Environmental justice plays a central role in modern environmental governance, yet little causal evidence shows whether judicial reforms can induce firms to proactively improve ESG performance. This paper exploits the staggered establishment of environmental courts in China as a quasi-natural experiment and uses firm-level data from 2008 to 2023. Staggered difference-in-differences estimates show that environmental courts significantly improve corporate ESG performance. Judicial reform raises the expected cost of environmental violations and strengthens public scrutiny, which together enhance enforcement credibility and accountability. Consistent with regulatory substitution, the effects are stronger where command-and-control regulation and market-based environmental policies operate less effectively. Firms respond more strongly in larger and non-heavily polluting firms, in more competitive industries, and in regions with stronger legal institutions. We find no evidence of productivity losses and document spillover effects along supply chains and within industries. These findings highlight judicial enforcement as a complementary institutional tool that shapes firm behavior and amplifies the impact of environmental regulation.

Enterprises worldwide are facing the shock of anti-globalization, but there is little literature exploring the impact of the trade war on corporate innovation. In this paper, we first build a theoretical model to analyze the impact of the trade war on innovation. Then, we use detailed patent data of Chinese listed companies between 2015 and 2021, and find that the trade war does not affect corporate R&D expenditure, but significantly increases their patent output and patent quality. These results still hold after a battery of endogeneity tests. Next, we reveal that the Chinese government plays an important role in promoting corporate innovation during the trade war. Moreover, the trade war does not lead firms to shift their innovation pathways but increases high-end patents and collaborative innovation. Finally, heterogeneity analyses show that the trade war leads to more patents and patent citations for firms with higher economic policy uncertainty perception, less severe management myopia, and more intermediate goods import, but it has no impact on the R&D expenditures of any type of firms.

Entrepreneurial entry exposes individuals to substantial uncertainty, yet existing research has focused mainly on risks embedded in the venture itself. We examine whether perceived background risks-persistent, non-venture-specific threats outside the focal business decision-shape the decision to become an entrepreneur. Using panel data from China, a large emerging economy, we construct an index of perceived exposure to crime, terrorism, food and drug safety, infectious diseases, and environmental pollution. Probit estimates, complemented by instrumental-variable analyses based on variation in individuals' information environments, indicate that higher perceived background risk is associated with a significantly lower probability of entrepreneurial entry. The result is robust across alternative specifications, alternative definitions of entrepreneurship, and disaggregated measures of the five risk domains. Among these domains, health-related threats, especially infectious diseases and food and drug safety, exhibit the largest marginal effects. Mechanism tests point to three related margins: lower optimism, weaker opportunity-driven entry relative to necessity-driven entry, and reduced long-term orientation. This negative relationship is weaker among individuals with access to informal finance or real estate ownership and in more regulated industry environments. By linking perceived background risk to entrepreneurial entry, the paper shows how ambient threats can constrain real economic activity even when they are not directly tied to the venture itself.

We examine how peer ESG responsibility performance influences focal firms with similar technologies. Using a standard measure of technological links among Chinese A-share listed firms from 2011 to 2020, we identity a persistent peer effect in ESG performance among technologically similar firms. Mechanism analysis reveals that alleviating agency issues is a key driver of this peer effect. Specifically, technology-linked firms’ ESG performance boosts green awareness and mitigates managerial myopia in focal firms. Moreover, we find that this peer effect intensifies with stricter external societal oversight on focal firms. These findings provide new insights for firms’ ESG transformation from technological links.

This study examines the effect of corporate integrity culture on debt costs and its underlying mechanisms. The study constructs an index of corporate integrity culture based on the annual reports of Chinese A-share listed corporations by integrating large language models with machine learning. It analyzes the effect of integrity culture on debt costs. Findings show that corporations valuing integrity culture have significantly lower debt costs; this result holds after robustness checks. Mechanism analysis indicates that integrity culture strengthens corporate transparency and governance while reducing corporate violations and lowering debt costs. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact is more significant in private corporations, corporations with high external attention, and corporations in areas with higher marketization.

