Impact of green credit policies on the global value chain position of heavy polluting enterprises

In the forty years since China's reform and opening-up, its economy has grown rapidly, and the trade volume of manufacturing industries has surged. However, persistent "low-end lock-in" and unregulated production by heavily polluting enterprises have led to serious environmental pollution issues, hindering the high-quality development of China's manufacturing trade economy. To achieve sustainable development goals, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Implementing Environmental Policies and Regulations to Prevent Credit Risks" in 2007, marking the comprehensive implementation of green credit policies in China. Based on this policy framework, this paper constructs a difference-in-difference (DID) model to examine the impact of the implementation of green credit policies on the global value chain (GVC) position of heavily polluting enterprises. The results indicate a significant inhibitory effect of policy implementation on the GVC position of enterprises. Mechanism analysis reveals that intensified credit constraints due to reduced credit availability play a primary role in this effect, while diversified supply chain management can mitigate these inhibitory effects. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy's inhibitory effect on heavily polluting enterprises is more pronounced in industries undergoing major category changes, those with high levels of direct carbon emissions, and those with high information asymmetry.