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This study offers additional evidence on the self-employment of rural-to-urban migrants from the perspective of cultural barriers in China. By employing seven waves of the China Migrants Dynamic Survey data from 2010 to 2016, we find that cultural distance has a negative and significant effect on the self-employment of rural-to-urban migrants in eight subdivision industries. In particular, such negative effect is greater in the service sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy has a significant influence on the financial behavior of enterprises. According to the panel data of A-share listed enterprises in the manufacturing industry from 2010 to 2020, we discuss how manufacturing enterprises allocate their financial assets in the process of digitalization from the perspective of operating profit and risk taking. The results reveal that ICT investment significantly reduces financial asset allocation, while digital transformation improves the financial asset allocation of manufacturing enterprises. Because ICT investment increases operating profit from the main business, manufacturing enterprises reduce the allocation of short-term and long-term financial assets. We thus propose two phenomena: precautionary saving and substitutional investment. As digital transformation increases risk taking, financial assets are elevated by manufacturing enterprises for the precautionary saving motivation, boosting the short-term financial assets in their portfolios. These findings are further supported by the heterogeneity of innovation characteristics and ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital transformation of global economic and social activities brought about by advanced information and communication technology (ICT) may have a profound impact on sustainable economic development. This research measures the digitalization of the economy and society in cities of China based on Internet-related indicators and digital financial development and investigates the economic and environmental effects of their digitalization. The empirical results show that digitalization has significantly improved green economic efficiency (GEE), and this finding remains valid after a series of robust analyses. However, there is regional heterogeneity in the improvement effect of GEE. The green effect of digitalization is significant only in the cities with a high degree of economic servitization, capital-abundant cities, and eastern cities. Although digitalization has promoted the green development of the urban economy, it also has a negative spatial spillover effect on the GEE of neighboring cities. One explanation is that cities are shifting polluting industries to other areas during the process of digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the role of China's exchange rate policy uncertainty in manufacturing corporate performance using the fixed effect model and quantile regression model. The findings indicate that an exchange rate policy fluctuation constrains better-performing corporates, but is adverse for those with inferior performance. Government subsidy appears to explain the positive impact, and the effect is enhanced or alleviated somehow by corporate governance, growth, and financial constraints. Exchange rate policy fluctuation also significantly pushes corporates to adjust and upgrade their business, which improves their performance accordingly. Additionally, positive shocks significantly stimulate corporate performance, while negative shocks including global financial crisis and COVID-19 epidemic hinder corporate development. Overall, the risk confrontation ability of Chinese manufacturing enterprises presents a positive upward trend. The China government should thus issue more positive exchange rate policies that could send positive signals to the market and increase the openness of its manufacturing industry. More corporate-friendly policies can be launched, such as adjusting the amount of subsidies for manufacturing enterprises in a timely manner and helping manufacturing enterprises, especially more mature ones, deal with exchange rate policy uncertainty risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's largest food producer, China, is now facing increasing pressure to solve food security and is committed to forging new prospects for global food security and sustainable agricultural development. As food security is receiving greater attention, this research takes panel data from 31 provinces and cities in China from 2011–2020 to examine the spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on food security. The study conclusions are as follows. (1) Improvement of the digital economy significantly promotes the development of China's food security. (2) The digital economy has an inhibitory effect on food security in local regions and promotes food security in neighboring regions. (3) Heterogeneity exists within the spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on food security, and such differences often vary based on the status of regional economic development, natural geographical location, and land function. Therefore, policy suggestions proposed herein cover three aspects: accelerating infrastructure investment and construction, improving the empowering capability of the digital economy, and implementing different digital economy strategies to better support food security in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) has already devastated the world, and the economy becomes the most critical challenge for any country worldwide. The increasing uncertainty of the COVID‐19 outbreak has made stock markets in China more turbulent and less predictable. Under the current exceptional circumstances, the hospitality industry suffered the most due to the travel restrictions. This research thus assesses the dynamic relationship among the COVID‐19 