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Achieving economic development and ecological protection simultaneously is an inevitable selection for sustainable development in today's world, so it is crucial to improve eco-efficiency (EE). According to Chinese panel data at the provincial level between 2010 and 2020, this research explores the nexus between green finance (GF) and EE. The results denote that GF can significantly improve EE, and the higher the level of EE, the stronger the effect of improvement. The upgrading of industrial structure, optimization of energy structure, enterprises' concern for environmental protection and the public's attention to the environment are all favorable factors that can enhance the promotion effect of GF on EE. Additionally, this facilitation can only be played under a good external environment and mature internal conditions. Our findings can provide new insights for improving EE by developing GF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under "The Belt and Road" initiative, the international recognition of China's high-speed railway (hereafter, HSR) standards is gradually improving along with China's HSR "going global." However, the "going global" process of China's HSR standards still faces obstacles. Therefore, how to promote the "going global" of China's HSR standards has become an important research topic. "Going global" of China's HSR standards is essentially a process of knowledge transfer related to HSR standards. In this study, knowledge transfer theory was used to identify factors related to the knowledge transfer of China's HSR standards "going global." Furthermore, a causal loop diagram and stock-and-flow diagram were designed using the System Dynamics (hereafter, SD) method. Variable equations were constructed to quantitatively describe the dynamic relationship between the relevant factors. Subsequently, we used VENSIM software to verify the validity of the constructed SD model and conducted a simulation analysis on this SD model. Finally, conclusions were drawn on the influence of different factors on the knowledge transfer performance of China's HSR standards "going global." Among them, knowledge transfer capacity of China's HSR enterprises, accepting willingness and absorptive capacity of HSR importing countries, the trust between two parties, and China's manufacturing GVC status index all have a positive impact on the knowledge transfer performance of China's HSR standards "going global." The recessive, complexity, and specificity of HSR standards, the cultural distance and institutional distance between China's HSR enterprises and HSR importing countries, and the competitor pressure faced by China's HSR enterprises all have a negative impact on the knowledge transfer performance of China's HSR standards "going global." And the corresponding suggestions were put forward to promote the sustainable export of China's HSR standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data on Chinese non-financial listed firms covering 2009 to 2022, we explore the effect of supply chain transparency on stock price crash risk. Two proxies for supply chain transparency are constructed using the number of supply chain partners' names and the proportion of their transactions disclosed in annual reports. The results reveal that enhancing supply chain transparency can decrease crash risk, specifically by mitigating tax avoidance and earnings management. Moreover, the analysis suggests that this risk-reduction effect is more prominent in companies where managers are more incentivized to hide negative information and investors possess superior abilities to acquire information. Interestingly, supplier transparency is more influential in mitigating crash risk than customer transparency. These findings emphasize the significance of supply chain transparency in managing financial risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food security is a vital material foundation for a nation's development and has been a topic of significant concern on the international stage in recent years. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, China is not only a major producer but also a substantial consumer of food. Ensuring food security in China is not only a top priority for its socio-economic development but also a driving force in maintaining the stability of the global food supply chain and reducing the number of hungry people worldwide. However, a lack of comprehensive research into the Chinese food security system remains. This study addresses this gap by constructing a comprehensive evaluation framework encompassing four dimensions: food supply, accessibility, production stability, and sustainability. Utilizing the Moran's Index and generating LISA (Local Indicators of Spatial Association) maps, we analyze the spatial correlations of food security. The Dagum Gini coefficient and kernel density estimation are applied to assess heterogeneity and spatial disparities. Furthermore, this research employs the Exponential Smoothing (ETS) model to forecast food security trends. The findings reveal that the overall composite food security score exhibited fluctuations, initially increasing and reaching its peak of 0.407 in 2003, followed by a subsequent sharp decline after 2019. Spatially, food security exhibits correlations, with the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain and Northeast regions consistently showing high-high clustering. In contrast, the Western and Southern regions exhibit low-low clustering at specific periods. The Dagum Gini coefficient indicates that overall food security disparities are relatively small. However, these disparities have gradually expanded in recent years, with inter-group differences becoming predominant after 2005. As indicated by the kernel density estimation, the dynamic distribution of food security initially widens and then narrows, suggesting a shift from dispersed to concentrated data distribution. This phenomenon is accompanied by polarization and convergence trends, particularly evident after 2015. According to the ETS model, the study forecasts a substantial risk of declining food security in China over the next decade, largely influenced by the ongoing pandemic. In conclusion, this research provides a comprehensive assessment of the changing status of food security in China. It offers early warnings through predictive analysis, addressing the existing research gaps in the field of food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political uncertainty is a crucial disadvantage to the internationalization of enterprises in developing countries. Using data from a survey of World Bank in 106 developing countries from 2006 to 2020, this study empirically investigates the innovative behavior of export enterprises in response to political uncertainty. The empirical results illustrate that export enterprises