IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i10p4375-d1653918.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Green Finance Facilitate the Upgrading of Green Export Quality? Evidence from China’s Green Loan Interest Subsidies Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Jinming Shi

    (School of Economics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China)

  • Jia Li

    (School of Economics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China)

  • Shuai Jiang

    (School of Economics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China)

  • Yingqian Liu

    (School of Economics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China)

  • Xiaoyu Yin

    (School of Economics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China)

Abstract

In the global pursuit of sustainable development and climate change mitigation, reconciling export growth with environmental protection has emerged as a universal challenge. As the world’s largest developing economy, China has traditionally relied on a resource-intensive development model to fuel rapid foreign trade growth. However, this extensive growth pattern has not only led to environmental pollution domestically but has also encountered hurdles from international green trade barriers. Finance, as a key driver of stable economic growth, plays a pivotal role in achieving high-quality trade development. Against this backdrop, the Chinese government has introduced the green credit interest subsidies policy. This policy aims to coordinate government financial resources and guide capital toward green production, alleviating financing constraints and fostering the upgrading of export product quality. Utilizing data from the World Bank, China Customs statistics, and provincial panels from 2011 to 2020, this study employs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine the causal impact of the green credit subsidies policy on efforts to upgrade the export quality of green products across China’s regions. The benchmark regression results indicate that the green credit interest subsidies policy has significantly improved the export quality of green products across China’s manufacturing industries. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this policy has had a more pronounced positive impact on green product quality in industries with quality-based competition strategies, in regions with well-coordinated local finance and financial policies, as well as in countries that have concluded environmental clauses with China. Mechanism analysis reveals that, on the export side, the policy enhances green product quality by easing financing constraints, increasing green credit, boosting productivity, and upgrading industrial structures. On the import side, the policy promotes green product quality by expanding the scale, variety, and quality of green intermediate goods. This research offers valuable insights for developing countries aiming to establish export-oriented green transformation and upgrading strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinming Shi & Jia Li & Shuai Jiang & Yingqian Liu & Xiaoyu Yin, 2025. "Does Green Finance Facilitate the Upgrading of Green Export Quality? Evidence from China’s Green Loan Interest Subsidies Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-30, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4375-:d:1653918
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4375/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4375/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karen Palmer & Wallace E. Oates & Paul R. Portney & Karen Palmer & Wallace E. Oates & Paul R. Portney, 2004. "Tightening Environmental Standards: The Benefit-Cost or the No-Cost Paradigm?," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 3, pages 53-66, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Eckel, Carsten & Iacovone, Leonardo & Javorcik, Beata & Neary, J. Peter, 2015. "Multi-product firms at home and away: Cost- versus quality-based competence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 216-232.
    3. Fan, Haichao & Lai, Edwin L.-C. & Li, Yao Amber, 2015. "Credit constraints, quality, and export prices: Theory and evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 390-416.
    4. Campiglio, Emanuele, 2016. "Beyond carbon pricing: The role of banking and monetary policy in financing the transition to a low-carbon economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 220-230.
    5. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 772-793, September.
    6. Ma, Dan & Zhu, Yanjin & Yang, Yuhan, 2024. "How Green finance affects export production quality: Fresh evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    7. repec:fth:prinin:315 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. David Card & Alan Krueger, 1993. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," Working Papers 694, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    9. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    10. Maria Bas & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2013. "Input-Trade Liberalization, Export Prices and Quality Upgrading," Working Papers hal-03460775, HAL.
    11. Chen, Zhao & Kahn, Matthew E. & Liu, Yu & Wang, Zhi, 2018. "The consequences of spatially differentiated water pollution regulation in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 468-485.
    12. Zhizhong Liu & Shuchi Zheng & Xinyu Zhang & Long Mo, 2023. "The Impact of Green Finance on Export Technology Complexity: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-15, February.
    13. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    14. Wei Jiang & Churen Sun, 2022. "Exchange Rate Fluctuations and the Quality of Products Imported by Chinese Manufacturing Firms," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(10), pages 2751-2763, August.
