The Impact Of Green Credit Policies On Corporate R&D Investment

Innovation is the key to implementing new development concepts and promoting green transformation and upgrading of enterprises,and it is also the main driving force for China’s economy to shift from crude growth to high-quality development.Enterprises are at the front line of solving technical problems and are one of the important subjects of innovation.Enterprises need a lot of capital to carry out innovation activities,and the main source of financing for Chinese enterprises is still bank loans.Therefore,external debt financing with bank credit as the main source is considered to be an important factor affecting enterprises’innovation investment.The former China Banking Regulatory Commission issued the "Green Credit Guidelines" in 2012,requiring banks and other financial institutions to consider the environmental factors of projects when making loans,and restricting loans to polluting projects.The impact of this policy on enterprises in the green transition period is complex:on the one hand,banks’ restrictions on loans to polluting projects may force enterprises to consider long-term,carry out innovative activities,and achieve green transformation and upgrading;The loan restriction of enterprises will strengthen the financing constraints of enterprises,increase the cost of pollution control of enterprises,cause the shortage of funds of enterprises,and limit the innovation ability of enterprises.Then,the impact of the green credit policy on the R&D investment of these enterprises is worthy of further discussion.Therefore,this paper conducts a quasi-experiment based on the"Green Credit Guidelines" to analyze the impact of the "Green Credit Guidelines"policy on corporate innovation investment;and whether financing constraints play an intermediary effect is furtherly explored through the intermediary model;In addition,this paper studies the differences in the impact of green credit policies on the R&D investment of enterprises under the degree of financial development and the nature of different property rights.This paper proposes the impact path of green credit policy on enterprises with green projects from the internal and external parts of the enterprise,selects A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2020 as a sample and uses the DID model to conduct quasi-experiments to estimate the impact of green credit policy on corporate R&D.Further,this paper estimates the mediating effect of financing constraints on it according to the mediation model.The research results show:firstly,the implementation of the green credit policy has significantly promoted the R&D investment of enterprises with green projects,which has a stronger role in promoting the R&D investment of enterprises in non-polluting industries;second,the green credit policy strengthen the financing constraints of credit,thus forcing enterprises to invest in innovation;third,the implementation of green credit policies has a stronger role in promoting R&D investment in financially underdeveloped areas and state-owned enterprises.Based on the above research results,this paper puts forward the following three suggestions:firstly,authorities concerned should set detailed standard for green project inspections,lead commercial banks to accurately implement green credit policies,and improve the "reward" mechanism of green credit policies;secondly,banks should strengthen risk management mechanisms,increase green loans to private enterprises while keeping risks under control,and reduce green costs to green credit enterprises;thirdly,enterprises should establish sustainable development and new development concepts,rectify relevant projects initiatively according to the inspection standards of green credit,and accelerate the pace of green transformation and upgrading of enterprises.