The impact of income placement on the percentage of income given has been widely studied in developed countries, but little attention has been given to the issue in developing countries. We investigate the variance in the giving/income share among different income groups by employing China Family Panel Studies data from 2010 to 2020 and find that low-income households, especially those whose income meets basic living needs, donate a greater fraction of income to charity than middle- and high-income households do. Both religious affiliation and receiving public assistance have stronger positive effects on the percentage of income given among low-income households than among those in middle- and high-income groups. Our findings provide evidence on which income group gives higher ratio of income to charity in a developing country. Based on our findings, providing assistance for low-income households by religions and public transfers may be a reasonable option for sustainable development of charitable causes.

One of the purposes of minimum wage legislation is to protect women workers. However, the impact of minimum wage on female employment has been controversial. We perform a meta-analysis to test the policy effect. After correcting for publication bias using the overall sample, the effect is positive, indicating that minimum wages actually increase female employment. We use 32 moderators as potential explanatory variables to explain the heterogeneity of the literature and find that it stems from the data characteristics and methods used in econometric estimates. In addition, education plays an important role in regulating the female employment effect of minimum wages. Furthermore, we find that the minimum wage results in an increase in female employment in developing countries, while developed countries do not benefit from the minimum wage system. This could be related to differences in industrial structure, social security coverage, and informal employment rate in the two types of countries. Our results suggest that minimum wages may be an effective policy for women who are more likely to engage in minimum wage work.

Improving social trust is crucial for social stability and development. Based on the data of China Family Panel Studies from 2012 to 2020, this paper measures the energy poverty index from the four dimensions of energy accessibility, energy service, energy efficiency, and energy demand. In our analysis, to study the impact of energy poverty on social trust and its internal mechanism, we employ dual machine learning (DML) model, such as Random Forest (RF). The main results indicate that the reduction of energy poverty will promote the improvement of social trust. This is related to the mechanism that the alleviation of energy poverty will improve residents' health and increase their education level. Further, we observe differences in the impact of energy poverty on social trust by gender and domicile: it is more significant for males and rural dwellers. These findings help us devise solutions for improving social trust by designing policies related to energy poverty.

Climate risk has gradually evolved into a global national security issue, with profound impacts on the stability of different social subsystems such as energy, environment, finance, and economy. However, existing research on the mechanisms of climate risk on rural land transfer is still unclear. We incorporate climate risk into the theoretical framework of rural land transfer and match climate risk data of Chinese prefecture-level cities with 360 village-level data from 1986 to 2017. By establishing a two-way fixed effects model and a dual machine learning (DML) model, we estimate the impact of climate risk on rural land transfer and related mechanisms. The results indicate that climate risk promotes land transfer in rural China. Specifically, climate risk can cause income losses and promote non-agricultural employment for farmers, leading to an increase in land transfer-out. Agricultural subsidies can mitigate the promoting effect of climate risk on land transfer-out and land scaling can increase the promoting effect of climate risk on land transfer-in. Moreover, residents in major and non-major grain-producing areas are more inclined to choose land transfer-out and land transfer-in respectively under climate risk. In the future, policymakers should strengthen agricultural subsidies and technology tilt in high climate risk areas, promoting sustainable development of rural labor and land.

Economic uncertainty is becoming increasingly apparent, and under the unbalanced “pyramid” internal hierarchical structure of the middle-income group, some middle-income groups are on the brink of decline. This study uses microdata from the Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2012 to 2020 to prospectively predict the vulnerability of the middle-income group and examine whether digital financial inclusion can alleviate the vulnerability of this group. We find that the vulnerability risk of China's middle-income group is prominent and that digital financial inclusion can mitigate vulnerability risk. Moreover, its marginal effect is most evident for those on the edge of the lower bound of the middle-income group, which indicates that digital financial inclusion creates more opportunities for groups at the bottom of the distribution to share the benefits of development. Further research reveals that digital financial inclusion stimulates the vitality of household innovation and entrepreneurship, promotes participation in financial markets, expands operating income channels, enriches sources of property income, and thereby enhances the stability of the household income structure, consolidating the position of the middle-income group in the income distribution pattern. This study provides new ideas for China and other developing countries to explore feasible paths for stabilizing and expanding the middle-income group.

