Environmental fee-to-tax reform policy driving corporate green governance performance: the sustainable path to reducing carbon emission intensity.

Green development is crucial to global natural resource conservation, environmental improvement and sustainable development. Furthermore, resource-based cities’ green development is more challenging compared with that of other types of cities. On such basis, it is a necessity to understand the green development level of such cities. Therefore, we introduce green development efficiency (GDE), which is a key indicator for measuring green development. This paper takes China’s 112 resource-based cities during 2010–2019 as its research object, and examines their GDE using the Super-SBM-Undesirable model. Moreover, industrial structure upgrading (ISU) and human capital structure upgrading (HCSU) have important implications for green development. To further explore the influence of ISU and HCSU on GDE, this paper employs a fixed effect model, an interaction effect model and a threshold model. Finally, considering the differences between different resource-based cities, the heterogeneity of ISU and HSCU on GDE in four types of China’s resource-based cities is also explored. It is found that (1) although GDE is on the track of steady improvement, the overall GDE was still relatively low during 2010–2019, with an average GDE of about 0.8; (2) ISU, HCSU and their interaction can promote GDE in resource-based cities and with the intensity of industrial structure increasing, the interaction effect of ISU and HSCU on GDE in resource-based cities shifts from positive to negative; (3) there exists heterogeneity in the direct effect and interaction effect of ISU and HCSU among four types of resource-based cities (i.e., mature cities, growing cities, declining cities and regenerating cities). Our findings offer a data reference for the green and sustainable development of China’s resource-based cities, and also a method reference for other countries’ resource-based cities.

The reduction of carbon emission intensity cannot be achieved without policy support, of which green financial policy is a major component. The main aim of this study is to discuss the causality between the green finance reform and innovation (GFRI) experimental zone policy and the intensity of carbon emissions in China. Using data from 265 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2021, this study applies a time-varying difference-in-differences (DID) model to assess the effect of the GFRI experimental zone policy on the intensity of carbon emissions. The heterogeneity of impacts and the parallel-serial mediation effect of this experimental zone policy are discussed further. The following main findings are obtained. (1) The GFRI experimental zone policy dramatically reduces carbon emission intensity, and this effect is more prominent in cities with large sizes of credit and bond finance. (2) After considering the heterogeneity of government environmental concerns and fiscal pressures, this study reveals that the effect of the GFRI experimental zone policy on reducing carbon emission intensity is weaker in cities with high numbers of environmental protection penalties and fiscal pressures. As the number of environmental penalties and fiscal pressures increases, the effect of the GFRI experimental zone policy on reducing carbon emission intensity decreases; that is, the phenomenon of environmental protection paradoxes and policy conflicts has emerged. (3) Increasing financing for green projects and decreasing the energy intensity of the industry are the primary mediating channels for GFRI experimental zone policy to reduce carbon emission intensity, but the mediating channels for boosting green innovation and promoting energy structure adjustment are not prominent. Moreover, the total effect of the GFRI experimental zone policy on reducing carbon emission intensity is 72% direct and more than 20% indirect. This study concludes that in regions with high fiscal pressure, governments should rely more on green finance to decrease carbon emission intensity. Meanwhile, a green finance policy must be more supportive of zero-carbon energy production and reduce direct environmental penalties to decrease carbon emission intensity in the future.

In the current wave of digital transformation sweeping across various industries, this paper focuses on the driving role of corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance on digital transformation.Based on the perspectives of signaling theory and the resource-based view, a theoretical framework is constructed, and empirical analysis is conducted using panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2013 to 2023.The benchmark regression results indicate that corporate ESG performance significantly enhances the degree of digital transformation. Mechanism analysis reveals that corporate ESG performance facilitates digital transformation by alleviating financing constraints and promoting digital technology innovation. The conclusions of this paper hold significant implications for policy guidance and corporate strategic planning in promoting the synergistic development of digitalization and greening, providing valuable references for relevant parties to drive high-quality development of enterprises in the digital economy era.

Has the Sustainable Development Planning Policy Promoted the Green Transformation in China's Resource-based Cities?

