How Do Green Finance and Green Technology Innovation Impact the Yangtze River Economic Belt’s Industrial Structure Upgrading in China? A Moderated Mediation Effect Model Based on Provincial Panel Data
, Decai Tang 5 and Xiaoxue Zhang 6Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The introduction of the article cannot leave the reader in doubt that The Yangtze River Economic Belt is the economic key area of China, and therefore the authors' focus on this area is correct. The importance and relevance of the topic is beyond any doubt, as it studies the economic development of the region in accordance with environmental requirements. This approach used to be neglected in the past and priority was given exclusively to economic growth. The article adheres to the principles of scientific research work. The authors formulate a total of 9 hypotheses, which are interconnected in the Theoretical Hypothesis Framework. For better understanding of the presented results, I recommend moving chapter 4.3 to the beginning of the third chapter. The work methodology is understandable. The findings and recommendations are relevant and inspiring.
I can't judge the language. I recommend enlarging the graphs presented in Figure 3. In Figure 5, I recommend better positioning of the legend as it is not easy to read.
Author Response
Dear reviewer, thank you very much for your valuable comments and suggestions. Based on your suggestions, We have all made changes accordingly and it has helped us a lot, thank you again.
Point 1: For better understanding of the presented results, I recommend moving chapter 4.3 to the beginning of the third chapter.
Response 1: Thank you for your valuable advice. Based on your suggestion, we have adjusted 4.3 in the original manuscript of the paper to the chapter you suggested (originally Chapter 3); please see lines 406-412.
Point 2: I recommend enlarging the graphs presented in Figure 3. In Figure 5, I recommend better positioning of the legend as it is not easy to read.
Response 2: We have enlarged the chart shown in Figure 3 （lines 109-112）. Based on your comments, we have adjusted the position of Figure 5 to the bottom of Table 2 for better understanding. We will definitely pay more attention to details in the future. Thanks again for your reminder.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The study is quite interesting, and the outcomes of this paper could contribute to the literature (after minor revision). Analyzes are limited to one country (China), which is a weak point in the study, but the methodology can be replicated for analyzes at the level of extended samples.
Overall, this article is clearly written, but some revisions are needed regarding the organization of the content and reporting of the results.
For more details, see the comments below.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your valuable comments and suggestions. Based on your suggestions, we have revised the title, abstract, introduction, argumentative approach to the proposal of the paper line by line, which has greatly improved the article, and we sincerely thank you again for your professionalism and patience.
Point 1:The title is too long. Abbreviations are not recommended in the title.
Response 1: Based on your suggestion, we have replaced the abbreviation Yangtze River Economic Belt with its full name and shortened the title as much as possible, but with limited reduction; please look at lines 2-6.
Point 2:
1.The first idea - of introduction into context (from the abstract) - must have a framing in time (to define what "upgraded immediately" means).
2.The introduction places the debate in a broader context, sufficiently review the currentstate of the field of research and quote key scientific publications.For the documentary research at the beginning of the introduction, the source of the data
must be specified (lines 36-46).
Response 2:
- Based on your suggestions, we have improved the abstract section by taking into account the research background in the introduction of the article, thus further clarifying the need for an immediate upgrading of the industrial structure of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Please look at lines 18-22.
- Thank you very much for the reminder. We have added the data source; please see lines 104-105.
Point 3: A balancing of the contents of the first two sections is required. The introduction is too broad; the theoretical analysis is very brief and presents little evidence from the scientific literature.
Response 3: Your comments are very valuable. We have separated the literature review section from the introduction and made it a separate part of the article so that it balances the content of the introduction and the theoretical analysis. For details, please see lines 113-215.
Point 4: Authors need to present more recent scientific evidence on the role of financial services and policies that encourage financial allocation for the green investment (lines 208-215).
Response 4: Based on your suggestion, references that can be used as a scientific basis have been added; see lines 218-227.
Point 5:The authors showed that "financial institutions can promote energy conservation and emission reduction". Authors are requested to provide evidence from the literature (lines216-217).
Response 5: Based on your suggestion, references that can be used as a scientific basis have been added; see lines 227-229.
Point 6: If no evidence is presented from the literature, the following statements remain at the intuitive level:
- “green technology innovation optimizes resource allocation” (line 224);
- “green technology innovation has balanced the supply and demand structure” (line 227);
- “green technology innovation improves the industrial chain system” (line 233);- “green finance effectively disperses the risk of green technological innovation for
environmental protection enterprises” (line 246).
Response 6: Based on your suggestion, references that can be used as a scientific basis have been added; see lines 236-247 and lines 258-260.
Point 7: The presentation of the entropy method steps must be done in a descriptive (not indicative) manner.
Response 7: Based on your suggestions, we have made the appropriate changes; please see lines 343-370.
Point 8: Authors must specify which are the six most energy-intensive industries (line 355).
In order to facilitate the understanding of the readers (who have more or less knowledge
in this field), the authors must explain that the negative trend of the first two proxy
variables used to assess green finance (interest expenditure of the six high-energyconsuming industries to the total interest expenditure of industrial industries; market value of the six high-energy-consuming industries to the total market value) indicates an increase in interest for green credit and green securities (for which, in table 1, they received a negative attribute).
Response 8: Based on your comments, we have specified the six most energy-intensive industries; see lines 400-404. We have also further explained the first two proxy variables; see lines 376-389.
Point 9: Authors must specify whether the proxy variables selected for analysis have been used in other research papers (lines 355-366).
Response 9: We add references for selecting green finance indicator systems; see lines 373-375.
Point 10: The annotation (1) below Table 1 must have a corresponding in the table.
Response 10: The annotation (1) in table 1 has been added correspondingly; please see Table 1..
Point 11:Before Table 2, a detail on how to obtain the data is required.
Response 11: We have added the data sources before Table 2; please see lines 406-412.
Point 12: Descriptive statistics are set out in Table 4 and receive no interpretation. A short detail is required.
Response 12: Based on your suggestion, we have made a brief presentation on Table 4; please see lines 532-534.
Point 13: On lines 531-533 it is stated that: “Among the control variables, fixed asset investment(FAI) and urbanization (UR) are significantly positively correlated with USI, while energy intensity (El) is significantly negatively correlated with USI”. The authors must state that these correlations are not validated in all models.
Response 13: Thank you very much for your valuable comments. We have revised this section to make it more precise; please see lines 574-579.
Point 14: The last section presents some suggestions to capitalize on the research results. The way of presentation is quite incisive. A descriptive presentation would be more appropriate.
Response 14: Your comments were very helpful, and we have made some changes in this section, see lines 658-681, lines 687-693 and lines 710-714.
Point 15: The citation style must be in line with the recommendation of the journal.
Response 15: We have revised the citation in this paper according to the journal references requirements; please see the references section (lines743-1001).
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
