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In recent years, the value of green innovation in achieving high-quality development in China has been increasingly recognized. However, studies on different types of green innovation under various environmental regulations have not established a systematic framework; especially, those considering external financing constraints are lacking. This study subdivides both environmental regulation and green innovation. Specifically, environmental regulation is divided into command-and-control regulation, market-incentive regulation, and public-participation regulation. Green technology innovation is divided into cleaner production technology innovation and end-of-pipe technology innovation. Moreover, this study explores whether and how environmental regulation affects green technology innovation, and investigates the moderating effect of external financing constraints, by matching the data from China Environmental Yearbook and China Industrial Enterprise Database. The results show that both command-and-control regulation and market-incentive regulation have the U-shaped relationship with cleaner production technology innovation. Meanwhile, public-participation environmental regulation significantly and positively affects cleaner production technology innovation, whereas market-incentive regulation and public-participation regulation have the inverted U-shaped relationship with end-of-pipe technology innovation. In addition, the external financing constraints have a moderating effect on the relationship between environmental regulation and cleaner production technology innovation.

This study presents a novel empirical approach to identify financing constraints for innovation based on the concept of an ideal test (Hall, 2008). Firms were offered a hypothetical payment and asked to choose between alternatives of use. If they selected additional innovation projects, they must have had some unexploited investment opportunities that were not profitable using more costly external finance. We attribute constraints for innovation not only to lacking financing, but also to firms' innovative capability. Econometric results show that financial constraints do not depend on the availability of internal funds per se but that they are driven by innovative capability.

Investor protection is associated with greater investment sensitivity to q and lower investment sensitivity to cash flow. Finance plays a role in causing these effects; in countries with strong investor protection, external finance increases more strongly with q, and declines more strongly with cash flow. We further find that q and cash flow sensitivities are associated with ex post investment efficiency; investment predicts growth and profits more strongly in countries with greater q sensitivities and lower cash flow sensitivities. The paper's findings are broadly consistent with investor protection promoting accurate share prices, reducing financial constraints, and encouraging efficient investment.

We apply simulated method of moments to a dynamic model to infer the magnitude of financing costs. The model features endogenous investment, distributions, leverage, and default. The corporation faces taxation, costly bankruptcy, and linear-quadratic equity flotation costs. For large (small) firms, estimated marginal equity flotation costs start at 5.0% (10.7%) and bankruptcy costs equal to 8.4% (15.1%) of capital. Estimated financing frictions are higher for low-dividend firms and those identified as constrained by the Cleary and Whited-Wu indexes. In simulated data, many common proxies for financing constraints actually decrease when we increase financing cost parameters.

The Global Financing Facility (GFF), launched in 2015, aims to catalyse funding for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health, and nutrition. Few independent assessments have evaluated its processes and impact. We conducted a multi-layered policy analysis of GFF documents - the Investment Cases (ICs) and the GFF-linked World Bank Project Appraisal Documents (PADs) - examining the content of GFF documents for 28 countries, comparing four tracer themes (maternal and newborn health, adolescent health, community health, and quality), and analysing the policy processes in four country studies (Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda). From 2015 to 2022, GFF-linked PADs reported US$ 14.5 billion of funding across 26 countries through 30 PADs, with GFF contributing 4% to this value. GFF investments primarily focused on service delivery, governance, and performance-based financing. Countries received more targeted investments for maternal and newborn health and adolescent health linked to their burden of these tracer themes. Attention to community health and quality varied. ICs were broader than PADs and more inclusive in their development. Local contexts shaped policy processes. GFF supported priority-setting and learning; however, translating priorities into resourced actions proved challenging. Power dynamics influenced country ownership, donor coordination and resource mobilisation. The GFF is a significant opportunity to advance health for vulnerable populations. Progress in transparency and data use is evident, but accountability gaps, power imbalances, and limited engagement with civil society and private sector hinder national ownership. Further research is needed to determine GFF's attribution to catalytic resource mobilization.

Green finance is profoundly affecting the energy transition, and at the global level, renewable energy has entered a leapfrog development phase. Unlike the research object that existing studies focus on, this paper selects 53 countries and regions that have launched green finance businesses as research sample, and empirically assesses the effect of green finance on the development of renewable energy based on cross-country panel data spanning 2000 to 2021. The results show that renewable energy development is positively impacted by green finance, and the marginal impact of green finance is gradually growing as renewable energy development level improves; the contribution of green finance to renewable energy development holds only in developed countries, emerging economies, countries with high green financial development levels, and countries with strong environmental regulations, but not in relatively backward developing countries, countries with low green financial development levels, and countries with weak environmental regulations; sectors of renewable energy that rely more heavily on external financing are more likely to be promoted by green finance; green finance supports renewable energy development mainly through promoting investment in renewable energy fixed assets and innovation in technology of the sector. This study provides an empirical and theoretical basis for green finance to promote renewable energy development.

