Political connections, financing and firm performance: Evidence from Chinese private firms

This paper examines the role of affiliation with the ruling Communist Party in the operation of private enterprises in China. Using a nationwide survey of private firms, we find that the Party membership of private entrepreneurs has a positive effect on the performance of their firms when human capital and other relevant variables are controlled. We further find that Party membership helps private entrepreneurs to obtain loans from banks or other state institutions, and affords them more confidence in the legal system. Finally, we find Party membership to be more important to firm performance in regions with weaker market institutions and weaker legal protection.     

The effect of minimum wage on firm markup: Evidence from China

Our paper examines the impact of minimum wage on firm markup in China. We find that minimum wage generates a positive effect on firm markup. More value-enhancing innovative activities, TFP improvement, and efficient labor resource allocation are the potential channels. Further, the positive influence of minimum wage is more pronounced for privately-owned firms, for firms with higher labor intensity and firms with less financial constraints. Besides, these findings are generally robust to different estimation methods. Our results provide new insights into understanding the channels through which labor regulation may cause the change of markup for the emerging markets countries.     

Firm Performance in the Face of Fear: How CEO Moods Affect Firm Performance

The authors use facial emotion recognition software to quantify CEO mood. Anger or disgust motivates a CEO to work harder to improve his or her situation; thus firm profitability improves in the subsequent quarter. Happy CEOs are less likely to work on hard or unpleasant tasks; thus profitability decreases in the subsequent quarter. In the short term, fear explains the firm's announcement period market performance. However, fear is transient and performance improvement is short term.     

Local political chief turnover and economic growth: Evidence from China

It is widely believed that the rotation and promotion system of local political chiefs plays an important role in China's economic miracle. In this paper, however, we focus on the potential cost of the inherent frequent turnover of local chiefs. Based on a new manually collected dataset on prefectural‐level local chiefs between 1983 and 2012, our empirical results suggest that the turnover of the local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief would lead to a 0.48 percentage point decrease in the local GDP growth rate in the current year. This effect is especially concentrated on more government‐affected fields, such as domestic investments, consumption and government expenditures. We also provide evidence that organization friction, especially the successor CCP chiefs’ unfamiliarity with the city, his/her new colleagues and/or the working conditions, is one of the major potential reasons for such a negative turnover effect.     

When two tribes go to work: Board political diversity and firm performance

A substantial literature has studied how increased diversity in terms of gender, age, education, and race amongst members of firms' boards affects decisions and performance. This paper studies whether ideological diversity in the boardroom affects firm performance. We find that whilst a board with a broader range of political opinions and beliefs is correlated with better performance ceteris paribus, that the causal impact of such an increase in diversity is negative and substantial. This negative effect is still present when diversity is measured excluding top management, and when diversity is defined in terms of the difference between firms' management and non-executive directors. In conclusion we consider the implication of these findings given the recent growth in both political polarization and ideological segregation.     

控制权私利、公司业绩与CEO变更——兼评上市公司内部治理机制的效率

文章在理论分析的基础上,提出大股东控制框架下CEO变更的五大假设,并以此为视角,基于上交所上市公司2004-2006年公司治理的实践,在运用Logistic回归模型进行实证检验的基础上,对上市公司内部治理机制的效率进行评价。研究发现:(1)能力假设获得证实,表明内部治理机制治理效应的存在;(2)合谋假设获得支持,大股东控制权私利弱化其对CEO的监督;(3)董事会独立性假设得以证实,且董事会履职倾向保守和谨慎;(4)就现阶段的股权结构而言,大股东的利益协同与利益模糊假设同时获得证实。     

CEO任期、CEO权力集中度与中国制造企业自主创新能力——基于中国制造业上市公司2006—2017年的经验证据

本文以中国制造业上市公司2006—2017年数据为研究对象,以CEO权力集中度为调节变量探讨了CEO任期与中国制造企业自主创新能力之间的关系,研究发现:①长期意义上CEO任期越长,越有利于自主创新能力提升;②CEO权力集中度越高,越有利于自主创新能力提升;③CEO权力集中度与CEO任期有"伴随效应",能够扩张CEO任期对自主创新能力的正向效应,正所谓"用人不疑,疑人不用";④在当前,国有制造企业更应注重CEO任期对自主创新能力的积极作用,应考虑增加国企CEO任期;而民营制造企业要注重公司治理结构中CEO权力集中度。结论具有稳健性。     

Board diversity and firm performance: evidence from the U.K. SMEs

This study examines the relationship between board diversity and firm performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the U.K. In particular, we investigate the role of gender and age as two dimensions of diversity. Using a large sample of SMEs (34,798 firms) located in the U.K. and focusing on the period from 2005 to 2013, our results show a significant negative association between each of gender diversity and age diversity, and firm performance. Our evidence yields important insights on the association between board diversity and firm performance, and calls suggestions for increased board diversity into question. A possible explanation for our findings could be due to the fact that our sampled firms are SMEs, whereas those in previous studies have been large enterprises. This research provides insights to entrepreneurs on how to enhance their performance, and to governments and policymakers on the development of rules that would achieve better performance in the SME sector.     

