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The recovery of the global economy in the aftermath of COVID-19 faces enormous challenges. Ensuring stable income growth of the population has become an important means for developing countries to ensure sustained economic development. Raising the overall income of the population is a public initiative that benefits all citizens; therefore, governments of developing countries should promote the implementation of relevant public policies and the provision of public goods to ensure that existing economic instruments can benefit the entire population. In this regard, public space, as a typical form of public good, may play an important role in promoting the benefits of existing economic policies for all residents. This paper examines how residents' use of public space contributes to their income growth through social capital. Hypotheses are tested based on an econometric analysis of 1565 questionnaires received from Chinese workers. The results show that residents' use of public space can indeed be an important way to increase their income, which is realized through the enhancement of social capital. The research presented in this paper provides a new influence variable of public space to improve residents' income. Further, it improves people's understanding of the three classical concepts—public space, social capital, and income—by establishing the logical connection and theoretical explanation of physical space, emotional space, and value space in human society. The conclusions of this paper highlight the important role of public space in urban and rural development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green bonds are relatively new in the financial market compared to other financial securities but are useful in financing environmentally friendly projects. Just like other financial securities, green bonds are affected by various factors, such as economic policy uncertainty. Our aim of this paper was to conduct a systematic literature review of the impact of economic policy uncertainty on green bonds. We sought to do a thorough analysis of the existing literature on the assessment of the impact of economic policy uncertainty on green bonds and the techniques used in assessing the impact. Our findings showed that economic policy uncertainty had a strong impact on the green bond, with its intensity varying by location. This impact tended to be more pronounced in periods of heightened uncertainty. Also, our findings highlighted that the assessment of the impact of economic policy uncertainty on green bonds gained popularity in 2019, with China emerging as a prominent contributor. However, other countries, such as Finland, even though they had few published papers, their citations signified the production of quality papers in this field. Additionally, we found that the application of the quantile analysis method was utilized by many recent studies, which signified its importance in this field. Our findings highlighted the importance of considering appropriate techniques in assessing the impact of economic policy uncertainty on green bonds while taking into account the paper quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is currently focusing on the cooperative control of air pollution and CO2 emissions, as well as the mitigation of economic policy uncertainty (EPU). By using panel data from 282 cities spanning from 2003 to 2017 and a newly constructed city-level EPU index, a spatial Durbin, two-way fixed-effects model is employed, with the aim of estimating the impact of EPU on the synergistic emissions intensity (SEI) of air pollutants and CO2. Additionally, this paper investigates the potential channels through which EPU influences SEI. It also explores how pressures related to environmental protection and economic development affect the impact of EPU on SEI. The results indicate that a unit increase in EPU will result in a rise in the SEI of local cities, adjacent cities, and total cities by 930.9%, 69,162.7%, and 70,093.6%, respectively. Moreover, the channel analysis suggests that EPU exacerbates SEI by undermining the upgrading of the industrial structure, augmenting industrial structure distortion, and escalating labor market distortion. Furthermore, the effect of EPU on SEI may be lessened by an increase in environmental protection pressure, while an increase in economic development pressure may exert a positive influence. Finally, this paper concludes by recommending that policymakers should prioritize the maintenance and stability of economic policies, facilitate the advancement of the industrial structure, enhance the efficiency of labor resource allocation, and underscore the significance of managing urban air pollution and CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic policy uncertainty has had an important impact on trade and sustainable economic development. Especially in some specific industries, uncertainty has increased dramatically. The extant related literature mainly analyzes the nexus between uncertainty and trade across different industries and focuses less on a specific industry. Using Chinese customs data on HS 8-digit products over the period of 2000–2013, this paper first investigates the impact of both foreign economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and domestic intra-industry trade on China's mechanical and electrical product exports to 23 trading partners and applies pooled OLS regressions to conduct an empirical study. This paper finds that EPU has a significant inhibition effect on mechanical and electrical product exports; conversely, intra-industry trade can both significantly promote exports and alleviate the inhibition effect of EPU. In addition, the export impact of EPU varied with different trade patterns. It can significantly inhibit processing exports, while it has no effect on ordinary exports. The results of this paper indicate that in the context of increasing uncertainty, our findings could have far-reaching policy implications for China to build a new development pattern of domestic and international dual circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data factors have become one of the five essential production factors, but their role in economic growth has always been ambiguous. Starting from AI technologies, this paper establishes an endogenous growth model of data factors affecting economic growth, constructs the generation path and value path of data factors, and estimates the value of new data factors at the provincial level in China from 1999 to 2018 accordingly. Based on theoretical analyses and empirical tests, it clarifies that data factors have a "two-dimensional driving effect" on China's economic growth, that is, data factors can drive growth both directly through its own economic growth effect and indirectly by promoting technological progress. Furthermore, this paper makes three extended discussions, aiming to make a trial study on the impacts of local government big data transaction platforms on data factors and their growth effects, discuss whether it is possible to reduce the uncertainties of local economic policy based on the nature of data factors, and make a preliminary survey of the output elasticity of data factors between 1999 and 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on corporate social responsibility in relation to economic policy uncertainty in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The following questions are addressed: How does policy uncertainty impact corporate M&A? Does social responsibility play a mediating role in this process? How does policy uncertainty affect corporate M&A through social