Although firms contend with multiple challenges in implementing circular economy (CE) practices, open innovation (OI) can be an effective collaborative strategy for firms to overcome technological and informational barriers and achieve CE objectives. Using data from A-share and Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market) listed companies in China from 2003 to 2022, we employ a two-way fixed effects model to examine the impact of OI on firms’ CE practices. The empirical results indicate that OI significantly promotes CE practices, influencing these practices through mechanisms such as trade credit provision, green patent accumulation, and enhanced information exchange. Moreover, government CE policies can strengthen the effect of OI on CE practices. Additionally, intercompany OI has a stronger positive impact on CE practices compared with intracompany and cooperative OI. The effects of OI and the moderating influence of CE policies are more pronounced in the eastern region, which is likely driven by superior industrialization in the region. These findings clarify the relationship between OI and CE practices to advance global CE practices. Future research could explore broader datasets, adopt alternative OI indicators, and conduct cross-country comparisons to further expand this research.

In China's typical dual financial structure, widespread financial exclusion severely affects the availability of formal credit to special groups, such as poor and elderly individuals. Using a sample of households from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) between 2010 and 2018, this research identifies the life-cycle characteristics of borrowing decisions of Chinese households based on the age-period-cohort (APC) model. The results show that the informal borrowing participation of Chinese households exhibits a distinct U-shaped life-cycle pattern, while formal borrowing exhibits an inverted U-shaped pattern. The demand for informal borrowing among elderly households excluded from the formal financial market increases with age, which is not consistent with the conservative and frugal consumption preferences of elderly individuals. Our research reveals that endogenous perturbations of health risks and exogenous shocks from major events, such as weddings and funerals, are homogeneous drivers of increased informal borrowing demand among rural and urban elderly households, but the impact is greater for rural than urban households. Further analysis indicates that the choice of financing from informal channels when risk and shocks occur is not a subjective preference of elderly households but a passive choice under financial exclusion. Thus, alleviating formal credit constraints may play a major role in improving household well-being.

In this article, we examine whether regional gender inequality affects a household's decision to participate in stock market in China. Based on a nationwide micro data, our empirical results show that households in counties with greater gender inequality are less likely to hold risky assets. The results are robust to a number of variations in our empirical models. The negative effect of gender inequality on household stock market participation is stronger for households located in northern China. Moreover, we provide evidence suggestive of the role of the declined social interaction operating through gender inequality.

In the Internet age, income inequality within peer groups has raised attention. We examine the effect of Internet penetration on peer income inequality and investigate whether the Internet penetration and peer income inequality relationship can be reinforced by human capital. Using a combination of macro and microdatabases of China over the period 2010-2018, we find that peer income inequality in China generally follows a downward trend from 2010. In addition, we show that Internet penetration significantly reduces peer income inequality. Internet penetration has a negative effect on peer income inequality among those under 40 years old, while the effect is reversed among those aged 40-60. Furthermore, human capital can reinforce the links between Internet penetration and peer income inequality. Our results confirm that a mixed indicator of Internet penetration and human capital investment should be part of an active economic policy aimed at reducing peer income inequality.

