Can ESG Performance Alleviate the Constraints of Green Financing for Chinese Enterprises: Empirical Evidence from China's A-Share Manufacturing Companies

In recent years, the model of extensive economic development at the expense of the ecological environment has been gradually abandoned by all countries in the world. Green economic transformation has become the basic consensus of societies worldwide. Capital is the blood of enterprise development. The rapid development of the green economy with the goal of supporting the green transformation of the economy has increased the financing pressure of enterprises caused by pollution. This paper explores the internal relationship between corporate green behavior decision-making and corporate green financing constraints from a micro perspective. Based on the data of China's A-share manufacturing industry from 2011 to 2019, this paper examines the impact of corporate ESG performance on the green financing constraints for it. The empirical results show that the listed companies face greater green financing constraints at present. The overall performance of corporate ESG is conducive to easing corporate green financing constraints, but the role of ESG sub-performance is limited. At the same time, there are regional and scale differences in the mitigation effect of the performance of corporate ESGs on green financing constraints. Finally, this paper puts forward policy suggestions on how to promote the alleviation of corporate green financing constraints. Namely: (1) enterprises should improve themselves by improving technological innovation and utilization rate to meet the requirements of green development; and (2) relevant institutions shall formulate appropriate policies and conduct reasonable supervision according to the differentiated requirements of enterprises with different characteristics in different regions.