responsibility? Design/methodology/approach: This paper selects the major M&A events in China as the research object, and uses the Probit model to analyze the impact of policy uncertainty on M&A behavior and the business performance after the event, and further analyzes the internal mechanisms that cause these phenomena. Findings: This paper shows that the higher the policy uncertainty, the lower the probability of a successful M&A, and the worse the business performance of the business after the event. Originality/value: This paper provides useful reference for the study of M&A and social responsibility in different policy environments. At the same time, it provides direct empirical evidence to enhance the success rate of M&A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on how small (weak) states respond to the geopolitical rivalry of great powers often centers around the hedging strategy, where small states tend to maintain their diplomatic independence by taking nonexplicit sides and stances to better safeguard their security and interests in the face of increasing external uncertainty. This paper, however, provides another powerful way of explaining this from the perspective of nonstate actors through the changing attitudes and strategies of the Malaysian Rail Link (MRL) in the Malaysia-China East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project. This paper shows that due to the unique nature of firms, small state firms will choose to respond to external great power games with economic hedging, and performance legitimization and particularistic legitimization determine the strength of small states' economic hedging and when firms and the governments they represent choose performance as a way to enhance legitimacy, small state firms will choose to use economic soft hedging as their primary mode of response. Conversely, economic complex hedging is more pronounced when particularistic legitimization is used to enhance legitimacy. The findings of this paper also demonstrate that small state firms have a complex connection with the government. On the one hand, small state firms are the implement and influential representatives of the ruling government's foreign policy, inheriting the government's essential interest pursuits and expectations. On the other hand, the enterprise itself is also a vital interest organization. It will also formulate economic policy according to its own needs. However, the MRL shows that the Malaysian government firmly controls the tiny state firms and is an important tool and instrument for the foreign economic game of the small state government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of China's new power system, various regions have implemented policies mandating the integration of new energy sources with energy storage, while also introducing subsidies to alleviate project cost pressures. Currently, there is a lack of subsidy analysis for photovoltaic energy storage integration projects. In order to systematically assess the economic viability of photovoltaic energy storage integration projects after considering energy storage subsidies, this paper reviews relevant policies in the Chinese photovoltaic energy storage market. It analyzes the cost and revenue composition of photovoltaic energy storage integration projects, and constructs a system dynamics model for the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of such projects. Taking a specific photovoltaic energy storage project as an example, this paper measures the levelized cost of electricity and the investment return rate under different energy storage scenarios. Combining energy storage allocation ratios and internal rate of return indicators, this paper analyzes the net present value of photovoltaic energy storage integration projects under different subsidy standards. The results indicate that, while the current energy storage subsidy policies positively stimulate photovoltaic energy storage integration projects, they exhibit a limited capacity to cover energy storage investment costs, thereby failing to incentivize capital market participation in the construction of such projects. Rational allocation of energy storage capacity and optimization of corresponding subsidy policies are crucial prerequisites for enhancing the economic viability and widespread adoption of photovoltaic energy storage integration projects. This study not only aids in investment decision making for photovoltaic power stations but also contributes to the formulation of energy storage subsidy policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamic linkages among economic policy uncertainty (EPU), the green bond market, the carbon market, and the macroeconomy using the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model with monthly data spanning from January 2016 to December 2021. Additionally, it assesses the robustness and accuracy of the empirical results through the Bayesian vector autoregressive (BVAR) model. The findings indicate that EPU negatively affects the green bond market in the short term but has a positive impact in the medium and long term. Conversely, EPU has a positive impact on the carbon market in the short term but a negative impact in the medium and long term. Furthermore, the green bond market negatively influences the carbon market in both the short and medium to long term. These results suggest that emerging markets, such as the green bond and carbon markets, are influenced by EPU. The adverse impact of the green bond market on the carbon market, however, contributes to expediting China's attainment of its low-carbon objectives. Appropriate economic policies can play a vital role in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. The study also reveals that the US-China trade war has expedited the development of green capital markets in China, despite its impact on the green economic transition in the country. These findings provide insights for the government and investors to formulate suitable strategies for risk mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a brief overview of China's capital controls, external asset holdings and the real interest rate, and analyzes the quantitative effects of China's macroeconomic policies between 2000 and 2015, including capital controls, interest rate policy, exchange rate policy and fiscal policy, on the dynamics of China's trade balance vis-a-vis the United States and the world real interest rate. In my analysis, I take into account the demographic differences between the countries, which affect the external imbalances directly and indirectly by affecting the transmission of the macroeconomic policies. Capital controls in China remain stringent even though they have somewhat eased in 2010s, and its gross external asset holdings differ from its peer countries both in terms of the largest functional categories and by type of investment. The average interest rate spread with the US has narrowed down. According to my analysis, the macroeconomic policies overall, and mainly the undervaluation of the real exchange rate, have had a positive impact on China's trade balance. The impact of the macroeconomic policies on the real interest rate has been positive, countering the negative trend induced by demographic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically tests the incentive effect of fiscal policy on corporate innovation from 2007 to 2019 in China. With data from A-share-listed companies in the China Stock Market & Accounting Research (CSMAR) and Wind databases and GDP data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC), the paper uses the Hodrick – Prescott (HP) filter method and a panel fixed