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Purpose: The relationship between industrial policy and exploratory innovation is imperfect. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use Chinese high-tech enterprise identification policy (HTEP) as a natural experimental group to test policy impacts, spillover effects and mechanisms of action. Findings: First, HTEP promotes exploratory innovation. In addition, HTEP has a greater impact on non-exploratory innovation. Second, HTEP has spillover effects in two phases: HTEP (2008) and the 2016 policy reform. HTEP affects exploratory innovation in nearby non-high-tech firms, and the policy effect decreases monotonically with increasing distance from the treatment group. Third, HTEP affects innovation capacity through financing constraints, technical personnel flow and knowledge flow, which explains not only policy effects but also spillover effects. Fourth, the analysis of policy heterogeneity shows that the 2016 policy reforms reinforce the positive effect of HTEP (2008). By deducting the effects of other policies, the HTEP effect is found to be less volatile. In terms of the continuity of policy identification, continuous uninterrupted identification has a crucial impact on the improvement of firms' innovation capacity compared to repeated certification and certification expiration. Finally, HTEP has a crowding-out effect in state-owned enterprises and large firms' innovation. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, the authors enrich the literature on industrial policy through exploratory innovation research. While previous studies have focused on R&D investment and patents (Dai and Wang, 2019), exploratory innovation helps firms break away from the inherent knowledge mindset and achieve sustainable innovation. Second, few studies have explored the characteristics of industrial policies. In this paper, the authors subdivide the sample into repeated certification, continuous certification and certification expiration according to high-tech enterprise identification. In addition, the authors compare the differences in policy implementation effects between the 2016 policy reform and the 2008 policy to provide new directions for business managers and policy makers. Third, innovation factors guided by industrial policies may cluster in specific regions, which in turn manifest externalities. This is when the policy spillover effect is worth considering. This paper fills a gap in the industrial policy literature by examining the spillover effects. Finally, this paper also explores the mechanisms of policy effects from three perspectives: financing constraints, technician mobility and knowledge mobility, which can affect not only the innovation of beneficiary firms directly but also indirectly the innovation of neighboring non-beneficiary firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper's purpose is to investigate the effects of digital finance on the risk of stock price crashes and the underlying transmission mechanisms, and to provide suggestions to inhibit the stock crash risk (CR). Design/methodology/approach: This paper selects all companies that were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2011 to 2020. It then uses the two-way fixed effect model and the intermediary effect model to verify such effects. Findings: The overall outcomes demonstrate such a result that the CR of listed companies in China can be significantly reduced by the development of digital finance, and the overall transparency of business financial information and the equity pledge of controlling shareholders are the two underlying transmission mechanisms that digital finance can cause effects on the CR of stocks. Research limitations/implications: The main limitations are that there may exist some problems in the method for evaluating the CR of stocks. And there may be a problem of endogeneity caused by the empirical model cannot control all correlation variables. Practical implications: This paper would provide policy implications, for different roles, to inhibit the stock CR and to make the development of the economy more stabilize. Social implications: Digital finance can promote economic development while restraining financial risks at the same time. Therefore, although this study is based on the relevant data from China, it can also provide a reference for other economies with different basic conditions from China, to promote the overall development of the world economy. Originality/value: The current academic research on digital finance or stock price CR has been relatively sufficient, but there are few papers that combined both. By combining digital finance with stock CR, this paper researches the influence of digital finance on the CR of stocks through empirical analysis. So, this paper would provide new research ideas and evidence for potential influence factors of the CR of stocks, fill the gap in this research field and provide certain help for subsequent scholars to conduct relevant research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to improve the offshore wind farm (OWF) site selection evaluation index system and establishes a decision-making model for OWF site selection. It is expected to provide helpful references for the progress of offshore wind power. Design/methodology/approach: Firstly, this paper establishes an evaluation criteria system for OWF site selection, considering six criteria (wind resource, environment, economic, technical, social and risk) and related subcriteria. Then, the Criteria Importance Though Intercrieria Correlation (CRITIC) method is introduced to figure out the weights of evaluation indexes. In addition, the cumulative prospect theory and technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (CPT-TOPSIS) method are employed to construct the OWF site selection decision-making model. Finally, taking the OWF site selection in China as an example, the effectiveness and robustness of the framework are verified by sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis. Findings: This study establishes the OWF site selection evaluation system and constructs a decision-making model under the spherical fuzzy environment. A case of China is employed to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the model. Originality/value: In this paper, a new decision-making model is proposed for the first time, considering the ambiguity and uncertainty of information and the risk attitudes of decision-makers (DMs) in the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: At present, the scale of China's floating population has reached 376 million people. Compared with the local inhabitants, the poverty problem of the floating population is more complex, and this problem should also attract the attention of all sectors of society. This paper aims to measure and analyze the multidimensional poverty of the floating population in China. Design/methodology/approach: The data used in this paper are the data of the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) in China. This survey is a large-scale national migratory population sampling survey organized by the China National Health Commission, covering 31 provinces (autonomous regions and cities) and other autonomous regions. This paper uses the dynamic monitoring and Alkire and Foster (A-F) method to study the multidimensional poverty problem of the floating population. Findings: This study finds that income poverty is no longer the main type of poverty faced by the floating population. The multidimensional poverty of the floating population mainly occurs in the social security and education dimensions, of which social security has become the most severe poverty dimension of the floating population. From the perspective of group differences, compared with the floating population in urban areas, the multidimensional poverty of migrant workers is more serious. However, the poverty of migrant workers is mainly concentrated in one-dimensional poverty and two-dimensional poverty. Social implications: In the future, the authors should focus on the social security of the floating population in the place of influx and the education of the floating population. Originality/value: Through the review of the existing literature, the authors find that the current research on the multidimensional poverty of the floating population is mainly concentrated on the migrant worker groups that move from rural areas to urban areas. However, insufficient attention is paid to the urban floating population groups moving between cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to enhance the Global Projection Model (GPM) developed by the International Monetary Fund by constructing a GPM4 model that includes the United States of America, the Eurozone, Japan and China. Design/methodology/approach: This article introduces the United States of America, the Eurozone, Japan and China into a comprehensive global forecasting model, analyzing the impact of liquidity management in G3 economies on nine key macroeconomic variables in China. Findings: The findings reveal that the liquidity management strategies employed by major economies do exert a certain influence on China's major macroeconomic