Asset allocation： Evidence From China

As a key part of a corporate＇s operation, Asset allocation is critical to its survival and development This paper uses Markowitz financial security portfolio theory on corporate＇s asset allocation, to derive the optimal asset allocation for an corporate in China through case study.     

Political connection,corporate philanthropy and efficiency: Evidence from China’s anti-corruption campaign

We find that the 2013 Chinese anti-corruption campaign remarkably reduced charitable donations from listed companies with strong political connections, and lessened government subsidies to these companies, implying a reciprocal relationship between companies and the government prior to the campaign. The campaign also improved the productivity of companies with strong connections. The results are consistent with a model in which favor exchanges between firms and the government divert resources away from production in a corrupt environment. These findings highlight a self-serving, and sometimes corrupt, motive of corporate donation, and imply that the campaign is effective in curbing corrupt collusion between companies and government officials. Moreover, they give empirical support to the negative efficiency implications of corruption.     

Enterprise life cycle,financial technology and digital transformation of banks—Evidence from China

Financial technology formed by the combination of digital technology and traditional finance is gradually changing the financial services model. The development of financial technology has influenced the behaviour of commercial banks. It has promoted the innovation of commercial banks. And it has promoted the digital transformation of commercial banks. In this paper, it is intended to explore the relationship between financial technology and digital transformation of banks through positive analysis. As well as to explore how the age of enterprises listed and enterprise life cycle affect the relationship between financial technology and digital transformation of banks. This paper conducts an empirical research on the data of China's A-share listed banks from 2011 to 2021 using a two-way fixed effects regression method. The results of the research indicate that financial technology promotes banks' digital transformation. Meanwhile, the age of enterprise listing and enterprise life cycle play a positive moderating role in financial technology promoting banks' digital transformation. In this paper, it is the first time to conduct an empirical research with the number of monthly active users of mobile banking as a proxy variable for digital transformation of banks, which enriches the study of financial technology. It has certain reference value for promoting digital transformation of banks.     

Economic Development,Risky Sexual Behavior,and AIDS Epidemics—Theory and Evidence

In this paper, we present a simple theoretical model to investigate how economic development affects AIDS epidemics through its influence on individuals’ sexual behavior, building on the literature on economic growth with endogenous mortality concern. We employ provincial data from China on the incidence rate of AIDS between 2002 and 2008 to test the theoretical predictions. The findings are: (1) a rise in personal income/wealth induces more safe sexual activities and reduces the prevalence of AIDS; and (2) increases in public health expenditure do not have a significant positive impact on individuals’ preference of risky sexual activity over safe sexual activity.     

Political instability and households’ investment behavior: Evidence from Burkina Faso

There is a large, rather macroeconomic, literature that shows that political instability and social conflict are associated with poor economic outcomes including lower investment and reduced economic growth. However, there is only very little research on the impact of instability on households’ behavior, in particular their saving and investment decisions. We merge six rounds of household survey data and a geo-referenced time series of politically motivated events and fatalities from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Base (ACLED) to analyze households’ decisions when exposed to instability in Burkina Faso. For identification, we exploit variation in the intensity of political instability across time and space while controlling for time- and municipality-fixed effects as well as rainfall and nighttime light intensity, and many other potential confounders. Our results show a negative association of political instability and financial savings, the accumulation of durables, investment in house improvements, as well as investment in education and health. Instability seems, in particular, to lead to a reshuffling from investment expenditures to increased food consumption, implying lower growth prospects in the future. With respect to economic growth, the sizable education and health effects seem to be particularly worrisome.     

Political stability and trade agreements: Evidence for ‘endgame FTAs’

This paper empirically examines the idea that Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are more likely to be signed by governments playing ‘endgames’; that is, when governments are about to lose power. Two empirical strategies shed light on this hypothesis. One relies on events that increase the probability of political turnover, the other on term limits. I find that countries are more likely to sign FTAs after the unexpected exit of their leaders, when political instability is high. The key finding is partly confirmed in the term-limits strategy as governments are found to form more FTAs during their last term in office.     

