Optimal Financing Decision for Supply Chain under Different Carbon Emission Limitation Policies

Abstract

With the characteristics of credit enhancement and low cost, supply chain finance is one of the effective ways to solve the "difficult and expensive financing" of small and medium-sized enterprises. In order to achieve the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality as early as possible and to deeply implement the concept of sustainable development, we need to consider the impact of carbon emissions on supply chain financing methods in the study of supply chain finance. The existing carbon emission limitation policies include quantity (carbon cap-and-trade) and price (carbon tax) policies. Therefore, this paper incorporates both policies into the supply chain to consider the policy effects of the two policies being implemented simultaneously. The supply chain consists of a manufacturer with limited capital and a retailer with sufficient capital. Under bank financing, zero-interest early payment financing and in-house factoring financing, this paper simultaneously studies the effects of carbon tax rates and carbon emission trading prices on the supply chain's decision variables and profits by applying the Stackelberg game approach. The numerical simulation results show that the supply chain's profits are lower when emissions exceed standards than its profits when emissions do not exceed standards. Under the high carbon tax rates and high carbon emission trading prices, the optimal financing method is bank financing. Under the low carbon tax rates and low carbon emission trading prices, zero-interest early payment financing and in-house factoring financing are the optimal financing methods. As consumers' green sensitivity of rises, the policy's regulation scope of optimal bank financing is restricted, however, the policy's regulation scope of the other two financing methods is expanded.