金融考核“绿色化”与污染企业绿色并购——基于信号效应的视角

Greening Financial Assessment and Green Acquisitions of Polluting Companies:Research from the Perspective of the Signaling Effect

党的二十大报告提出要加快发展方式绿色转型,绿色金融是实现该目标的关键手段。2017年中国人民银行将绿色信贷纳入宏观审慎评估(MPA)体系,旨在通过“绿色化”金融考核机制,激励银行支持企业绿色转型升级。本文以该政策构造准自然实验,使用强度双重差分模型,分析其对污染企业绿色并购行为的影响。研究结果显示,行业污染密度每增加一个标准差,企业进行绿色并购的可能性提高22.77%。此外,绿色并购不仅获得了市场的正面反应,还在企业的盈利能力和研发能力方面带来了长期的绩效提升。机制分析显示,上述政策效果在大企业、股价被低估和融资约束较为宽松的企业中更为显著,表明企业借助绿色金融激励政策进行绿色并购,可能并不是为了缓解融资约束,而是向市场传递其绿色转型的积极信号,从而提升市场表现和降低资本成本。本研究为金融考核“绿色化”引导实体经济绿色转型,提供了实证支持。

The 2Oth National Congress of the Communist Party of China advocates expediting the shift toward an increasingly green development mode,with green finance being a pivotal tool in attaining this objective.In 2017,the People's Bank of China integrated green credit into its macroprudential assessment(MPA)system,aiming to incentivize banks to support enterprises undergoing a green transition and upgrading through"greening"financial assessments.In this paper,we use this policy to establish a quasi-natural experiment.We use the intensity difference-in-differences model and a sample of pollution-intensive industry firms listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange(SSE)and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange(SZSE)from 2013 to 2020 to examine the impact of integrating green credit into the MPA system on firms'green merger and acquisition(M&A)behavior,as well as the underlying mechanism.Our results are reflected in the following four main aspects.First,the integration of green credit into the MPA escalates the propensity of pollution-intensive industry firms to pursue green M&As.Specifically,each one-standard-deviation increase in industry pollution density is associated with a 22.77% increase in the likelihood that firms will engage in green M&A.Second,the impact of the green prudential regulatory policy on green M&As primarily incentivizes firms with undervalued stock prices and robust fundamentals.Firms'green M&A announcements elicit positive stock market reactions,indicating that firms seize the opportunity to signal their commitment to and capacity for green transition to the capital market,thereby rectifying stock price undervaluation.Third,the effects of green prudential regulatory policies on green M&A are stronger for larger firms and those with fewer financial constraints.This finding implies that firms may engage in green M&As not to alleviate financing limitations,but rather to signal their positive green intentions,thereby bolstering their market performance and curbing capital costs.Finally,over the long term,firms involved in green M&As witness a substantial uptick in profitability and green innovations,underscoring the positive role of greening financial assessment.These effects facilitate firms'achievement of a green transition,ultimately amplifying firms'value and contributing to sustainable development goals.This paper contributes to the literature in the following ways.First,we contribute new evidence to the literature on the signaling effect of M&As.The literature finds that,unlike other markets,valuation repair is the primary motivation for signal-based M&As in the Chinese market.In this paper,we further explore the impact of policy traction effects on firms'signal-based M&A behavior.Second,this paper contributes a new analytical perspective to the literature on green finance and firms'green practices.The literature mainly focuses on the influence of green finance monetary policy on firms'investment,financing,and green innovation.Our study provides a major contrast by mainly exploring the impact of green macro-prudential regulatory policy on firms'investment decisions from the perspectives of green finance assessment and signaling effects.Third,we marginally contribute to understanding of the synergistic effect of M&As on green innovation.The literature mainly assumes that firms achieve green development through internal innovation.However,our paper points out that through green M&As,firms may directly obtain green technology from external sources and may complement their advantages with target companies during the M&A integration process,ultimately achieving a rapid transition and upgrade.Our paper also provides a new analytical perspective on how to use greening financial assessment to guide green development in the real economy,and it provides empirical evidence to guide high-quality development using green macro-prudential regulatory policies.