significantly improve the probability of participating in product innovation activities and R&D innovation activities under higher political uncertainty. Export enterprises substitute for fixed asset investment by engaging in innovative activities that can mitigate the decline in exports in an uncertain political environment. Both financing constraints and domestic production competition significantly reduce the positive effect of political uncertainty on the innovation of export enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions are a critical concern in the realm of energy consumption, with many nations committed to curbing them and striving for carbon neutrality. This research addresses a specific gap in the literature by focusing on carbon emission reduction in the industrial sector through the application of supply chain management (SCM) principles under a monopolistic competition context and by utilizing carbon neutral indicators. Specifically, we develop a mathematical model integrated into an agent-based simulation framework and employ experimental design methods to determine the most optimal decision-making processes for incorporating supply chain carbon neutral indicators. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of two specific carbon neutral indicators within SCM: green-credit policies and the promotion of green products. These measures contribute significantly toward reducing global carbon emissions. This paper offers insights for government decision-makers regarding ideal implementation levels and strategies for green credit policies and the promotion of green products within supply chain environments. It also provides guidance to manufacturers on how to achieve profit maximization while progressing towards carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using about 73,000 individuals' data in China, this research, for the first time, analyzes the impact of labor transfer (LT) caused by foreign product demand (FPD) on human capital investment. Two-stage least squares estimation with the instrumental variable is applied and produced three findings. First, the FPD-LT model illustrates that with FPD increasing, more labor transfers from the agricultural sector to the non-agricultural sector. Second, working in the non-agricultural sector requires higher-level skills than in the agricultural sector. LT from agricultural sector to non-agricultural sector motivates people to invest more in human capital and promotes gender equality in human capital investment. Third, labor transferring from the agricultural sector to the non-agricultural sector enhances individuals' income, leading to the increase of children's human capital investments. The better-educated people make greater investment in their children's human capital, exacerbating intergenerational inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green bonds are adopted to exclusively finance or refinance green projects and thus is an important policy instrument for sustainable development. The development of these eco-friendly projects benefits the reduction of carbon emission. What impacts do green bonds have on carbon emission intensity and how? This issue needs to be revealed, including the dynamic spatial interactive rules and regional heterogeneity. This is especially true for China, with its vast territory and a short history of green bonds. Different with existing literature, this paper collects the data of the amount of green bond issued in each province in China rather than the policy dummy variable of green bond. The spatio-temporal interactions of both the impact of green bonds and the related mechanisms are studied. A dynamic spatial Durbin model (DSDM) combined with a STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology) model reveals the negative impacts of green bonds on carbon emissions and the spatio-temporal interactions. On this basis, the mediation model is introduced to clarify the three impact mechanisms of green bonds and find the predominant role of technology mechanism. In addition, different characteristics in spatial interactive rules and impact mechanisms of green bonds are found in various regions of China. Finally, the study proposes some policy recommendations on how to effectively reduce carbon emissions with green bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from Chinese A-listed firms' loan announcements, this research creatively constructs a dynamic, variant-linkage, and more comprehensive banking network in China during 2007 and 2016. Exploiting techniques from the literature on complex networks, we find that China's banking network exhibits more clustering, more coherence, higher centrality, and even more heterogeneity. Empirical results show that the above network features, especially the heterogeneity of the network, have a great impact on financial systemic risk. A network with higher clustering coefficient, higher coherence, lower centrality, and greater heterogeneity is associated with a lower financial systemic risk. A range of policy measures can be drawn from our results, including macro-prudential policy, increasing network stability, and applying surcharges for systemically important financial institutions so as to minimize financial systemic risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russia–Ukraine war and new sanctions against Russia have created economic losers and winners. Supply chain shocks are made by two factors: the market's extraordinary swings and the breadth of commodities exported by Russia and Ukraine including energy and raw material. This paper adopts the cross-quantilogram approach to visualize the effects of energy price shocks on the exchange rate movements during this war. Our findings indicate that energy price hikes are associated with the appreciation of the Canadian dollar against the Euro and Japanese yen. Considering the ongoing war in Ukraine, the best feasible policy responses are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the unique contribution it makes to both environmental and financial performances, green innovation has become a key factor driving organizations to achieve sustainable development. Policy change presents a good opportunity to discover the drivers of corporate behavior. Considering the way in which anti-corruption policy can affect firms' innovation environment and innovation decisions, this research takes China's anti-corruption policy as a shock condition and conducts a quasi-experiment to discuss the impact of anti-corruption policy on the sensitivity of green innovation to executive incentives in China. The main findings reveal that anti-corruption policy significantly improves the sensitivity of green innovation to equity incentives and decreases the sensitivity to control rights incentives, but does not influence the sensitivity to reputation incentives. These findings show the integrated impact