The current study constructs a quasi-natural experiment based on China’s 2012 Green Credit Guidelines and develops a difference-in-difference model using the financial data of listed companies from ...2006 to 2018 to conduct empirical testing. The results reveal that the green credit policy has significantly reduced the short-term and long-term debt financing of heavily polluting enterprises; however, the restrictions on short-term debt financing are insufficient. At the same time, the decline in operating performance brings financial penalty effects, among which state-owned, large-scale, and heavily polluting enterprises in high-emission areas have strong financial penalty effects. The green credit policy encourages heavy-polluting companies to increase R&D investment and increase fixed assets investments to obtain long-term credit support with short-term investment. Furthermore, it is found that the green credit policies have significantly restrained the scale of debt financing of heavily polluting companies. The Chinese government should formulate green financial policies based on local conditions and provide credit resources to favor environmentally friendly companies. Financial institutions should strictly implement green credit standards and modify financial products and services. Companies should take the initiative to eliminate outdated production capacity to obtain green credit support.
Green technology innovation is the strategy adopted by the manufacturing industry in implementing green innovation. Choosing the right green technology innovation path is crucial to the development ...of green innovation in manufacturing industry. From the perspective of niche theory, the paper constructs the green technology innovation trend indicators of manufacturing industry, and builds a multi-layer comprehensive evaluation model by using cloud model tools. Taking the green technology of manufacturing industry in Jiangsu Province as an example, the empirical analysis reveals that from 2012 to 2016, Jiangsu Province manufactures. The ecostate value of green technology innovation has been continuously improving, while the ecorole value has fluctuated. The comprehensive niche score has gradually boosted, indicating that the overall development trend of manufacturing green technology innovation capability in Jiangsu Province goes well. When advancing the level of innovation and formulating green technology innovation capability promotion strategies, macro-control and supervision for Jiangsu Province’s manufacturing green technologies should be emphasized, environmental management optimized, stimulation of green innovative talents strengthened, and green technology R&D and service centers intensified. Create a symbiotic environment, increase cooperation between enterprises, and the government, build a green innovation and cultivation mechanism for manufacturing, and facilitate sustainable development with creative approaches in Jiangsu Province.
•Evaluation index system of green technology innovation in manufacturing industry.•Constructs the green technology innovation trend indicators of manufacturing industry from the perspective of niche theory.•Assign different weights to each index by AHP.•Build a multi-layer comprehensive evaluation model by using cloud model tools.
Evaluation of climate-induced crop damages is imperative to formulate innovative technologies and management strategies to reduce the vulnerability of farms and agriculture. Based on a survey of 1232 ...wheat growers from Pakistan, conducted in April and May of 2019, the study estimates the production risk of wheat farms to weather shocks and the effectiveness of physical, non-physical, and innovative management strategies for reducing crop damages. Parametric and non-parametric econometric techniques were applied to approach study objectives. The survey revealed that the adverse effects of extreme weather events on the damages to wheat crop were more significant with the rise of severe weather the closer to harvest time such damages occurred. The results of the propensity score matching (PSM) method found wheat loss when the crop experienced a severe intensity of thunderstorms, windstorms, and hailstorms. The parametric analysis confirmed that with a one-unit increase in the severity of thunderstorms, windstorms, and hailstorms the wheat yield decreased. Surprisingly, even if thunderstorms and hailstorms were rated moderate or low in severity, a significant reduction in wheat yield was found. The Mann-Whitney (MW) test showed that adaptive measures significantly reduced the amount of wheat damage. Particularly, the PSM method confirmed that the adoption of strategies such as watercourse availability, maintenance of watercourse, availability of canal/drain, sowing of stiff-stem wheat variety, plantation of a shelterbelt, and adjustment in irrigation schedule, significantly reduced wheat loss. Furthermore, education, farming experience, family size, cropping area, and access to weather forecast information significantly affected the adaptation of innovative management strategies.
