The Impact of Green Finance on Export Technology Complexity: Evidence from China

Abstract

With the improvement of the technology level and the prevalence of the concept of environmental protection, green finance has been gradually applied to the field of production and economic development. As an important measure of economic development, the export sector is inevitably affected by the development of green finance. However, using the high technology of exports to analyze the relationship between green finance and exports has not drawn much attention. Based on the panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, this study empirically examined the impact of green finance as well as export technology complexity, by using a combination of fixed effects and mechanism analysis. The results show that green finance has a significantly positive impact on export technology complexity, which means that an increase in the depth of green finance can improve export product quality. In terms of regional heterogeneity, the impact of green finance on the high technology of exports is greater in the eastern region than in the central and western regions of China. In terms of the manifestation of green finance, the effect of green bonds on export technology complexity is greater than that of green investment and insurance. Green finance improves the export technical complexity through three intermediaries, such as green technology innovation, capital investment strength, and product upgrading capacity. This study highlights the importance of green finance and provides new methods for governments to assist in the formulation of policies that can improve export technology complexity.