Can Green Finance Regulation Ease the Constraints of Enterprise Financing? – – Based on Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones

Abstract

Under China’s “carbon neutrality” and “carbon peaking” goals, green financial supervision plays a key role in promoting high-quality development and supply-side structural reform. Utilizing panel data from listed companies within China’s green finance pilot zones during the 2017–2023 period, this study empirically investigates the impact of green finance regulation on enterprise financing constraints. Theoretical frameworks and econometric analyses demonstrate that green finance regulation significantly alleviates financing constraints, with particularly pronounced effects observed in western regions. Mechanism analysis reveals that such regulatory interventions enhance internal investment efficiency and innovation output, thereby further mitigating financing pressures. Notably, the alleviation effect reaches its optimal magnitude when internal investment intensity and patent output remain within an empirically determined efficient threshold. This study argues that the high-quality development of China’s green financial market needs to take advantage of the moderating effects of science, technology, and social parties, and comprehensively utilize all aspects of regulatory measures, aiming to achieve the goal of sustainably alleviating enterprise financing constraints.