Green Finance,Science And Technology Innovation,and Regional Economic Development

With continuous economic growth,global warming,environmental pollution,and other climate and environmental issues have gradually aroused widespread concern,and people have begun to pay attention to the transformation of economic growth to achieve sustainable economic development.Countries around the world have taken many countermeasures to this end,and the development of green finance has played a key role in it.Green finance is an important step in promoting economic transformation,regulating financing behavior,promoting the flow of funds to green industries,and thus contributing to the green development of the economy.China’s quest to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 provides favorable development opportunities and higher requirements for the development of green finance.However,due to China’s research on green finance starting relatively late,research on science and technology innovation as a pathway for green finance to influence regional economic development is still to be enriched.This paper is dedicated to exploring the correlation between green finance,science and technology innovation,and regional economic development in China.This paper first analyzes the interplay between green finance,science and technology innovation,and regional economic development from a theoretical perspective,and then conducts an empirical analysis based on the availability of data,using 2011-2020 as the research cycle of this paper.The empirical part of this paper is divided into the following points:firstly,indicators are selected from five levels: green credit,green insurance,green securities,green investment,and government expenditure,and the entropy value method is used to measure the level of green financial development in China;secondly,the results are combined with the previous measurement results,and on the basis of determining the choice of fixed-effect model,the mediating effect model is applied,and the results are subjected to stepwise test regression coefficient method,Sobel test,and Bootstrap test,through empirical evidence to test the impact of China’s science and technology innovation as a mediating variable regional green finance on regional economic development;finally,dividing China into three regions: eastern,central,and western,to analyze the heterogeneity of the effect mechanism of green finance on regional economic development.On this basis,this paper concludes that regional green financial development in China can significantly enhance regional economic development and that technological innovation can function as a mediating variable,but the outcome of the mediating effect is less pronounced than the direct effect;comparing the three regions of east,central,and west as a sub-sample on the mediating effect,the western region has the strongest mediating effect,the eastern region is the second and the central utility is the smallest.In response to the conclusion,this paper puts forward three suggestions,namely,to establish a sound green financial development system and promote the implementation of green financial policies;to realize the differentiated development of green finance and build an inter-regional information sharing mechanism;and to encourage green finance-related technological innovation and enhance the awareness of green development of all subjects.