variables. Different types of liquidity shocks elicit varying effects. Monetary shocks exhibit the strongest instantaneous impact, while credit conditions and policy rate shocks contribute more significantly to China's long-term macroeconomic fluctuations. However, no single shock stands out as the dominant factor. Originality/value: This paper attempts to expand the GPM model developed by the International Monetary Fund and build a GPM4 model including China, the United States of America, the Eurozone and Japan. For the first time, the GPM model was used to analyze the spillover effects of liquidity management in major economies on China's macroeconomy and revealed the impact of non-price factors such as credit conditions on China's macroeconomic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Since 2017, China's digital economy has accounted for more than 30% of the country's GDP. The digital economy has become the main driving force of China's economic development. Moreover, the digital economy has also changed the traditional modes of production and distribution between urban and rural areas. This paper aims to explore the influential mechanism of digital economy infrastructure (DEI) on the urban-rural income gap (URIG). Design/methodology/approach: By analyzing the theoretical model of the URIG, this paper constructs a theoretical analysis framework and clarifies the key roles of rural land circulation (RLC) and resident population urbanization (RPU) in the relationship between DEI and the URIG. Findings: The DEI can effectively reduce the URIG; the regression coefficient (RC) was −0.109. The reduction effect is mainly reflected in: 1) the wage income gap between urban and rural residents (RC = −0.128) and 2) the net property income gap of urban and rural residents (RC = −0.321). Also, for the spatial spillover effect, the path effect of "DEI – RLC – URIG" is almost equal to the path effect of "DEI – RPU – URIG"; for the local effect, the path effect of the former is far smaller than the latter. Moreover, when the RPU reaches the threshold of 86.29%, the DEI will expand the URIG (RC = 0.201). Originality/value: This paper proposes a theoretical framework for the impact of DEI on the URIG, explores the mechanism of RLC and RPU in the DEI and URIG and enriches the theory of traditional research on URIG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Under the influence of the digital economy, the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises has attracted widespread attention from scholars at home and abroad due to its uniqueness and importance. However, the existing literature is still deficient in the inner mechanism of digital transformation and lacks research on the digital transformation process. Through in-depth interviews and rooted theory, this paper focuses on the key factors of digital development of manufacturing enterprises and constructs a model of the digital transformation process. Design/methodology/approach: This paper takes China's manufacturing enterprises as research projects. First, through a literature search, the authors proposed three key factors for constructing sustainable competitiveness from digital transformation, that is, core technology innovation, business model re-engineering and organizational structure optimization. Second, the authors adopted the grounded theory approach to identify three sustainable competitive factors of manufacturing enterprises resulting from digital transformation and constructed a theoretical model. Third, based on Chinese manufacturing enterprises data, the authors used an empirical study to validate the three influencing factors. Finally, the authors identified the inner mechanism of the digital transformation of enterprises and put forward suggestions for enterprises to maintain sustainable competitiveness. Findings: First, based on the existing literature, this paper identified the importance of digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises, and the essence of digital transformation of manufacturing companies was found to lie in the change in the combined effect of technological, market and organizational innovation. Second, based on the grounded theory, through in-depth interviews with manufacturing enterprises on digital transformation and open coding of interview transcripts, it was concluded that the key factors for the digital transformation manufacturing companies are core technology change, business model re-engineering and organizational structure optimization. Third, based on a dynamic perspective, the authors evaluated and validated digital transformation. The study found that manufacturing enterprises can improve their digital transformation capabilities through the trajectory of "core technology change – business model re-engineering – organizational structure optimization" to improve their sustainable competitive advantage. Originality/value: Firstly, this study proposed three key factors for constructing sustainable competitiveness from digital transformation, that is, core technology innovation, business model re-engineering and organizational structure optimization, which enriched the theory of transformation and upgrading. Secondly, this study constructs the structural equation model of digital transformation and discovers the key factors pf digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper investigates how the gap between the host country's actual and optimal financial conditions affects foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows through evidence from China. Design/methodology/approach: The authors first employ principal component analysis (PCA) to measure FDI target countries' actual financial conditions and use 30 OECD countries as a reference group to assess the optimal financial condition. The authors then estimate a two-way fixed effect model with panel data of China's outward FDI in 64 countries for the period 2003–2017 to get the regression results. The authors' results overcome endogeneity and are robust. Findings: Results show that (1) the gaps between host countries' actual and optimal financial conditions positively affect FDI inflows from China; (2) there is a heterogeneous effect between low-income and high-income countries. The gaps for high-income countries significantly increase FDI inflows from China, while the gaps are not significant for low-income countries. Research limitations/implications: The authors examine how the gap affects FDI inflows from China. An increase of 1% in the target country's gap promotes a 6.3% increase in FDI inflows. However, the authors do not explore what mechanisms are key to these results. The authors will explore these questions in the future. Originality/value: This paper complements the influence factors of FDI and enriches theories of FDI. The gap between actual and optimal financial conditions plays an essential role in FDI flows across countries for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study empirically investigates the impact of directors' and officers' liability insurance on corporate environmental investment. Design/methodology/approach: This paper takes A-share listed firms in the most polluting industries from 2013 to 2019 as the research sample. The authors perform multiple regression analysis to examine the research question, and other approaches such as PSM and Heckman two-stage model are applied to test the robustness of the main results. Findings: The authors find that D&O insurance insured firms significantly decrease the level of corporate environmental investment. The results keep consistent after alleviating potential endogenous concerns. Further analysis shows that the negative association between D&O insurance and environmental investment is more pronounced in firms facing greater environmental pressure and stronger market supervision, and firms located in regions with a rich legal environment. Research limitations/implications: This research extends the literature on the antecedents of corporate environmental investment and the consequences of D&O insurance. Practical implications: The study may deepen people's understanding of D&O insurance and inform them of its negative effects. This research sheds light on the potential factor resulting in a relatively low level of corporate environmental investment in China, which has an important policy implication for government to carry out some regulations to make a difference. Originality/value: Against the backdrop that more importance has been attached to environmental protection globally, this paper is the first study to examine the impact of D&O insurance on corporate environmental investment in the context of the transitional and emerging market-China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study intends to explore the relationship between digital finance and the vertical specialization of firms. The following questions are discussed: (1) As a representative new financial development model, what is the role of digital finance in the vertical specialization of firms? (2) If digital finance improves the level of vertical specialization of firms, what is the mechanism behind such improvement? (3) How does digital finance impact the vertical specialization