Patient Capital and Greenwashing

Against the backdrop of Chinas "dual-carbon" goals being integrated into the top-level design of ecological civilization construction, frequent corporate "greenwashing" behavior (i.e., selective or symbolic disclosure of environmental information to mislead stakeholders) has severely impeded the efficiency of green financial resource allocation and the digital transformation of the real economy. Existing studies predominantly focus on the unidirectional impact of ESG performance on capital, yet systematically neglect the critical question of whether patient capital (long-term value-oriented capital) can inversely constrain corporate "greenwashing." Using panel data from the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies (20102022), this study constructs a two-way fixed-effects model, incorporating patient capital as an independent variable into the analytical framework of corporate environmental information quality for the first time. Textual analysis and panel threshold models are introduced to optimize measurement methods. The findings reveal that patient capital significantly inhibits greenwashing through three pathways: alleviating financing constraints, strengthening governance mechanisms, and promoting green technological innovation. This effect is more pronounced in heavily polluting industries and non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). The study transcends the limitations of traditional ESG governance reliant on external ratings or policy intervention, revealing the market-endogenous constraint mechanism on greenwashing from the perspective of capital attributes. It provides novel insights for optimizing green financial instruments and guiding long-term capital to "vote with its feet."