of an exogenous environment and endogenous governance upon green innovation. We also reveal the difference of this integrated impact in the context of various natures of ownership. Specifically, in private enterprises, anti-corruption policy can optimize the sensitivity of green innovation to equity incentives, while in state-owned enterprises the sensitivity of green innovation to reputation incentives combined with equity incentives or with control rights incentives significantly improves. The findings presented in this paper reveal the micro-economic effects of anti-corruption policy on green innovation and instruct firms to optimize executive incentive arrangements to green development under the background of China's anti-corruption campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the trade-energy literature by examining the effect of export product diversification on the energy demand of 30 countries located in the Global North over the period 1980–2014. A nonparametric time-varying coefficient panel data model with fixed effects is employed for its ability to produce robust outcomes in the presence of parameter instabilities, nonstationarity, regime shifts, and time variations. As a second step, the paper also utilizes the nonparametric fixed effects extension of Driscoll and Kraay, which is robust to spatial/cross-sectional dependence, as well as to autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity. The results indicate that export diversification lowers overall energy demand in the Global North, and the size of the impact has been on a gradual increase over the years. The paper concludes that if a conscious effort is made to ensure that product diversification is towards energy-efficient goods, export product diversification can serve as a useful strategy for managing energy consumption and mitigating its negative environmental effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the asymmetric effect of temperature, exchange rate, metals (rare metals and electrical conductors), and investor sentiments on solar stock price performance in China. The novel econometric techniques, i.e., QARDL (quantile autoregressive distributive lag) approach and Granger causality-in-quantiles to analyze the results. In both short- and long-run estimations, the findings suggest that rare metals (cadmium, germanium, indium, and selenium) and electrical conductors (silver, aluminum, and copper) have significant and positive linkage with solar energy stocks at different quantiles based on bullish, bearish, and normal market conditions. On the other hand, negative effects are found for temperature, RMB exchange rate, and investor sentiments in both the short- and long-run. In the short run, the effect of exchange rate varies across different quantiles but it confines to only lower quantiles (bearish market condition) in the longer run. Solar stocks are more prone to investor sentiments under higher quantiles (bullish market conditions). Lastly, we find that temperature is not merely a behavioral anomaly for the solar energy market as it spreads across middle quantiles (normal market conditions) in the longer run. The findings of Granger causality in quantiles further confirm the results of QARDL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from World Development Indicators (WDI), this research constructs panel data of 99 countries from 1996 to 2018 and employs a spatial econometric model to analyze the impact of air quality on international tourism arrivals. Evidence shows that Moran's I values are significantly positive, indicating a strong positive spatial dependence in each country and that poor air quality does have a negative impact on the number of tourist arrivals. The results of grouped data illustrate that middle-income countries, low-income countries, high concentrations of PM2.5, and countries with less numbers of tourists have negative effects on tourist arrivals in neighboring countries. The contrary groups, however, have positive effects on tourist arrivals – that is, the influence of air quality on the number of tourist arrivals exhibits heterogeneity. In addition, tests of the interaction term show that countries with higher R&D intensity have better air quality and thus attract more tourists. Therefore, countries with poor air quality should improve the environment through international cooperation and undertake technology transfer, thus ultimately increasing the number of tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As carbon emissions are one of the major problems of an emission-generating firm (EGF), there is a dire need to reduce them, and so this study fills this gap in the literature by considering the optimal behavior of environmental policies. This research develops policy measures under a duopoly game model such as carbon emission tax (CET) and subsidy on green investment (SGI). Additionally, we formulate a simulation model to measure the optimal behavior of CET, SGI, and production quantity to maximize profit and carbon emission reduction. The findings indicate that when green investment decreases, the EGFs are better able to pay CET and the government is also capable of providing SGI. Moreover, a lower unit production cost reduces more carbon emissions versus a higher unit production cost. In this way, the government receives revenue due to CET implementation and an EGF obtains revenue due to SGI. Both parties gain benefits at the same time and play important roles in cutting carbon emissions to make the environment clean. This study helps governments in finding their own optimal CET and SGI. An optimal SGI assists decision-makers at reducing carbon emissions and targeting profit maximization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given China' rapid transformation, its economy is currently experiencing a change from a rugged development style to a sustainable development style with green development being critical to this transformation. Increasing green total factor productivity (GTFP) is now considered one of the significant signs of economic growth. With increasingly stricter environmental laws and regulations and a broad application of innovation capability (ICY) in modern life, this research investigates the impact mechanisms of both environmental regulations (ER) and ICY on GTFP, offering robust empirical results from panel data of 30 provinces in China covering the period 2006–2017. The results indicate that both ICY and ER effectively promote GTFP, but compared to ER, ICY has a heterogeneous effect on GTFP. Moreover, ICY plays a mediating role in ER and GTFP, while ER promotes GTFP through ICY. Accordingly, the paper puts forward some suggestions, such as to optimize and improve the ER policy, enact an innovation-driven development strategy, widely use ICY technology, and strengthen monitoring and supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kinds