Green finance and land ecological security: A potential mechanism for sustainable development

Abstract

With growing global concern for environmental issues, green finance (GF) has emerged as a key tool for promoting sustainable development. However, research on its impact on land ecological security (LES) is limited. This study explores the spatial and non-linear effects of GF on LES, focusing on the roles of agricultural e-commerce (AEC) and agricultural industry agglomeration (AIA). Our findings reveal significant first, spatial auto-correlation in LES and an inverted U-shaped pattern in the spatial impact of GF. Second, AEC enhances this inverted U-shaped relationship, shifting the knee point leftward and resulting in a higher marginal effect of GF on LES. Conversely, AIA weakens the relationship, shifting the knee point rightward and potentially flipping the pattern. Additionally, heterogeneity researches results indicate that this spatial effect exists only in primary grain distribution areas, and not in primary grain producing areas or grain production and distribution balanced areas. Robustness tests, including instrumental variables and alternative core explanatory variables, confirm the credibility of these results. This research offers targeted policy recommendations for the GF-LES relationship.