绿色金融发展能够改善企业ESG绩效吗OA

Corporate implementation of ESG principles serves as a critical driver of comprehensive green and low-carbon transforma-tion.Clarifying the micro-mechanisms through which green finance development impacts corporate ESG performance is of significant importance for China to improve its green finance system,guide enterprises to enhance ESG performance,and achieve green and low-carbon development.This study constructed a tripartite evolutionary game model involving financial institutions,low environmental risk enterprises,and high environmental risk enterprises.It theoretically examined scenarios where enterprises adopt green technological in-novation or engage in greenwashing strategies and conducted numerical simulation analysis.Based on theoretical analysis,this study empirically tested the differentiated impacts of green finance development on corporate ESG performance and its underlying mecha-nisms using unbalanced panel data of Chinaʹs Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2022.Key findings in-clude:① Green finance development overall had a promoting effect on improving corporate ESG performance.This result remained ro-bust after a series of rigorous robustness tests,including instrumental variable(IV)methods,the system GMM(SYS-GMM)method re-placing the baseline model,and the difference-in-differences(DID)method to assess exogenous policy shocks.The promoting effect was more pronounced among high financing-constrained enterprises and low-reputation enterprises.② For low environmental risk enterpris-es,green finance development drove green technological innovation,thereby enhancing their ESG performance.③ For high environ-mental risk enterprises,green finance development incentivized greenwashing,leading to artificial inflation of their ESG performance.④ Government subsidies amplified the promoting effect of green finance development on ESG performance for low environmental risk enterprises,whereas environmental regulations weakened the promoting effect of green finance development on ESG performance for high environmental risk enterprises.This study demonstrated that green finance development facilitated green technological innovation and ESG performance improvements among low environmental risk enterprises but tended to induce greenwashing among high environ-mental risk enterprises,necessitating enhanced detection and suppression of greenwashing activities among such firms.The findings deepen understanding of the differentiated effects of green finance on corporate ESG performance and their micro-mechanisms,offering theoretical support and policy implications for refining green finance systems to promote green technological innovation,curb green-washing,and advance comprehensive economic and social green and low-carbon transformation.