•The study explores response of management in agriculture to extreme weather events.•The PSM method uses to estimate weather-induced wheat yield losses.•The per hectare wheat damages were 43 Maunds, caused by severe storms.•Plantation of shelterbelt & sowing stiff-stem wheat variety reduced the damages.•Use of management strategies reduced wheat losses by 35.6 Maunds per hectare.
The empirical research on the relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and environmental performance remains in the one-way positive impact and lacks the research on nonlinear ...relationship between them. Based on the stakeholder theory, this paper selects A-share chemical–listed companies in China from 2006 to 2017 as the research samples and uses generalized method of moments (GMM) model to investigate the impact mechanism between corporate environmental responsibility and environmental performance. The results showed that corporate environmental responsibility positively impacted on environmental performance; however, the impact was not significant. The corporate environmental performance positively and significantly impacted on environmental responsibility. Moreover, results reported that industry competition played a positive regulatory role in corporate environmental responsibility affecting environmental performance and has played a positive role in corporate environmental impact on environmental responsibility. A nonlinear relationship (inverted “U” shape) between environmental responsibility and environmental performance was found. The study results stress to establish a fair and perfect market competition mechanism to improve the environmental performance of chemical industries in China.
The study investigates the relationship between air pollution and the status of human mental health using the data of the China Migrant Dynamic Survey (CMDS), 2014. Various econometric methods were ...used. Particularly, the ordinary least square (OLS) was used to estimate the parametric impact of mental health. Moreover, a robustness test was used to estimate negative impact of air pollution on mental health. Results found that air pollution significantly increased psychological disorder. The concentration of PM2.5 in the air leads to higher prominence of the four negative emotions such as nervous, depression, powerless, and restless or fidgety. After introducing the instrumental variable to solve the endogenous problem, the impact of air pollution on the level of the mental illnesses was still significant and negative. Results are also evident that air pollution has heterogeneity to the negative status of residents’ mental health. Specifically, it has a significant and negative impact on women, rural and urban population, and middle- and low-income groups. The study results suggest that the government must have to revise the environmental regulation policy reduce the negative impact on human health.
Farmers’ willingness and ability to adapt agricultural systems depend on their knowledge about changes in climate and perceived risks of extreme events. Using cross-sectional data of 450 farmers ...collected from three agro-ecological zones of Punjab, Pakistan, this study investigates farmer perceptions of climate change and their agreement with observed climatic trends. In addition, this study explores the correlation between different adaptation stages (perceptions, intentions, and adaptation) and their key drivers using a Multivariate Probit Model. This study also explores the adaptation measures adopted by farmers. The results of the study show that the perceptions of increasing mean temperature match well with locally recorded data. However, a discrepancy is found in some cases between farmer perceptions of rainfall changes and local climate records. Moreover, education, experience, land tenure, land holdings, extension, cooperation, access to weather forecasting, and marketing information are the factors influencing the three adaptation stages. A strong association is found among the three adaptation stages. Particularly, the study confirms the hypothesis that accurate perceptions lead to stronger adaptation intentions compared to underestimated or no perceptions. Further, farmers prefer basic adaptation measures including changing crop varieties, input use and planting dates over advanced measures, such as planting shade trees, soil conservation, and crop diversification. The study recommends providing farmers, especially small landholders and tenants, easy access to information, institutional services and training on the use of advanced measures to reduce negative impacts of climate change at the farm level.
•Outreach and access to advisory and financial services is restricted due various socio-economic barriers.•Farmers often use agricultural credit for non-farm purposes.•Limited economic opportunities, ...household dependence and increasing cost of production are the reasons behind credit misuse.•Access and use of agricultural advisory services improves crop productivity.•Productivity gains of using agricultural credit depend on its proper utilization for on-farm purposes.