effects model to empirically test the incentive effect of fiscal and tax policies on corporate innovation, compares the incentive differences between tax incentives and fiscal subsidies across different business cycles, and conducts heterogeneity analysis. The study finds that although fiscal subsidies and tax incentives promote enterprise innovation, the innovation incentive effect of fiscal subsidies is greater during an economic downturn than during an upturn. In contrast, tax incentives are stronger during an economic upturn than during a downturn. The results of this research may help to develop economic policies and to guide the precise implementation of tax and fee reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy uncertainties have always played a critical role in shaping economic outcomes, as evidenced by the recent sluggish economic growth in many countries. Green economic efficiency (GEE) is a comprehensive index to measure economic, social, and environmental development. This paper uses the slack-based measurement (SBM) directional distance function and Luenberger productivity indicator to measure the static GEE and dynamic green total factor productivity (GTFP) of China's urban agglomerations from 2003 to 2020 under constraints of resources and environment. In order to clarify the driving mechanisms of GEE and GTFP, this paper adds the factor of economic policy uncertainty (EPU). The results show that there is a positive correlation between EPU with GEE and GTFP. The possible reason is that the market mechanism plays a decisive role in improved GEE and GTFP. Therefore, policymakers should give better play to the government's macro-control role, and play the decisive role of the market mechanism in the environmental governance system to improve GEE and GTFP in a targeted manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we add to the literature studying the effects of uncertainty. We focus on the effects of economic policy uncertainty across borders. In contrast to the existing literature, we focus on the time-varying correlation structure of economic policy uncertainty across countries and with macroeconomic variables. We employ a multivariate GARCH model to estimate the time-varying conditional covariance matrix. Our results show that they are relevant, vary sizably over time, and that spikes in the time series can be related to policy events. We find relevant spillover effects of policy uncertainty in other countries on the US economy. We find that policy uncertainty and spillover effects are lowest in China, but that during the Global Financial Crisis substantial spillovers existed. Our results have implications for macroeconomic policymaking, financial stability policies, asset allocations, and risk assessment modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraints and incentives of the ecological policy have an important impact on the coordinated development of ecological areas. Based on the panel data of 1613 counties in 23 provinces in China from 2002 to 2019, this paper analyzes the impact of this policy on economic development using the quasi-natural experiment of the transfer payment in national key ecological functional areas (TPNKEFA) and studies the impact of the transfer payment scale on economic development based on the panel threshold model. First, the results reveal that the TPNKEFA can significantly boost economic development, compared with the control group, TPNKEFA can increase gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita GDP by 6.14% and 10.72%, the results have been validated by some placebo tests, and the impact of this policy on economic development is sustained and effective. Second, heterogeneity results show that TPNKEFA has the greatest positive effect on the economic development in the eastern region, followed by the central region, and the least positive effect on the western region. Furthermore, the TPNKEFA facilitates local economic development primarily by increasing human capital in ecological functional areas. Third, the capital scale of TPNKEFA has the double-threshold effect on economic development, the larger the scale is, the stronger the effect is. The capital size of TPNKEFA has the greatest impact on regional economic growth in eastern region, whereas it has the weakest impact in western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the policy package pilot implemented in Hubei Province, China, in April 2020 as a natural experiment, we use the synthetic control (SC) and synthetic difference in differences (SDID) methods to estimate the impact of the Chinese government's support policy on the economic resilience and to analyze the mechanisms by which it impacts. This study finds that the policy package has contributed to the growth of economic resilience in the pilot provinces, with the policy package increasing the average economic resilience of the pilot provinces by 0.062 compared to their potential resilience. The validity and robustness of the above conclusions are objectively confirmed by multidimensional quantitative outcomes such as placebo tests, ranking tests, and replacements in calculating resilience. The mechanism analysis shows that the investment in real estate development, the stimulus for consumption, and the core industry development are virtual channels for the policy package to promote economic resilience growth in the pilot provinces. Moreover, traditional investment in transportation fixed assets plays a minor role. This paper quantitatively corroborates the academic idea that government governance capacity affects regional economic resilience (RER), and research can provide empirical support for regional economic recovery and policy support under a major crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased risks of economic policy uncertainty and overexploitation of natural resources exist in China. At the same time, the growth rate of urban residents' consumption has generally declined. The paper analyses the role of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and natural resource exploitation on the urban residents' consumption in China. Based on the data from the first quarter of 2002 to the third quarter of 2021, the paper uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model to verify the asymmetric effects. Then the paper constructs a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model with stochastic volatility term to analyze the nonlinear responses. Impulse response analysis was used to further explain the relationship between the three. The negative impact of rising EPU on urban residents' consumption is larger than its reduction. Negative shocks to natural resource development increase the urban residents' consumption. Positive shocks reduce the urban residents' consumption. There is a time-varying non-linear effect of EPU and natural resource development on urban residents' consumption in China. The negative impact of EPU on urban consumption has been further exacerbated by major crises such as the financial crisis, COVID-19 and the post-crisis period. The negative impact of natural resource development diminished after the government introduced industrial upgrading policies and environmental regulations. This study provides constructive suggestions for the optimization of economic policies and the improvement of urban consumption. This study also enriches consumer theory and provides new evidence for the resource curse hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of macroeconomic policy uncertainty (EPU) on micro-level entities has garnered increasing attention in economic circles. This study examines the influence of EPU on the efficiency