Recent years, a series of policies on environmental information disclosure is issued by relevant management departments. The author compares the data of environmental information disclosure from Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchange between 2006 and 2011, and finds that there is no difference between Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange in environmental information disclosure level before 2008 and the environmental information disclosure level of Shanghai Stock Exchange is higher than that of Shenzhen Stock Exchange after 2008. For listed companies, the rules on environmental information disclosure of listed companies issued by CSRC(China Securities Regulatory Commission) are more effective than that of Ministry of Environmental Protection. Therefore, the relevant policies for environmental information disclosure of listed companies should be formulated and promulgated by CSRC or formulated and promulgated by both of CSRC and Ministry of Environmental Protection. And this paper also provides empirical evidence to improve the policies design of environmental information disclosure.

Sustainable future engine: Exploring the impact of energy saving and emission reduction fiscal policies on green technological innovation quality.

Daqing City is one of the important resource-based cities in China, a city born and prospered by oil. Resource-based cities are cities formed due to the massive exploitation of natural resources, and their rough economic growth methods have caused damage to both the resources and ecological environment of resource-based cities, which must undergo green transformation and development for the sake of economic development. Exploring the status quo of green development in Daqing can not only strengthen the theoretical and empirical research related to green development, but also provide new ways for the green development of other resource cities. Based on the current research situation in Daqing, this paper constructs a green development index system and evaluates and analyzes the level of green development and the obstacle factors in Daqing in the middle of 2011-2021, by using the entropy weight TOPSIS model and obstacle degree model. The results of the study show that: (1) the comprehensive evaluation index of green development increased from 0.375 in 2011 to 0.566 in 2021, and there is still much room for improvement in the level of green development in Daqing. (2) The economic greenness, internal growth mechanism, and industrial greenness of Daqing have been improved to different degrees, and the environmental greenness has been reduced to some extent. (3) The main obstacle factors restricting the level of green development in Daqing are urbanization rate, urban registered unemployment rate, number of university students per 10,000 people, and per capita general public budget income. Based on the evaluation results and analyses, it is recommended that the government promote green economic development, strengthen environmental and ecological governance, and improve the social security system.

As a high-quality and sustainable growth model, green development has different economic, ecological, and social dimensions and is strategically important for the realization of modern city construction and the sustainable development of human society. The low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCP) is an innovative initiative for promoting green urban development and building a harmonious society in China. Based on balanced panel data from 277 prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2020, this paper measures the level of urban green development in terms of three dimensions: green economic growth, ecological welfare enhancement, and social welfare increase. This paper also adopts a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method for investigating the impact of LCCP on green development with the panel dataset. The results of the study show that: (1) LCCP is generally beneficial to urban green development, and the results still hold after a series of robustness check analyses. (2) The results of the mechanism analysis show that the construction of low-carbon cities has improved the level of green technology innovation, thereby promoting the level of regional green development. Environmental regulation has a masking effect between low-carbon city construction and green development in this study. When environmental regulation is controlled for, the coefficient of the effect of LCCP on green development increases, reflecting that environmental regulation also plays an important role between the two. (3) According to the geographical location, whether it is a resource-based city, and the city cluster, we found that the low-carbon city pilot policy has a significant positive role in promoting green development in the central region, non-resource-based cities, and the Jing-Jin-Ji, but not in the eastern region, the western region, the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. We also found that in resource-based cities, this effect presents a significant negative relationship. The above findings enrich the literature on low-carbon city pilot policies and green development and provide Empirical evidence for relevant countries and regions to carry out low-carbon city pilots.

Along with the advent of the digital economy, digital inclusive finance has increasingly played an important role in alleviating the enterprises’ financing difficulties and contributing to healthy economic development. This paper examines the effect, mediating mechanism and heterogeneity of digital inclusive finance on the leverage of private enterprises by empirically analyzing the private enterprises on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2011-2017. It shows that digital inclusive finance can significantly reduce the leverage level of private enterprises. Also, it can be achieved mainly through alleviating enterprises’ financing constraints. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the dual effect of digital inclusive finance in alleviating financing constraints and reducing leverage level is more significant for large private enterprises and middle-western regions. In addition, the impact of digital inclusive finance on reducing short-term leverage is more significant compared to long-term leverage. Therefore, this paper enriches the research related to the impact of digital inclusive finance on enterprises at the micro level, and provides empirical evidence for promoting the development of digital inclusive finance and optimizing the financial supply system.

