Research on Green Bond Financing and Corporate Performance: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Green bonds have played an increasingly important role in green development as an essential green financial tool since the goal of “carbon peak and carbon neutral” was proposed. This paper takes China’s bond issuers as the micro-subject, and explores the impact of green bond issuance on corporate performance by establishing a mediation model. Model results show that green bonds positively affect the performance of the issuing enterprises. A moderated mediation model shows that green bonds improve corporate performance by easing the financial constraint. The heterogeneity test indicates that compared with state-owned enterprises and enterprises with high credit ratings, the effect of issuing green bonds by non- state-owned enterprises and low credit rating enterprises on improving enterprise performance is more significant. Finally, this study analyzes the impact path of green bonds on corporate performance from the perspective of financial constraint, broadens the motivation research of enterprises issuing green bonds, and puts forward policy suggestions to strengthen the construction of China’s green bond market, which provides a theoretical basis for improving the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the green bond market.