of firms in different regions, industries, and firms? Design/methodology/approach: A two-way fixed-effect model of panel data is proposed to verify the relationship between digital finance and the vertical specialization of firms. This model is constructed by matching the city-level data of digital finance with the data of China's A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2018. Meanwhile, the instrumental variable (IV) method and difference-in-difference (DID) method are adopted to deal with the endogeneity problem of the model. Findings: The authors' study finds that digital finance has significantly improved the level of vertical specialization of firms. The result is robust under the endogeneity consideration and a series of robustness tests. After the dimensionality of the index is reduced, the depth of digital finance usage is more conducive to the improvement of the vertical specialization of firms compared with the width of digital finance coverage and the level of financial digitization. Digital finance mainly improves the level of vertical specialization of firms by reducing transaction costs and increasing the market thickness of the intermediate products. Moreover, digital finance has certain heterogeneity in promoting the vertical specialization of firms, an effect that is more significant in the eastern region, manufacturing industry and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Research limitations/implications: The first limitation is the mechanism test. This research only analyzes the mechanism from transaction cost and the market thickness of the intermediate products. With the rapid development of information technology, digital finance will be further integrated into people's production and life. There will then be more mechanisms that should be explored between digital finance and the vertical specialization of firms. Another limitation is the data sample of this paper. The conclusions of this research are based only on the data of listed companies. However, in the authors' opinion, the specialization level of small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) should be higher. Therefore, the conclusions of this work are underestimated, which can be considered as the lower limit of digital finance for enterprise specialization. Social implications: As a favorable financing channel to supplement traditional financial service functions, digital finance plays a critical role in the operating efficiency of enterprises and the effective allocation of macro resources. The authors' research shows that digital finance has significantly improved the vertical specialization of firms. This conclusion provides guides to improve the production efficiency of enterprises and the quality of economic development. Originality/value: This paper has three main contributions. (1) The relationship between financial development and the vertical specialization of firms is innovatively discussed from the perspective of digital finance, which implies that digital finance can effectively promote the level of vertical specialization of firms. (2) This paper provides new perspectives and ideas to reveal the impact mechanism of digital finance on the real economy by systematically analyzing the mechanism of digital finance on the vertical specialization of firms from the perspectives of transaction costs and financing constraints. (3) The regional differences in the development of digital finance, industry differences in the vertical specialization of firms and differences in the nature of enterprise property rights are all under consideration, which improves the effectiveness and pertinence of digital finance in promoting the vertical specialization of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released a position paper on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. China emphasizes the need for an immediate ceasefire, the safety of humanitarian corridors, and preventing the expansion of the conflict. China proposes implementing a comprehensive ceasefire, protecting civilians effectively, ensuring humanitarian assistance, enhancing diplomatic mediation, and seeking a political settlement based on the two-state solution. China calls for a more broad-based international peace conference to formulate a concrete timetable and roadmap for the implementation of the two-state solution. [Extracted from the article]

While reaffirming China's longstanding "peace and development" line and offering a more positive take on many developments in Asia, the 2019 Defense White Paper highlights many negative features of the global security environment. This suggests an unresolved internal contradiction in China's security views and policies. Such an apparent contradiction is perhaps resolved by the Defense White Paper's description of strategic competition as driven largely by the U.S., not by China, and out of step with deeper global trends. Indeed, the PLA under Xi Jinping is depicted as working with other countries to realize Xi's "shared community for mankind" as it strengthens its deterrence capabilities. Yet this propaganda-laden take reinforces the suspicions of many regarding China's "real" goals. Beijing must inject a much more pragmatic, hard-power perspective into its public security stance and engage Washington on that basis in order to realize a meaningful level of stability based on mutual accommodation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The behavior of the entities in a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) cooperation network is influenced by the core enterprise. Addressing the problem of how the network vulnerability changes when the core enterprise is attacked is a challenging topic. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the failure process of SME cooperation networks caused by the failure of the core SME from the perspective of cascading failure. Design/methodology/approach: According to the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center, Ministry of Science & Technology in China, 296 SMEs in Jiangsu province were used to construct an SME cooperation network of technology-based SMEs and an under-loading cascading failure model. The weight-based attack strategy was selected to mimic a deliberate node attack and was used to analyze the vulnerability of the SME cooperation network. Findings: Some important conclusions are obtained from the simulation analysis: (1) The minimum boundary of node enterprises has a negative relationship with networks' invulnerability, while the breakdown probability has an inverted-U relationship with networks' invulnerability. (2) The combined effect of minimum boundary and breakdown probability indicates that the vulnerability of networks is mainly determined by the breakdown probability; while, minimum boundary helps prevent cascading failure occur. Furthermore, according to the case study, adapting capital needs and resilience in the cooperation network is the core problem in improving the robustness of SME cooperation networks. Originality/value: This research proposed an under-loading cascading failure model to investigate the under-loading failure process caused by the shortage of resources when the core enterprise fails or withdraws from the SME cooperation network. Two key parameters in the proposed model—minimum capacity and breakdown probability—could serve as a guide for research on the vulnerability of SME cooperation networks. Additionally, practical meanings for each parameter in the proposed model are given, to suggest novel insights regarding network protection to facilitate the robustness and vulnerability in real SME cooperation networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Early Devonian Xitun Vertebrate Fauna, represented by early members of crown sarcopterygians, such as Youngolepis, Diabolepis, Psarolepis, Achoania and Styloichthys, is mainly hosted in the Xitun Formation in the Qujing area, East Yunnan of China. Despite numerous research articles describing taxa from this famous Lochkovian fauna and its sedimentary and tectonic environments, there is no objective and coherent interpretation of the palaeoenvironment in which these early vertebrates lived. Based on detailed field geological investigation in recent years in the surrounding areas of Qujing City and measurements from the Xitun Formation section, this paper focuses on the analysis of some geochemistry indices of major, trace and rare earth elements to accurately elucidate the sedimentary environment of the Xitun Formation and deepen our understanding of the relationship between Early Devonian fishes and the environment. The analyses of the sensitive geochemistry indices of depositional and tectonic settings, sedimentary provenance, weathering, palaeoclimate, palaeosalinity and palaeoredox conditions indicate that the Lower Devonian Xitun Formation in East Yunnan was mainly deposited in a shallow marine setting with three phases of seawater–freshwater influx under a warm and humid climate, and a stable, oxygen-rich condition, which promoted the flourishing of Early Devonian marine fishes. Supplementary material: Data on the major (Table A), trace (Table B) and rare earth (Table C) elements