To explore the impact of digital adoption on managerial myopia, we use Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share data from 2008 to 2020 and employ manual reading and supervised machine-learning methods to construct a new indicator and accurately evaluate digital adoption in listed companies. By measuring the degree of managerial myopia, this paper analyzes the impact of corporate digital adoption on managerial myopia. The empirical resultsshow that corporate digital adoption significantly alleviates managerial myopia. These findings still hold after running endogeneity and robustness tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that the adoption of digital technology directly or indirectly alleviates managerial myopia by improving the incentive level for managers, strengthening the quality of internal control, increasing the proportion of institutional investors, and enhancing external supervision. Further analysis shows that different kinds of digital technologies can limit managerial myopia to varying degrees. Our heterogeneity analyses show that this effect is more pronounced for large enterprises, private enterprises, enterprises with long-term debt, enterprises in central regions, enterprises with high industry competition, manufacturing enterprises, enterprises with weak government connection and strong internal control and external supervision.

Given the advent of the digital era, digital transformation has become necessary for enterprise development. Political connections are the most important resources for enterprise development in most countries. However, the impact of political connections on corporate digital transformation has yet to be verified. This study uses ERNIE, a large language model, to construct a measurement of corporate digital transformation from the perspective of digital technology application through a textual analysis of the annual reports of A-share privately listed companies from 2008 to 2020 and analyzes the impact of political connections on corporate digital transformation and its mechanism of action. The findings demonstrate that political connections have a significant inhibitory effect on corporate digital transformation. This conclusion still holds after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. The mechanism analyses demonstrate that political connections primarily affect corporate digital transformation through three mechanisms: weakening risk, inhibiting innovation, and enhancing resource crowding. We theoretically expand the understanding of the economic impact of political connections and provide new ideas for accelerating enterprise digital transformation from the perspective of policy makers.

本文使用2012年和2014年中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,实证分析了户主的亲社会偏好对其家庭风险投资行为的影响.研究发现,户主的亲社会偏好对其家庭风险投资存在显著的正向影响,即亲社会偏好会促使家庭进行风险投资.在考虑了可能存在的内生性问题之后,这一结果仍然稳健.进一步地,分组回归后发现,在非农户口群体、使用互联网群体和偏好风险群体中,户主的亲社会偏好对其家庭风险投资的影响更加显著.本文的政策含义在于,在制定涉及家庭金融投资的相关政策时应充分考虑亲社会偏好对政策效果的影响.

1978年改革开放以来,中国经济更深地卷入了全球化,由于在贸易中较好地符合了比较优势理论,中国很长时间里经常账户处于盈余状态,由此积累了较大规模的外汇储备.本文在更长远的历史视角下考察中国的贸易盈余和外汇储备.首先,查找和计算1636年以来的进出口,相对应的白银流入和流出,以及重要年份的白银存量数据.其次,基于同一年份的货币购买力,将历史上的贸易和白银存量与新中国成立后,特别是1978年改革开放后的贸易和外汇储备进行比较.最后,计算人均进出口额和贸易盈余或者赤字,并进行长时段比较.研究发现:1636年到新中国成立前,中国的贸易规模不断扩大,新中国成立初期贸易额稍有下降,改革开放后贸易额大幅度增加,加入WTO后增速更快.以1990年美元计值,明代贸易带来的白银净流入高于清代,也高于民国初期和改革开放前,但显著低于改革开放后和加入WTO后的外汇储备.新中国成立前,人均贸易额不断增加,1948-1978年间人均贸易额有所下降,改革开放后,人均贸易额进一步增加.本文的发现有助于从长期视角考察改革开放后的经常账户和资本账户,得到更加全面和客观的认识.