of countries are likely to be prosperous and have a sustainable environment at the same time? How might countries reorient their policy setting to be more capable of suppressing environmental degradation? To explore these questions, this research examines data from 99 countries for 2006–2017, takes the six major forms of ecological footprint (EF) as indicators of environmental quality, and probes the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis via quantile regression approach. We find that tourism development leads to greater environmental degradation, with tourism development particularly corresponding to more usage of carbon absorption land and cropland. The lower the country security is, the better is the environmental quality. Economic complexity also worsens environmental quality. However, country security weakens the negative influence of tourism development and economic complexity on environmental quality, specifying that better country security stalls the negative impact of tourism and economic complexity on environmental quality. Results mostly support the tourism- and country security–induced EKC hypotheses in fishing footprint, whereas economic complexity–induced EKC is generally validated in cropland footprint. Finally, we present that tourism arrivals, economic complexity, and country security have varying impacts across diverse ecological footprint quantiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the effects of income inequality and country risk on CO2 emissions and examines whether the effects change across countries with different development stages or income levels. A new panel quantile regression approach is used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of affecting factors on CO2 emissions at various quantiles, while addressing econometric challenges such as endogeneity and heterogeneity. From a global perspective, we can conclude that the marginal impact of inequality on emissions drops constantly with decreasing country risk at 10th to 50th quantiles, which even performs negative, whereas at the other quantiles, the marginal impact of inequality always remains negative. When we focus on the different income groups, the nexus of inequality emissions is negative first and then positive with decrease of country risk in low-income countries but shows no significant in low-middle- and upper-middle-income countries. Additionally, we validate the detrimental impact of income inequality in upper-income countries. Besides, country risk adversely moderates the nexus of inequality and emissions in low- and upper-income countries. Empirical results confirm that the nexus of inequality emissions lies in country risk, income level, and existing emission degree. These findings provide some important recommendations for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have transformed the travel and leisure sector worldwide, yet until now there are no studies presenting international evidence of the different impacts of ICTs (i.e., Internet usage, secure Internet servers, mobile cellular subscriptions, high-technology export, communications as well as computer, and fixed broadband subscriptions) on tourism development (i.e., international traveler arrivals, increased international tourism receipts, and travel and leisure sector returns) by considering countries with different tourism development processes (e.g., high or low tourism development quantile). It is possible that ICTs have diverse or non-linear impacts on countries undergoing varying tourism development processes. Using international data based on a new panel quantile approach, this research thus aims to explore whether ICTs affect tourism development and looks into the possible asymmetric and non-linear relationships among the many variables. Results show that increasing mobile cellular subscriptions, secure Internet servers, and fixed broadband subscriptions have greater positive effects on traveler arrivals. ICTs also asymmetrically and non-linearly influence tourism across different quantiles. Non-global financial sub-periods and developing nations gain benefits from ICTs' establishment. Lastly, there are geographic differences in the ICTs-tourism nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we estimate the price and income elasticities for gasoline demand in selected energy gluttons—China, India, USA, Russia, and Japan. Specifically, we employ a time-varying parameter approach which adequately deals with potential parameter instabilities and nonlinearities and effectively captures price and income elasticity variations over time, with each time period having its own set of coefficients. Our empirical findings reveal the following: gasoline consumption is price-inelastic and income-inelastic, there are movements in both the price and income elasticities, and the movements generally correspond with business cycle patterns of each of the countries; overall, sensitivity to price and income changes increase during periods of economic crises. Constant elasticity models overestimate price and income elasticities, and income is predominantly more elastic than price. Our conclusion is that policy mechanisms that are price-based such as gasoline taxes are likely to be unsuccessful in achieving consumption-cum-pollution reduction objectives in the energy gluttons. Such policies may, however, be effective if they ensure that gasoline prices rise at a greater rate than income. Such policies may also be useful for revenue-raising purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing use of digital technology in industrial production, how industrial digitalization affects the environmental performance of production activities remains unclear. This research contributes to the literature on the relationship between industrial digitalization and enterprise environmental performance by employing a large sample of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Results indicate that the environmental performance of manufacturing enterprises has been significantly improved in the process of industrial digital transformation. Structural and technology effects are the transmission channels; additionally, structural effect is the main contributor to the positive environmental effects of information and communications technology (ICT) penetration. Industrial digitalization reduces the production scale of heavy-polluting enterprises and improves product innovation and green total factor productivity, but it has an insignificant effect on total factor productivity. Moreover, industrial digitalization improves enterprise environmental performance by introducing front-end cleaner production technologies, rather than by increasing pipe-end pollutant treatment facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamic linkage between crude oil prices and exchange rates from a global perspective. Unlike the conventional cointegration