An Empirical Study on the Driving Effect of Green Finance on Corporate Green Innovation Quality and Its Transmission Mechanism Under the Moderation of Financial Development Level

This study examines how regional green finance affects corporate green innovation quality using panel data on 5,496 Chinese A-share listed firms from 2012 to 2023. Green innovation quality is measured by granted green invention patents, while a multidimensional green finance index is constructed using the entropy-weight method. Firm- and year-fixed-effects results show that green finance significantly improves green innovation quality, and the finding remains robust to alternative measures, lagged variables, sample adjustments, and instrumental-variable estimations. Mechanism analysis indicates that R&D investment partially transmits this effect. Financial development further strengthens the positive relationship. Heterogeneity tests confirm that the effect remains significant across firms with different technological status, overseas investment, ownership, and regional environmental regulation.