Fintech, as the fusion of finance and technology, has not only transformed the traditional financial industry and contributed to reshaping the real economy. But also, it holds the potential to offer a feasible solution for achieving green and sustainable development. This paper investigates the impact of Fintech on corporate carbon emissions (CCEs) by using data from the National Tax Survey Database (NTSD). The results suggest that Fintech development leads to a reduction in CCEs. Our findings remain robust even after using the instrumental variable approach to alleviate endogeneity problems. The mechanism analysis reveals that Fintech reduces CCEs via alleviating financing constraints, improving energy efficiency, and promoting green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that Fintech dramatically decreases CCEs from coal energy consumption, while increasing CCEs from consuming power and gas energy. Additionally, carbon emissions from state‐owned and foreign companies experience a more pronounced reduction through Fintech compared to those from private firms. Furthermore, firms in eastern and middle regions are more vulnerable to Fintech development. Moreover, enterprises in non‐high‐tech industries and high‐polluting industries exhibit noteworthy performance in reducing carbon emissions through Fintech adoption. This research offers policymakers a path to effectively govern CCEs and achieve their carbon reduction targets.

This research aims to investigate the changing of effective corporate tax rate during the political cycle of Provincial Party Congresses with the data from Chinese industrial businesses from 1998 to 2009. The study shows that the effective tax rate for enterprises fluctuates with the political cycle of Provincial Party Congresses. The effective tax rate, in particular, tends to rise in the year before and during the Provincial Party Congresses, then decline year after year. Further study reveals variation in the impact of political cycles on officials and enterprises with various characteristics; for example, the impact of the corporation effective tax rate is more obvious for male officials, private firms, and so on. At the same time, the paper does not find a significant age ‘ceiling effect’ among prefecture-level officials in China. And the regional rule of law construction does not have a significant effect on the political cyclicality of corporate effective tax rates, whereas the political cyclicality of effective corporate tax rates is more pronounced in regions with higher government investment intensity. Finally, this paper puts forward policy recommendations such as improving officials’ promotion and assessment mechanisms and optimizing the government’s policy implementation.

The political environment has a significant impact on the sustainable development of enterprises. This manuscript aims to investigate the effect of policy uncertainty and official social capital on enterprises’ effective tax rate (ETR) due to the change of officials. Based on the panel data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database from 1998 to 2009, it is shown that the policy uncertainty caused by the change of local government officials significantly increases the ETR of enterprises. Meanwhile, municipal officials who have social ties with provincial officials in their province also tend to raise the ETR of industrial enterprises, and this tendency is more evident when the officials take office. Further research shows that the effects vary in many aspects for policy uncertainty and social capital on the ETR of enterprises. The findings of this manuscript provide support for a deeper understanding of the change in local government fiscal policies and give suggestions to strengthen political environmental governance for the sustainable development of enterprises.