How Does a Green Supply Chain Improve Corporate Carbon Performance

Drawing from A-share listed companies’ data from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets in China (2013–2022), this paper adopts the differential model to test the impact and mechanism of a green supply chain (GSC) pilot on pilot enterprises. The results show that the GSC pilot effectively improved the carbon performance of the pilot enterprises and passed a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis finds that green innovation, efficiency improvement, and environmental information disclosure (EID) can reduce the carbon emissions of enterprises. The moderating effect discovers that environmental regulation and environmental attention effectively strengthened the role of the GSC pilot in improving carbon performance. In addition, this paper finds that the pilot had a better carbon reduction effect on mature, technology-intensive, and non-state-owned enterprises. The above research conclusions provide strong support for the government to build a GSC and promote low-carbon development.