specification used in earlier works, we evaluate long- and short-run relations based on the pooled mean group approach. Taking monthly data of real oil prices and real exchange rates from the period January 1997 to July 2015, we classify 81 countries by their net oil import status (i.e., oil-importing and oil-exporting) and exchange rate arrangement systems (i.e., free-floating and managed floating), presenting results that the long-run relationship between oil prices and exchange rates depends on country-specific circumstances. For countries adopting free-floating systems, oil importers reveal a significantly negative bidirectional correlation, while oil exporters show no correlation between oil prices and exchange rates. As for managed floating systems, only exchange rates have predictive content for oil prices no matter in the cases of oil importers or exporters. Knowledge of these relationships can guide government policy development to prevent sudden and substantial shocks from crude oil price and exchange rate movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in an open economy has gradually become an important source of green innovation (GI). With the rapid development of China's OFDI, this research studies the impact of OFDI on the country's GI, employing panel data of 30 provinces from 2006 to 2017. We first use the Super-SBM model to measure GI performance and then test the impact of OFDI on GI with the system GMM model. Evidence finds that the negative impact of OFDI on GI is not significant on the whole, but the results of regional regression show that impact of OFDI on GI exhibits obvious regional differences. We then utilize the dynamic threshold panel model to determine the non-linear relationship between OFDI and GI through the perspective of environmental regulation in order to avoid the bias caused by ignoring the impact of institutional factors and time dynamic change. After dividing environmental regulations into command control environmental regulation and market incentive environmental regulation, the research results show that the double threshold effects of both environmental regulations are significant. Command control environmental regulation does not play a role in promoting the effect of OFDI on GI. When the intensity of market incentive environmental regulation is low, OFDI negatively affects GI. Moreover, only when the market incentive regulation shows high intensity can OFDI significantly promote GI. With the continuous growth of China's OFDI, it is therefore necessary to determine the appropriate environmental regulation to improve the reverse spillover effect of OFDI enterprises on the country's GI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geopolitical risks have been widely linked to oil price movements in the past. Our study as an addition to this debate shows that geopolitical threats particularly play a significant role in the volatility experienced in global oil markets with attendant policy suggestions. In this study, we employed the newly developed geopolitical threats index to examine whether threats of war, terrorism, and ethnic and political violence within and between countries are powerful enough to predict volatility in global oil prices. Monthly data on global geopolitical threats index and global prices of crude were drawn upon for causality between the periods 1990:01 and 2020:04. To this effect, two volatility indices were constructed using the deviations of Brent and WTI prices from their Hodrick-Prescott filters. The ability of the geopolitical threats index to predict volatilities was examined through a battery of causality methodologies—Granger causality test in frequency domain, nonparametric test for nonlinear causality, leveraged bootstrap causality test, and Fourier Toda-Yamamoto causality test. Through various causality methodologies, we were able to ensure robustness against various problems associated with the classical linear Granger causality testing approach and ascertain that geopolitical threats are powerful and useful predictors of volatility in global oil prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of technology advancement on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is complex and controversial, yet existing literature ignores the level of economic development in regard to its influential effect. With the panel threshold regression model, this research investigates the marginal and non-linear impacts of technology advancement on CO2 emissions along with the changes of economic development and presents the heterogeneity between different countries. The results are as follows: First, technology advancement and CO2 emissions have a non-linear inverted U-shaped relationship, which is significantly affected by different levels of economic development. When economic development exceeds a certain threshold, the impact turns from positive to negative. Second, the impact varies remarkably among different countries. We provide evidence for inverted U-shaped and N-shaped correlations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and high-income countries (non-OECD), respectively. Although technology advancement always promotes CO2 emissions in middle- and low-income countries, its marginal effect is decreasing. This study not only indicates the dynamic impacts of technology advancement on CO2 emissions in different countries, but also contributes to policymakers' understanding of the "common but differentiated responsibilities" involved in mitigating CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explored the effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak on stock price movements of China's tourism industry by using an event study method. The results showed that the crisis negatively impacted tourism sector stocks. Further quantile regression analyses supported the non-linear relationship between the government's responses and stock returns. The results present that the resurgence of the virus in Beijing did bring about a short-term negative impact on the tourism industry. The empirical results can be used for future researchers to conduct a comparative study of cultural differences concerning government responses to the COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of COVID-19 on stock market performance has important implications for both financial theory and practice. This paper examines the relationship between COVID-19 and the instability of both stock return predictability and price volatility in the U.S over the period January 1st, 2019 to June 30th, 2020 by using the methodologies of Bai and Perron (Econometrica 66:47–78, 1998. https://doi.org/10.2307/2998540; J Appl Econo 18:1–22, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1002/jae.659), Elliot and Muller (Optimal testing general breaking processes in linear time series models. University of California at San Diego Economic Working