Ownership transformation,firm performance and manufacturing growth in China

Many commentators and researchers have attributed the manufacturing success in China to its ownership reforms. Using a micro database from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, this paper documents and quantifies this development. With systematic and robust analyses, it shows that the development of private ownership indeed played an essential role in improving firm performance and the allocation and utilization of production resources in the Chinese manufacturing sector. In addition, the paper estimates the contributions of firms under different ownership to manufacturing growth, showing that the development of private ownership was the driving force of manufacturing growth in China. The strong credible evidence has important policy implications for further maintaining sustainable development in China.     

董事报酬、独立性与公司治理——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

本文利用中国上海和深圳证券交易所上市公司2003-2005年的数据,实证分析了董事报酬结构和董事会独立性之间的关系,并在考虑董事报酬内生性基础上,进一步检验了董事报酬、独立性和公司绩效的关系.研究结果发现,长任期的CEO、CEO兼任董事长、较大比例的内部董事和较大的董事会规模构成了中国上市公司的监管障碍.董事报酬是一种公司治理的强化机制,当董事会保持独立时,其报酬结构能更好的激励董事履行监管职能.但是,当董事会失去其独立性时,其报酬结构会加剧公司的代理冲突.授予董事会合理的激励报酬可以克服公司监管障碍,提高公司治理水平.     

Economic policy uncertainty,CEO characteristics and firm R&D expenditure: a Bayesian analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper applies a linear Bayesian regression model to study the effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) characteristics on firm Research and Development (R&D) expenditure. We specifically analysed data from 1,163 Chinese companies listed as A-shares from 2008–2016. EPU is believed to curtail firm investments as it causes unexpected market conditions. Yet, our findings obtained with Bayesian analysis show a positive relationship between EPU and firm R&D expenditure. Specifically, we found that some CEO attributes (e.g., age, tenure and marketing/sales experience) led to a negative relationship between EPU and firm R&D expenditure, whereas other attributes (e.g., education, overseas study/work experience, product R&D experience, and process engineering experience) lead to a positive relationship. Our findings provide nuanced insights into how different CEO characteristics influence firms’ R&D expenditure in a context of uncertainty.     

Firm performance and economic development: Evidence from a unique dataset of China

Using a unique firm-level dataset from 2007 to 2015, we investigated the characteristics and trends of China's economic development from the perspective of firm performance. We found that China's economic development in the recent decade has made the following achievements: less reliance on investment for growth, enterprises’ deleveraging, a more competitive market environment and improvement in labour income distribution. Yet, it still faced severe challenges, such as increasing tax and fee burdens, high employment pressure, low total factor productivity (TFP) growth rate, and how to realize the coordinated development of the economy and environment.     

Innovation and firm performance in Korea and China: a cross-context test of mainstream theories

We investigate the relationship between innovation and firm performance in two divergent emerging economy contexts: Korea and China. Mainstream innovation theories make disparate claims for how (1) intensity of innovation, (2) scope of innovation and (3) spillovers impact firm performance. Using a comparative institutionalist approach we hypothesise how these relationships apply to firms in Korea and China. Analysis of 897 firm–year data points over a 4-year period provides broad support for our hypotheses. Intensity of innovation (patent intensity) is a strong cross-contextual argument. Scope and spillover arguments appear to be more context-sensitive. Firms with innovation depth in specific technological fields enjoy better performance in Korea, while diversified innovation is more beneficial for firms in China. Spillovers have a stronger impact in Korea than China. The findings underline the importance of incorporating change in institutional context when developing policy and theory relating to firm innovation and performance in emerging economies.     

District-wide school reform and student performance: Evidence from Montgomery County,Maryland

In the early 2000s, the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public School system implemented district-wide changes to funding, curriculum, staffing, and technology. Using data from 1995 to 2014, we employ a difference-in-differences strategy to show that the reforms significantly increased the percentage of students in Montgomery County who scored advanced on third- and fifth-grade math and reading tests. Using an event study strategy, we find that the positive impacts extended through the end of the panel. Our results contribute to the literature on school reform by finding positive impacts of school reform in a district that was high performing prior to reforms.     

