Low-carbon city pilot policy and green investors entry

➢Green investor entry (GIE) is high with low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCP).➢Policy attractiveness is stronger in non-state-owned, highly polluting enterprises.➢LCCP alleviating financing constraints and boosts enterprises risk-taking, enabling GIE. Using low-carbon city pilot policy as a natural experiment, this study investigates whether low-carbon city pilot policy can help enterprises attract green investor entry in China. The results show that low-carbon city pilot policy significantly attracts green investor entry, which is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises and heavily polluting enterprises. Mechanism studies indicate that low-carbon city pilot policy facilitates green investor entry by alleviating financing constraints and strengthening enterprises' risk-taking.