are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7020642 Thematic collection: This article is part of the Chemical Evolution of the Mid-Paleozoic Earth System and Biotic Response collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/chemical-evolution-of-the-mid-paleozoic-earth-system [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: High-quality labor supply is inevitable to maintain sustainable and steady economic growth. This study mainly explores the impact of the social pension system on the health of human capital, and further explores its impact mechanism. Design/methodology/approach: On the basis of the data from China Family Panel Studies from 2012 to 2018, this article uses the fixed effect model and the mediation effect model to empirically study the influence of the social pension scheme on the health of human capital and further explore its influence mechanism. Findings: This study shows that the social pension scheme can significantly improve the physical and mental health of laborers, especially for low-income and agricultural groups. The implementation of the social pension scheme contributes to increasing medical services and reducing the labor supply for the benefit of human health capital. Therefore, the government should continue to expand the coverage of the social pension scheme and comprehensively improve the importance of human health capital on economic growth. Practical implications: Medical costs and labor supply play a mediating effect in the relationship between social pension and rural labors' health status, which indicates that medical costs and labor supply level are still important factors affecting the health status of rural labor. There are essential factors affecting the health status of the rural labor force, and their role should be given more consideration in the process of system design and improvement. Originality/value: The existing studies have more frequently studied the effect of the implementation of social pension schemes from the perspective of economic performance, but this paper evaluates the policy effect of social pension schemes based on the perspective of health human capital, which enriches research on health performance in related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the factors affecting urban economic development in emerging economic market countries and to provide a new research perspective on urban skyscraper construction. Design/methodology/approach: An empirical analysis based on a difference-in-differences (DID) model is conducted using data of urban data in China that expand into developed markets from 2003 to 2018. Findings: The results of the spatial heterogeneity test indicate that the construction of skyscrapers has a significant promotional effect on the eastern city's economy. In contrast, it has a significant inhibitory effect in the central and western regions. Further findings demonstrate that the construction of skyscrapers can influence urban economic development by promoting industrial agglomeration, especially when the transmission effect of the diversified accumulation of tertiary industry is more prominent. The expansion analysis shows that skyscrapers have increased the level of trade in the city, and the impact on trade has an optimal height. Research limitations/implications: This paper focuses on the economic and trade effects of skyscrapers, and the optimal height of skyscrapers needs to be discussed in more depth, which is also the next problem the researchers need to study. Practical implications: The government should attach importance to and promote the construction of urban skyscrapers, and do a good job in overall planning and design. The city should formulate preferential policies in land, taxation, finance, system and other aspects to increase support for urban skyscraper construction and promote local economic development. Originality/value: This study focuses on the impact of urban skyscraper construction on the economic and trade development of cities in developing countries, which not only complements the relevant research on the economic effects of urban skyscraper construction, but also helps to provide reference for the sustainable development of urbanization in many developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper investigates the effect of business environment distance on innovation performance of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) and explores the mediating effect of absorptive capacity between the two, and it further analyzes the moderating effect of skilled migrants in the relationship between business environment distance and absorptive capacity. Design/methodology/approach: An empirical analysis based on a fixed effect model is conducted using data of Chinese MNEs listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock that expand into developed markets from 2011 to 2018. Findings: The results suggest business environment distance positively affects the innovation performance of EMNEs, and can enhance innovation performance by affecting absorptive capacity of EMNEs. In addition, skilled migrants strengthen the relationship between business environment distance and absorptive capacity of EMNEs. Practical implications: Chinese MNEs should fully exploit business environment distance to acquire the technology needed for innovation activities, and strengthen absorptive capacity to maximize the benefits from innovation. Chinese government needs to strengthen the construction of skilled migrants to facilitate knowledge and technology transfer. Originality/value: Combining springboard theory and institutional theory, this paper integrates macro and micro perspectives to explore whether and how business environment distance affects innovation performance of Chinese MNEs. The paper provides a good theoretical basis and important practical reference value for enhancing the technological innovation capability of Chinese MNEs and the overall technological innovation level of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to research the relationship between income gap (IG) and green economic growth based on the perspective of economic inequality. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses the super slack based model (Super-SBM) to measure the efficiency of regional green economic growth, and constructs a regression model of the IG and regional green economic growth. Findings: Firstly, the IG has an inhibitory effect on the growth of regional green economy (GE). Secondly, the relationship between the IG and regional green economic growth will be affected by the threshold value of income level. Thirdly, environmental regulation and government competition will increase the inhibitory effect of the IG. Originality/value: According to the characteristics of China's regional economy, the researchers construct an empirical model of the IG and green economic growth to study their relationship, the threshold effect of income level and the moderating effect of environmental regulation and local government competition. The research content, methods and conclusions of this paper provide new evidence for the sustainable growth of China's regional GE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that research on policy diffusion mechanism of Government Procurement of Public Services (GPPS) is beneficial to improve the efficiency of policy formulation and implementation. Design/methodology/approach: In view of the four dimensions which are internal demand, external pressure, policy innovation environment and service characteristic, a system of factors affecting policy diffusion is established. On this basis, a Multilayer Fuzzy Cognitive Map (MFCM) model for policy diffusion of GPPS is constructed. Nonlinear Hebbian Learning algorithm and genetic algorithm are applied to optimize the two components of the MFCM model, which are relationship between nodes at the same layer and influence weights between nodes at different layers, respectively. Taking Nanjing municipal government purchasing elderly-care services in China as the empirical object, simulation of policy diffusion based on the MFCM model is carried out, aiming to obtain the key factors influencing policy diffusion and the dynamic diffusion mechanism of GPPS policy. Findings: Research results show that, compared with monolayer Fuzzy Cognitive Map, the MFCM model converges faster. In addition, simulation results of policy diffusion indicate that economic development level of jurisdiction, superior pressure, administrative level and operability of services are key influencing factors which are under four dimensions correspondingly. And the dynamic influencing mechanism of key factors has also been learned. Originality/value: This paper constructs the MFCM model, which is a new approach based on several monolayer FCMs, to study the policy diffusion mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Professor Kate Jones is presented. It mentions about the impact on the natural world is increasing the risk of zoonotic diseases spilling over into the human population. It also mentions that a lack of communication between public health bodies and ecologists is failing to prevent spillover of animal diseases into human populations.

