reveals that the green credit policy indirectly enhances corporate value by reducing excessive cash holdings. Based on this, banks and financial institutions continue to treat the credit granting of heavily polluting enterprises cautiously, optimize the structure of green financial products, fully consider the different types and nature of customers, and develop differentiated lending conditions and diversified evaluation mechanisms. This paper has enriched the research on the economic consequences of green credit and the influencing factors of corporate cash holdings, and provided policy enlightenment for regulators and listed companies to correctly understand and make full use of green credit policies to keep corporate cash stable through the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an emerging business modality and Internet format, live streaming e-commerce has developed rapidly since its emergence in 2016, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in late 2019, when an increasing number of businesses from other industries attracted participation. However, with the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry, the industry's market environment is becoming increasingly chaotic. Therefore, during this period, government departments continuously formulate and implement relevant industry policies. In order to exploring the cooperation network structure, policy content distribution, and implementation effectiveness characteristics among publishers, this paper constructs a three-dimensional analysis framework of policy from the perspective of policy tools, policy effectiveness evaluation and policy publishers. The results show that in terms of policy tools, the overall structure of policy tools in the live streaming e-commerce industry is unreasonable, and different types of policy tools are significantly diverse. The proportion of environmental policy tools is greater than that of demand-based and supply-based policy tools, accounting for 62.97%, and among them, the tools related to industry regulation and management account for the largest proportion of the total, which greatly suppresses the enthusiasm of various entities in the industry for development. In terms of policy effectiveness evaluation, most of the policies do not formulate detailed long-, medium-, or short-term goals, nor are the policy priorities, incentive measures, or action modes perfect, indicating that the government's pushing and pulling forces for the live streaming e-commerce industry are insufficient. Finally, in the subject dimension of policy release, the synergy of relevant subjects is constantly improving, but there is also a phenomenon of over-concentration in the synergistic departments. [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]

This paper takes the establishment of the Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone (GFPZ) in 2017 as a natural experiment, adopts the data of a-share industrial listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2020, and utilizes the difference-in-differences (DID) method to carry out empirical tests. The results show that (1) GFPZ policy significantly improves the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of enterprises, and the positive effect is mainly realized by improving the external financing ability and green-technology innovation level of enterprises. (2) There is heterogeneity in the impact of GFPZ policy on the ESG performance of firms with different equity natures and internal control levels. (3) Green finance promotes active corporate social responsibility, and it can further improve environmental governance in the regions where it operates. This paper provides a useful supplement to the comprehensive understanding of green-finance policy effects and ESG impact factors, and it is of great significance in mitigating the negative environmental and social externalities caused by the excessive pursuit of economic benefits by enterprises., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Wei. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

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]

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]

Developing new energy vehicles is vital to promote green development and the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature. It is also the only way to help China move from a significant automobile country to a powerful automobile country. Based on the background of the "recession" of government subsidies and considering the importance of green credit in promoting green and low-carbon transformation, this paper constructs a four-party evolutionary game model that includes government, automotive companies, banks, and consumers to analyze the stability of the strategic choices of various parties in the development process of the new energy vehicle industry. It uses MATLAB simulation tools to analyze the impact of relevant factors on system stability. The research shows that: (1) The government's subsidy mechanism significantly promotes the development of the new energy vehicle industry. Still, there is a subsidy threshold, beyond which the effect will weaken and quickly bring financial pressure. (2) With the gradual decline of government subsidies, the bank's green credit policy has a specific policy complementary effect on the decline of government subsidies. (3) Considering that costs and benefits are the main influencing factors for automotive companies and consumers' strategic choices, the impact of factors such as the punishment of violations, adjustment of subsidy policies, and consumers' environmental awareness must also be paid attention to. [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]

Employing the "Green Credit Guidelines" implemented in 2012 as the basis for a quasi-natural experiment, this study applies the method of Difference-in-Differences(DID) to investigate the influence of the Green Credit Policy on both the quantity and quality of enterprise innovation. The outcomes of our analysis reveal that the policy has significantly boosted both the quantity and quality of innovation among enterprises identified as heavy polluters. It is noteworthy that the policy's positive impact on innovation quantity surpasses its positive effect on innovation quality. This substantiates that the Green Credit Policy effectively generates incentivizing outcomes for innovation among the heavy polluters, thereby verifying Porter's hypothesis within the domain of green credit in China. Furthermore, we find that the positive impact is more significant for enterprises with lower innovation capabilities, large-scale enterprises, state-owned enterprises, and those situated in both the Eastern and Western regions. Through these findings, this study illuminates a novel perspective on the interplay between the Green Credit Policy and enterprise innovation dynamics in China. [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]

Using NVivo12plus software, this study constructs a generation model of the policy implementation environment in China's grassroots digital construction by examining the data from interviews with 37 Chinese grassroots civil servants as its research object. At the same time, with the help of the csQCA method and on the basis of rooted coding, using Tosmana software, the model validation and model expansion of 37 cases were carried out. This study shows that the main components of the policy implementation environment in China's grassroots digital construction include five main dimensions: cognitive, emotional, behavioral, normative and control. At the initial stage of China's grassroots digital construction, the cognitive environment dimension is the most critical link in the environmental governance of policy implementation. The cognitive and normative environments dominate the effect pattern of China's grassroots digital policy implementation. There are six types of motivation patterns for the environmental effect of the implementation of grassroots digital policy: know-doing-norm, cognitive-dominant, know-doing-control, emotion-control, behavior-lacking and regulation-dominant types. Based on the above analysis, there are three main policy suggestions to promote the generation of a productive policy implementation environment and positive policy effects in China's digital construction: "degree", "force" and "sense". These suggestions include strengthening the top-level design, improving the integration and cooperation degree of the environment, taking the root at the grassroots level to improve the adaptability of the environment, as well as increasing publicity and promotion to improve the sense of environmental experience. [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]

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]