Resource-based cities are suffering from resource scarcity and environmental deterioration. Spirit, vitality and prosperity are disappearing and cities have moved towards "the valley of death" in terms of urban development. This typically appears in environments where it is difficult to maintain sustainable development. Based on empirical analysis, a qualitative analysis method for the selection of evaluation indicators, as well as a quantitative analysis method for index weighting and principal component extraction for constructing a three-level evaluation index system of green development for coal-resource-exhausted cities, was adopted. This study also discussed the life cycle at different development stages of resource-based cities, including mature resource-based and growing resource-based cities. We further argued that the obstacle degree can act as an evaluation basis and make recommendations accordingly to improve the green development of cities. Through star-standard divisions and statistical analysis, it can be explicated that the increase in green development in the first stage is greater than that in the later stage, which is more obvious in cities with lower stars. The results also show the evolution trend and stability coefficient. There is no end in sight for urban green development, and this study can provide a new perspective to relieve the declining trend and promote green sustainable development.

Based on the quasi-natural experiment of national e-commerce demonstration cities, this paper studies the influence of the construction of national e-commerce demonstration cities on the green and high-quality development of the city and its mechanism by using the “progressive” DID method. It is found that compared with non-state e-commerce demonstration cities, the construction of national e-commerce demonstration cities significantly promotes the green and high-quality development of cities. We also adopt identification strategies such as instrumental variable method, PSM-DID method and placebo test, and find that the conclusions are still valid. Further research shows that the positive promotion effect is more significant in the samples of large-sized cities and resource-based cities. It is found that national e-commerce demonstration cities promote the green and high-quality development of the city mainly through the three channels of industrial structure upgrading effect, economic agglomeration effect and transaction cost reduction effect.This paper has three main contributions: Firstly, from the perspective of e-commerce development, it examines the impact of national e-commerce demonstration city construction on green and high-quality development for the first time, and expands and deepens the existing academic literature on green development and environmental pollution factors. Secondly, it evaluates the policy effect and mechanism of China’s e-commerce demonstration cities from the perspective of urban green and high-quality development, verifies that the construction of national e-commerce demonstration cities has a promoting effect on the green and high-quality development of cities, and provides empirical guidance for the further promotion and improvement of this type of urban development model. Thirdly, it adopts the identification strategy of the post stations in the Ming Dynasty and the number of telephone sets per 10,000 people in 1984 as instrumental variables, which is helpful to effectively identify the causal relationship between the pilot policies of national e-commerce demonstration cities and the green and high-quality urban development.

Using panel data from 286 prefecture-level cities in China, this study constructs a city-level digital economy index and examines its impact on carbon emissions intensity and related mechanisms. Theoretically, the digital economy can reduce carbon emissions intensity by increasing energy efficiency. The empirical findings show that: First, the digital economy reduces carbon emission intensity, and this finding still holds after robustness tests such as the selection of city-to-port distance as an instrumental variable and the “Broadband China” pilots as a quasi-natural experiment. Second, the digital economy reduces carbon emissions intensity mainly by reducing the scale of energy consumption, optimizing the energy structure, and facilitating renewable energy deployment. Third, the carbon reduction effect of the digital economy is more pronounced in western and northeastern regions, second-tier and small cities, resource-based cities and peripheral cities. Finally, further analysis shows that the digital economy can mitigate environmental inequalities. On this basis, this paper puts forward proposals to vigorously develop the digital economy and promote the integration of digital and low-carbon development, in order to provide reference and reference to promote the high-quality development of the digital economy, thus empowering carbon emission reduction and achieving the equity of environmental welfare benefits.

In the process of economic development, how to achieve the goal of harmonious development between society and companies is an important issue for the government. In China, the government ultimately owns more than half of the listed companies. Thus, the government plays a critical role in firms’ disclosure of social responsibility information. Although, the Chinese government enacted such disclosure policies in 2006, there are some slight differences in the details between the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It provides us with a unique context to test the effectiveness of explicit regulation policy. Thus, this paper investigated the impact of ultimate owner and regulation policy on the social responsibility reporting of publicly listed companies. Using the sample of 446 listed companies that disclosed the social responsibility and ultimate owner information in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, this paper found that firms under the two stock exchanges do report differently on social responsibility. Besides, compared with voluntary disclosure firms, those under mandatory disclosure requirements do provide more social responsibility information. In addition, it was found that state ownership and voting rights have a positive effect on the disclosure of social responsibility information. Key words: Regulation policy, ultimate owner, social responsibility, information disclosure.