Despite a large literature on discretionary accruals, how the use of discretionary accruals impacts corporate financial decisions is not well understood. We hypothesize that a financially constrained firm with valuable projects can use discretionary accruals to credibly signal positive prospects, enabling it to raise capital to make the investments. We examine a large panel of firms during 1987 to 2009 and find that financially constrained firms with good investment opportunities have significantly higher discretionary accruals prior to investment compared to their unconstrained counterparts. Constrained high-accrual firms have higher earnings-announcement returns than constrained low-accrual firms, obtain more equity and debt financing, and invest in projects that appear to improve performance. These results provide supporting evidence that the use of discretionary accruals can help constrained firms with valuable projects ease those constraints and increase firm value.

Purpose – This study aims to focus on the optimal green R&D of a capital-constrained supply chain under different channel power structures as well as the impact of capital constraint, financing cost, channel power structure and cost-reducing efficiency on green R&D and supply chain profitability. Design/methodology/approach – A two-echelon supply chain is considered. The upstream firm engages in green R&D but has capital constraints that can be overcome by external financing. Green R&D is beneficial to reduce production costs and increase consumer demand. Based on whether or not the upstream firm is capital constrained and dominates the supply chain, four models are developed. Findings – Capital constraints significantly lower green R&D and supply chain profitability. Transferring leadership from the upstream to the downstream firms leads to higher green R&D levels and downstream firm profitability, whereas the upstream firm's profitability is increased (decreased) if green R&D investment efficiency is high (low) enough. Greater financing costs reduce green R&D and downstream firm profitability; however, the upstream firm's profitability under the model in which it functions as the follower increases if the initial capital is sufficient. More importantly, empirical analysis based on practice data is used to verify the theoretical results reported above. Practical implications – This study reveals how upstream firms in supply chains decide green R&D decisions in situations with capital constraints, providing managers and governments with an understanding of the impact of capital constraint, channel power structure, financing cost and cost-reducing efficiency on supply chain green R&D and profitability. Originality/value – The major contributions are the exploration of supply chain green R&D by taking into consideration channel power structures and cost-reducing efficiency and the validation of theoretical results using practice data.

Burkina Faso joined the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) in 2017 to address persistent gaps in funding for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH-N). Few empirical papers deal with how global funding mechanisms, and specifically GFF, support resource mobilisation for health nationally. This study describes the policy processes of developing the GFF planning documents (the Investment Case and Project Appraisal Document) in Burkina Faso. We conducted an exploratory qualitative policy analysis. Data collection included document review (  = 74) and in-depth semi-structured interviews (  = 23). Data were analysed based on the components of the health policy triangle. There was strong national political support to RMNCAH-N interventions, and the process of drawing up the investment case (IC) and the project appraisal document was inclusive and multi-sectoral. Despite high-level policy commitments, subsequent implementation of the World Bank project, including the GFF contribution, was perceived by respondents as challenging, even after the project restructuring process occurred. These challenges were due to ongoing policy fragmentation for RMNCAH-N, navigation of differing procedures and perspectives between stakeholders in the setting up of the work, overcoming misunderstandings about the nature of the GFF, and weak institutional anchoring of the IC. Insecurity and political instability also contributed to observed delays and difficulties in implementing the commitments agreed upon. To tackle these issues, transformational and distributive leaderships should be promoted and made effective. Few studies have examined national policy processes linked to the GFF or other global health initiatives. This kind of research is needed to better understand the range of challenges in aligning donor and national priorities encountered across diverse health systems contexts. This study may stimulate others to ensure that the GFF and other global health initiatives respond to local needs and policy environments for better implementation.

Data on corporate governance and disclosure practices reveal wide within-country variation that decreases with the strength of investors' legal protection. A simple model identifies three firm attributes related to that variation: investment opportunities, external financing, and ownership structure. Using firm-level governance and transparency data from 27 countries, we find that all three firm attributes are related to the quality of governance and disclosure practices, and firms with higher governance and transparency rankings are valued higher in stock markets. All relations are stronger in less investor-friendly countries, demonstrating that firms adapt to poor legal environments to establish efficient governance practices.