Co-authored Paper by Associate Researcher Liu Yiming Published in Authoritative Journal Journal of Financial Research

Recently, the research achievement Will Green Enterprises Get Lower Loan Interest Rates? — From the Perspective of Commercial Banks' Loan Pricing Behavior by Associate Researcher Liu Yiming (corresponding author) from the School of Economics, Shandong University, and Zhang Tian (first author) from the School of Economics and Trade, Shandong Management University, was published in the 3rd issue of 2025 of Journal of Financial Research, an authoritative journal.

The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China points out that promoting the green and low-carbon development of the economy and society is a key link to achieve high-quality development. However, green products have the attribute of quasi-public goods, and their return on investment is usually lower than the reasonable level expected by investors. Reducing financing costs is one of the important means to improve return on investment and guide social capital to flow into green industries. Therefore, whether green credit, as an important support and policy practice for the high-quality development of green and low-carbon economy, can provide preferential loan interest rates for green enterprises is crucial to further promoting the green transformation of the economy.

Using desensitized 逐笔 loan data of a certain province, this paper examines the loan interest rate level of green enterprises from the perspective of commercial banks' loan pricing behavior. The study finds that the loan interest rate of green enterprises is significantly lower than that of non-green enterprises, and the strengthening of environmental regulation intensity and the intensification of green credit competition are the internal reasons. The lower loan interest rate of green enterprises is not only the recognition of enterprises' green attributes by the credit market, but also the result of the promotion of relevant policies. Further, there are significant differences in green loan pricing among different banks and enterprises. State-owned banks provide the lowest green loan interest rate, and small, medium and micro green enterprises have a larger drop in loan interest rate, but the guarantee terms are stricter. In addition, banks' green loan pricing effectively reflects credit risk and is efficient. This paper provides a useful reference for improving the efficiency of the green credit system.

Liu Yiming is an Associate Researcher at the School of Economics, Shandong University, and a Guest Researcher at the Shandong Institute for High-quality Development of Private Economy. His research directions are corporate governance, supply chain finance, green finance and sustainable development, and Marxist political economy. His research achievements have been published in authoritative journals such as Economic Research Journal, The Journal of World Economy, and Journal of Financial Research. He has presided over a number of projects such as the Youth Project of Shandong Provincial Social Science Fund, the Youth Project of Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, the General Program of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, and the Special Program (in-station) of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. He is the person in charge of the "Digital Supply Chain Finance Innovation Team", an excellent young innovation team of universities in Shandong Province in 2023.