Offers analysis of and excerpts from 'The Tiananmen Papers: The Chinese Leadership's Decision to Use Force Against Their Own People--In Their Own Words,' which details the decision by the Chinese government to use force in the suppression of democratic demonstrations by students in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. How transcripts of conversations between Chinese Communist leaders came to be available for publication in the West; Justification of the force used to end the demonstration; Concerns of the leaders at that time.

The pulp and paper sector has been a significant source of water pollution in China for many years. The Chinese government has made great efforts on water pollution control for the pulp and paper sector. While actively participating in various international treaties and conventions related to environmental management and pollution control in this sector, China has created a comprehensive environmental management framework, including several environmental policies, regulations and standards. This study reviews the current environmental framework for the management and control of water pollutants generated by the pulp and paper industry in China, with reference to relevant experiences. Apart from assessing the achievements that China has made, this study proposes some recommendations to further enhance water pollution control capacity and facilitate effective legal enforcement. Approaches such as improvements to environmental standards and permit systems, technical upgrading, cleaner production strategy, environmental monitoring improvements, integration of financing channels for environmental improvement, and enhancement of social responsibilities of enterprises are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Minimizing the impact on the surrounding environment and maximizing the use of production raw materials while ensuring that the relevant processes and services can be delivered within the specified time are the contents of enterprise supply chain management in the green financial system. Design/methodology/approach: With the continuous development of China's economy and the continuous deepening of the concept of sustainable development, how to further upgrade the enterprise supply chain management is an urgent need to solve. How to maximize the utilization of resources in the supply chain needs to be realized from the whole process of raw material purchase, transportation and processing. Findings: It was proved that digital twin technology had a partial intermediary role in the role of supply chain big data analysis capability on corporate finance, market, operation and other performance. Originality/value: This paper focused on describing how digital twin technology could be applied to big data analysis of enterprise supply chain under the green financial system and proved its usability through experiments. The experimental results showed that the indirect effect of the path big data analysis capability digital twin technology enterprise financial performance was 0.378. The indirect effect of the path big data analysis capability digital twin technology enterprise market performance was 0.341. The indirect effect of the path big data analysis capability digital twin technology enterprise operational performance was 0.374. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Through this study, the aim is to provide reference for the improvement of CEO related theories, the reform of internal governance mechanisms and compensation systems in enterprises, and ultimately contribute to economic and social development and the achievement of dual carbon goals. Design/methodology/approach: In the context of accelerating the implementation of the "dual carbon" goal and promoting sustainable economic and social development, this paper builds a panel data model based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019 to empirically test the impact of CEO stability on green innovation and total factor productivity of enterprises. Findings: The results show that CEO stability has a positive role in promoting enterprise total factor productivity and green innovation and enterprise green innovation also has a positive role in promoting total factor productivity; Heterogeneity testing found that CEO stability has no significant impact on green innovation in state-owned enterprises. Corporate green innovation has a partial mesomeric effect between CEO stability and total factor productivity; The proportion of independent directors has a negative moderating effect on CEO stability and corporate green innovation, while equity incentive has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between CEO stability, corporate total factor productivity and green innovation. Originality/value: First, it develops the research on CEO stability and its economic consequences. Second, it expands the impact of CEO stability on heterogeneous enterprises. Third, provides new ideas for the reform of internal governance mechanism and salary system of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The demand for the cold chain logistics of agricultural products was investigated through demand forecasting; targeted suggestions and countermeasures are provided. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned statement. Design/methodology/approach: A Markov-optimised mean GM (1, 1) model is proposed to forecast the demand for the cold chain logistics of agricultural products. The mean GM (1, 1) model was used to forecast the demand trend, and the Markov chain model was used for optimisation. Considering Guangxi province as an example, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method were verified, and relevant suggestions are made. Findings: Compared with other models, the Markov-optimised mean GM (1, 1) model can more effectively forecast the demand for the cold chain logistics of agricultural products, is closer to the actual value and has better accuracy and minor error. It shows that the demand forecast can provide specific suggestions and theoretical support for the development of cold chain logistics. Originality/value: This study evaluated the development trend of the cold chain logistics of agricultural products based on the research horizon of demand forecasting for cold chain logistics. A Markov-optimised mean GM (1, 1) model is proposed to overcome the problem of poor prediction for series with considerable fluctuation in the modelling process, and improve the prediction accuracy. It finds a breakthrough to promote the development of cold chain logistics through empirical analysis, and give relevant suggestions based on the obtained results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The stock indexes are an important issue for investors, and in this paper good trading strategies will be aimed to be adopted according to the accurate prediction of the stock indexes to chase high returns. Design/methodology/approach: To avoid the problem of insufficient financial data for daily stock indexes prediction during modeling, a data augmentation method based on time scale transformation (DATT) was introduced. After that, a new deep learning model which combined DATT and NGRU (DATT-nested gated recurrent units (NGRU)) was proposed for stock indexes prediction. The proposed models and their competitive models were used to test the stock indexes prediction and simulated trading in five stock markets of China and the United States. Findings: The experimental results demonstrated that both NGRU and DATT-NGRU outperformed the other recurrent neural network (RNN) models in the daily stock indexes prediction. Originality/value: A novel RNN with NGRU and data augmentation is proposed. It uses the nested structure to increase the depth of the deep learning model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As China's only ruling party, will the Communist Party influence corporate decisions? The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how the political ideology of CEOs affects the environmental responsibility of Chinese family firms and its effects on Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER), in addition to a cohesive set of corporate governance contingency factors. