Using the implementation of China's green factory policy as the institutional setting, which allows firms to apply for government certification as green factories (GF), we examine how firms that are not GF-certified (focal firms) respond to their GF-certified peers within the same industry in the context of green innovation. Consistent with the crowding-out effect explanation, we find that the green innovation of focal firms is negatively associated with the number of green-certified peers. Our results remain robust across alternative measures of patent quality and a series of additional robustness checks. Channel analyses indicate that reduced access to government subsidies and procurement orders, along with greater financial constraints and higher cost of debt, help explain these findings. Overall, green-certified firms leverage government support and their superior resources to crowd out focal firms. Our findings provide a novel perspective on how GF-certified firms influence the green innovation of industry competitors, thereby highlighting the unintended negative externalities of the green manufacturing policy.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict, one of the most significant geopolitical events in recent years, has had profound and lasting effects on the global energy landscape, particularly the natural gas market. This study employs a difference-in-differences (DID) methodology to evaluate the impact of the conflict and EU emergency policies on natural gas prices in the EU, utilizing data from the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) for the period 2020-2024 divided into short, medium, and long-term phases. The findings reveal that (1) the conflict significantly drove up EU natural gas prices, with increases of 381.9 %, 271.6 %, and 172.7 % in the short, medium, and long terms, respectively, compared to the control group, demonstrating both persistent and diminishing effects; (2) implementing EU emergency policies initially resulted in a 396 % price increase compared to the control group, indicating a pronounced short-term negative impact that weakened over time; (3) rising prices of alternative energy sources continue to support increases in natural gas prices; and (4) a close geopolitical relationship with Russia may temporarily ease price pressures, while strong ties with Ukraine tend to elevate prices, though these effects quickly diminish. In conclusion, China should enhance the identification of strategic risks, design effective emergency plans considering potential adverse impacts, strengthen the construction of alternative energy systems and gas reserves, and leverage the rigid characteristics of its natural gas supply chain to improve overall resilience and efficiency.

This study investigates the influence of local crime on corporate employment in China. Leveraging a comprehensive data set of 85 million court judicial documents, we construct city-level crime measures. We find that local crime is negatively associated with corporate employment. Using China's Gang Crime Crackdown program as a quasi-natural experiment and the difference-in-differences approach, we further identify the causal relationship. Violent crimes and those with longer sentences drive the negative correlation between local crime and corporate employment. This relation is particularly pronounced among low-skilled employees, in cities with inadequate commuter security, and in financially constrained firms. Our findings emphasize the role of a secure social environment in the local labor market and firms' employment decisions.

Firms engage in tax avoidance (TA) for two reasons: to save funds or to manage agency conflicts. We hypothesize that if the motivation stems from agency conflicts, managers are likely to manipulate the text of annual reports to mask TA to preserve their private interests. In contrast, where firms engage in TA to save money, managers are likely to refrain from comment in the annual report because they have no incentives to defend their TA activities. Using a sample of Chinese firms and a textual analysis of the management discussion and analysis (MD&A) section of annual reports, we find robust evidence to support the agency conflict motives of TA. Specifically, we document that when a firm increases its TA, its MD&A is similar to that of its peers and to its previous annual report, and contains more tax-related key words. Further analysis shows that the impact of TA on tax-defensive behaviors is more salient for firms with small board size, less transparency, or low financial constraints. Last, we find that, conditional on a firm's TA activities, text manipulation in an MD&A alleviates the adverse impact of the TA on immediate- and short-term stock returns.

党的十八大以来,我国财税体制改革取得重大进展,现代财政制度框架基本建立.改革内容可以总结为:通过匹配事权与支出责任、明确财政收入划分、完善转移支付制度优化了我国财政体制;通过强化预算收入、支出、编制、执行、绩效、信息公开的管理和化解地方债务风险改善了政府预算管理;通过推动税收立法和税收征管制度改革健全了我国税收制度.总体来说,近十年的改革加强了财税法制化建设、贯彻了新发展理念、推行了大规模减税降费,为我国经济高质量发展提供了有力保障.