of investments made by China's A-share listed companies between 2016 and 2021. Using a panel fixed effect model for analysis, the research reveals that EPU has a notable adverse effect on the investment efficiency of enterprises. Furthermore, it suggests that advancements in digital finance, strong ESG performance, and enhanced entrepreneurial confidence can mitigate this negative impact effectively. The study also highlights that enterprises with lower valuation, shareholder control, limited audit reputation, and no bank connections are more vulnerable to the impact of EPU on investment efficiency compared to those with higher valuation, manager control, strong audit reputation, and bank connections. Consequently, future efforts should be directed towards enhancing the stability and relevance of economic policies, promoting digital finance, and enhancing corporate governance structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic policy uncertainty has prominent effects on investment and output. Using unique transaction-level data in China, this paper explores the impact of economic policy uncertainty on land transaction premiums in China. On average, a 1% increase in the policy uncertainty level reduces land transaction premiums by 3.907 percentage points. The impact of policy uncertainty is more profound for firms with tighter financial constraints and land located in cities with lower rent-to-price ratios. The influence of policy uncertainty becomes weaker after the anti-corruption campaign in China, especially in provinces scrutinised by the central inspection teams, implying that improvements in the political environment alleviates the impact of policy uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the market economy, agricultural trade has become more and more significant for the development of the agricultural economy, which has triggered people's further thinking and exploration on the impact of agricultural trade on agricultural carbon emissions. This paper takes the measurement of trade implied carbon as the carbon dioxide emission index under the impact of agricultural trade and analyzes the impact of trade implied carbon and implied carbon balance on carbon emission. Taking the impact of Sino-US agricultural trade as an empirical background, this paper measures the impact of environmental changes in agricultural trade opening on China's agricultural development and its carbon emissions, so as to predict changes in China's regional agricultural carbon emissions performance. After calculation, it is found that the scale of China's exports has decreased by 0.089%, which is lower than the decline of 0.361% in the United States. The trade conflict has a significant impact on China's import and export structure. Under the scenario of mutual tariffs on agricultural products, China's exports to the United States are expected to decrease by 6.28%, while China's imports from the United States decreased by 13.02%. The Sino-US agricultural trade dispute will reduce China's carbon emissions by 0.013% and the United States' carbon emissions by 0.024%, which is related to the negative impact on the economy. Improving the performance of agricultural carbon emissions is not only the need for the green and sustainable development of the agricultural economy but also conducive to improving the international competitiveness of agricultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cash holding is an important strategic decision of enterprises. As a macro-level factor, economic policy uncertainty causes risks, affecting enterprises' cash holdings. Taking the quarterly financial data of China's A-share non-financial listed firms for 2010–2020 as a sample, this study adopts the OLS and fixed effect models to investigate how corporate cash holdings are affected by economic policy uncertainty. The findings indicate that economic policy uncertainty is directly proportional to the level of cash that listed corporations hold. The higher the uncertainty, the more cash the company holds. Among them, state-owned enterprises and the manufacturing industry are more significantly affected by economic policy uncertainty. Finally, considering the regional marketization level and the differences in financing constraints enterprises face, it is concluded through grouping empirical studies that enterprises located in regions with lower marketization levels are more susceptible to policy uncertainty, while financially constrained enterprises are more susceptible to economic policy uncertainty. The study of economic policy uncertainty is helpful to guide enterprises to realize the importance of coping strategies in advance under the background of intensifying economic policy uncertainty. Therefore, this paper proposes to introduce policies on the premise of fully considering the smoothness of the economy and the differences in the conditions of firms of different natures, as well as some proposals to alleviate financing constraints, reduce the adverse effects of uncertainty on firms, and bolster the marketization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a well-acknowledged central economic and diplomatic policy of the Chinese government, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013. This paper intends to discover the relationship between the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI and its implementation. By using content analysis, this paper analyzes Chinese President Xi's speeches from 2013 to 2020 about the BRI, as well as official statements of the Chinese central government. It identifies the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI: an assemblage of constantly changing policy settings that accommodates various economic and political interests. Also, this paper draws on differences between countries joining the BRI or not, and several case studies to elucidate the implementation of the BRI. Different from repetitive literature that explores either the BRI narratives or its implementation, this paper contributes by combining and comparing the two. Despite positive interpretations of the BRI the Chinese government has adopted, the paper argues that there are no deceptive tricks with skeletons in the closet of the Chinese government, as the BRI public diplomacy narratives are, in general, consistent with its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural operation system reform is vital in promoting rural revitalisation and agricultural and rural modernisation in China. Based on the sample data of 153 counties in Sichuan Province from 2012 to 2020, this paper constructs a PSM-DID evaluation model to analyse the effectiveness of rural operation system reform on agricultural development from the perspective of policy action mechanism, variable differentiation and other aspects. The results show that: (1) rural operation system reform has significantly boosted the economic development of the counties implementing the pilot reform of the rural operation system; (2) rural operation system reform mainly has two components: rural land system reform and agriculture organisation innovation; both have an impact on county economic and social development, but the degrees of impact are different; (3) the effectiveness of the rural operation system reform policy has a specific time lag. The results of this paper enrich the effectiveness evaluation of the reform policy on economic development and have policy implications for further promotion of agricultural and rural reform in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with similar research mainly focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Australian mainstream media using discourse analysis, this