我国企业债券融资、财务风险和债券评级

影响我国债券评级的决定因素有以下三点:(1)影响债券评级最关键的因素是发债企业总资产的规模,即企业资产规模越大,其评级越高;(2)政府政策对该发债项目或行业支持与否时债券评级有正的影响,即发债项目或其所在行业是有国家政策明确支持的,其评级可能越高;(3)企业的财务风险如资产负债率和长期负债比率等对债券评级没有显著的影响,企业的绩效如资产收益率对债券评级也没有显著的影响.目前评级机构的评级不能反映企业财务风险与绩效的好坏,债券上市后评级的动态调整也几乎不存在.这说明我国目前企业债券市场的信用风险评级与欧美的债券市场存在极大的差异.     

政府控制、治理环境与公司价值--来自中国证券市场的经验证据

本文承袭刘芍佳、孙霈和刘乃全( 2 0 0 3 )一文所使用的“终极产权论”,根据上市公司披露的终极控制人数据,首次将上市公司细分为非政府控制(即民营、乡镇或外资资本控制)、县级政府控制、市级政府控制、省级政府控制以及中央政府控制这五种类型。同时,我们利用樊纲和王小鲁( 2 0 0 3 )编制的中国各地区市场化进程数据及其子数据构建各地区公司治理环境指数。在此基础上,我们以2 0 0 1年至2 0 0 3年期间的上市公司为样本,对政府控制、治理环境与公司价值的关系进行了实证分析。研究发现,政府控制尤其是县级和市级政府控制对公司价值产生了负面影响,但公司所处治理环境的改善有助于减轻这种负面影响。其政策含义是,解决中国上市公司的公司治理问题,不仅需要继续“抓大放小”,还需要从根本上改善公司治理环境。对研究者来说,需要把目光转移到影响公司治理的根本因素上来,加强对公司治理环境的分析。     

企业社会责任透明度、法律环境与企业价值——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

依据信息经济学,探究企业社会责任透明度对企业价值的影响机制,法律环境在企业社会责任透明度与企业价值间的调节机制。以2012—2016年的A股上市公司为样本,研究结果表明,企业社会责任透明度对企业价值有显著正向影响。其次,弱法律环境正向调节企业社会责任透明度对企业价值的影响,强法律环境负向调节企业社会责任透明度对企业价值的影响。最后,研究还发现企业异质性影响企业社会责任透明度对公司价值的影响。     

Corporate governance,human capital,and productivity: evidence from Chinese non-listed firms

This article analyses the effects of corporate governance (CG) and human capital on productivity by using the 1999–2006 data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC). The findings of this study are twofold. First, CG and human capital generate significant positive effects on the productivity of both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs. Second, CG has significantly different moderate and mediate effects on the relationship between human capital and productivity. Our results are robust to different specifications and alternative measures. This study provides clear policy implications by suggesting that the firms in emerging markets, especially SOEs, must improve their CG and their allocation of human capital for them to enhance their productivity.     

改善民生是中国城乡统筹改革实践的原动力

民生是中国城乡统筹改革实践的原动力。改革起始期,是民生呼唤下的自发改革与政策调整;改革深入期,是民生推动下的体制转轨与制度创新;改革攻坚期,是民生引导下的统筹发展与新农村建设。30年农村改革历程,致使民生问题的不断解决与改革的渐进式节奏相互吻合,推动着"人本"式的农村改革健康有序地发展。     

Effects of regulatory burden and corruption on firm performance: Evidence from Moldova

Firms in Moldova face a high level of regulatory burden, as proxied by the number of inspections by public authorities. At the same time, they face high levels of corruption. We examine the effect of frequent inspections on four measures of firm performance: labour and total factor productivity, and levels of tangible and intangible assets. We also investigate how corruption affects the relationship between inspections and firm performance. We perform panel data analysis using firm-level administrative data and survey data from Moldova in 2005–2015. The results show that inspections and corruption each affect firm productivity negatively, but corruption moderates the negative effect of inspections. We also find that inspections and intangible assets are positively correlated, but this correlation is weaker for higher levels of corruption. Finally we examine whether these results differ by industry, firm size and ownership types. Inspections and corruption affect medium and large firms, and state-owned enterprises differently from micro and small firms and private firms respectively.