Energy Consumption,Economic Development and Temperature in China： Evidence from PSTR Model

Since the 1980s, the Chinese economy has developed rapidly, with an av- erage annual growth rate around 10%. Energy consumption in China has greatly in- creased as well. This paper investigates the relationship between energy consumption, economic development and temperature in China by adopting provincial panel data from 1990 to 2011. Different from existing studies, in this paper, we use a panel smooth transition regression （PSTR） model to estimate the non-linearity relationship. Four different threshold variables including two lagged endogenous variables and two important exogenous variables have been considered. We find that energy intensity and the ratio of gross capital formation are suitable for the non-linearity model. The estimated elasticities of time dynamic indicate that energy consumption is income in- elastic and temperature inelastic. Elasticities of real income at first increase and then decrease, however, elasticities of temperature gradually increase after the year 1993. Last of all, we propose some policy implications.     

A Conflict of Theory and Practice： Evidence from China

This article found that Chinese international payment＇s practice conflicted with the western macroeconomic theory. Therefore, through combining the actual conditions of China, and comparing China with the United States, this article analyzed the reason causing this kind of conflict, and provided a consulting conclusion.     

Do Savings and Credit Institutions Reduce Vulnerability? New Evidence From Mexico

This study examines whether membership in a savings and credit society (SACP) reduces vulnerability to poverty, using a representative survey from the National Savings and Financial Services Bank. The sample of households includes those that are and are not members of a SACP during 2004?2007. This evidence indicates that membership improves income; furthermore, membership decreases the variance in annual household per capita income. Both effects reduce the probability that somebody becomes poor. Finally, the results offer support for the proposition that households that join a SACP have better abilities to smooth consumption in the face of adverse shocks, and thus are less susceptible to shocks, than do households that are not members.     

Does Age Exacerbate the Gender-Wage Gap? New Method and Evidence From Germany, 1984–2014

ABSTRACT

Given theoretical premises, the gender-wage gap adjusted for individual characteristics is likely to vary according to age. This study adapts John DiNardo, Nicole M. Fortin, and Thomas Lemieux's (1996) semi-parametric technique to disentangle year, cohort, and age effects in adjusted gender-wage gaps. The study relies on a long panel of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) covering 1984–2015. The results indicate that, in Germany, the gender-wage gap increases over a birth cohort's lifetime, including in the post-reproductive age for some birth cohorts. The results suggest that age and gender are overlapping handicaps in the labor market and call for a policy intervention.     

Does simplifying divorce and marriage registration matter? Evidence from China

This article evaluates the marital consequences of easier access to divorce and marriage by exploiting a major policy change in China that simplifies both. I first use a regression discontinuity design to examine the short-run effect and find that simplified registration immediately triggered more and faster divorces and marriages. In estimating the long-run effect, I adopt a difference-in-differences strategy that further exploits cross-sectional variation in urbanization rate. Results indicate that the positive effect on marital outcomes, especially on marriage rate, persisted in the medium run for 4 years.     

The Political Economy of Real Exchange Rate Behavior: Theory and Empirical Evidence for Developed and Developing Countries, 1960–2010

Empirical results of testing the PPP hypothesis have constantly shown that relative prices do not converge to the same level, either in the short or the long run. Therefore, the PPP explanation of the real exchange rate does not provide a reasonable measure of competitiveness at the international level. This article puts forth a different approach based on the works of Ricardo, Marx, Harrod and Shaikh. It argues that the real relative unit labor cost is the main factor explaining the long-run behavior of the real exchange rate. The second section of the article explains the theoretical underpinnings of our approach. The third section analyzes the role of the real interest rate differential in explaining real exchange rate misalignments. In the fourth section, we present a graphical analysis of the interrelation among the real effective exchange rate, the real unit labor cost ratio, the short-run real interest rate differential and the trade balance for 16 OECD countries, Taiwan and three developing countries for the period 1960–2010. The fifth section investigates the long-run relationship between the latter three indexes through co-integrating and error correction models using the ARDL–ECM framework. The last section provides our conclusions.     