Paper, 2004), and Xu (J Econ 173:126–142, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2012.11.001). The results highlight a single break in return predictability and price volatility of both S&P 500 and DJIA. The timing of the break is consistent with the COVID-19 outbreak, or more specifically the stock selling-offs by the U.S. senate committee members before COVID-19 crashed the market. Furthermore, return predictability and price volatility significantly increased following the derived break. The findings suggest that the pandemic crisis was associated with market inefficiency, creating profitable opportunities for traders and speculators. Furthermore, it also induced income and wealth inequality between market participants with plenty of liquidity at hand and those short of funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research sets out to determine the nexus among economic complexity (ECI; which reflects a country's productivity), income inequality, and country risk and whether country risk affects the complexity-inequality nexus. By applying balanced panel data of 43 countries from 1991 to 2016 to a data-driven econometric methodology-finite mixture model, we provide fresh insight into this relationship from the perspective of country risk. The results indicate that the two-group finite mixture model is able to best fit our data, and that increasing economic complexity has no impact on income inequality in group A, whereas improving the structure of productivity mitigates the income gap in group B. Furthermore, country risk and the subcomponents of the former (i.e., economic risk, financial risk, and political risk) all exert effects on the complexity-inequality nexus. Specifically speaking, an increase in ECI is associated with more equal income distribution in a country with low country risk, while the improvement in productive structure cannot improve an unequal income distribution in countries under high country risk. Finally, it is noteworthy that the finite mixture model also captures information about the transformation of this nexus, with evidence demonstrating that 5 countries experience a variation in their complexity-inequality relationship over the sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is now the world's largest energy consumer, but severe air pollution problems have brought greater pressure to the production and development of its domestic economy. As an unavoidable result of air pollution, PM2.5 emissions are increasing. Previous literature has focused more on the impact of PM2.5 on the micro-level such as resident health and company location, yet macro-pattern studies between PM2.5 and innovation are inadequate. To bridge this gap, our research uses a spatial dynamic panel data model to systematically investigate the internal and external effects of PM2.5 concentration on innovation in China during the period 2001–2016. After forming a dataset of real-time PM2.5 concentration from satellite detection and using an innovation index instead of patents, we find a stronger spatial linkage between PM2.5 concentration and innovation. Thus, PM2.5 inhibits regional innovation significantly, and this result still exists after using the air mobility index as an instrument variable to alleviate endogenous problems. Lastly, PM2.5 concentration in neighboring regions also impedes local innovation considerably, indicating a spatial ripple effect of PM2.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote county economic prosperity and social development, China enacted a fiscal reform known as "province governing county" (PGC) in the early 2000s. Using the difference-in-differences (DID) method and a massive sample of enterprises from 2003 to 2011, this study investigates the effect of PGC reform on firm environmental performance. The results show that enterprises in reformed counties have significantly decreased their pollution intensity since the fiscal reform. Our research reveals that the environmental effects of fiscal decentralization are related to changes in the political assessment metrics of local officials. It also shows that PGC fiscal reform has a significant positive effect on the environmental performance of large, small, and micro enterprises. Furthermore, it suggests that PGC fiscal reform benefits the environmental performance due to the informational advantages of county governments. In terms of environmental governance, although local governments have an information advantage in the allocation of green fiscal funds, well-designed mechanisms are needed to strengthen their motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether China's provincial economies follow the same growth path by adopting a finite mixture model in which provinces are sorted into groups according to the similarity in the conditional distribution of their growth rates. The method is flexible in that it accounts for (i) endogenous classifications other than given priori, (ii) heterogeneous marginal effects of determinants, (iii) the possibility of growth path transformation, and (iv) the roles of geographic location and institutions in the growth path. The results reveal that all provinces do not follow a common growth process, but rather two distinct growth regimes. Particularly, one is dominated by foreign direct investment and financial depth, while the other is dominated by trade openness. The growth process of provinces in the central region evolves around the year 2004 from the former to the latter. More importantly, geography and institutions help sort provinces into groups, and institutions are more predominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since China's "housing reform" in 1998, the level of real estate investment in its cities has continued to rise, leading to the occupation of green space, rapid population concentration, and a severe mismatching of financial resources. At the same time, urban air quality has changed drastically for the worse, with PM2.5 becoming the primary air indicator of concern for many cities in recent years. The existing literature has obtained sufficient results on the influence factors of air pollution, but rarely presents the relationship between real estate investment and air pollution, especially using multiple cities as the sample. This paper thus examines the impact of real estate investment on air quality using a sample of 261 prefecture-level cities in China over the period 1999–2016 through several econometric models. First, the two-way fixed-effect model shows an inverted U-shaped relationship between PM2.5 concentration and real estate investment, but most cities have not yet crossed the turning point, and that real estate investment negatively impacts air quality. Second, the indirect effect of real estate investment on PM2.5 concentration comes from its non-linear impact on urban green coverage, population density, and