---
title: "Green transition research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “green transition” appeared in 611 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (327), finance (172) and management (64)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-transition
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-transition.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “green transition” appeared in 611 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (327), finance (172) and management (64). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “green transition”

Research on “green transition” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “green transition” appeared in 611 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (327), finance (172) and management (64).
- 185 of them were published in 2025, against 1 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Central University of Finance and Economics (11), Xiamen University (11) and Shandong University of Finance and Economics (10).
- The journals publishing most of them were International Review of Economics & Finance (58), Energy Economics (52) and Finance research letters (46).
- The most-cited of them is “Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities” (Energy Economics, 2021), with 1,192 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 0 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 18 | 35 | 71 | 89 | 90 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 30 | 65 | 62 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 26 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 13 | 7 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 1 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 8 | 30 | 63 | 115 | 185 | 190 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 58 |
| 2 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 52 |
| 3 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 46 |
| 4 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 44 |
| 5 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 26 |
| 6 | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 22 |
| 7 | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 19 |
| 8 | [Economic Change and Restructuring](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-change-and-restructuring.md) | 18 |
| 9 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 16 |
| 10 | [Journal of Innovation & Knowledge](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-innovation-knowledge.md) | 11 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Central University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 11 |
| 2 | [Xiamen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xiamen-university.md) | 11 |
| 3 | [Shandong University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shandong-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 10 |
| 4 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 10 |
| 5 | [Zhejiang Gongshang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhejiang-gongshang-university.md) | 10 |
| 6 | [Anhui University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/anhui-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 9 |
| 7 | [Renmin University of China](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/renmin-university-of-china.md) | 9 |
| 8 | [Sichuan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/sichuan-university.md) | 9 |
| 9 | Bank of Italy | 8 |
| 10 | [Beijing Institute of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beijing-institute-of-technology.md) | 8 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 323 |
| 2 | Italy | 63 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 36 |
| 4 | France | 32 |
| 5 | Spain | 25 |
| 6 | Germany | 24 |
| 7 | United States | 21 |
| 8 | Australia | 16 |
| 9 | Denmark | 15 |
| 10 | Netherlands | 14 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 77 |
| 2 | [environmental regulation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-regulation.md) | 69 |
| 3 | [green innovation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-innovation.md) | 68 |
| 4 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 66 |
| 5 | [financial constraints](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/financial-constraints.md) | 56 |
| 6 | [state-owned enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/state-owned-enterprises.md) | 50 |
| 7 | [CO2 emissions](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/co2-emissions.md) | 33 |
| 8 | [sustainable development](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/sustainable-development.md) | 33 |
| 9 | [digital transformation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/digital-transformation.md) | 32 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,192 | 17.7 | [Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105247) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2021-03-26 | Kerui Du, Yuanyuan Cheng, Xin Yao |
| 2 | 791 | 11.4 | [Can the green credit policy stimulate green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105134) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2021-01-24 | Guoqiang Hu, Xiaoqi Wang, Yu Wang |
| 3 | 646 | 8.0 | [How does environmental regulation promote technological innovations in the industrial sector? Evidence from Chinese provincial panel data](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111310) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2020-02-24 | Xiaoling Ouyang, Qiong Li, Kerui Du |
| 4 | 645 | 14.8 | [Do ESG ratings promote corporate green innovation? A quasi-natural experiment based on SynTao Green Finance's ESG ratings](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102623) | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 2023-03-17 | Juxian Wang, Mengdi Ma, Tianyi Dong et al. |
| 5 | 323 | 7.1 | [How effective has the low-carbon city pilot policy been as an environmental intervention in curbing pollution? Evidence from Chinese industrial enterprises](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106523) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2023-01-25 | Shubo Yang, Atif Jahanger, Mohammad Razib Hossain |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “green transition”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-transition

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-green-transition,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “green transition”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-transition}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).