本文利用2010、2012、2013和2015四个年份中国综合社会调查(CGSS)数据,以居民是否参加居委会或村委会选举投票来度量社会资本水平,系统分析了个人主观经济地位对其社会资本水平的影响.研究结果表明,人们较低的主观经济地位对其社会资本水平具有明显的消极影响:人们的主观经济地位越低,其参加投票的可能性越小.进一步的分析发现,个人主观经济地位是通过影响其公共参与信心以及对政府的信任进而影响其投票行为的,这种影响会因当地的法律知识水平和互联网使用整体状况不同而存在明显差异:在法律知识水平更高、互联网使用频率更高的地区,人们较低的主观经济地位对其参加选举投票的阻碍作用越小.本文的实证发现对于提升我国居民的社会资本水平有着重要的政策涵义.

Studies mainly focus on measuring the uncertainty of economic policy in different countries. However, few studies have focused on the construction of an environmental policy uncertainty index (EPUI). This study selects 460 newspapers from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure newspaper database from 2001 to 2016 and uses a text analysis method to directly construct China’s national, provincial, and prefecture-level EPUI. We have analyzed the distribution and fluctuation trend of the EPUI and investigated the impact of environmental policy uncertainty on environmental pollutant emissions at the prefecture level. The Chinese EPUI constructed for the first time in this study provides significant basic data for research in the environment and energy fields and provides important empirical evidence for achieving China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.

Employing a textual analysis of China's provincial newspapers, this study examines the effect of local media coverage of environmental pollution on corporate investment. Using a sample of publicly listed firms in polluting industries, we document a significantly positive effect of media coverage on both the total investment and green investment of these firms. Further analyses reveal that the positive effect of pollution-related media coverage on investment is more pronounced when firms have weak governance mechanisms. Overall, our findings imply that media not only play an important monitoring role but also enhance corporate social responsibility.

数字经济的迅速发展为当下国民经济核算体系带来了深刻变革与挑战.为了深入研究数字经济发展规模及其对宏观经济运行的贡献程度,文章尝试构建符合数字经济发展特征的核算体系.首先,文章以数字技术和数字化信息这两个关键要素的生产和应用为出发点,基于数字经济包容性增长的特征对数字经济进行定义;其次,重点界定数字经济产业核算范围,并结合现有分类标准识别数字经济产业活动,详细讨论了各个产业的核算方法,并利用现有数据进行了初步核算;最后,结合数字经济发展现状与特征,文章对数字经济核算的后续研究进行了展望,认为统计部门需要进一步完善现有统计分类体系,充分挖掘利用数字平台数据,展开数字经济专项调查,为数字经济核算奠定良好基础.

<span id="ChDivSummary" name="ChDivSummary" class="abstract-text">本文利用2010、2012、2014和2016年中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS）数据,从幸福经济学的视角分析中国人的创业行为。研究显示,人们的创业行为显著降低了他们的生活满意度,但人们的创业行为会显著提升他们的工作满意度和整体幸福感。深入分析如何缓解创业对生活满意度的负面影响,结果表明,主观经济地位越高、对未来的预期越乐观或者社会资本越多,越有助于减轻创业对人们生活满意度的负面影响。本文结论不仅从幸福经济学的视角解释了人们的创业选择,而且为提升创业者生活满意度和鼓励创业的政策制定提供有力的支撑。</span>

本文利用"中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)"数据,从集体主义文化的视角研究了人们客观相对收入对主观经济地位的影响.考虑了内生性问题的回归结果显示,人们在其所在区县的客观相对收入水平对其主观经济地位有着显著的积极影响,即客观相对收入水平越高,则主观经济地位越高.进一步地,本文在"集体主义"变量构建的基础上,实证检验了"集体主义"背景下客观相对收入对主观经济地位的异质性影响,发现在集体主义文化氛围更加浓厚的地区,人们的客观相对收入对其主观经济地位的影响更大.本文的政策涵义在于,经济发展过程中需要重视相对收入的分化和主观经济地位感知,它不仅影响到人们的经济行为,更影响人们的幸福获得,政府在再分配政策的制定和实施过程中要充分考虑地区文化差异的重要作用.

