When Green Certification Pays Off: Financial Returns from Environmental Regulation Compliance

This dataset supports the study “When Green Certification Pays Off: Financial Returns from Environmental Regulation Compliance”, which examines whether participation in China’s green manufacturing demonstration program improves corporate financial performance. The core research hypothesis is that green factory certification, as a form of voluntary environmental regulation, enhances firms’ financial performance by encouraging green innovation and attracting green investors, thereby generating both operational and market benefits. The study further explores whether this effect varies across firms with different certification intensity, environmental compliance records, public environmental awareness, industry pollution intensity, and exposure to extreme weather shocks.