Intergenerational hierarchical solidification threatens the sustainable development of economies and societies in countries worldwide. In this paper, we match macro data on digital factor participation at the city level with micro data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2010 to 2018 to explore whether digital factor participation can break hierarchical solidification and create opportunities for “rags to riches” on the basis of the perspective of intergenerational income mobility. We find that digital factor participation contributes to facilitating upwards income mobility between generations, alleviating intergenerational hierarchical solidification. Additionally, its marginal effects are most pronounced in the low-income groups, indicating that digital factor participation serves as a booster for “poor second generations” to leapfrog rather than an accelerator for wealth accumulation among the “wealthy second generations”. Furthermore, our research reveals that digital factor participation potentially facilitates intergenerational occupational vertical “shift” channels and promotes the horizontal migration of the labour force, which in turn weakens intergenerational transmission effects, promotes intergenerational income mobility, and breaks intergenerational hierarchical solidification. Our study highlights the importance of seizing the opportunities presented by digital factor participation, as such participation offers more equitable opportunities for the lower class, which is particularly concerning in the context of the intensifying global trend of social stratification.

Clan culture plays a pivotal role in shaping gender disparities in individual choices. This paper, utilizing data from Chinese General Social Survey 2013, employs genealogy density as a proxy variable for clan culture. The results suggest that clan culture significantly promotes an increase in male wage, while no significant impact on female wage, consequently widening the gender wage gap. Notably, patrilineal clan exacerbates gender differences in human capital investment, reinforces gender identity, and intensifies social trust disparities, thereby perpetuating the escalation of gender wage inequality. Conversely, the internet, serving as a primary vehicle for modern gender equality ideas, mitigates the positive effect of clan on gender wage disparity. Further investigation reveals that the positive impact of clan culture on gender wage gap diminishes with an upward shift in wage distribution and narrows with generational transitions. These findings extend the cultural explanation pathway for gender wage gap.

Drawing on the charitable giving literature, we deploy the 2010–2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies and employ the Heckman model to determine the more generous age group. The results demonstrate that young donors are more likely to donate and to give more. The robustness checks based on probit, ordinary least squares, IV-Heckman and propensity score matching further support the above findings. Further examinations show that the more years of schooling caused by the change in the education system is the reason for the more generous behavior of young households and find that the change in the education system enhances the incidence and the amount of giving partially by giving the young an advantage in savings. The study suggests that the more generous age group may vary by economic and social factors, and a further understanding of the relationship between age and giving in different contexts is conducive to promoting the development of philanthropy.

In this paper, we investigate the distributional effects of the financialization of firms from the perspective of between-firm inequality. Using financial statement data of nonfinancial firms listed on China's A-share stock market, we find that the financialization of firms significantly increases the dispersion of employee wage between firms. Mechanism analysis shows the financialization of firms increases between-firm inequality through the larger increasing effect on employee wages for high-wage firms through the rent sharing effect. The findings suggest that an increase in wage rent in low-wage firms could be encouraged to relieve the negative effects of financialization on inequality.

In this letter, we measure permanent income shocks, transitory income shocks, and consumption changes at the household level to explore the role of self-insurance and external insurance in explaining the different consumption insurance patterns between Chinese households and US households. We find that household assets have larger effects on increasing the household's smoothing of permanent income shocks for Chinese households, while public transfers decrease US households' sensitivity to transitory income shocks. The role of private transfers is not statistically significant for either US or Chinese households.

本文利用2010-2018年中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,考察互联网使用对性别收入差距的影响.研究显示,互联网使用能够带来工资性收入的提升和性别收入差距的缩小.通过Oaxaca-Blinder分解方法揭示了互联网使用中的性别特征差异和性别歧视.进一步研究发现,互联网使用偏好和教育机会的增加是使女性在互联网使用中获益更多的主要原因.农村户口和低收入群体的女性更能在互联网使用中获益.