outbreak, macroeconomic fluctuations and hospitality stock returns based on a structural VAR framework from 13 January to 11 May 2020, in China. Evidence reveals that macroeconomic fluctuations and hospitality stock returns are significantly affected by shocks from the COVID‐19 outbreak. An unanticipated positive change of the COVID‐19 explosion triggers an addition in exchange rates and causes a reduction in the stock market and hospitality industry returns. For the impacts of the exchange rate, findings reveal that a surprise increase in exchange rates (currency depreciation) exerts a significant negative influence on stock market returns. Additionally, a positive change of stock market returns is linked to a decline in exchange rates and a rise in hospitality industry returns. Therefore, knowledge of these relationships can enable policymakers to evaluate and implement effective policies to stabilize the stock markets and help investors to make appropriate investment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital financial inclusion (DIFI) exerts vital influence on poverty alleviation in China, thus developing digital financial inclusion may provide new approaches to inclusive growth and create more possibilities for the sustainable development with extending the coverage and usage concerning financial services. This research explores how poverty alleviation is impacted by digital financial inclusion derived from the provincial data of China from 2011 to 2019. The results show that digital financial inclusion can make considerable contributions to poverty alleviation significantly. We conduct heterogeneity analysis with quantile regression conjointly, which reveals that digital financial inclusion has divergent effects on users with diverse poverty levels. The results of mediation regression demonstrate that the income level and income distribution play a vital role in poverty alleviation. Moreover, based on spatial Dubin model, digital financial inclusion enhances poverty alleviation with a spillover effect, which correlates with a "U" non-linear relation, laying a hidden danger of increasing poverty. Finally, we carry out IV regression to enhance the robust results, proving the reliability of this research's basic conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article employs the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model in analysing the environmental impact of tourism in China from 2002Q1 to 2018Q4, while controlling for non-renewable energy consumption, trade openness, urbanisation, per capita GDP and its quadratic form. The approach permits the simultaneous testing of non-linearities in the short and long run. This is achieved through negative and positive partial sum decompositions of the regressor of interest. Findings from the article indicate the following: (i) long-run co-movements exist between tourism activities and environmental performance in China, (ii) tourism activities considerably damage the environment in China, (iii) the environment responds to tourism in an asymmetric manner, such that the damage caused by increasing tourism is smaller than the positive environmental effect of decline in tourism. Thus, less tourism protects the environment faster than more tourism damages it. A supplementary non-parametric test for non-linear causality was also performed. The result further provides strong evidence of a non-linear feedback causality between tourism activities and environmental performance in China in the first moment (mean) and second moment (variance). Tourism (environmental performance) is thus a significant predictor of China's environmental performance (tourism). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building a stronger modern socialist country is China's second centenary goal, and ecological beauty is the innovation of the connotation of modernization. How to realize the drive toward modernization with green development is an urgent topic. Based on the municipal panel data of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2009–2019 in China and selecting the air circulation coefficient and river network density as instrumental variables, this research examines the impact mechanism of green development on modernization. The results show the following: (1) green development significantly promotes modernization; (2) green development indirectly promotes the improvement of modernization through technological innovation, foreign capital flow, and talent attraction; and (3) the promotion of green development to modernization is affected by the urban size, and medium-sized cities benefit most. The study results provide empirical support and a decision-making basis for promoting the win-win situation of green development and modernization construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between environment, society, and governance (ESG) performance and maturity mismatches between investment and financing based on unbalanced panel data from Chinese listed companies. The results suggest that ESG performance significantly reduces the potential for maturity mismatch between corporate investment and financing and that the ESG activities of Chinese enterprises are consistent with the principles of responsible investment. Specifically, society and governance performance significantly reduces maturity mismatch, while environmental performance exerts an insignificant effect. Enterprises with high ESG performance prefer long-term debt financing structures, and they also have increased trade credit and endogenous financing. In addition, investment efficiency and innovative investment are beneficial for ESG performance to promote the long-term transformation of debt maturity structures. Finally, ESG performance is more effective in reducing maturity mismatch caused by environmental policy and COVID-19. [Display omitted] • Investigate the relationship between ESG performance and maturity mismatch