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses a series of the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression estimates and two-stage approach to examine four main hypotheses, based on 7,824 observations corresponding to 1,919 family firms in China from 2004 to 2015. Findings: The study's findings show that CEOs imprinted with communist ideology are significantly positively related to CER in family firms, that the moderating role of ownership concentration is not significant, that board independence positively moderates the focal relationship and that CEO duality negatively moderates this relationship. Originality/value: The paper expands the research of CEOs' political ideology to the ecological context, which are of significance to both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the impact of digital inclusive finance (DIF) on regional economic growth and innovation-driven development. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the panel data of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper explores the impact of DIF on economic growth and innovative development. Findings: (1) DIF has a direct positive effect on economic growth and innovative development; (2) there is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of DIF on economic growth and innovative development. (3) DIF can indirectly affect economic growth and innovative development by increasing residents' personal disposable income, increasing fiscal expenditure and improving educational level. Social implications: Exploring the relationship between them and digital inclusive financial development can provide a reference for national productivity construction and development. Originality/value: Economic growth and innovation-driven development have been one of the main concerns of China's policymakers. Exploring the relationship between them, digital inclusive financial development can provide a reference for national productivity construction and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study explores how to develop high-tech industries in Hunan province and enhance regional competitiveness. Through the comprehensive quantitative analysis of the development status of the high-tech industry in Hunan province, this paper provides a reference for the development of the high-tech industry in China and the world. Design/methodology/approach: This study constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system of regional competitiveness in Hunan province from the five dimensions of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing of the "new development concept." Through the screening and analysis of relevant economic indicators in Hunan province from 2011 to 2020, the principal component analysis method is used to measure the five development dimensions, verify the hypotheses in the study and finally draw the conclusion. Findings: Hunan's high-tech industry is positively correlated with Hunan's regional innovation development competitiveness, regional coordinated development competitiveness, regional green development competitiveness, regional open development competitiveness and regional shared development competitiveness. Among them, the promotion effect on innovation development is the best, followed by the promotion effect on green development, coordinated development and shared development dimension. In contrast, the promotion effect on the open development dimension is relatively weak. Research limitations/implications: The statistical data selected in this study have certain timeliness. At the same time, the current economic environment is affected by the new corona pneumonia epidemic, showing specific particularity. In this context, it is bound to cause changes in the impact of high-tech industries on regional competitiveness. In addition, this paper studies the regional competitiveness of Hunan's high-tech industry from a macro perspective. Although relevant studies are conducted from five dimensions, there is a lack of micro-level research. Social implications: From five aspects of the new development concept, this study provides suggestions for developing high-tech industries in Hunan province and even China and the path to enhance regional competitiveness. Originality/value: Up to now, no article measures regional competitiveness with the five development dimensions of new development: innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing, and quantitatively analyses regional competitiveness on this basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on whether the 'One River, One Policy' is implemented or not, this paper used the questionnaire data of village (community) river chiefs in nine districts and counties under the jurisdiction of Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, and used the Difference-In-Differences Model to carry out an empirical analysis. The findings are threefold. Firstly, the 'One River, One Policy' implemented by primary river chiefs can improve the water quality of the river reaches in their charge. Secondly, annual river patrol times and public support can improve the water quality of the river reaches in charge of primary river chiefs. Thirdly, the River Chief System (RCS) can promote the treatment of river pollution under 'Responsibility Contracting', but for primary river chiefs, there is still a suspicion of whitewash pollution control behavior, so whether to establish a longterm mechanism of the RCS is still uncertain. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical support and decision-making reference for constructing the positive incentive mechanism of the behavior of primary river chiefs in the reconstruction of the RCS, which has important practical significance for effectively improving the RCS and comprehensively promoting the Chinese experiences of river pollution control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impacts on the ban for foreign garbage imports to China, which may cause global panic among nations. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has notified a ban on its import of 24 types of scrap waste including textile materials, cardboard paper and recycling waste. The ban also affects the supply of cardboard boxes for Chinese electronic-commerce (e-commerce) company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other firms.

Information is presented about the China Paper conference, entitled China International Paper Technology Exhibition, held on September 23-25, 2013, in Beijing, China. Special attention is paid to the number and volume of orders received by international technology group Andritz, as well as to the performance of forest industry machines and equipment manufacturer Metso and paper industry company Voith.

The article presents a reprint of the article "China's Paper Industry" by John Schmidt which appeared in the December 18, 2012 issue of "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel." It discusses the performance and scenario of paper industry in China. It mentions the report from Economic Policy Institute based in Washington D.C. on support of the Chinese Government towards the industry.

The article discusses the recycling habits of the Chinese paper industry. The article reports that since 2002, China has recycled 65 million tonnes of the world's waste paper. However, China also imports about 8 million tonnes of wood pulp every year to produce high-quality paper. Although two-thirds is sourced from sustainable forests in the Americas and Europe, the rest comes from unsustainable sources in Indonesia and eastern Russia.

The article focuses on the environmental aspects of increased toilet tissue production and consumption. According to Claude Martin of Worldwide Fund for Natureaper, 10 percent of the total deforestation is attributable to toilet paper. As predicted by the Chinese Institute of Paper, within the next 10 years, China will become the fastest-growing consumer of all paper products, including toilet paper. Further, it suggests to recycle waste office paper to be used in the making of toilet paper.

The article discusses the invention of paper money which was a substitute for coins that turned into a means for globalization. Topics include a historical overview of the use of banknotes in China during the Tang Dynasty from A.D. 618-907, their use during the copper shortage during China’s Song Dynasty, and how explorer Marco Polo’s visit to the Mongol Empire in the 1200s aided the circulation of paper currency which altered the global balance of power.