The article sought to detect the impact of the value-added tax (VAT) policy on the enterprises’ asset allocation from the dual perspectives of the VAT input refund and the VAT rate. Based on the influenced mechanism of the VAT input refund and the tax burden effect (and the price effect) caused by the VAT rate, enterprises’ intertemporal optimal asset allocation models are constructed under the states of adopting the VAT input refund and maintaining the theoretical tax (non-)neutrality of VAT. When VAT rates of the general taxpayers are predicted to be reduced, we also use China’s manufacturing and economic data to simulate specific cases to verify propositions under different states. The results show that: (1) When the VAT output tax rate decreases: if returns to scale are diminishing, enterprises will increase the number of productive material assets and labor and reduce financial assets. (2) When the VAT input tax rate reduces: under the state of adopting the VAT input refund and maintaining the theoretical tax (non-)neutrality of VAT, if returns to scale are decreasing, enterprises will reduce the number of productive material assets and labor and increase financial assets. Under the state of adopting the VAT input refund and maintaining the theoretical tax neutrality of VAT, if returns to scale are increasing and the expected rate of return of financial assets is lower than the additional tax rate, or the enterprise has diminishing returns to scale and the expected rate of return of financial assets is higher than the additional tax rate, enterprises will increase the number of productive material assets and labor. (3) When VAT output and input tax rates reduce simultaneously: under the state of adopting the VAT input refund and maintaining the theoretical tax neutrality of VAT, if returns to scale are increasing and the expected return rate of financial assets is higher than the additional tax rate, the enterprise will reduce the number of productive material assets and labor and increase financial assets. Under the diminishing returns to scale in China’s national economy, the research conclusions endorse the rational necessity of the VAT policy change—VAT rate reduction to develop the entity economy and provide a reference for enterprises to make asset allocation decisions. The conclusions also provide possible changes in VAT policy for different countries according to their actual economic conditions.

Language, as a prominent cultural characteristic of a region, has a lasting and extensive impact on economic performance. In this paper, we study the impact of dialect diversity on the labor income share in China. We find that regional dialect diversity depresses the labor income share in manufacturing firms in China. This effect holds up to robustness and endogeneity checks. We explore the transmission channels underlying this negative relationship and find that dialect diversity depresses the labor income share by decreasing worker bargaining power, and this channel can be further explained by the depressing effect of dialect diversity on the participation of firms in export trade and regional human capital accumulation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative effect of dialect diversity on the labor share is weak or insignificant in sectors with strong worker bargaining power such as state-owned enterprises, labor-intensive enterprises, and high-skill-intensive enterprises.

研究目标:在中国结构性失衡情况下测算中国省级层面可持续经济福利结构均衡增长指数(SE-ISEW),揭示其区域差异及收敛性,以实现共同富裕.研究方法:纳入结构指数修正居民消费以拓展ISEW核算基础,采用Dagum基尼系数及其分解考察区域差异及其来源,使用σ收敛和空间β收敛检验收敛特征.研究发现:实现共同富裕的目标需要结构均衡发展,拓展的SE-ISEW能够反映可持续经济福利结构均衡增长;SE-ISEW在省级层面呈现上升趋势,但增速慢于GDP增幅;中国的SE-ISEW存在区域差异,差异的主要来源是区域间差异,区域内、区域间非均衡现象不同程度地减弱;全国和东、中、西及东北四大地区的SE-ISEW均存在显著的σ收敛和空间β收敛趋势.研究创新:构建结构指数并拓展SE-ISEW的核算体系,使用Dagum基尼系数和空间面板模型研究区域差异和收敛特征.研究价值:为提高可持续经济福利提供理论依据,为缩小区域差异实现共同富裕提供政策启示.

A transaction fee mechanism (TFM) is an essential component of a blockchain protocol. However, a systematic evaluation of the real-world impact of TFMs is still absent. Using rich data from the Ethereum blockchain, the mempool, and exchanges, we study the effect of EIP-1559, one of the earliest-deployed TFMs that depart from the traditional first-price auction paradigm. We conduct a rigorous and comprehensive empirical study to examine its causal effect on blockchain transaction fee dynamics, transaction waiting times, and consensus security. Our results show that EIP-1559 improves the user experience by mitigating intrablock differences in the gas price paid and reducing users' waiting times. However, EIP-1559 has only a small effect on gas fee levels and consensus security. In addition, we find that when Ether's price is more volatile, the waiting time is significantly higher. We also verify that a larger block size increases the presence of siblings. These findings suggest new directions for improving TFMs.