of investment and financing. • ESG performance significantly reduces the maturity mismatch. • Enterprises with high ESG performance prefer long-term debt financing and increase trade credit and endogenous financing. • Investment efficiency and innovative investment contribute to the long-term transformation of the debt maturity structure. • ESG performance plays a significant role in reducing the maturity mismatch caused by environmental policies and COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the domain of global socio-economic dynamics, the pivotal role of food production (FP) cannot be overstated. It constitutes the bedrock of fundamental human necessities while being inexorably linked with critical aspects such as economic expansion, societal equilibrium, and geopolitical interplays. The multifaceted nature of FP appears through its direct impact on macroeconomic indicators and its latent influence on international relations and policy-making. This critical nexus underscores the imperative for a comprehensive understanding and strategic management of food production processes to sustain and enhance global socio-economic stability and growth. Investigating the nexus between green finance (GF) and FP is pivotal for ensuring national security and promoting sustainable economic development. This research thus paper examines GF's impact on FP in China as outlined in the 2017 green finance policies. It employs the difference-in-differences (DID) method and analyzes a balanced panel dataset comprising 282 cities in China from 2009 to 2020. The results show that GF has an inhibitory effect on FP, and this remains valid after a range of reliability checks, including parallel trend assessments and placebo tests. Further findings of transmission mechanism analysis indicate that non-agricultural factors and financial exclusion are critical for GF's inhibitory effect on FP. Heterogeneity analyses show that GF's inhibitory effect on FP is more pronounced in the main food-producing areas, the main food-marketing areas, and cities with better infrastructure. The empirical results of this paper comprehensively illustrate GF's impact on FP and how it contributes to the achievement of food security objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Calculate the land ecological security (LES) index at the city level. • Analyze the relationship between green finance (GF) and LES. • Synthetic DID is applied to assess the impact of the GF on LES. • Examine the transmission mechanisms of GF effects on LES As the phenomenon of ecological degradation increases, there is a growing body of research related to green finance, but no papers evaluating the link between it and land ecological security. Thus, this research calculates land ecological security using data from 158 cities in China's major grain-producing regions from 2012 to 2020. Taking China's green finance policy as an example, it applies the synthetic difference-in-difference method to analyze green finance's impact on land ecological security. The conclusions show that, first, green financial policy implementation has contributed to the improvement of land ecological security by 0.154 units. This result still holds after a series of robustness tests such as parallel trend tests, dynamic effects tests, and placebo tests. Second, mechanism analysis finds that green finance affects land ecological security through three paths: agricultural scale management, agricultural technological progress, and eco-industrialization. Third, in terms of the sub-dimension of eco-industrialization, green finance promotes domestic tourism revenues, agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry, while its impact on international tourism revenues and fisheries is not significant. The results herein confirm the role of green finance in securing ecological security of land. Future research will further enrich the indicator system of land ecological security as well as excavate the boundary conditions for green finance in order to promote land ecological security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are different types of margin requirements for margin buying and this paper focuses on setting both initial and maintenance margin levels. By using the data of stock portfolio returns over the period from March 31, 2010 to December 31, 2020, the research computes and compares margins derived by several margin setting methods using extreme value theory (EVT) for margin buying in China. Important findings are summarized as follows. First, the VaR-x method generates more accurate forecasts of both unconditional and conditional margin levels than the parametric and the Hill non-parametric methods particularly given lower probabilities of margin violation. This is robust to different portfolios, market conditions and sample periods. Second, margins derived actually vary over time, becoming higher (lower) when market volatility increases (decreases). The findings have important economic and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research assesses the effect of short sales on investment efficiency in China by applying the DID method. Results show that short sales can improve investment efficiency and that the effect is more pronounced for companies with low information transparency, low governance capacity, low audit quality, and high management performance pressure. Evidence reveals that the impact of short sales varies under different market sentiments. Our findings support the beneficial role of short sales on the information and governance environment. Governments and investors can thus pay more attention to short sales, as they help in their role of accelerating information dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the data of China's service trade and diplomatic events with 45 countries, this paper examines the effects of diplomatic relations on service trade based on the gravity