Research on Green Finance, Technological Innovation, and Industrial Structure Upgrading in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Along with the fact that China is in a critical period of economic structural transformation, industrial structural upgrading and transformation are imminent. The empirical research in this paper mainly constructs four groups of fixed effects models. The purpose is to investigate the impact mechanisms of green finance (GF), technological innovation (TI), and industrial structure upgrading (ISU) in 11 provinces (cities) along the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2011 to 2020. Based on the research method of the fixed effects model, this paper can analyze the association between GF, TI, and ISU in a more concise and intuitive way. The research conclusions mainly include the following three points. Firstly, both GF and TI are able to significantly contribute to the ISU of the YREB. Furthermore, GF can also promote TI to a certain extent. Second, TI serves as a partial intermediary in the process of GF's favorable contribution to the ISU. In other words, green finance can act as an intermediary by enhancing technological innovation capacity so as to effectively accelerate the ISU of the YREB. Thirdly, this paper finds that there exists a degree of regional heterogeneity in the process of GF and TI affecting ISU in the YREB. For one thing, GF in the eastern part of the YREB can strongly accelerate the ISU. However, there is no obvious impact effect in the central and western regions. For another, TI in the eastern part of the YREB has, likewise, contributed positively to the ISU. In comparison, TI in the central region has a clearly negative effect on the ISU while there is no significant influence effect in the western region. In conclusion, this paper innovatively integrates GF, TI, and ISU into a framework for research. This paper not only widens the theoretical research domain of industrial structure upgrading but also provides practical guidance for the restructuring and transformation of industries in the YREB.