The commodity and financial characteristics of carbon emission allowances play a pivotal role within the Carbon Emission Trading Scheme (CETS). Evaluating the effectiveness of the scheme from the perspective of carbon price is critical, as it directly reflects the underlying value of carbon allowances. This study employs a time-varying Difference-in-Differences (DID) model, utilizing data from publicly listed enterprises in China over the period from 2010 to 2023, to examine the effects of carbon price level and stability on Total Factor Productivity (TFP). The results suggest that both an increase in carbon price level and stability contribute to improvements in TFP, particularly for heavy-polluting and non-stateowned enterprises. Mechanism analysis reveals that higher carbon prices and stability can stimulate corporate engagement in green innovation, activate the Porter effect, and subsequently enhance TFP. Furthermore, optimizing the system environment proves to be an effective means of strengthening the scheme's impact. The study also finds that allocating initial quotas via payment-based mechanisms offers a more effective design. This research highlights the importance of strengthening the financial attributes of carbon emission allowances and offers practical recommendations for increasing the activity of trading entities and improving market liquidity.

Green bonds have emerged as a novel funding mechanism specifically aimed at addressing environmental challenges. Focusing on A-share listed companies in China that went public with bond issues domestically from 2012 to 2021, we reveal that companies with higher energy usage and better environmental disclosure quality are the most inclined to issue green bonds. Such issuance is identified as a pathway towards real green transformation, markedly boosting the green transformation index, green innovation efficiency, and ESG performance. Further analysis indicates that the effect of substantial transformation is particularly pronounced among companies in the eastern regions of China.

Enterprise digital transformation has become an inevitable trend in the digital economy era that can significantly impact enterprises. This paper takes the data of A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2022 as a sample to explore the effect of enterprise digital transformation on listed companies' corporate social responsibility and the mechanism of its role. It was found that corporate digital transformation can significantly enhance Csr(Corporate social responsibility), and enterprise digital transformation has a noticeable enabling effect on Csr, which can dramatically improve Csr. The relationship between the two still holds after the robustness test. It has been found that digital transformation can affect Csr by enhancing the green innovation capability of enterprises, the fairness of internal compensation distribution, and the sustainable development capability of enterprises. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that corporate digital transformation's impact on Csr fulfillment performance is more significant for non-state-owned firms and firms in the central and eastern regions. In addition, corporate financing constraints and government innovation subsidies influence Csr.

This paper examines the impact of green mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on firms’ transition to green exports. We develop a “Technology-Qualification” theoretical framework and conduct the empirical analysis using a matched dataset of Chinese listed manufacturing firms and customs records. The findings show that green M&As significantly promote firms’ green exports, and this effect remains consistent across a series of robustness test. Mechanism analysis reveals that green M&As promote green exports through two key channels: green innovation spillovers and green qualification spillovers. Further heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive impact of green M&As on green exports is more pronounced among firms with stronger operational performance, weaker green foundations, and those involved in processing trade. In addition, green M&As not only stimulate green exports but also prevent the entry of polluting products and reduce the exit of green product, thereby driving a green-oriented dynamic restructuring of firms’ export structure. This paper offers micro-level insights into how firms can navigate the dual challenges of enhancing green production capabilities and overcoming barriers to green trade during their transition to green exports.

The influence of informal institutions such as history and culture on corporate behavior has been widely recognized, but few studies have been analyzed from the perspective of the ruling party culture. Based on the data of the old revolutionary base areas (ORBA) in China, this paper makes an empirical test on the role of Red Culture in promoting enterprises green innovation. First, this paper finds that the stronger the Red Culture in the region where the enterprise is located, the higher the level of green innovation.Secondly, in the samples with high political sensitivity and less cultural conflict, the promoting effect of Red Culture is more obvious. This paper not only expands the relevant literature on the influence of informal system on enterprise green innovation, but also enriches the research on the influence of Chinese unique culture on enterprise management decision-making.

We use a sample of China’s listed firms and employ a naïve Bayesian machine learning algorithm to reveal that environmental information intangibility superficially promotes green innovation. We demonstrate that this effect is channelled through the acquisition of institutional resources, including bank loans and government subsidies. The impact of environmental information intangibility on green innovation is most pronounced within state-owned enterprises, large firms, and politically connected firms. Furthermore, we confirm that environmental information intangibility does not lead to improvements in innovation efficiency or quality. This implies that green innovation may serve as a symbolic environmental activity. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the consequences of environmental information intangibility, greenwashing behaviour, and their relationship to green innovation.

Between high-quality and high-efficiency green innovation, which can truly reduce stock price crash risk? We use data from Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2022 to study the impact mechanism and effect of radical and incremental green innovation stock price crash risk. Results show that radical green innovation can significantly reduce stock price crash risk, and this effect is more evident than the incremental one. Radical green innovation can improve information efficiency and enhance risk management, thus reducing stock price crash risk. Besides, among companies held by trading institutions and with low analyst coverage, the inhibitory effect is more evident.

We investigate the effect of third-party certification for green bonds by analyzing its impact on issuer's future green innovation performances. We find that third-party certification for green bonds can significantly promote issuer's future green innovation performances. Furthermore, the promotion effect is more prominent in non-state-owned issuers, large issuers and heavy polluting issuers, and can be more significantly exerted by professional and reputable third-party certification agencies. Besides, third-party certification for green bonds can play the effect by reducing the issuer's tax expenditure, increasing the issuer's loan financing, and receiving a positive response in stock returns. But unexpectedly, it cannot play the effect by further reducing the credit spread of green bonds. Our findings indicate that independent external supervision can play a positive role in green bond issuance, but there is still a long way to go.

Using firm-customer matched data from 2005 to 2020 in China, we examined the spillover effects and mechanisms of green innovation (GI) among supply chain partners. Results show a positive association between customers' GI and their supply firms' GI, indicating spillover effects in the supply chain. Customers' GI increase from the 25th to the 75th percentile leads to a significant 19% increase in supply firms' GI. Certain conditions amplify the spillover effect, including customers with higher bargaining power, operating in less competitive industries, and supply firms making relationship-specific investments or experiencing greater customer stability. Geographic proximity and shared ownership further enhance the spillover effect. Information-based and competition-based channels drive the spillover effect, while customers with higher GI encourage genuine GI activities by supply firms. External environmental regulations, such as the Chinese Green Credit Policy and Environmental Protection Law, strengthen the spillover effect, supporting the Porter hypothesis. This research expands understanding of spillover effects in the supply chain and contributes to the literature on GI determinants.

Do firms adjust their hiring decisions after receiving environmental punishments? Using data on over 4.3 million job postings for Chinese listed firms from 2015 to 2021, we find that firms subjected to environmental punishments will subsequently increase their corporate green hiring (i.e., employees with green skills). Pressure from local environmental concerns and regulatory efforts incentivizes firms to increase their demand for employees with green skills. Environmental punishments have a more pronounced effect on corporate green hiring for non-state-owned enterprises and firms with lower financial constraints. Moreover, green hiring can have a remediation effect on firms' environmental performance and stimulate their green innovation activities and spillover effects on other firms within the industry. Overall, our findings shed light on corporate hiring decisions under environmental regulations.