一个文明在世界上影响力的重要测度是其经济活动在世界经济中的相对地位,因而深刻认识中华文明的历史影响力以及1978年以来改革开放对中华民族复兴的意义,有必要对中国经济在世界经济中相对地位的演变进行长时段研究.已有研究大多引用麦迪逊估算,其准确性值得商榷.本文应用国际学术界前沿的历史国民收入核算方法得到的最新世界各国GDP数据,结合中国原始历史记载,大幅校准了基于麦迪逊人均GDP猜估值得到的中国在世界经济中的相对地位,重新认识了中国在世界经济中相对地位的演变.研究发现:第一,公元1000-1978年,中国GDP在世界总GDP中的比重先升后降,峰值为1600年的34.6％,而不是麦迪逊估算的1600年和1820年两次高峰,1600年34.6％的峰值高于麦迪逊32.9％的最高峰估计.西方国家工业革命后,中国GDP在世界总GDP中的比重断崖式下降,1952年和1978年分别仅占5.2％和4.9％.第二,改革开放后,中国GDP占世界GDP的比重迅速恢复,2017年达到18.2％.第三,以人均GDP衡量,中国从18世纪上半期开始,生活水平开始落后于主要欧洲国家,中西大分流已经出现,而非加州学派认为的工业革命后.本文研究表明,1978年改革开放开启的是自公元1600以来中国经济的首次历史性复兴.

经济观念是用经济关键词所表达的思想,是人们对经济现象和经济问题的看法.尽管中国社会具有悠久的文化历史、丰富的文化内涵和独特的文化特征,但针对“经济观念”内涵及其发展变迁的研究较为有限.经济观念作为文化思想的核心,不但能够形成个体对特定环境下其他人如何行动的预期,更本能地引导着个体在复杂的环境中做出决策,对制度变迁和经济发展都发挥着非常重大且深远的作用,而经济观念本身的形成与演进也受到经济发展的显著影响.目前,基于经济观念视角的文化与经济研究已经成为经济学的一个新兴的重要研究领域.为了进一步促进该领域理论基础和实证研究的提高,由《经济研究》编辑部与中央财经大学经济学院共同主办的第三届文化与经济论坛于2017年12月16日在中央财经大学召开.

清华大学中国与世界经济研究中心承担了国际比较项目中的中国北宋太平兴国五年至北宋宣和七年(980-1125)、明代(1402-1626)和清代(1685-1840)的历史GDP(国内生产总值)核算研究工作.本论文是该项目的一部分. 本文测算了北宋太平兴国五年至宣和七年的财政收支,并在比对国际比较项目中北宋GDP核算数据的基础上,对北宋时期的财政收支演变过程和趋势、结构组成、平衡状况等进行了深入分析,并尝试性地探讨了北宋时期的治国理念、财政收支和战争之间的关系问题.论文广泛吸纳了已有研究成果以及估算得到的数据,并使用了大量一手资料,包括《宋史》、 《续资治通鉴长编》、 《食货志》、《宋会要》和地方志等,详细估算了北宋(980-1125)的财政收入和财政支出,构建了北宋财政收支的时间序列数据,对北宋时期的财政状况及其相关要素的变化进行尝试性的解释.

2018年7月29日至8月3日,第十八届世界经济史大会(国际经济史学会发起三年一届)在美国波士顿麻省理工学院(MIT)召开.此次大会由国际经济史协会主办、麻省理工学院及哈佛大学等承办,来自全球1000多名学者出席该会,除了开幕及闭幕2次全体大会学术报告(plenary session)外,在5天的会议中,按照讨论的专题共设203个并行举行的会议专场(parallel session),主题涵盖十分广泛.