PurposeIn this paper, the authors take the central environmental protection inspection (CEPI) as an exogenous shock to study the reaction of the stock market in China. Using the event study method, the authors check how the first round of the first batch of CEPI supervision affects the cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of the listed firms on the Shenzhen or Shanghai stock exchange. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors take the first round of the first batch of CEPI supervision as a clean exogenous shock to study its effects on the capital market. The authors collect daily trading data from the China stock market and accounting research (CSMAR) database, with the sample containing 1,950 Chinese firms listed on either the Shenzhen or Shanghai stock exchanges. And detailed information on CEPI supervision is obtained from the official website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China. The event study method is adopted to analyze the reaction of the stock market under CEPI supervision. Specifically, the authors constructed the cumulative abnormal return of each firm around the event day of CEPI. To capture the deterrent effects of CEPI supervision, the authors examine the situation of polluting and non-polluting firms in the supervised provinces, adjacent provinces and provinces that are not supervised or close to the supervised provinces, respectively.FindingsThis paper throws light on the following: (1) the polluting firms in the supervised provinces were negatively impacted by CEPI within 20 trading days of the event day, and its effects spread to the polluting firms in the neighboring provinces; (2) CEPI had a favorable impact on the non-polluting businesses in the provinces that are neither supervised nor close to the supervised provinces. The authors contend that it is because the investment is being forced out of the polluting sector and into the non-polluting sector, which is more pronounced in the provinces not directly or indirectly targeted by CEPI; (3) by comparison, the “looking back monitoring of the first round” has had no discernible detrimental impact on the firms' CAR, indicating an important role of psychology anticipation of investors in the stock market performance; (4) although not physically located in the supervised provinces, the downstream enterprises of the polluting firms suffer significantly from CEPI shock; (5) the effectiveness of CEPI supervision in the supervised provinces depends on the level of local environmental regulation and the ownership structure of the company. Private firms in the provinces with stronger environmental regulations suffer more from the CEPI shock; (6) the multivariate analysis shows that while enterprises with high ROE and financial leverage may be at risk of CAR loss, older, larger firms are less likely to experience CEPI shock; (7) the study of persistent effect reveals that the strike of CEPI supervision can last for at least 10 months after the event day and deterrent effect can be spread within the whole polluting industry.Research limitations/implicationsIn this paper, the authors only concentrate on the market reaction within 20 trading days after the event day. An analysis of long-term effects should be valuable to get a deeper knowledge of the capital market reaction to the CEPI policy. In addition, the paper only focuses on the first round of the first batch of CEPI. Since CEPI has been built as a constant regulation of local environmental performance, further study may need to track both the reaction of listed firms and investment behavior in the capital market.Practical implicationsPolicy implications of the paper are as follows: First, for the policymakers, it is important to construct a constant environmental regulation system instead of a campaign movement. Second, for investors, as environmental issues are receiving increasing attention from both the government and the public, investment decisions should take into account firms' environmental performance, which can help reduce the risk from environmental regulations. Third, the firms in the polluting industry should take more action to reduce pollutant releases and adopt green technology, which is essential for sustainable development under environmental protection.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the existing literature in the following aspects. First, the authors provide new evidence on the effects of environmental regulations as a shock to the stock market, which has been wildly concentrated in the literature about environmental policies evaluation and capital market reaction. Second, the authors supplement the literature on green finance and sustainability transformation, which has got increasing attention in recent years. Theoretically, by guiding investment and affecting the stock market performance, environmental regulations are considered to be an efficient way to stimulate polluting firms to transform into green development. The results of the paper support this intuition by showing that the CAR of the non-polluting firms in non-supervised provinces in fact benefit from the CEPI supervision.

Bank-firm common ownership, green credit and enterprise green technology innovation: Evidence from Chinese credit markets