Focuses on the paper-making industry in China. Total annual paper consumption of China; Prediction on the state's paper consumption in 2010; Status of the industry; Plans of the government for the industry.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the influence of the financial system (financial development and financial structure) on firms' innovation efficiency in China. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs country level data of capital markets and financial institutions along with innovation data from 18 high-tech industries in China spanning the 2009–2016 period, and the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) is applied to explore how financial development and financial structure affect the innovation efficiency of these industries. Findings: Results show that financial development influences firms' innovation efficiency positively and the capital-market-based financial structure has a positive impact on innovation efficiency of high-tech industries. Furthermore, when the high-tech industries are grouped into five sub-industries, the results show that financial structure had different effects on the innovation efficiency in each sub-industry. Originality/value: This work contributes to the empirical research on considering the influential factors of innovation efficiency from the perspective of financial system. This paper also extends the existing literature by the different influences of financial system on innovation efficiency in each sub-industry of Chinese high-tech industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Safety efficiency is the key to balance safety and production in construction industry; but the existing safety efficiency evaluation methods have the limitations of overestimating efficiency and ignoring undesirable outputs; therefore, according to the characteristics of safety production in construction industry, this paper innovatively develops a new cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis method to analyze safety efficiency, which can solve the limitations of traditional methods; and then the safety efficiency and its influencing factors of China's construction industry are analyzed, and some useful conclusions are obtained to improve its safety efficiency. Design/methodology/approach: A new cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis method with undesirable outputs is proposed; and the two-stage efficiency analysis framework is designed. Findings: First, the construction industries in different areas have different reasons for affecting their safety efficiency; second, the evaluation results of global safety priority tend to be more acceptable; third, frequent safety accidents and low resource utilization lead to a slow downward trend of the safety efficiency of China's construction industry in the long run; fourth, construction engineering supervision, construction industrial scale, and construction industrial structure have the significant impact on safety efficiency. Originality/value: Theoretically, a new cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis method with undesirable outputs is proposed for evaluating safety efficiency; practically, the safety efficiency and its influencing factors of China's construction industry are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of energy technological innovation on carbon emissions in China from 2001 to 2016. Design/methodology/approach: Conditional mean (CM) methods are first applied to implement our investigation. Then, considering the tremendous heterogeneity in China, quantile regression is further employed to comprehensively investigate the potential heterogeneous effect between energy technological innovation and carbon emission intensity. Findings: The results suggest that renewable energy technological innovation has a significantly positive effect on carbon emission intensity in lower quantile areas and a negative effect in higher quantile areas. Contrarily, fossil energy technological innovation exerts a negative correlation with carbon emission intensity in lower quantile areas and a positive effect on carbon emission intensity in higher quantiles areas. Originality/value: Considering that energy consumption is the main source of CO2 emissions, it is of great importance to study the impact of energy technological innovation on carbon emissions. However, the previous studies mainly focus on the impact of integrated technological innovation on carbon emissions, ignoring the impact of energy technological innovation on carbon emissions mitigation. To fill this gap, we construct an extended STIRPAT model to examine the effects of renewable energy technological innovation and fossil energy technological innovation on carbon emissions in this paper. The results can provide a reference for the government to formulate carbon mitigation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on mass murder for organ transplants in China as shown by medical papers and official publications. Topics discussed include an investigation by the campaign World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) of crimes against organ harvesting, abundance of organ donors in leading hospitals of traditional Chinese medicine, and forensic hospitals to conduct organ transplant operations in china.

This paper constructs a green development efficiency index framework of water-energy-food in China, and uses the Super-EBM model to measure it more accurately and scientifically. The existing studies on water-energy-food efficiency lack the analysis of regional differential decomposition and spatial state transition. In this paper, two kinds of models are used for complementary analysis. One is kernel density map, Dagum spatial Gini coefficient decomposition and traditional Markov chain, which does not contain spatial factors. The other is the global Moran index, spatial Markov chain and spatial spillover effect, including spatial factors. The spatio-temporal dynamic evolution of the green development efficiency of water-energy-food (GWEF) in China is compared from the perspective of national, regional and provincial dimensions. The conclusion is more scientific and comprehensive, which is conducive to the green collaborative development among water-energy-food, economy and environment in China. The study found that GWEF had a lot of room for improvement. The overall spatial difference was mainly derived from the regional difference. GWEF had a significant positive spatial autocorrelation. The development of GWEF maintained the convergence characteristics of clubs. The spatial spillover effect of the main influencing factors was studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As Chinese stock market develops and grows, mutual fund plays an increasingly important role for strong financial strength and good social resources. This paper aims to present an overview of fund investment effect, identify the investment preference of institutional investors and explore the socially responsible investment value of mutual fund, especially green fund. Design/methodology/approach: In order to test the green effects in the fund market, especially from the perspective of institutional shareholding, the authors build three panel data models to examine the attention, promotion and network effect respectively. Findings: In general terms, the authors obtain a positive relationship between mutual funds and green firms (attention effect). This positive relationship is conducted by the comparison of institutional shareholding level between green firms and non-green firms by using two-sample t-test. The authors find that although all the coefficients of mutual funds' shareholding variables are positively related to social performance, only the number of mutual fund shareholders shows slight significance. The authors observe a stronger promotion effect of green funds on social performance than the other mutual funds (promotion effect). From a network perspective as well as previous social capital research, the mutual funds shareholding network shows a significant and positive effect on the firm's social performance in the firm–fund network (CFClose) as well as in the firm–firm network (CCClose), while the coefficients of closeness in the firm and green fund network are positive but non-significant (network effect). Research limitations/implications: Although some valuable findings have been documented, there is a great potential to be further explored. For example, how to guide more green funds to solve the finance problem of middle and small-sized firms may be another crucial task for the point of view of government or industry level. While at the mutual fund level, it is essential to positively participate in and fulfill the environment duty of listed firms which can not only satisfy the expectation of environment value investment. Practical implications: The fund market has witnessed unprecedented growth in China and plays an important role in promoting the development of green industries. This indicates the practice of mutual funds as socially responsible investment in China. Some effective measures should be taken to incentive the mutual funds to continually invest in environment-friendly firms, which would benefit to the promotion of social performance driven by financing innovation. Social implications: The ESG issue is a