model. Through an empirical analysis, the results proved that good diplomatic relations can significantly promote the export of China's service trade and that the effects of diplomatic relations on trade have a clear distinction regarding different political positions. Our results support the view that diplomatic relation does an important role in international trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the dynamic correlation between China's policy uncertainty and the crude oil markets (i.e. domestic and international markets) using monthly time-series data from May 2003 to December 2018. To consider the non-linear and dynamic properties, we adopt the time-varying parameter structural vector autoregression model (TVP-SVAR) to estimate the dynamic correlations between the time series. By employing four categorical policy uncertainty indices, i.e. monetary policy uncertainty index (MYPU), fiscal policy uncertainty index (FLPU), exchange rate policy uncertainty index (EXER), and trade policy uncertainty index (TEPU), our results reveal that the correlation between China's policy uncertainty and real crude oil returns is time-varying and non-linear. Specifically, the independence between policy uncertainty and oil returns varies more constantly and at a high degree while the time-varying interaction between policy uncertainty and global oil production (global economic activity) varies at a lower frequency and at a low level. Furthermore, regarding the associations between categorical policy uncertainty and global oil returns, the average correlation of EXER (negative) is the strongest one, followed by FLPU (negative), then MYPU (positive), and finally TEPU (negative). Moreover, it is noteworthy that WTI (Daqing) crude oil prices are utilized to increase the robustness of our conclusions. Finally, we generally confirm the dynamic and negative correlation between China's geopolitical risk and crude oil returns. It is evidently clear from the results that investors should pay close attention to the policy uncertainty to avoid the adverse impact of specific policy uncertainty on crude oil returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research first adopts three indicators to measure the systemic risk of different financial industries in China. Second, we employ the Time Varying Parameter-Stochastic Volatility-Vector Auto Regression (TVP-SV-VAR) model to investigate the time-varying relationship among COVID-19 epidemic, crude oil price, and financial systemic risk. The results herein not only help us grasp the current level of systematic risk in China, but also can assist at improving the early warning risk indicators and enhance the risk management system. Lastly, this research can also help investors to make reasonable asset planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the role of high-frequency data in volatility forecasting of the China stock market by particularly feeding different frequency return series directly into a large number of GARCH versions. The contributions of this research are as follows. 1) We provide clear evidence to support that the superiority of traditional time series models in volatility forecasting remains by taking advantage of high-frequency data. 2) We incorporate different distribution assumptions in GARCH models to capture the stylized facts of high-frequency data. The result shows that: 1) data frequency in GARCH application substantially influence the accuracy of volatility forecasting, as the higher the frequency is of the return series, the better are the forecasts provided; 2) non-normal distributions such as skewed student-t and generalized error distribution are more capable at reproducing the stylized facts of both intraday and daily return series than normal distribution; and 3) GARCH estimated by 5-min returns not only outperforms other GARCH alternatives, but also considerably beats RV-based models such as HAR and ARFIMA at volatility forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent recent episodes of geopolitical risk have spurred scholarly interest in its economic and environmental implications. Compared with previous research, this study constructed a panel data set of China's 30 provinces/municipalities to assess how geopolitical risk affects the development of renewable energy. The results of both linear and nonlinear analysis reveal that the effect of geopolitical uncertainty is not alike and is region- and state-dependent. Compared to its effect in China's eastern and central regions, geopolitical risk exerts a negative effect on renewable energy development in the western region. This negative effect tends to be more pronounced in areas characterized by relatively weak economic and social conditions. We also observe a threshold effect between them, as geopolitical risk typically weakens (enhances) renewable energy development when the economic condition is at a lower (higher) level. Finally, a sound financial system oriented toward "going green" and a stronger environment of technological innovation lessen the harmful effect of geopolitical risk. These findings provide targeted insights for policymakers seeking to improve local economic conditions, promote energy transition, balance regional energy inequality, and realize sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasingly critical ecological environment in the major grain-producing regions (MGPRs) of China has attracted widespread attention, but there is limited research at the city level. This study presented a land ecological security (LES) evaluation index system based on the pressure, state, response (PSR) model. It used the panel entropy weight method, kernel density function method, Moran index model, and spatial econometric model to measure LES of 158 cities in MGPRs from 2005 to 2020, and analyzed the spatial and temporal evolutionary trends, spatial divergence characteristics, and influencing