paper explores the reasons for the narrative shift by conducting semi-structured interviews with leading and well-known Australian narrative producers. This paper takes two conditions as a given. Firstly, the BRI narratives in Australian mainstream media shifted in tone from mostly positive to highly critical. Secondly, the Australian mainstream media's increasingly negative attitudes towards the BRI are essentially not just about the BRI but the Chinese government. Based on my analysis and interviews, this paper makes contributions by filling in the gap of finding out reasons to explain this narrative shift. More concretely, this paper finds out that while mainstream media is influential in many areas of national policy making, mainstream media reporting on foreign affairs is less so. By comparison, the Australian government's BRI or China policy has a significant impact on Australian mainstream media reporting. This narrative shift has been driven by international politics and Australia's China policy, influenced by Australian audiences' preference of local news and their local position, and its democratic responsibilities. Meanwhile, the vagueness and constant changing characteristics of the BRI do not help the understanding of the BRI in Australian media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of rapid global economic transformation, the influence of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) has penetrated all fields of production and life. It is significant to study how it affects the regional carbon emission intensity for regional sustainable development. Based on the data from 30 provinces from 2004 to 2017, this paper takes a complete account of spatial heterogeneity and the dynamic impact of economic policy uncertainty on carbon emission intensity using a spatial econometric model. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) For more than ten years, there have been significant differences and instabilities in economic policy uncertainty and carbon emission intensity in different regions of China. (2) China's local carbon emission intensity shows an objective spatial aggregation effect, which is significant, spatially auto-correlated and clustered. (3) Based on the national level, economic policy uncertainty will significantly increase the regional carbon emission intensity. Additionally, economic policy uncertainty has a significant positive spatial spillover effect, which may increase carbon emission intensity in neighboring provinces. (4) Based on the provincial level, the impact of economic policy uncertainty on carbon emission intensity in various regions is significantly positive, with the most significant impact on the western region. Based on the above conclusions, the paper proposes policy suggestions to stabilize the regional carbon emission intensity in all directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the EU and China agree on the importance of their bilateral economic relationship, but there are differences in how the relationship is perceived. The gap is reflected in statements from officials, policymakers, business leaders and in the media as well as in policy documents from both the EU and China. While trade and investment flows that are central to the economic relationship generally occur through exchanges between economic actors, the state or polities such as the EU remain an important element in the relationship. This paper analyses the perceptions by the EU of China, the EU itself, the relationship between them, and also its wider global context, and the changes which occur in all of these. The analysis of the development of perceptions in the EU is based on official policy documents. In trade and investment policy, such documents may be considered to represent the positions of the EU based on its domestic policy process and its perceptions of the relationship based on an aggregation of interests. The paper argues that these perceptions have changed in significant ways reflecting developments in the EU and China, the relationship between them and its global context, as well as the interests and goals of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the observation that land supplied by the Chinese government is highly counter-cyclical with GDP fluctuations, this paper constructs a DSGE model to study the relationship between China's land supply policy and economic fluctuations, and further evaluate the welfare effects. By way of counterfactual exercises, this paper finds that endogenous land supply policy has "direct effect (production input channel)" and "indirect effect (intermediate goods channel)" on GDP fluctuations, and both tend to dampen economic fluctuations in China's macroeconomy. Specifically, GDP fluctuations increase by 63.35% without the "indirect effect", increase by 66.75% without the "direct effect", and increase by 66.79% without both effects. In addition, endogenous land supply policy can increase social welfare by about 1.38%. Verifying by the stylized facts in China, this paper argues that endogenous land supply is an efficient macro-control policy to smooth the economy and increase social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the China and Japan rivalry on economic assistance policy in Africa using a qualitative method and national interest as the conceptual framework. The land of Africa has abundant reserves of natural resources, such as dense forestry and mineral resources which naturally will attract foreign investors. The first foreign investors in Africa were westerners. Within the grip of their iron fists, Africa experienced a bitter history of slavery and colonialization. This rooted problem remains unresolved and causes a significant political atrophy until this day, and has resulted in the incapability of the Africa nations to resolve their own respective problems. Given such a state of affairs, these former colonies in Africa have always been longing for foreign assistance, especially after the post-Cold War Era. Thus, the abandonment of former colonies gave the opportunity for the Eastern powers, such China and Japan to establish a foothold in Africa, namely Japan with its Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) and China its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Through the TICAD, Japan emphasizes the importance of "Africa's Ownership" in all its infrastructure development cooperation initiatives. On the other hand, Chinese assistance can be characterised as indiscriminate, reciprocal, and non-interference in internal affairs. This paper suggests that both China and Japan have their own respective agenda on how to conduct diplomacy in Africa. They even share the same goals vis-a-vis Africa, which are economic and political domination and a keen interest in exploiting the available natural energy resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 has impacted the social economy of various provinces in China to varying degrees. How to quickly restore the social economy has become the most concerned issue of the Party, the country and all sectors of society. This paper combines the entropy weight method and TOPSIS method-technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution, taking the financial policy transmission mechanism as the theoretical basis, and selects the data of 29 provinces in China to obtain the contribution of finance in the socio-economic resilience under the pandemic situation. The empirical analysis results show that the weights of financial policy, pandemic situation and financial basis are different. It can be clearly seen from the weight data that the financial basis is crucial to the socio-economic