Government incentive strategies and private capital participation in China’s Shale gas development

Shale gas development investments are uncertain and irreversible in the initial stage in China. Flexible incentive strategy is needed for governments to guide private capital participation at different development stages. This study aims to provide analysis governments can use to encourage private investment in shale gas projects according to its plans in an extended real options framework. A social benefits variable is introduced to determine the threshold of social benefits that determine whether the government will choose a deferred or instant incentives strategy. By considering the efficiency factor, we show the optimal arrangements of two kinds of incentives: tax cuts and production subsidies, to implement incentive targets. The results indicate that current market demand and social benefits are the key factors that affect the government’s choice of incentive strategy. We also find that the optimal level of incentives, either tax cuts or production subsidies, are independent of current market demand and future market uncertainty under the delayed incentive strategy, but which affect the optimal level of incentives under the instant motivation strategy, and ignoring the negative influence of unpredictable random events on future market demand might lead to insufficient government incentives in this case.     

Reforms on China＇s Fiscal System and Its Impact on Local Government Behavior

The fiscal system is an important part of national economic management and deals with the division of financial responsibility and power, regulates and defines the fiscal activities among different levels of governments. The changes in economic system and economic structure decide the changes of fiscal function and fiscal structure, which results in the changes in intergovernmental distribution form and local government behavior. This paper takes a look at the stages of China＇s fiscal reform process and the impacts on local government behavior, and tries to find measures for perfecting the fiscal system reform to optimize local government behavior and guarantee a healthy national economy.     

The Timing of Annual Report Disclosure:Characteristics and Economic Consequences——Evidence from Two Stock Exchanges in China

This paper analyzes the annual reports(from 1997 to 2011)of firms listed on two stock exchanges in China and reveals four significant characteristics of disclosure timing.These characteristics have significant economic implications for stock market movement,including positive contributions to stock price,trading volume and abnormal return.It thereby demonstrates that the CSRC’s"balanced disclosure"policy has not been working as expected and needs further review and improvement.     

Ancestral relatedness and visits between national leaders: Evidence from China†

This study explores the factors that affect visits between national leaders in the world, shedding light on their ancestral origins. We combine data on visits involving Chinese leaders from 1993 to 2013 with genetic distance that captures ethnic differences transmitted intergenerationally. Empirical analysis shows that there are more visits between Chinese leaders and leaders of countries that have smaller genetic distance to China. Furthermore, the impact of genetic distance is achieved primarily through trade and positioning of political relationships, which are proxies for economic and political exchanges, respectively. Our findings show that ancestral relatedness plays an important part in modern diplomatic activities.     

National Lottery Participation and Expenditure： Evidence from Hainan Province in China

Lottery has already been broadly used by countries to raise funds to construct the public organizations, but its function is decided by the rate of participation and expenditure levels. Using the lottery investigation data from Hainan Province, this paper analyzes the factors affecting the rate of participation and expenditure in Hainan Province by applying Probit and Tobit Model. It shows that factors such as gender, marriage, education level, attitude and the social environment have distinct influence on the individual lottery participation and expenditure decisions. Therefore, lottery is a restricted rational behavior affected by psychological and social environment variables. Publicity may play an important role in our country＇s lottery policy. Moreover, lottery policy in China should implement a development strategy which requires adjustment in product pattem and promotion approach.     

Government extraction and firm size: Local officials’ responses to fiscal distress in China

This paper studies how government extraction behaviors respond to local fiscal distress in China. We exploit the 2002 Chinese Income Tax Reform which exogenously cut local government revenues from income taxes roughly by half. We find that, when facing fiscal distress, local officials resort to informal taxes, such as fees and levies, instead of formal taxes to supplement revenue. On average, the increase in informal taxes recovered 75 percent of the local government revenue loss due to the reform. The increases are more pronounced along the intensive margin and are primarily driven by more extractions from large firms. We also find that the reform led to reductions in investment and growth rates of small firms and consistently more small firms in the total size distribution.