factors of LES. The results are as follows. (1) From 2005 to 2020, the overall trend of urban LES level was rising, but it experienced an N-shape fluctuation trajectory of "rise-fall-rise". The state index and response index were on an upward trend, while the pressure index had a certain degree of decline. (2) LES was characterized by the spatial distribution of "high in the north and low in the south" and "high in the east and low in the west", while spatial heterogeneity became increasingly significant, with greater spatial differences within the northern cities and within the central cities. (3) There was a significant spatial spillover effect of LES, but the effect decreased with the expansion of spatial divergence. The spatial association patterns mainly exhibited "high-high" (HH) and "low-low" (LL) agglomerations. (4) The response layer was the main obstacle subsystem, while green space per capita, environmental governance investment, precipitation per capita, arable land per capita, and agricultural development were the main obstacle factors. (5) Economic development, fiscal decentralization, industrial advancement, and innovation input were the positive factors of LES, whereas financial development and industrial development were the negative factors of LES. The findings provide effective policy reference for the sustainable utilization of urban land resources. • Constructed an evaluation index system for land ecological security at the city level. • The land ecological security was generally on the rise, but with increasing spatial differences. • There was a significant spatial spillover effect of land ecological security. • The paper conducted obstacle factor identification and influencing factor analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When exploring the logic why some economies grow faster than others, previous studies commonly assume that all economies follow a universal growth path. This paper explores the heterogeneity of growth regimes across economies and then investigates the decomposition bias of growth sources in traditional methods. Using a panel data of China's provinces, the empirical results show that a finite mixture model with three classes is best to describe the data, revealing that there are multiple growth regimes across provinces. Also, some provinces switch regimes over time while the others remain stable. Further, neglecting heterogeneous regimes overestimates the importance of factor endowment and underestimates the importance of sector productivity, while it does not greatly influence the importance of of factor market efficiency. In particular, the decomposition bias embodies in physical capital and energy input rather than labor. Our findings indicate that the existing literature may underestimate the contribution of sector productivity. Thus, it is critical to account for heterogeneous regimes when exploring the sources of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NPZEC significantly promotes green innovation (GI). • NPZEC promotes GI through increasing fiscal support and economic agglomeration. • The effect of NPZEC is heterogeneous due to patent types and urban characteristics. • NPZEC has a negative impact on GI in neighboring cities. This study examines the impact of the National Pilot Zone for Ecological Conservation (NPZEC) policy in China on green innovation (GI) using panel data from 282 Chinese cities during the period 2011-2019. Employing a difference-in-differences (DID) model, we find that the NPZEC policy positively influences GI, leading to a significant increase of approximately 23.98% in the number of green patents in cities where the policy is implemented. Mechanism tests reveal that the NPZEC policy enhances fiscal support and promotes economic agglomeration, thereby fostering GI. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the NPZEC policy prioritizes quantity over quality, with a stronger impact observed in western cities, low administrative level cities, and cities with lower economic development. Additionally, our findings highlight that higher public environmental attention and stronger intellectual property (IP) protection enhance the promotion effect of the NPZEC policy on GI. Lastly, the findings indicate that the NPZEC policy has a negative impact on GI in neighboring cities. Our study provides empirical references for policymakers to scientifically implement place-based policies and effectively promote GI in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore what firm and macroeconomic factors assisted Chinese firms to resist the global financial crisis. We find that firms with higher top ten shareholder ratios or firms that are older exhibited saliently higher performance during the crisis, but performed poorly during the non-crisis period. Firm size has a notably negative impact on firm performance. Firms audited by the Big Four accounting firms have a significantly negative correlation with performance. During the crisis, stock markets became less efficient in incorporating firm-specific information into stock prices, signifying that the determinants of firm performance vary across non-crisis and crisis periods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the stationarity properties, the long-run equilibrium and the leadlag relationship among the regional house prices in China from December 2000 to July 2013. Unlike traditional unit-root tests, the panel seemingly unrelated regressions augmented Dickey-Fuller (SURADF) unit-root test reveals that the regional house prices in China are a mixture of I(0) and I(1) processes. There is concrete evidence in favor of the hypothesis of a long-run equilibrium relationship among all regions, except for Shanghai region, and supporting the price diffusion or ripple effect among these Chinese cities. Finally, we determine that these regional house prices exhibit uni-directional causalities running from