The ESG peer effect of green finance on brown firms: based on convergent competition and imitation learning perspective

Purpose Examining the impacts and specific paths of the green credit policy on the ESG peer effect of brown firms from the behavioral economics perspective. Design/methodology/approach We selected A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2022 as the research sample and constructed a difference-in-differences (DID) estimation model based on the issuance of the “Green Credit Guidelines” in 2012 as a natural experiment. From the perspective of behavioral economics, we examined the impact of green credit policies on the peer effect of ESG responsibility fulfillment of brown enterprises and the specific paths. Findings We find that the green credit policy significantly enhances the ESG peer effect of brown firms, which is asymmetric under a multilevel contextual reference. Originality/value We construct a peer ESG normative objective model under the new LIM framework, prove the existence of Nash equilibrium under any peer preference parameter ß and consider the peer ESG utility maximization function under green finance shocks.