本文以2006-2015年A股上市公司为样本,采取双重差分模型检验融资融券对公司财务杠杆的影响,发现公司成为融资融券标的后,其财务杠杆显著降低.机制检验显示,融资融券通过三个渠道降低财务杠杆:(1)融资融券放大财务困境的负面影响、促使管理者降低财务风险;(2)融资融券促使管理者降低投资水平、债务融资需求减少;(3)融资融券使债务融资成本上升.进一步分析发现,融资融券可减少过度负债.将融资和融券机制分开检验发现,两者均可降低财务杠杆.异质性分析显示,融资融券的作用在非国有企业、小规模企业中更加显著.运用模糊断点回归和倾向得分匹配法排除样本选择偏差、考虑混杂效应、改变模型设置、更换样本区间后,结果依然显著.该结果说明融资融券可以有效降低公司财务杠杆.

This study analyzes the impact of air pollution on the city in which customers are located on the trade credit strategy of their suppliers. Following the framework of environmental stress theory, we hypothesize that suppliers change their trade credit strategy to grant less trade credit to their customers located in cities with severe air pollution. Our findings are consistent with our hypothesis. We find that the adverse effects of air pollution occur through financial constraints, operating risk, and customers' default risk, corroborating the underlying logic of our proposed hypothesis. Additional analyses suggest that changes in a supplier's trade credit are more pronounced when a customer is in a polluting industry, has low total factor productivity, receives fewer government subsidies, has fewer bank loans, is far from its suppliers, and has poor inventory management.

The recently invoked Environmental Inspection Program (EIP) in China, which aims to guarantee compliance with environmental rules in the industrial sector, is the basis for our investigation comparing the cash holdings for manufacturing firms in EIP cities and non-EIP cities. While previous studies examine the determinants of a firm's cash holdings, how environmental rule enforcement contributes to such decisions is unclear. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we compare the cash holdings before and after the EIP (2014–2018) for manufacturing firms headquartered in EIP cities and non-EIP cities. We find that firms in EIP cities hoard less cash than non-EIP cities, suggesting that EIP enhances cash management efficiency. The findings also indicate that the negative relation between the EIP and cash holdings is driven by poor governance and pollution severity.

我国劳动力市场化程度日益加深导致劳动者职业转换愈加频繁,失业保险的作用日益突出.本文探究了失业保险金水平对企业财务杠杆的影响.运用2009-2019年上市公司数据进行实证分析,结果发现失业保险金上升会导致公司财务杠杆下降.渠道检验显示,提高失业保险金可以降低员工失业风险溢酬,公司劳动力成本下降,公司有更多自由现金流和盈利进行内源融资和偿还债务,公司财务杠杆下降.进一步分析发现,失业保险金的作用在失业率高的地区更加显著.主要结果在分别运用《社会保险法》和《关于调整失业保险金标准的指导意见》构造双重差分模型和工具变量解决内生性问题、更改模型设置、排除投资水平影响、删除特殊省份、更换样本期间后,依然成立.本文结果说明加大失业保险保障力度有助于降低企业财务风险.

We study how short-selling pressure affects tax aggressiveness using the pilot program on short sales in Regulation SHO. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that higher short-selling pressure significantly reduces tax aggressiveness. To explain the reduction, we offer a simple agency-theoretic model and provide evidence that when short-selling pressure increases, the likelihood of detecting questionable tax shelters increases, discouraging tax aggressiveness. Corroborating this evidence, we also find stronger (weaker) effects of short-selling pressure on firms subject to fewer (more) audits by the IRS before the pilot program. These findings suggest that short-sellers help reduce aggressive tax avoidance schemes.

本文使用事件研究法,以2015-2017年中国智能制造试点示范项目的所属上市公司为样本,进行事件公告产生的累计超额收益率及其影响因素的实证研究,以此论证人工智能对于企业价值的影响.实证发现入选公告会为企业带来超额收益,且呈逐年上升的趋势.同时,市场对于大规模企业进行智能制造的反应好于小规模企业,对于非国有企业进行智能制造的反应好于国有企业,对高监管企业的反应好于低监管的企业,对最低工资水平低的企业的反应好于最低工资水平高的企业.研究表明中国企业进行智能制造能够提高企业的超额收益,即人工智能技术可以提升企业价值.

以融资融券机制推出为背景,运用我国内地A股市场上市公司为样本,研究了融资融券对上市公司治理水平的影响.回归结果显示,成为融资融券标的后,上市公司高管离职与高管薪酬对于公司绩效的黏性均有提高,表明融资融券可以作为外部公司治理机制.机制检验显示融资融券是通过促进公司信息释放而提升公司治理水平的.进一步分析显示,当公司面临行业竞争压力较小或面临财务约束时,融资融券对于公司治理的促进作用更加明显.最后,将融资和融券分开分析,发现融资机制和融券机制均对公司治理有提升作用.证明了融资融券机制可以提高资本市场对企业的监督,促进企业信息释放,从而提高上市公司治理水平.

