IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v86y2025ipas1544612325015740.html

Green finance reform pilot zones promote green technology innovation in industrial enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Jin, Bo
  • Xie, Yutong
  • Huang, Jie

Abstract

This study takes the green finance reform and innovation pilot zones established by the State Council in 2017 as the research object, systematically evaluating the policy's impact on green technology innovation in real enterprises and its underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that, firstly, the policy of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones significantly enhances the green technology innovation capabilities of real enterprises within the regions. Mechanism analysis indicates that the pilot zone policy drives enterprises to proactively advance energy structure transformation and low-carbon upgrades of production processes by strengthening environmental regulatory standards. Finally, the development of digital inclusive finance significantly amplifies the policy's effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Jin, Bo & Xie, Yutong & Huang, Jie, 2025. "Green finance reform pilot zones promote green technology innovation in industrial enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:86:y:2025:i:pa:s1544612325015740
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.108320
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325015740
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.108320?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xu, Aiting & Zhu, Yuhan & Wang, Wenpu, 2023. "Micro green technology innovation effects of green finance pilot policy—From the perspectives of action points and green value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Zhang, Yingying & Feng, Nianqiao & Wang, Xinpeng, 2024. "Can the green finance pilot policy promote the low-carbon transformation of the economy?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 1074-1086.
    3. Wang, Xiaoyin & Gao, Cuiyun, 2024. "Does green finance policy help to improve carbon reduction welfare performance? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    4. Hou, Guanchong & Shi, Guifen, 2024. "Green finance and innovative cities: Dual-pilot policies and collaborative green innovation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    5. Yan, Cheng & Mao, Zhicheng & Ho, Kung-Cheng, 2022. "Effect of green financial reform and innovation pilot zones on corporate investment efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    6. Cui, Xiaona & Mohd Said, Ridzwana & Abdul Rahim, Norhuda & Ni, Mengjiao, 2024. "Can green finance Lead to green investment? Evidence from heavily polluting industries," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    7. Chen, Chen & Zhang, Tian & Chen, Haitao & Qi, Xiulin, 2024. "Regional financial reform and corporate green innovation–Evidence based on the establishment of China National Financial Comprehensive Reform Pilot Zones," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    8. Sun, Yanming & Shen, Simiao & Zhou, Chuanyu, 2023. "Does the pilot emissions trading system in China promote innovation? Evidence based on green technology innovation in the energy sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    9. Zhao, Liange & Wang, Dongmei & Wang, Xueyuan & Zhang, Zhijian, 2023. "Impact of green finance on total factor productivity of heavily polluting enterprises: Evidence from green finance reform and innovation pilot zone," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 765-785.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qin, Meng & LOBONŢ, Oana-Ramona & Zhou, Haigang & Hsueh, Hsin-Pei, 2026. "Enabler or barrier? Evaluating the effectiveness of green financial assets in hedging against uncertainties," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Zhang, WeiDa & Huang, YuMeng & Li, QingXin, 2026. "How do green finance reform pilot zones affect public welfare?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Li, Jun & Xu, Chong & Li, Jiajia, 2025. "Capital flows consequences of local green finance policies in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1544-1565.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Bingqing & Liu, Yue, 2025. "Green finance reform, environmental regulation, and regional green and low-carbon development," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PC).
    2. Li, Lu & Gan, Yufei & Bi, Shuochen & Fu, Haokai, 2025. "Substantive or strategic? Unveiling the green innovation effects of pilot policy promoting the integration of technology and finance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Nepal, Rabindra & Liu, Yang & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin, 2024. "How does green finance promote renewable energy technology innovation? A quasi-natural experiment perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    4. Di Zhou & Guo Chen & Dongchun Xie, 2025. "Can green financial pilot policy reduce firms’ carbon emissions? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 1-30, February.
    5. Chi, Guodong & Liu, Yuanyuan & Fang, Hong & Xiu, Yuanyuan, 2025. "Tapping the potential of green finance: Can energy efficiency credit drive traditional industries to green? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1834-1853.
    6. Liu, Xiaoqian & Cifuentes-Faura, Javier & Wang, Chang'an & Wang, Long, 2025. "Can green finance policy reduce corporate carbon emissions? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(5).
    7. Shengyu Xu & Jinqiu Yang & Ruile Li, 2024. "How does green credit guidelines affect environmentally friendly enterprises’ ESG? A quasi-natural experiment from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(5), pages 1-18, May.
    8. Zheng, Qingying & Li, Handan & Bu, Guochao & Liu, Hongxun, 2026. "Navigating green innovation: The role of carbon regulation and green finance in corporate strategy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    9. Zhang, Yutian & He, Yu, 2024. "How does the green financial system affect environmentally friendly firms' ESG? Evidence from Chinese stock markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    10. Xueying Yuan & Lixia Shang & Jinhua Xu, 2024. "Green Financial Policy, Resource Allocation and Corporate Environmental Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-29, July.
    11. Ping Lin & Dixin Cai & Qingfeng Geng & Junbing Xu, 2025. "From Green to Gold: the cash management impact of China’s new diversified green finance policy," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Zhang, Lixia & Sun, Huaping & Pu, Tianlong & Sun, Hui & Chen, Zhenling, 2024. "Do green finance and hi-tech innovation facilitate sustainable development? Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1430-1442.
    13. Li, Xueqin & Zheng, Zhuoji & Luo, Beier & Shi, Daqian & Han, Xianfeng, 2024. "The impact of electricity sales side reform on energy technology innovation: An analysis based on SCP paradigm," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    14. Lu, Heyu & Li, Jiayang & Wu, Zongfa & Zeng, Yufeiyang, 2025. "Rethinking energy allocation: Can green finance be the solution? — Evidence from machine learning method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    15. Xie, Yi & Jiang, Jinwen & Wang, Dong, 2024. "Green finance policy and labor demand: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. Zhong, Shen & Zhou, Zhicheng & Gao, Wei, 2025. "Impact of regional finance reform and innovation policies on green innovation in pilot cities: A quasi-natural experiment," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 888-911.
    17. Zhang, WeiDa & Huang, YuMeng & Li, QingXin, 2026. "How do green finance reform pilot zones affect public welfare?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Wan, Kai & Yu, Xiaolin, 2025. "Green structural monetary policy and firms’ Asymmetric carbon emission reduction: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1914-1928.
    19. Meiying Huang & Shi Chen & Yimeng Yuan, 2025. "Going Sustainability: The Impact of Free Trade Zone Establishment on Corporate Green Governance Performance," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 5799-5819, August.
    20. Han, Linzhi & Li, Jiawen, 2025. "Does green finance reform promote corporate carbon emission reduction? Evidence from China's green finance reform and innovation pilot zones," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 2091-2111.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:86:y:2025:i:pa:s1544612325015740. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.