resilience. Although the COVID-19 pandemic will cause huge losses to the whole society and will also seriously hinder the socio-economic recovery, the effective implementation of financial policies and the good trend of the pandemic situation have a significant promoting effect on the socio-economic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study the spillover effects of financial stress among five important financial markets (bond, stock, foreign exchange, interbank, and real estate markets) in China, and explore the important determinants of financial stress spillover level among the markets and the impact of the Chinese stress spillover situation on the European markets. Our findings are as follows: First, there is a significant stress spillover effect among the five markets, and the total financial stress spillover index (TSSI) is very high during the global financial crisis. Generally, the stock and real estate markets are the major transmitters of stress spillover, and the interbank and bond markets are the major receivers. Second, the most macro factors have significant impacts on the financial stress spillover level among the markets, especially CPI index, the Chinese economic policy uncertainty index and VIX index. And the severity of the COVID-19 epidemic in China and the world has a significant impact on the TSSI, especially from March 2020 to August 2020. Finally, the TSSI can significantly increase the volatility of French stock market, Italian stock market and German government bond market, especially during the Sino-US trade war and the COVID-19 epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of China's regulatory restrictions on financing for real estate development enterprises on the default risk across the industry value chain. We estimate the policy's treatment effect using unique data on contracts of financial leasing firms. Our findings indicate a reduction of 6.9% in the default probability of real estate-related leasing contracts, with shorter contract durations and smaller contracts a heightened susceptibility to the policy's impact. These results provide valuable insight into how financial institutions serving the real estate sector can optimize their risk management strategies in response to regulatory policies. Furthermore, our study highlights the importance of a well-defined and quantifiable financing policy in effectively managing risk across the industry value chain in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we apply the banking sector volatility connectedness proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz 2014 to measure the dynamic aggregate volatility risk of the bank system. Using this measure, we study how the aggregate volatility risk of the bank system affects the innovation quality of non-financial listed firms in China. This study finds a positive relationship between the banking sector volatility connectedness and corporate innovation quality. Financial constraints and bank supervision are two plausible channels through which banking sector volatility connectedness could affect corporate innovation quality. In addition, the positive effect of banking sector volatility connectedness on firm innovation quality is suppressed for bank-related firms, and during high economic policy uncertainty and post-2015 stock market crash periods. The results are consistent to a battery of robustness test. Our empirical results present a novel finding that an appropriate high aggregate volatility risk of the bank system has a bright side for company innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the international accounting network memberships' impact on audit fees. We find that, firstly, the audit fees charged by the member audit firms are significantly higher; secondly, if the revenue, ranking or audit and accounting business share of the international network the audit firm join is higher, the charge is also higher. Additional results show that economic policy uncertainty will intensify this positive relationship, and member audit firms charge higher fees by improving their overseas expertise. We also find that international network memberships will reduce abnormal audit fees, and improve the quality of financial reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether and how the network centrality of institutional investors affects firms' sustainability development. Using data from the Chinese market, we find that central institutional investors in the social network significantly increase firms' overall ESG performance. For the environmental, social, and governance pillars of ESG, we find that environmental performance is more likely to be driven by central institutional investors. We further show that central institutional investors act as active monitors and resource providers, enhancing firms' ESG performance by improving corporate internal control quality, promoting the corporate information environment, alleviating financing constraints, and increasing green innovation capability. Furthermore, the relationship between centrality and ESG performance is considerably more pronounced for firms with political connections or under a high degree of industry competition but more diminished in periods of high economic policy uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a sample of monthly data from January 2000 to July 2021, this paper investigates the risk connectedness relationship between different kinds of China's EPU and global oil prices in both time and frequency domains. To achieve that, a research framework mainly consists of wavelet transform method and spillover index approach is established. The results show that EPU of China receives the risk spillover from global oil prices in most cases. Moreover, we find fiscal policy uncertainty and trade policy uncertainty are generally the recipients of risk spillover on most time scales, except that monetary policy uncertainty primarily serves as the risk transmitter. Lastly, the risk role of exchange rate policy uncertainty in China has the most frequent change among four kinds of EPU. This paper provides valuable policy implications for policymakers, investors and risk managers in the energy market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its outbreak in late 2019, the coronavirus has disturbed the working and living of both people and businesses, and the continuing emergence of Covid-19 variations have made it hard to fully restore the activity of both society and the economy to pre-pandemic levels. In China the pandemic affected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) more severely than large companies. The objective of this paper is to analyse the effects of the pandemic on SMEs in comparison with large firms based on their financial reports. This document integrates the consolidated statements of companies based in Beijing and sums them according to quarters by collecting the income statements of listed companies. Research results show that SMEs are more fragile to shocks, especially in terms of administrative costs and expenses as well as income taxes. The benefits of Chinese government policy measures concern mainly technology-based micro and small enterprises. As the forecast presented in this paper shows, the operating situation of SMEs is assumed to recover in 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is facing the challenge of increasing grain production and improving the environment, in which the treatment of diffuse water pollution from agriculture is the important content. Traditional administrative means are still unable to solve the problem of market failure and government failure in controlling water pollution. Economic