The Impact of Low-Carbon Pilot City Policy on Corporate Green Technology Innovation in a Sustainable Development Context—Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Abstract

The low-carbon pilot city policy is an important initiative to explore the path of a win-win situation for both the economy and the environment. Since 2010, China has established 87 low-carbon pilot cities. This policy implementation aims to encourage green technology innovation among listed companies, thereby achieving sustainable corporate growth through the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy. This paper aims to unveil the relationship between low-carbon pilot city policies and green technology innovation. This paper explores the impact of policy implementation based on patent data of Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2019. Empirical results show that the policy can promote green technology innovation among listed companies in the pilot cities. This finding still holds in the parallel trend test and the PSM-Multi-period DID test. Second, the policy has a greater effect on the green-technology innovation of non-state enterprises and can promote more green technology innovation activities of enterprises in the eastern region compared with other areas. Furthermore, in terms of different stock sectors, the low-carbon pilot city policy can significantly promote GEM-affiliated enterprises’ green technology innovation activities. Finally, listed companies with a high degree of digital transformation are more active in green technology innovation in the context of low-carbon pilot city policy.