Stand by or Follow? Responsibility Diffusion Effects and Green Credit

Understanding the behavior of private capital holders in green investment is a key to the success of green finance policies such as green credit policies. In current literature, there still remain unsettled controversies on the behaviors of private capital holders. The responsibility diffusion theory indicates that private capital holders do not follow commercial banks that issue green credit. However, the signal transmission theory implies that private capital holders may follow. Stand by or follow? We apply the two-way fixed-effects model to analyze the behavior pattern of private capital holders in green investment, using the panel data of 443 listed companies in China. The results show that the private capital holders’ behavior is affected by responsibility diffusion effect.