    15. Bas, Maria & Strauss-Kahn, Vanessa, 2015. "Input-trade liberalization, export prices and quality upgrading," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 250-262.
    16. Wei, Hao & Tu, Yue & Zhou, Peng, 2023. "Technical barriers to trade and export performance: Comparing exiting and staying firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    17. Huang, Zhehao & Liao, Gaoke & Li, Zhenghui, 2019. "Loaning scale and government subsidy for promoting green innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 148-156.
    18. Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary & Naoyuki Yoshino, 2020. "Sustainable Solutions for Green Financing and Investment in Renewable Energy Projects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    19. Du, Minzhe & Huang, Chukun & Liao, Liping, 2025. "Trade liberalization and energy efficiency: Quasi-natural experiment evidence from the pilot free trade zones in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1739-1751.
    20. Beck, Thorsten & Levine, Ross & Loayza, Norman, 2000. "Finance and the sources of growth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 261-300.
    21. Shuanglian Chen & Zhehao Huang & Benjamin M. Drakeford & Pierre Failler, 2019. "Lending Interest Rate, Loaning Scale, and Government Subsidy Scale in Green Innovation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-22, November.
    22. Anderson, James E, 1979. "A Theoretical Foundation for the Gravity Equation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 106-116, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ma, Dan & Zhu, Yanjin & Yang, Yuhan, 2024. "How Green finance affects export production quality: Fresh evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    2. Martha Denisse Pierola & Ana Margarida Fernandes & Thomas Farole, 2018. "The role of imports for exporter performance in Peru," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 550-572, February.
    3. Arjan Lejour & Vladimir Solanic & Paul Tang, 2009. "EU Accession and Income Growth: An Empirical Approach," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 16(1), pages 127-144, May.
    4. Du, Yan & Yan, Jie & Cao, Fangzhou & Li, Yifei & Zhou, Mao, 2023. "Higher education expansion and domestic value added in exports: Theory and evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Manova, Kalina & Yu, Zhihong, 2017. "Multi-product firms and product quality," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 116-137.
    6. He, Feng & Yan, Yulin & Hao, Jing & Wu, Ji (George), 2022. "Retail investor attention and corporate green innovation: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Andrea Ciani & Michele Imbruno, 2017. "Microeconomic mechanisms behind export spillovers from FDI: evidence from Bulgaria," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 153(4), pages 703-734, November.
    8. Marcus Roller, Daniel Steinberg, 2023. "Differences-in-Differences with multiple Treatments under Control," Diskussionsschriften credresearchpaper41, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft - CRED.
    9. Ciani, Andrea & Stiebale, Joel, 2024. "Export Performance Under Domestic Anti-Dumping Protection," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    10. Teng Zhang & Yanlin Xing & Hua Shang, 2024. "Foreign bank entry and export quality upgrading: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment set in China," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 66(5), pages 1975-2005, May.
    11. Lan, Minghui & Zhang, Guangli & Yan, Wei & Qi, Fen & Qin, Lihua, 2024. "Greening through courts:Environmental law enforcement and corporate green innovation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 223-242.
    12. Hao Liu & Weilun Huang, 2022. "Sustainable Financing and Financial Risk Management of Financial Institutions—Case Study on Chinese Banks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, August.
    13. Ma, Dan & He, Yuhang & Zeng, Linggang, 2024. "Can green finance improve the ESG performance? Evidence from green credit policy in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    14. Copestake, Alexander & Zhang, Wenzhang, 2023. "Inputs, networks and quality-upgrading: Evidence from China in India," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Esteban Jaimovich, 2021. "Quality growth: from process to product innovation along the path of development," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(2), pages 761-793, March.
    16. Fan, Haichao & Gao, Xiang & Zhang, Lina, 2021. "How China's accession to the WTO affects global welfare?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    17. Maria Bas & Caroline Paunov, 2019. "What gains and distributional implications result from trade liberalization," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 19003, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    18. Goetz, D. & Rodnyansky, A., 2019. "Exchange Rate Shocks and Quality Adjustments," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1915, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    19. Qihang Xue & Caiquan Bai & Weiwei Xiao, 2022. "Fintech and corporate green technology innovation: Impacts and mechanisms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3898-3914, December.
    20. Torrini, Irene & Lucifora, Claudio & Russo, Antonio Giampiero, 2023. "The long-term effects of hospitalization on health care expenditures: An empirical analysis for the young-old population in Lombardy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

    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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4375-:d:1653918. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.