Beijing, Chongqing, and Shenzhen to Guangzhou and Tianjin, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a balance panel dataset of 278 Chinese cities, this study is the first to employ a spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) approach to investigate both the direct and indirect effects of low-carbon pilot policy on technological innovation. A series of robustness tests including the parallel trend test, placebo test and using SDID with propensity score matching to alleviate spatial sample selection bias are performed. Furthermore, mechanism and heterogeneity analyses are conducted by using mediation effect and moderation effect models, respectively. The results show that implementing low-carbon pilot policy have a significant promotion effect on technological innovation both in pilot cities and neighbouring cities, resulting from enhancing green total factor productivity, optimizing the industrial structure, alleviating financing constraints, and enhancing economic density. Moreover, the technological innovation increasing effect is more significant in cities with higher CO 2 emissions, more cultural diversity, higher political hierarchy, lower terrain relief and more integrated market. However, low-carbon pilot policy which implementing in cities with higher CO 2 emissions would not help to promoting technological innovation in neighbouring cities. In addition, low-carbon pilot policy increase technological innovation within 700 km of the coastline, whereas the beyond 800 km, the reduction effect is dominant. • Based on the market-based environmental regulation and agglomeration economic theory • Examine both the direct and indirect effects of LCCP on technological innovation via SDID approach. • Implement LCCP promotes technological innovation both in pilot cities and neighboring cities • LCCP enhance green TFP, optimize industrial structure, alleviate financing constraints and enhance economic density • Effect of LCCP on technological innovation exhibits spatial attenuation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insurance and credit markets share some common roles in stimulating economic growth, whether they are complementary or not is worth researching further. Based on the generalized method of moments, this paper investigates the synergistic effects between insurance and credit markets on economic growth in Chinese different regions using an interaction term in the regression model. Moreover, to understand the different economic roles of life and nonlife insurance sectors, we include them into estimation model as well. The results indicate that total insurance and credit markets are substituted, life insurance and credit markets are substituted, and nonlife insurance and credit markets are complementary in the whole region. Specifically, the synergistic effects between insurance and credit markets on economic growth vary considerably across different regions. These findings offer several useful insights for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how bank capital affects bank profitability and risk in China, and how its impact differed before and after the nation entered the WTO. Our study uses the dynamic generalized method of moments approach with a panel database containing 171 Chinese commercial banks. We find that bank capital has significant influence on bank profitability and risk, but its impact has declined since China joined the WTO in 2001. For different sized groups, the impact of capital on profitability exhibits a distinct trend. The effects of capital on bank risk are different for large and small banks depending on the risk variables used for the Chinese banking industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike most previous works which commonly define globalization as a strict economic characteristic, using the overall globalization index and its three sub-dimensions – economic, social and political integrations to proxy openness, this paper examines the effect of globalization on economic growth associated with autocratic institutional in China, using the a two-step dynamic panel generalized method of moments technique in a panel of 30 provinces, municipalities and the autonomous regions over the period of 1970–2006. We find that different globalization indices have different impacts on regional economic growth. Also, autocracy may harm regional development, but these conclusions are very sensitive to different globalization variables specifications. Further, considering the interactive effects between globalization and economic growth, we show that in the period of higher global integration, the higher democracy (lower autocracy) may harm economic growth in the case of China. We emphasize that democracy is clearly not a necessary condition for the purpose of economic growth in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Employing an advanced bootstrap VAR model with a fixed rolling window, we investigate the causal nexus between insurance activities and banking credit in China. Parameter stability tests show that none of the traditional VAR models have stable parameters, and hence the full sample results are unreliable. Rolling window results indicate the time-varying causal nexus between them in various subsamples in China and two key structural change points – the years 2002 and 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses firm-level data to examine whether investors follow each other into and out of the same industries in China’s A-share markets. Our study is a significant addition to the literature that investigates herding behaviour in an industry context with asymmetric herding effects with respect to different market states, different stock exchanges, and the role of the information technology sector. Using recent daily data from 17 May 2001 through 16 May 2011, we demonstrate strong evidence of industry herding in the A-share markets. Evidence further