Can agricultural credit subsidies affect county-level carbon intensity in China?

Relieving credit restrictions can change the high-pollution producing style for agriculture, which is critical for low-carbon development. Using the time-varying difference in difference (DID) method and county-level panel data from 2000 to 2018 in China, we find that the agricultural credit subsidies (ACS) policy significantly re-duces carbon intensity in the treated counties. For this effect, agricultural scale expansion and technology adop-tion are potential mechanisms. We further find that the effects are more salient in the areas with more primary industry outputs and high carbon emissions. Besides, other approaches show that our conclusions are robust. Subsidies for the banks' agricultural affairs direct credit into the agriculture sector and thereby promote carbon intensity reduction. (c) 2023 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.