The impact of green finance on high-quality agricultural development: evidence from China

Purpose As a critical pathway toward achieving agricultural modernization, high-quality agricultural development requires the efficient optimization of factor allocation. This study aims to examine green finance and assess its impact on high-quality agricultural development from the perspective of financial resource allocation. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive evaluation index system for both green finance and high-quality agricultural development is constructed, employing the Epsilon-Based Measure and global Malmquist-Luenberger index in conjunction with the global entropy weight method for measurement. Furthermore, the system generalized method of moments (GMM) method is employed to empirically analyze the influence of green finance on high-quality agricultural development. Findings The conclusion that green finance can effectively drive high-quality agricultural development remains robust across multiple empirical tests. Environmental regulation plays a substantial positive role in promoting high-quality agricultural development; however, it also attenuates the positive impact of green finance on such progress. Social implications This paper recommends strengthening the green financial system, diversifying green financial services and fully leveraging the potential of green finance in advancing high-quality agricultural development. Originality/value This research integrates green finance and high-quality agricultural development into a unified analytical framework. It theoretically explicates multiple mechanisms through which green finance influences high-quality agricultural development and empirically tests these relationships using inter-provincial panel data and the system GMM. This approach broadens the analytical scope of research on the determinants of high-quality agricultural development.