Current agricultural growth in most of the developing countries including Pakistan is stagnant due to huge gaps between actual and potential crop productivity. Better access to agricultural advisory and financial services may play an important role in enhancing crop productivity. Using a dataset of 240 farmers collected through face-to-face interviews in 48 villages of district Sargodha in Punjab, Pakistan, this study analyzes farmers’ access to and use of farm advisory and financial services, its impact on wheat productivity and barriers to their access. The results of the study revealed that farmers rely more on informal sources for agricultural advisory and credit services than public or private sources. However, the quality of private advisory and credit services was reported better than other sources due to its easy availability and processing. Small land holdings, lack of education and high interest rates were some of the key barriers that restrict farmers’ access to both services. Further, the study also found that majority of the farmers (accessors) use agricultural credit for non-farm activities for several reasons. Moreover, the study found significant differences in the wheat productivity for farmers who had simultaneous access to both services compared to those who have access to at least one or none of the services. The study findings showed that access to agricultural advisory services improves wheat productivity. However, productivity gains of using agricultural credit are mainly associated with its proper utilization for agricultural purposes. The study suggests enhancing the outreach and quality of public advisory services through hiring and training extension staff. Furthermore, misuse of agricultural credit and barriers that restrict farmers’ access to advisory and credit services need to be eliminated through implementing effective policies and monitoring provided services.
Members of the public may express their desire for environmental improvements and achieve results through varying methods. To achieve change, such things as Google Index, the number of incoming ...letters, the number of visitors, the proposals of the National People's Congress and the motions of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference all play a role. However, studies which theoretically analyze the relationship between public appeals and environmental improvement are relatively scarce. For this reason, this paper uses provincial panel data from 2004 to 2014 to analyze the impact of public appeals on the performance of environmental governance. The results show that, the stronger the public appeals for environmental issues, the greater the government's control over the handling of environmental pollution. In areas with serious environmental pollution problems, including Shanxi and Hebei, the public voice is relatively strong. The impact of the Google index on environmental improvement in central China is stronger than in eastern and western China. By re-measuring the explanatory variables with the number of incoming letters, the number of visitors, the proposals of the National People's Congress and the motions of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, we have discovered that the appeals of ordinary people can have the same impact on environmental improvement as those of social elites.
•Relationship between public appeal and environmental performance in China is analyzed.•Environmental appeal in central China does not have a significant effect.•Ordinary people's online environment appeal exerts the same effect with social elites.
Fintech risks commercial banks in three ways, particularly operational efficiency, financial innovation, and risk management. Based on the data of 37 Chinese-listed commercial banks from 2011 to ...2020, the study empirically analyzes the impact of fintech on bank risk-taking, and the intermediary effects of the three channels, such as operational efficiency, financial innovation, and risk management. The results show that fintech can effectively reduce the risk of banks. The results of heterogeneity analysis revealed that fintech strongly affects the risk-taking of state-owned banks but not obviously for rural commercial banks. Financial efficiency, financial innovation, and risk management indirectly affect the risk-taking of banks that contributed 8.51, 7.18, and 5.77%, respectively. We also constructed the commercial bank risk-warning index. Based on the quarterly data of banks from 2011 to 2020, we empirically tested the early warning effect of the bank risk-warning index. The results showed that when the signal month is set to 12 months, the bank risk-warning index can have a warning effect in this period.
This study aims to determine the impact of financial development on green ecology to promote cleaner production. Particularly, it estimates the evolution of characteristics of the green-ecology of 37 ...cities from the Yangtze River Delta and determines the impact of financial development on green-ecology using the projection pursuit model, Moran’s Index, and regression model. Results found that the green-ecology index showed an upward trend and the index in the East was higher than the West. The green ecology and its composition indexes were found with significant spatial positive agglomeration characteristics. The Eastern region was mainly distributed as high to high agglomeration while the Western region was distributed as low to low agglomeration. Regarding composition indexes of green ecology, financial development has promoted a positive effect on the green-growth and resource-environment indexes. The study results stress that the enterprises should strengthen the technological innovation for the improvement of resource use efficiency and reduction of pollution.