industrial structure, which has been verified by Hayes and Preacher's (Behav Res 45:627–660, 2010) mediation effect with non-linear forms. Third, heterogeneity analysis indicates that an inverted U-shaped relationship also exists in the subsamples, and that real estate investment in cities with more people, higher GDP, and greater development level is more likely to increase rather than mitigate air pollution. Therefore, cities should promote the green development of real estate and related industries by enhancing environmental awareness, guide the population flow toward the coordinated development between real estate investment and population distribution, and encourage environmentally friendly technological progress via a better rational allocation of financial resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the asymmetric and nonlinear transmission of real output and economic policy uncertainty to insurance premiums for the US economy over the annual period of 1980–2014. Using the most up-to-date nonlinear autoregressive distributed lags framework, we simultaneously examine short- and long-run asymmetric responses of insurance premiums through positive and negative partial sum decompositions of changes in the explanatory variables. Our empirical results reveal that real output and economic policy uncertainties both affect insurance premiums in an asymmetric and nonlinear manner, but the transmission mechanism is not the same. As to the impact of real output, we find that an increase in real output leads to enhancing the insurance premiums, while a decrease in output has a greater impact causing insurance premiums to move down. For the impact of economic policy uncertainty, the results also suggest that total and non-life insurance premiums increase with rising uncertainty, while life insurance premiums decrease with rising uncertainty. These results have significant implications for insurance-related econometric analysis, investment decisions, forecasting, and policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the moderating effect of inflation on the finance–growth nexus in the West African region during 1980–2014. We find that the linear financial development has a positive impact on economic growth, while the interaction term between financial development and the inflation rate has a negative impact on growth. The marginal effect of financial development evaluated at the minimum level of inflation rate is positive, while that evaluated at the maximum level is negative, suggesting that the impact of finance on growth varies with the level of inflation. The inflation threshold level is found at 5.62%. When inflation rises above this level, the total effect of finance on growth turns negative. We also find that the marginal effects of financial development computed at the maximum level of inflation are negative in the high-inflationary countries but positive in the low-inflationary countries. The implication of these findings is that, in the West African region, an increase in financial development and a decrease in inflation appear to have greater long-run economic benefits than a simultaneous increase in both variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the catching-up hypothesis among the 29 transition countries using the time series approach to investigate income convergence. In this study, we propose a model which specifies a trend function incorporating both sharp and smooth breaks using dummy variables and Fourier functions, respectively. Our empirical results indicate that two convergence clubs are forming among the transition countries and one club is among the rich and the other club is among the poor countries, where most middle income countries will disappear and move into one of the two clubs. Also, our results indicate that the 1980s was an ominous decade for growth in the transition countries with income in most diverging from the USA. With recovery in the 1990s, we find that in the 2000s income per capita in most of these countries was catching up toward the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of country risks, including economic, financial, and political risks, on income inequality for a broad sample of 110 countries. Our empirical results reveal that higher economic and political risks generally lead to higher inequality. Lower income country appears to have higher income inequality. Furthermore, with the consideration of the non-monotonic effect of country risk, the improvement of income distribution is only sustainable dynamically after a certain threshold level of country risk has been brought down. Policymakers should improve the level of country stability by exploring the benefits of country risk reduction in order to improve income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies panel cointegration tests and panel vector error correction models to investigate the interrelationship among the banking sector, insurance market, and regional output based on the samples from 25 Chinese provinces. We first find that there is a fairly strong long-run cointegrating relationship among real GDP, banking credit, and real insurance premiums. Second, both insurance markets (life and non-life) and the banking sector have a positive effect on real output. Third, we determine that banking activities and economic growth exhibit long-run and short-run bidirectional causalities. Fourth, there is fairly strong evidence in favor of the hypothesis for the long-run bidirectional causal relationships between insurance premiums and economic growth, taking into account the critical channel of the banking sector. Finally, we provide some beneficial suggestions for investors and policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the housing price-volume nexus based on different levels of liquidity for the US new one-family housing market over the period between January 1963 and November 2009. We mainly analyze the differential responses of trading volumes to housing price changes (denoted as price elasticity), employing a quantile cointegrating approach that allows us to capture housing boom-bust cycles earlier. In addition, we also explore the long-term impacts of monetary policies on housing sales. According to our findings, the price elasticities perform differently across the booms and busts of housing markets. Shifts in price elasticities can transmit signals of oncoming upturns, recovery, and downturns of housing cycles, which possibly relate to the business cycle. On the other hand, a contractionary monetary policy exerts a much effective control over an overheated housing market, but an expansionary monetary policy has a relatively small influence on stimulating a depressed housing market. Our findings offer some important suggestions and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waldmann (Q J Econ 107:1283-1302, 1992) established long ago that being