|
|
|
| Does Green Finance Promote Exports from China? |
| JIN Xiangyi, ZHANG Wenfei, SHI Bingzhan
|
School of Economics, Lanzhou University;
School of Economics, Nankai University |
|
|
|
Abstract The green economy is a major avenue of current research and an important foundation for the long-term development of society, especially as the rapid development of China's economy in the past decades has caused problems such as pollution and ecological damage. Unfortunately, rapid economic development often causes deterioration of the natural environment, as such development is focused on achieving a certain quantity of economic growth without also being focused on achieving a certain quality of economic growth. Thus, the growth is unsustainable. To address this need to reconcile the goals of long-term economic growth with those of green construction, and thereby achieve the dual benefits of sustainable economic growth and environmentally aware governance, the former China Banking Regulatory Commission issued the “Green Credit Guidelines” policy (hereinafter, green credit policy) in 2012. This policy aims to use financial market resources to reduce environmental pollution caused by firms' production and operation, and to improve the system of credit resource allocation such that it favors environmentally friendly firms; thus, the policy has generated great changes throughout the financing environment. However, although exporting is an important aspect of China's economic growth, many Chinese exporters continue to face significant financing constraints, such that their export growth is limited by their ability to acquire of external credit. Chinese exporters consequently face problems in identifying new financing channels. These problems have been addressed by the implementation of the green credit policy, which has promoted the development of a green finance channel from which exporters can obtain external financing, further contributing to the growth of China's exports. The green economy concept is thus increasingly shaping the developmental direction of China's export patterns.
This study analyzes the potential effect of green finance on China's trade sector by studying the impact of green finance development on export growth, from the implementation of the “Green Credit Guidelines” policy onwards. Therefore, this study delineates a feasible path China can follow to achieve export growth while minimizing carbon emissions. This study also discusses technical solutions for global green construction, to which China could make significant contributions.
The green credit policy provides a new “signal display” mechanism for exporters to obtain financing, which eases the acquisition of external financing for vulnerable exporters in an environment featuring information friction. That is, the policy requires banks to issue green credit resources based on the direct signal of an exporter's pollution level rather than the exporter's “hard information,” thereby enabling exporters with poor hard information on their assets but relatively environmentally friendly production to obtain financing. Thus, as many SME exporters have low production scales and emit low levels of pollution, they have an obvious signaling advantage for obtaining green credit. This policy alleviates the financing constraints that SME exporters face from being unable to obtain traditional forms of credit, and may ultimately increase the scale of exports.
This study uses the difference-in-differences estimation method to analyze the role of green finance development in China's export growth and thereby identify the underlying causal relationship. It is found that the development of green finance since the implementation of the green credit policy has significantly promoted China's export expansion, increased the binary margin of exports, and optimized the volume and price structure of exports. These effects have obvious heterogeneity. The channel test shows that the alleviation of financing constraints is the core mechanism by which green finance promotes export growth. A series of robustness tests show that the export-promotion effect of green finance is robust to alternative explanations. Overall, these findings imply that green finance is an important factor that supports China's export growth and can bring generate win-win situation marrying pollution control with trade growth.
|
|
Received: 02 February 2021
Published: 01 June 2022
|
|
|
|
|
| [1] |
金祥义和戴金平,2019,《有效信息披露与企业出口表现》,《世界经济》第5期,第101～124页。
|
| [2] |
金祥义和张文菲,2019,《金融结构与出口持续时间》,《国际金融研究》第10期,第19～29页。
|
| [3] |
金祥义和张文菲,2021,《注意力配置、贸易不确定性与出口持续时间》,《国际贸易问题》第7期,第108～124页。
|
| [4] |
任力和黄崇杰,2015,《国内外环境规制对中国出口贸易的影响》,《世界经济》第5期,第59～80页。
|
| [5] |
盛丹和王永进,2012,《基础设施、融资依赖与地区出口比较优势》,《金融研究》第5期,第15～29页。
|
| [6] |
文东伟和冼国明,2014,《企业异质性、融资约束与中国制造业企业的出口》,《金融研究》第4期,第98～113页。
|
| [7] |
谢建国和姜珮珊,2014,《中国进出口贸易隐含能源消耗的测算与分解——基于投入产出模型的分析》,《经济学(季刊)》第4期,第1365～1392页。
|
| [8] |
Beck, T. 2002. “Financial Development and International Trade: Is there a Link?”, Journal of international Economics, 57(1):107～131.
|
| [9] |
Bertrand, M., Duflo, E., Mullainathan, S. 2004. “How Much Should We Trust Differences-in-Differences Estimates?”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119(1), 249～275.
|
| [10] |
Chaney, T. 2016. “Liquidity Constrained Exporters”, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 72, 141～154.
|
| [11] |
Chen, Z., Poncet, S., Xiong, R. 2020. “Local Financial Development and Constraints on Domestic Private-firm Exports: Evidence from City Commercial Banks in China”, Journal of Comparative Economics, 48(1), 56～75.
|
| [12] |
Crino, R., Ogliari, L. 2017. “Financial Imperfections, Product Quality, and International Trade”, Journal of International Economics, 104(1), 63～84.
|
| [13] |
Du, W., Li, M. 2020. “Influence of Environmental Regulation on Promoting the Low-carbon Transformation of China's Foreign Trade: Based on the Dual Margin of Export Enterprise”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 244, 118～187.
|
| [14] |
Hering, L., Poncet, S. 2014. “Environmental Policy and Exports: Evidence from Chinese Cities”, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 68(2), 296～318.
|
| [15] |
Hu, Y., Jiang, H., Zhong, Z. 2020. “Impact of Green Credit on Industrial Structure in China: Theoretical Mechanism and Empirical Analysis”, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1～14.
|
| [16] |
Liu, J., Xie, J. 2020. “Environmental Regulation, Technological Innovation, and Export Competitiveness: An Empirical Study Based on China's Manufacturing Industry”, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(4), 14～27.
|
| [17] |
Manova, K., Wei, S. J., Zhang, Z. 2015. “Firm Exports and Multinational Activity under Credit Constraints”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 97(3), 574～588.
|
| [18] |
Melitz, M. J. 2003. “The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity”, Econometrica, 71(6), 1695～1725.
|
| [19] |
Paravisini, D., Rappoport, V., Schnabl, P., Wolfenzon, D. 2015. “Dissecting the Effect of Credit Supply on Trade: Evidence from Matched Credit-Export Data”, The Review of Economic Studies, 82(1), 333～359.
|
| [20] |
Rajan, R. G., Zingales, L. 1998. “Financial Dependence and Growth”, The American Economic Review, 88(3), 559～586.
|
| [21] |
Solaymani, S. 2019. “CO2 Emissions Patterns in 7 top Carbon Emitter Economies: The Case of Transport Sector”, Energy, 168, 989～1001.
|
| [22] |
Taylor, M. S. 2005. “Unbundling the Pollution Haven Hypothesis”, BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 3(2), 1～28.
|
| [23] |
Xu, X., Li, J. 2020. “Asymmetric Impacts of the Policy and Development of Green Credit on the Debt Financing Cost and Maturity of Different Types of Enterprises in China”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 121～134.
|
|
|
|