policy instruments have more advantages in improving market economics and reducing the cost of environmental governance and supervision. They have become an important way to solve pollution and promote the transformation of water pollution prevention and control management. This paper puts forward suggestions and countermeasures for improving China's economic policy instruments by systematically sorting out and analyzing the EPIs in China and the UK. Starting from the whole process of agricultural production, China's water quality governance needs to follow three principles to innovate and comprehensively utilize economic policy instruments. A transparent multi-party information sharing and an efficient supervision system are invisible to water quality governance. China also needs to continue to deepen reforms and pilot projects, especially in terms of governance objectives, public welfare funds, water prices, tradable water rights, and emission rights. This paper could also provide a reference for water pollution control in other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a conditional autoregressive range-mixed-data sampling (CARR-MIDAS) model that incorporates economic policy uncertainty (EPU) to predict the crude oil futures price volatility (range). We apply the proposed model to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures price ranges and four EPU indices, namely the Global EPU, US EPU, China EPU and Russia EPU. Empirical results show that all the four EPU indices have a significantly negative impact on the oil futures price volatility, and the EPU indices are informative for forecasting the oil futures price volatility. Moreover, the China EPU index outperforms the other EPU indices in forecasting the oil futures price volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a well-acknowledged central economic and diplomatic policy of the Chinese government, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013. By using content analysis and interviews, this paper analyzes Chinese President Xi's speeches from 2013 to 2020 about the BRI, as well as official statements of the Chinese central government. It identifies at least five competing diplomatic narratives of the BRI. Different from repetitive literature that explores either the economic or political implications of the BRI, this paper contributes by exploring the original story that the Chinese government tries to tell the world. It concludes that initially, the narrative of the BRI has not been portrayed well from the Chinese side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At this stage, it is an important goal for China to solve environmental problems to limit the carbon emission peak by 2030 and then to lower its quality gradually thereafter. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 seriously impacted all aspects of China's social economy and brought many uncertainties to the realization of the carbon emission peak. Based on the fact, it has important theoretical and practical significance to take the problem of China's carbon emissions during the COVID-19 as the research object. Thus, this paper analyzes the current situation of China's CO2 emissions and finds out that in the context of ongoing COVID-19 response, stimulated by China's economic stimulus policies, CO2 emissions decrease firstly and then gradually rebound. On this basis, the paper constructs a dynamic model of China's CO2 emission system to simulate the change in China's CO2 emissions under different economic stimulus policies. The relevant simulation results demonstrate the following: (1) China cannot realize the CO2 emission goal by 2030 only by adopting traditional economic stimulus policies. (2) The green economic stimulus policy oriented to the development of clean energy will rebound China's CO2 emissions in the short term, but it can effectively reduce CO2 emissions in the long run. The most important factors affecting CO2 emission reduction are industrial energy consumption and industrial structure, while the energy power generation structure and the transportation structure have a relatively weak impact on the emission reduction effect. (3) The green economic stimulus policy combined with economic stimulus measures and a variety of low-carbon measures can enable China to peak CO2 emissions before 2030, with a peak value of 11.059 billion tons. In general, green economic stimulus policies can achieve a win–win situation for China's economic recovery and carbon emission peak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the connectedness between China's economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and the geopolitical risk (GPR) of the countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) using quantile time‐varying parameter vector autoregression. The empirical results indicate that China's EPU becomes a net risk transmitter at the median quantile, demonstrating that ASEAN countries' GPR is vulnerable to China's economic shocks. Furthermore, extreme events such as COVID‐19 amplify the connection between EPU and GPR, leading to a higher total connectedness index value. Moreover, the pairwise spillover effect analysis reflects that the risk launcher effect of China's EPU is longer and more prominent for Thailand and the Philippines than for Malaysia and Indonesia, which enriches the hypothesis. The contributions are as follows. This paper selects emerging China as the research object and first discusses its economic influence on neighbouring countries. In addition, fully analysing the heterogeneous spillover effects of EPU on the GPR of different countries makes our suggestions diversified and practical. Therefore, improving recognisable ability and institutional quality will promote ASEAN countries to mitigate their vulnerability to China's EPU shocks. Meanwhile, China's government should quickly respond to external uncertainties, prudently adjust economic policies, and avoid large swings of EPU volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanism of transmitting economic policy uncertainty (EPU) shocks to capital structure. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopt a novel approach that bridges the asset pricing implications of EPU and the debt-financing decisions of Chinese firms by introducing a variable "policy-risk-induced equity return" (PRER). PRER is the product of the EPU beta and the EPU shock. Differentiating firms as per the signs of the EPU beta helps to shed light on the deep questions of whether their respective leverage targets and speeds of adjustment are different and how the targets and speeds are determined. Findings: The empirical evidence shows that it is the equity market that channels EPU shocks to capital structure through PRER in China. Firms with positive (negative) EPU betas have PRER impact negatively (positively) the leverage target, conforming to the market-timing theory. EPU and non-policy uncertainty shocks cause the speed of adjustment to change over time. Overall, the intertemporal relation between EPU and leverage is negative. These results are robust to alternative leverage measures and after controlling for non-policy uncertainty shocks and conventional firm characteristics and have implications for academic research, policymaking, market stability, and corporate financing. Originality/value: This study is the first to probe for, and provide insights into, the underlying reason why EPU impacts capital structure by connecting asset pricing to corporate financing for a large sample of Chinese publicly traded firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How the macro-external environment, i.e., the uncertainty of economic