Financial Development and Environmental Pollution Control - An Analysis of Intermediary Effect Based on Technological Innovation

Abstract

Abstract Based on the rapid development of green finance and the panel data of 30 provinces in China (excluding Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao) from 2007 to 2020, to deeply discuss the relationship between financial development (FD), technological innovation and environmental pollution (EP) control is the centre of this article by using panel fixed-effect and intermediary effect model. The influence of FD on EP is tested by building a benchmark regression model. In addition, the intermediary effect model is adopted to explore how FD affects EP control through technological innovation mechanism. The conclusions show that China’s FD can effectively promote regional EP control on the whole, and FD can improve EP through technological innovation mechanism, but there is significant regional heterogeneity: compared with high government intervention areas, FD can promote EP control through technological innovation in low government intervention areas. Therefore, it is suggested that all regions promote the construction of financial infrastructure, upgrade the level of regional financial marketisation, speed up the realisation of regional technological innovation and EP control. This work is conducive to the formulation of appropriate government policies to promote the improvement of the financial system and the establishment of innovative mechanisms, and the reasonable reduction of government intervention and the improvement of the efficiency of financial resource allocation based on the needs of financial market players.