How can green finance promote low-carbon transition of Chinese cities: technological innovation or industrial structure adjustment ?

How can green finance promote low-carbon transition of Chinese cities: technological innovation or industrial structure adjustment ? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article How can green finance promote low-carbon transition of Chinese cities: technological innovation or industrial structure adjustment ? Xiao-qing Wu, Hong-xing Wen, Pu-yan nie, Jing-xin Gao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4216154/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 22 Jul, 2024 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Green finance (GF) has emerged as a promising tool to promote low-carbon development, while knowledge is rather limited regarding the underlying mechanism. This article aims to address this void by constructing a city-level GF index covering seven dimensions and identifying the main pathways through which GF can facilitate the low-carbon development of cities. Using a balanced panel data covering 277 Chinese cities from 2010 to 2020, the results show that: (1) China’s GF development exhibits an overall spatial differentiation of ‘high in the east and low in the west’, while the distribution of carbon intensity (CI) displays an overall spatial differentiation of ‘high in the north and low in the south’; (2) GF significantly decreases CI of cities, which is robust to employing DID strategies and IV estimations; (3) The role of GF on CI varies with the level of CI whereas not with the level of GF; and (4) GF promotes low-carbon transition of cities through mainly on adjusting industrial structure rather than stimulating technological innovation. Despite we also demonstrate green finance enhances green innovation, due to multi-factors, such technology progress it brings may not always translate into a tangible improvement in green productivity. For most developing countries including China, the future policy objective of green finance should focus on enhancing sustainable technological progress. JEL Classification : E44, O33, R11 Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Environmental economics Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Sustainability green finance low-carbon transition carbon intensity green innovation industrial structure adjustment Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryTableS1..docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 22 Jul, 2024 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 28 May, 2024 Reviews received at journal 20 May, 2024 Reviews received at journal 13 May, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 13 May, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 18 Apr, 2024 Reviews received at journal 16 Apr, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 15 Apr, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 15 Apr, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 12 Apr, 2024 Editor invited by journal 11 Apr, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 11 Apr, 2024 First submitted to journal 04 Apr, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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