policies, affects the peer effect of corporate investment and whether the ability of managers, as the main decision of corporate investment, affects the peer effect of enterprise investment is worthy of further study. This paper uses Baker's economic policy uncertainty index to obtain China's economic policy uncertainty index and uses the DEA-Tobit two-stage model to measure the ability of managers, combined with the relevant data of China's A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, to study the impact of economic policy uncertainty and managers' ability on corporate investment peer effect. We found that China's economic policy uncertainty increases the information acquisition cost of micro-firms and deepens the degree of information asymmetry, and firms are strongly motivated to learn or even imitate the investment decisions of enterprises in the same industry, thus intensifying the peer effect of investment. For enterprises of different nature, the economic policy uncertainty has a more significant impact on the investment peer effect of non-state-owned enterprises than state-owned enterprises. Compared with large enterprises, the impact of economic policy uncertainty on the investment cohort effect of small enterprises is more significant. Then, through group regression according to the median of managerial ability, we found that the investment peer effect is more obvious in enterprises with low management ability and the effect of economic policy uncertainty on investment peer effect is more significant in the sample with low management ability. Based on the empirical research conclusions, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: improve the corporate governance mechanism and the management ability of managers. In issuing economic policies, the government should be cautious and stable to reduce the uncertainty of economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic policy uncertainty has been identified as a new macroeconomic risk factor that harms the stock market's profitability. This paper examines the impact of the Chinese EPU levels on one of the most famous financial anomalies—momentum returns. A new EPU index based on mainland China newspapers is used to obtain more accurate EPU–momentum relations. We selected 3958 Chinese listed companies' stocks from 2011 to 2022 to establish time-series (TSM) and returns signal momentum strategies (RSM). Although the momentum effect in the Chinese stock market is weak, the EPU-based dynamic-threshold RSM strategies yield significant positive excess returns: eight times more excess returns than conventional fixed-threshold strategies. We used the ordinary least squares regression model (OLS), and the event study method only identified robust negative EPU–momentum relationships in the Chinese stock market during high-EPU stages. Surprisingly, the negative relationship between EPU and momentum returns turns positive during expansion cycles. We explain this phenomenon as follows: expansions increase Chinese investors' confidence, and uncertainties reduce market manipulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and corporate bank credits for Chinese listed companies. We find that high EPU reduce the corporate bank credits. The negative association is less obvious in state-owned companies, that is, SOEs have a higher capacity to resist uncertainty than non-SOEs. Further research indicates that the positive effect of state-owned status on bank credit lines during times of rising EPU is stronger among companies facing more severe financing constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of annual report text information, we study the relationship between the annual report text's positive tone and corporate green innovation. Taking listed companies from 2010 to 2022 as a sample, we found that the positive tone of the annual report text significantly improves the company's green innovation while improving the quantity and quality of green innovation. The mechanism test shows that the main channels are easing corporate financing constraints and enhancing external attention. Regarding heterogeneity analysis, we found that the positive annual report text has a more significant effect on corporate green innovation in companies with high economic policy uncertainty and non-heavily polluting industries. Finally, we found that the positive tone of the annual report text can ultimately improve the company's long-term value through green innovation. Our study has enriched the theoretical research on the annual report text tone and provided empirical evidence for promoting enterprise green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of economic policy uncertainty on local government debt issuance in China and identifies a transmission channel through the cost of capital. Our findings demonstrate that economic policy uncertainty raises the cost of external financing for local governments, leading to decreased levels of debt issuance. Specifically, a 1% increase in uncertainty related to economic policy variations leads to a reduction in government debt issuance of 0.0478%. In addition, our analysis reveals that local governments located in regions experiencing lower fiscal pressure, lower economic catch‐up pressure, and higher sensitivity to uncertainty are more responsive to economic policy uncertainty changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between subjective perception of economic policy uncertainty (SPEPU) and ESG performance. We find that SPEPU could deteriorate ESG performance, especially corporate social performance and that this negative effect works through increasing financialization and weakening internal control, but could be mitigated by enhancing digital transformation and improving financial flexibility. Heterogeneity analysis further confirms that this negative effect of SPEPU on ESG performance is more pronounced for enterprises with no political connections, less information transparency and low marketization. Our conclusions are of practical significance for enterprises to maintain good ESG performance and promote their sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the spillover effect of government locations on economic growth by exploring more than 180 relocation events of city governments in China. Empirical results demonstrate that government relocations improve regional economic growth measured by night lights. This positive effect decreases with the distance to city governments' new locations. Government relocations are also found to accelerate urbanization. Potential mechanisms include the changes in land conversion and firm birth patterns in the move-in areas. These results indicate that the relocation of local governments can be an effective place-based policy to improve economic growth and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the moderating role of the macroeconomic environment in the crash risk-policy uncertainty sensitivity. We find that managers have lower risk perception and crash risk is less sensitive to policy uncertainty during periods of economic expansion. Managers' risk perception is the critical channel through which the macroeconomic environment affects the relationship between crash risk and policy uncertainty. Consequently, when firms' managers have an accurate understanding of the future economic environment, the moderating effect of economic growth is lower. This manifests in the weaker moderating effect of economic growth for SOEs and firms with stronger managerial ability, lower managerial ownership, and high media attention, which further supports the risk perception channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]