本文利用中国加入WTO作为自然实验,研究了贸易自由化导致的进口关税下降对于企业避税行为的影响.我们发现,关税下降10个百分点,相比2000年,2002至2004年中各年企业的避税额分别会增加三百万左右.中国加入WTO之前位于竞争性更小、商业环境更好的行业中的企业受到关税下降的影响较小.

<span id="ChDivSummary" name="ChDivSummary" class="abstract-text">本文基于债权人视角考察企业避税行为的经济后果。利用2001-2014年我国A股上市公司的数据进行研究发现,企业避税行为伴随着更高的银行贷款成本,以及更短的贷款期限,即使经过一系列稳健性检验后,本文的结论依然成立。这说明,我国商业银行能够识别企业避税行为,相应地提高了避税企业的融资成本。进一步的研究显示,企业避税对银行贷款成本的影响随债权人与最终控制人利益协调性的提高而降低,随公司信息不透明度的提高而增强。因而,企业避税潜在的代理成本是影响银行信贷的重要因素,支持了委托代理框架下企业避税的相关理论。本文的研究结论有助于理解企业避税行为的经济后果,同时也有助于理解商业银行的信贷机制。</span>

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the different impacts of monetary policy on the financing constraints of diverse enterprises from China by introducing the concepts of external and internal management factors, and on the investment efficiency of these enterprises with the help of “Hayek Triangle”. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the concept of human action, this paper builds an empirical model which is remarkably different from previous related researches and conducts an empirical test by using the chosen sample data of 312 Chinese listed private companies from 2003 to 2012. Findings – This paper shows that owing to the differences of management capacity of diverse enterprises, under the condition of the governmental micro-economic intervention in the allocation of credit funds, the loose monetary policy relieves the financing constraints confronted by the enterprises with better external management capacity, and aggravates the financing constraints confronted by the enterprises with better internal management capacity. This paper also shows that the loose monetary policy will distort the market interest rate signal, which in turn falsely directs the enterprises to divert resources from short-term to long-term investment projects. Research limitations/implications – These findings mean that under the condition of the loose monetary policy, contrasted with the private enterprises with better internal management capacity, the investment efficiency of the private enterprises with better external management capacity will be lowered because they are able to acquire more credit funds preferentially and readily. Practical implications – This paper argues that the government should strengthen the ex-post property rights protection for financial transactions, reduce the micro-economic intervention in the credit funds allocation and improve the marketization level of the financial deals. Also, the government should prudently regulate macro-economy by monetary policy. Originality/value – This paper is mainly based on the market process theory of Austrian School, and therefore initiates a totally new perspective for the research of corporate financing.

This paper investigates the intra-industry spillover effects of corporate scandals in China. Using corporate scandal announcements, we show how a contagion effect spreads to peer firms depending on the quality of corporate governance and political connections at these firms. Good corporate governance in peer firms reduces the contagion effect of scandals. External governance has a stronger influence on reducing the contagion effect of both financial and non-financial scandals, while ownership concentration and the quality of auditors play a more pronounced role in mitigating the contagion effect of financial scandal announcements. State ownership helps mitigate the negative influence of non-financial scandals in individual-owned firms but not in state-owned enterprises (SOE).

This paper investigates intra-industry spillover effects of corporate scandals in China. We demonstrate how a contagion effect spreads to peer firms depending upon the quality of corporate governance and their political connections. Good corporate governance in peer firms reduces the contagion effect of scandals. External governance has a stronger influence on reducing the contagion effect of both financial and non-financial scandals, while ownership concentration and the quality of auditors play a more pronounced role in mitigating the contagion effect of financial scandals. State ownership helps to mitigate the negative influence of non-financial scandals in individual-owned firms, but not in state-owned enterprises.

房地产价格,特别是沿海一线城市的房价的整体上涨,给经济的运行带来了许多不利的后果,特别是许多中产阶级人群买不起房,房价超过了他们的承受能力,不利于本地区的人群改善住房质量,而对于外来的人口来说,过高的房价也使他们忘而却步,表明高房价对人力资源的流动确实存在阻滞效应。