Green credit policies and heavily polluting enterprises' maturity mismatch between investment and financing: a difference-in-differences approach

Taking the Green Credit Guidelines as a natural experiment, we explore the effect of green credit policies on heavily polluting enterprises' maturity mismatch between investment and financing using the difference-in-differences method. We investigate the influencing mechanism of green credit policies on heavily polluting enterprises' maturity mismatch in investment and financing from the new perspective of overinvestment. We find that green credit policies alleviate heavily polluting enterprises' maturity mismatch between investment and financing by inhibiting overinvestment. In addition, we find that the effect of green credit policies on the maturity mismatch between investment and financing is more significant for the enterprises in the cities with higher digital financial inclusion, higher corporate social responsibility, and higher green innovation. Further, we find that green credit policies can help promote heavily polluting enterprises to increase green investment. Green credit policies alleviate heavily polluting enterprises' maturity mismatches betweeninvestment and financing.Overinvestment plays a mediation role.Green credit policies promote the green investment of heavily polluting enterprises.