improvements in health, medical personnel are the valued input factor of the health production function. Previous research, however, has generally ignored the importance of medical personnel in the health production function and has almost exclusively focused on health expenditure. Thus, the motivation behind this study is to identify the relationship between two health indicators, namely medical personnel, i.e., registered nurses and physicians, and average life expectancy in Taiwan. From the empirical results, we find that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between the two variables and that medical personnel play a crucial role in the medical care system. Finally, the forecast error variance in life expectancy is mainly explained by itself. Moreover, medical personnel have a positive initial impact on life expectancy, and similar innovations are discovered vice versa in the impulse response functions. Some policy implications can be obtained via our empirical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of government ideology on energy efficiency using data for a panel of 23 OECD countries over the 1980-2013 period. With dynamic panel data method applied, our evidence suggests that government ideology is a significant determinant of energy efficiency. Specifically, we show that left-wing parties are associated with energy efficiency improvements. Overall, our results are robust to the two measures of energy efficiency variables, alternative measures of government ideology variables, using annual and 3-year averages of the data, the inclusion of economic and political variables, and to model specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between competition, profitability, and risk. The investigation uses bank-level panel data from 171 Chinese banks during 1993 to 2007. Throughout the whole sample, the empirical results divulge that increased bank concentration in China improves the profitability and the risk of its banks. These results support the structure-conduct-performance and the moral hazard hypotheses. In terms of persistence, both the profit and the risk of the banks rise significantly by showing the enhancement of profit and risk from one period to the next. When different types of banks are considered, joint-stock banks have the highest persistence in profit and risk, and therefore more stable profits. City banks support the moral hazard hypothesis. They have entrenched managers that tend to take on more risk when the bank's charter value falls in a very competitive (less concentrated) environment. Further, deregulation which in 2003 China allowed foreign banks to formally enter China has a negative impact on the structure of China's banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-examines the stationarity of inflation rates in 19 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries with the use of cross-sectional information. We employ the panel unit-root tests that allow for cross-sectional dependency and the covariate point optimal test. These tests have high power in common due to the exploitation of cross-sectional information, and they can assist mutually to draw a concrete conclusion on inflation dynamics for all series in the panel. Our empirical results show that allowing for cross-sectional dependency rejects the null hypothesis that all series in the panel have a unit root, implying that there is at least one stationary series in the panel. With the help of the results of the covariate test, we can distinguish the panel into a group of stationary and a group of non-stationary series. For robustness, the two groups of series are re-confirmed by the panel tests. Our results reveal evidence of mean reversion in inflation for 15 of 19 countries, which is significantly stronger as compared to that obtained by the state-of-the-art univariate unit-root tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies the GMM techniques for dynamic panels using bank-level data for 61 countries over the period 1992 to 2006 to re-investigate the impact of banking competition on profitability. The extant literature, which ignores influence factors, presents ambiguity towards the impact of banking competition on profitability. However, when the effects of a broad range of factors are taken into consideration, five conclusions are reached. First, along with the change in market structure, a higher degree of activity restriction enhances banks' profits. Second, restrictions on the rights of commercial banks to engage in securities, insurance, and other non-banking-related business, along with restrictions on the entry of foreign banks into these markets, weaken the positive relationship between banking competition and profits. Third, a higher degree of efficiency within the judicial system and the added protection afforded to investors may weaken or else have no impact on the positive relationship. Fourth, the positive relationship may weaken in countries having a sound financial system or high income per capita. Finally, greater competitive pressure facing banks may weaken or eliminate the impact of banking competition on profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital context, using data and digital technology to realize value creation has become an important decision-making issue faced by platform service supply chain (PSSC) members. In this study, we build a PSSC structure that includes service providers (SPs), platform operators (POs) and demand markets (DMs). To realize value creation, SPs and POs improve service quality and carry out collaborative innovation through data and digital technology. Therefore, based on the mutual transformation relationship between variational inequality and the optimization problem, we construct a PSSC network equilibrium model and obtain the conditions for the network to be in the optimal state. Through five numerical examples, we analyze the influence of factors such as service quality improvement level cost coefficient, service innovation ability, and digital application level on the equilibrium state of the PSSC network. Our study finds that under digital empowerment, the high cost of service quality improvement is not only a difficult challenge for SPs and POs, but also hinders DMs from accessing high-quality and low-cost services. We also observe that a high service innovation capability is conducive to the value creation of PSSC members. This is not only a cost saving for PSSC members themselves but also has a “spillover effect” on their partners. Further, for SPs, the improvement of the digital application level does not achieve the expected revenue growth in the early stage, and POs may have “free riding” behavior in digital investment. Against the backdrop of digitalization, these findings provide new insights into PSSC’s service quality improvement and collaborative innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]