supports that stock return dispersions from the information technology sector play a significant role in explaining the other sectors’ herding activity. After examining bull and bear markets, herding is more profound in some sectors during a bull market. Finally, industry herding is more prevalent in the Shenzhen stock exchange, while for some sectors in the Shanghai stock exchange herding is more prevalent during a bull market state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The quality of public service transportation highly depends on the country's context, including investment, infrastructure development, and technology-based innovation in the transport sector. The core innovation of the present study is the asymmetric impacts of the airline, railway, waterway, and road on environmental pollution in China. This research analyzed and highlighted the most susceptible transportation system in China, using the newly developed Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model from 1985 to 2018. The results of the NARDL are positive shock and negative shock between CO 2 emission and four mode-specific transportation development that led to an increase in environmental cost in the short run. The study findings divulged that airline, road, and waterway operational mileage per capita of both positive and negative transportation shocks had worsened the environmental pollution in China. On the other hand, the railway is successfully improving environmental quality in China. In order to enforce policies, local authorities should be supportive of urban public services (e.g., buses and metro) and improve public transportation services. Simultaneously, policymakers may also introduce new creative ideas for a sharing economy, such as shared bicycles and automobiles to reduce the use of private vehicles. These insights of the study could assist policymakers to improve policies for the four specific modes of transportation to better adapt to climate change and associated environmental stressors in China. • Explore the asymmetric effects of airline, railway, road, and waterway on CO 2 emission. • A new Model was proposed to assist transportation and improve environmental degradation. • Operational mileage of railway reduces CO 2 emissions. • Positive and negative shocks of airline, road, and waterway will respectively lead to an increase pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon neutrality agenda requires that carbon lock-in enters an endgame. A well-developed energy system, which is secure, equitable, and sustainable is paramount to getting rid of carbon lock-in and realizing decarbonization. We carry out systematic research to empirically study the possible carbon lock-in reduction effect of energy trilemma based on the instrumental variable-generalized method of moment (IV-GMM) model. We also detect heterogeneous effects in terms of geographical locations and endowments of capital, as well as the impact mechanisms. Moreover, this paper highlights the mediating and threshold role of environmental regulation. We thus get the following conclusions. (1) The paper's primary findings underscore that the continuous increase of energy trilemma exacerbates carbon lock-in and hampers the process of decarbonization; (2) Energy trilemma has a higher stimulating effect on carbon lock-in in provinces that lie in the central region and that have a comparatively low level of physical, social, and human capital; (3) Energy trilemma can also indirectly aggravate carbon lock-in by inhibiting technology innovation and exacerbating carbon emissions intensity; (4) The interaction of environmental regulation and energy trilemma can alleviate the energy trilemma - carbon lock-in nexus, and environmental regulation also shows a significant threshold effect. • We investigate the impact of the energy trilemma on carbon lock-in. • Energy trilemma eradication is an effective way to realize the carbon lock-in endgame. • The nexus between energy trilemma and carbon lock-in is more prominent in provinces with high capital endowments. • Environmental regulation shows significant mediating and threshold effects. • The exacerbate carbon lock-in effect of energy trilemma depends on technology and intensity effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enforcement actions aim to strengthen financial stability, and China has gradually bolstered the intensity of its own related actions. This research manually sorts out the enforcement action decision documents published by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission one by one, constructs micro-level enforcement action indicators, uses △ CoVaR and connectedness, and empirically examines the relationship between enforcement actions and banking systemic risk from global and connectedness perspectives. We find that enforcement actions reduce systemic risk in banks and have a continuous reduction effect within three quarters after their initiation. The reduction impact of enforcement actions on connectedness is only reflected after two quarters of initiation. In addition, we adopt the △ CoVaR decomposition method and find that enforcement actions significantly reduce the tail risk of banks and lower their interconnectedness, but with a time lag effect. Lastly, we evaluate the systemic risk of enforcement actions on different types of banks and note that they substantially reduce such risk in high-capital and state-owned banks more than in low-capital and joint-stock banks. • Sort out the enforcement action decisions to construct micro-level indicators. • Assess the connectedness between banks and decompose banks' systemic risk. • Study the impact of enforcement actions on systemic risk and connectedness. • The results show that enforcement actions can reduce the connectedness risk. • Enforcement actions can reduce banks' interconnectedness and tail risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]