global one that needs the participation of the countries worldwide. As one of the most important emerging markets, regulators in China should consider taking more action in promoting ESG concerns. To some extent, institutional investments can actually reflect how the responsible investments are going in this market. Originality/value: This paper provides a systematic empirical analysis of Chinese fund market in the view of institutional investor preference. Three green effects, namely attention, promotion and network effects, are put forward, which have not been employed in previous studies. Our work is useful for understanding sustainable finance which has been elevating into national strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of environmental pollution and industrial structure upgrading on environmental pollution in different stages based on the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of economic development level and industrial structure upgrading level in eastern, central and western regions of China and discuss whether there is adjustment effect and threshold effect in the process of economic growth affecting environmental pollution, and finally realizes sustainable economic development. Design/methodology/approach: Based on panel data from 30 provincial-level administrative regions of China (excluding Tibet and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) from 2000 to 2019, this paper uses the environmental Kuznets curve, regulating effect model and panel threshold model to analyze the impact of economic growth and industrial structure upgrading on environmental pollution. Findings: The results present that the uneven distribution of natural resources leads to different levels of economic development and industrial structure upgrading in eastern and western regions, and its impact on environmental pollution is also different. Economic growth and industrial structure upgrading have a positive effect on environmental pollution, and the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution is inverted U-shaped. At present, the eastern, central and western regions of China are at the right end of the inverted U-shaped relationship. In general, industrial structure upgrading in eastern, central and western regions has a significant inhibitory effect on environmental pollution. Industrial structure upgrading has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution, and the regulating effect is most significant in the central region, followed by the eastern region, and not significant in the western region. The results of panel threshold model show that the industrial structure upgrading can slow down the positive impact of economic growth on environmental pollution and strengthen the negative moderating effect of industrial structure upgrading on economic growth and environmental pollution. Originality/value: The innovation of this study is to bring economic growth, industrial structure upgrading and environmental pollution into a unified analytical framework, analyze the impact of economic development and industrial structure upgrading levels in different periods on environmental pollution, and select industrial structure upgrading as the moderating variable and threshold variable. It provides a thought for the influence mechanism of different levels of industrial structure upgrading on economic growth and environmental pollution. Based on the panel data in China, this study emphasizes the concept of sustainable development, adheres to green development and proposes relevant policies to improve environmental pollution. And this paper proposes relevant policies to improve environmental pollution from the perspective of transforming economic growth mode and optimizing industrial structure in China, which also has reference significance for developing countries to realize sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the sustainable development of e-commerce. Design/methodology/approach: This paper proposes to analyze the development of rural e-commerce based on the perspective of big data of the Internet of things, in order to achieve the purpose of the development of e-commerce in China. In the analysis, this paper selects the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model for analysis and filters the parameters of the model to improve the accuracy of the model. Findings: The experimental results of this paper show that various efficiency values of the improved model have decreased, and the scale efficiency has decreased by 0.319 on average. From the decline of technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of rural e-commerce in each province after excluding environmental variables, it can be concluded that environmental variables have a greater impact on the development efficiency of rural e-commerce. Originality/value: In the analysis, this paper selects the DEA model for analysis and filters the parameters of the model to improve the accuracy of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) on corporate cash holdings. This paper also investigates the moderating effects of ownership type and institutional environment between CER and corporate cash holdings. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses the data of the most polluting listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange markets over the period 2010–2019. CER data from Hexun.com (a professional CSR evaluation system) are used to measure CER performance. Two proxies are used to measure the level of cash holdings simultaneously, where CASH1 is calculated as the ratio of cash and cash equivalents to total assets, and CASH2 is calculated as the ratio of cash and cash equivalents to net assets (total assets minus cash and cash equivalents). Finally, multiple regression analysis is applied to test the research hypotheses. Findings: The results show that environmentally responsible companies hold substantially less cash, and the result is statistically significant and robust even after using firm fixed effects and applying alternative measures of cash holdings or alleviating potential endogeneity. In addition, the results of cross-sectional tests show that the negative relation between CER and corporate cash holdings is concentrated among non-state-owned enterprises, and firms in provinces with more developed institutions. Furthermore, the result of the analysis of the economic consequence shows CER significantly increases the value of cash holdings. Research limitations/implications: This study focuses on China's institutional context, which limits the generalizability of the findings to other countries. However, the objective of this research can be studied in other institutional settings, so the above limitations provide a springboard for further research. Furthermore, the environmental protection investment, green technology innovation, and even pollutant discharge of companies can also be important indicators to measure the performance of firms in fulfilling their environmental responsibilities, which can be considered in future research. Practical implications: The findings of this study may help company management in China to establish a correct view of environmental responsibility to achieve corporate value creation and corporate sustainability. And our research can also provide the policy reference value for the Chinese government to further improve environmental protection policies and systems, guide enterprises to conduct green production to realize the country's vision of an environmentally friendly society. Originality/value: Based on the current background that countries in the world advocate the development of a green economy, this is the first study to examine the impacts of the environmental responsibility of the most polluting companies on corporate cash holdings and the value of cash holdings in the context of China, an emerging market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the history and cultural significance of the oil-paper umbrellas. Topics include the use of tung oil and steel umbrella frame to make it more convenient to use, the story of Chinese carpenter Lu Ban and his younger sister who invented the umbrella by using bamboo strips and silk fabric, and the demand of oil-paper umbrella in Luzhou City, China.

Features the use of Chinese lanterns during the celebration of the Chinese New Year. Historical background of Chinese lanterns; Purposes of the use of the paper lanterns; Design of the lanterns.

Statistics from the National Press and Publication Administration show that retail sales of primary and middle school textbooks, as well as relevant teaching books, in 2018 were valued at a whopping 25.9 billion yuan ($3.9 billion). Wang Zhongdi (China Youth Daily): Currently, music, art, and physical education textbooks are already being recycled, but the recycling of textbooks is not free of disputes. [Extracted from the article]

Focuses on the controversy over the book 'The Tiananmen Papers,' compiled by Zhang Liang and edited by Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link in China. Portrayal of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre by the book; Details on the participation of former Chinese Communist Party secretary Zhao Ziyang in the historical tragedy; Impact of the book on Chinese politics. INSET: THE RIGHT MOVE AT THE WRONG TIME, by A.T.C..