Research on the Environmental Effect of Green Finance Policy Based on the Analysis of Pilot Zones for Green Finance Reform and Innovations

In this study, taking the pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations set up in 2017 as the objects, a quasi-natural experiment is conducted to assess the environmental effects of green finance policy using the difference-in-difference propensity score matching (PSM-DID) method based on the panel data in 30 provincial-level administrative regions from 2011 to 2019. In addition, further efforts are made to investigate the differences of green financial policies in environmental effect. According to the research findings, the set-up of green finance pilot zones can reduce the environmental pollution, and green finance policy is conductive to environmental enhancement. Meanwhile, a partial mediating effect exists between a region's innovation capability and industrial structure. On the whole, green finance policy plays the most significant role in improving the eastern region's environmental pollution, followed by the central region, but barely enhances the environment in the western region. To sum up, the more serious the environmental pollution is, the better the effect of green finance policy.

Automated summary

The study finds that green finance policy can reduce environmental pollution and contribute to environmental enhancement. The research also reveals that the level of innovation capability and industrial structure in different regions has an impact on the effectiveness of green finance policy. Overall, green finance policy has the most significant impact on improving environmental pollution in the eastern region.