地方政府债务、金融营商环境与实体企业融资约束

文章基于"财政金融关联"视角,利用2015至2020年省级层面的面板数据,实证检验了地方政府债务、金融营商环境与实体企业融资约束三者间的作用效果.研究结果表明:地方政府债务与企业融资约束存在正向推高关系,而良好的金融营商环境对实体企业融资约束存在负向抑制关系;异质性检验显示,地方政府债务对民营实体企业、中西部实体企业融资约束的推高作用更强;交互效应结果显示,金融营商环境的优化能有效缓解地方政府债务对实体企业融资约束的推高作用.因此,提出改善地区金融营商环境、对差异化企业性质实施优惠帮扶政策以及严控地方政府隐性债务增量是缓解实体企业融资困境,促进地区经济平稳发展的重要措施.     

论民族传统节日的保护和利用

对民族传统节日加以保护和利用具有重要的历史和现实意义。我国在传统节日的传承上存在着诸多问题,吸引人们的关注和参与度日渐式微,面临洋节日的严峻挑战。但民族传统节日植根于民间,是传承民族文化、寄托民族感情、体现民族认同感的舞台,遵循民族传统节日保护和利用的原则,不断开拓创新,必然能使其发扬光大。     

中国古代耕牛保护制度及其对后世的影响

自西周以迄清朝,中国历代法律都严厉禁止任意宰杀牛,规定了相应的屠宰标准和审批手续。无论是牛主(牛的所有者)还是他人,私屠乱宰牛都是犯罪行为,要受到法律的制裁。这一制度的实施不是出于宗教的信仰或禁忌,也不是为了保护动物的福利(生存权),更不是为了保障食品安全,而是为了保证有足够的耕牛以满足农业生产的需要。这一制度对20世纪80年代前的中国近现代耕牛保护制度产生了深远的影响。     

The impact of equity ownership groups on investment: Evidence from Ukraine

We empirically investigate the impact of different ownership groups on companies’ investment in Ukraine with a novel dynamic investment model where investment is based on present and historical levels of profitability (market-to-book value of equity) and lagged investment. Groups include state, insider, non-domestic, financial and financial and industrial group (FIG) ownership. Contrary to the literature, we find that the past level of profitability significantly affects investment; the majority presence of and increases in state ownership have a negative impact on firms’ investment, as is the case for non-domestic and financial companies’ ownership. Insider and FIG ownership have no impact on investment. We explain the results by the extent of liquidity concerns (hard and soft budget constraints), measured by cash flow interacted with a dummy variable of majority ownership of the respective group, and the extent of asset stripping for the corresponding ownership group and relate them to over- and under-investment, and to the free cash flow or cash constraint hypothesis.     

Fear of climate change consequences and predictors of intentions to alter meat consumption

Reducing or altering meat consumption has the potential to significantly lower the impact humans have on climate change. Consumers, however, are unlikely to break their food habits unless they are aware of the problem and motivated by the solutions. Fear appeals are often used to overcome this, however, their effectiveness in the context of meat reduction and climate change is unclear. Given the widespread use of fear appeals in information policy, it is important to understand more. The aim of this study was to explore fear—or more specifically—the danger control process in a climate change—food context in order to understand the factors which motivate consumers to reduce or alter their meat consumption. Using a stratified random sample of 222 respondents in Southern Sweden, we develop a model for predicting intentions to adopt specific and general actions to reduce or alter meat consumption. Our results suggest that the general key to motivating consumers is through increasing their self-efficacy towards adopting meat alternatives and educating them on the importance their actions have in reducing the threat. We also found that appraising the threat to self (or those close) was significant, but surprisingly the effect size was greater when the threat concerned others (e.g. others in impoverished nations, animals).     

A study on factors affecting privacy risk tolerance to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in South Korea

South Korea has been evaluated as a country that is responding well to COVID-19. The Government of the Republic of Korea discloses where, when, and by which means of transportation people confirmed to have the virus have visited. Although disclosure of movement has contributed to flattening the curve and providing timely medical service, concerns about privacy infringement have also been raised. This article determines what factors influence privacy risk tolerance, looking specifically at threat severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, and response cost. We also provide implications for the preparation of better countermeasures for the government to implement.     

Protection for sale under monopolistic competition: Beyond the CES

We extend the protection for sale model of Grossman and Helpman (1994) by introducing a general model of monopolistic competition with variable markups and incomplete pass-through. We show that the structure of protection emerging in the political equilibrium not only depends on the weight attached by the government to consumer welfare when making its policy decision, but also on the degree of market power of firms and on the terms-of-trade variations due to the degree of pass-through. Our results highlight the importance of preferences in shaping the structure of protection and are consistent with the occurring of protectionism also in unorganized industries.     

Afraid to travel after COVID-19? Self-protection,coping and resilience against pandemic ‘travel fear’

COVID-19 has generated an unprecedented level of public fear, likely impeding tourism industry recovery after the pandemic is over. This study explores what trigger the public's pandemic ‘travel fear’ and how people impose self-protection, coping and resilience related to travel. The study integrates theories including protection motivation theory, coping and resilience theories to address the research aim. Using a quota sampling, an online survey of 1208 respondents across mainland China was conducted. Results found that threat severity and susceptibility can cause ‘travel fear’, which leads to protection motivation and protective travel behaviors after the pandemic outbreak. Findings also revealed that ‘travel fear’ can evoke different coping strategies, which increases people's psychological resilience and adoption of cautious travel behaviors. Several strategies are provided on how to mitigate people's ‘travel fear’ and encourage travel in a post-COVID-19 world.     

Implications of domestic price insulation for global food price behavior

Rapid changes in global food prices in recent years are widely viewed as a serious threat to global development. While various sources of price instability in agriculture have been identified, little attention appears to have been given to the importance of changes in trade policies that insulate domestic prices from world markets as a source of volatility in world prices. A contribution of this paper is to show that these interventions are dynamically more complex than simple proportional insulation. Insulation against an initial price increase in world prices increases the magnitude of that increase, while subsequent adjustments to the level of protection change the fundamental nature of price volatility. We find such policies are widespread and increase the volatility of world prices while not reducing the volatility of domestic prices because of the collective action problem involved in this form of policy intervention.     

Competing priorities as constraints in event travel careers

An event travel career is a potentially lifelong pattern of travel to events linked with an individual’s preferred leisure activity. This paper applies the concept of an event travel career to non-elite triathletes. For these active sport tourists, ongoing pursuit of an event travel career is arguably constrained by competing priorities that intervene between everyday life and their pursuit of an event travel career. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 triathletes identified as pursuing an event travel career. Interpretive analysis revealed seven domains of competing priorities that could work to constrain their event travel career aspirations. These domains included familial relationships, domestic responsibilities, sociability, finances, leisure, wellbeing, and work/education. The seven competing priority domains were interrelated, and cyclical in their constraining effects. Data assisted in clarifying some defining characteristics of the event travel career concept, and challenged notions of leisure participation as entirely positive and fulfilling.