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In this paper, we construct a continuous-time market where the investor’s preferences take the form of myopic preferences used in Basak et al. (Rev Financ Stud 32:4905–4946, 2019) and the utility is assigned to the investor’s gains and losses with loss aversion. Myopic preferences make our financial model flexible and generally applicable in continuous-time markets, and loss aversion poses limitation to the investor’s consumption and investment. Then we derive the global optimal solutions to the related optimization problems through different regions, thereby obtaining global optimal consumption–portfolio rules for the investor. Candidates in different regions for global optimal consumption–portfolio rules could indicate how the investor reacts to consumption and investment with myopic preferences and loss aversion. The theoretical and numerical analysis shows that myopic preferences and loss aversion enable the investor to comply with optimal consumption–portfolio rules by balancing consumption against investment.

Using data for firms listed in China from 2007 to 2019, this paper explores the relationship between trade policy uncertainty (TPU) and firm risk taking (FRT). It finds that TPU is negatively and significantly correlated with FRT. Meanwhile, the influencing mechanism estimates suggest that TPU increases firm financial constraint and operational risk, which, in turn, negatively affect FRT. Further tests reveal that, when the ownership concentration and debt ratio are high, the negative effect of TPU on FRT is more pronounced.

This study examines the effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and tourism in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). It used a three-dimensional wavelet technique based on Granger causality ...

The various parts of the traditional financial supervision and management system can no longer meet the current needs, and further improvement is urgently needed. In this paper, the low-frequency data is regarded as the missing of the high-frequency data, and the mixed frequency VAR model is adopted. In order to overcome the problems caused by too many parameters of the VAR model, this paper adopts the Bayesian estimation method based on the Minnesota prior to obtain the posterior distribution of each parameter of the VAR model. Moreover, this paper uses methods based on Kalman filtering and Kalman smoothing to obtain the posterior distribution of latent state variables. Then, according to the posterior distribution of the VAR model parameters and the posterior distribution of the latent state variables, this paper uses the Gibbs sampling method to obtain the mixed Bayes vector autoregressive model and the estimation of the state variables. Finally, this article studies the influence of Internet finance on monetary policy with examples. The research results show that the method proposed in this article has a certain effect.

This paper builds a theoretical framework of two-period general equilibrium model to explore whether 1) the restrictions of the Islamic financial system (RIFS) limit economic development in Xinjiang and 2) counterpart financial support for Xinjiang (CFSX) promotes economic development and social stability. First, we introduce above mentioned restrictions caused by Islamic beliefs into a general equilibrium model and modify Islamic agents’ budget constraints to define the benchmark equilibrium. Comparing the benchmark equilibrium with the perfect equilibrium, in which these restrictions are removed, we discover the RIFS paradox that RIFS undermine the social welfare and income of Muslims. Second, the financial support is introduced into the pattern of benchmark equilibrium as an exogenous variable to model its impact and hence we define the CFSX equilibrium. A series of policy analyses implies that the CFSX strategy improves living standards and social welfare in Xinjiang.

This paper empirically investigates the impact of China’s OFDI on the industrial structure upgrading of countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) and examines the threshold effect of the infrastructure levels on that impact based on the panel data of 52 B&R countries from 2006 to 2017. The results show that China’s OFDI can significantly promote the industrial structure upgrading of B&R countries and that the Belt and Road initiative implementation can help to strengthen the promoting effects of China’s OFDI in the comprehensive FGLS, the Diff-GMM and the System GMM estimation. Moreover, China’s technology transfer OFDI has the greatest promotion effect, followed by capital transfer OFDI; labor transfer OFDI has the least promotion effect. China’s OFDI plays a larger role in promoting the industrial structure upgrading of Central Asia and South Asia countries, followed by ASEAN and CIS countries and it plays a smaller role in West Asia and Central-Eastern Europe countries. There is a threshold effect of the B&R countries’ infrastructure level. When the transportation infrastructure, energy infrastructure, communication infrastructure and overall infrastructure levels exceed the corresponding thresholds, the promoting effect of China’s OFDI will be further enhanced in the comprehensive FGLS estimation. Our study proposes that under the Belt and Road initiative, to improve the infrastructure level of the B&R countries, and to increase the effectiveness of China’s OFDI in promoting the industrial structure upgrading of the B&R countries, China should further strengthen international cooperation, expand outward investment, and strengthen the infrastructure connectivity construction with B&R countries.

Based on the Government Work Report of 265 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2015, this article combines economic growth expectations data and keyword capture to explore the relationship between government economic growth expectations and air pollution. The main results are as follows: (1) The economic growth expectations of local governments, and the “increment” between prefecture-level and provincial governments’ growth expectations for economic growth have significantly increased air pollution. The certainty and completion degree of economic growth expectations have different effects on air pollution, and the impact of the expected rigid constraint and overfulfilled degree on air pollution are prominent. When the city’s real economic growth exceeds 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% of growth expectations, respectively, SO2 emissions will increase by 10.577%, 10.671%, 11.825%, and 16.296%, and PM2.5 concentration will increase by 2.115%, 2.503%, 3.592%, and 4.421%. (2) The government’s annual economic growth expectations have different effects on different types of technological innovation. For every 1% increase in the government’s economic growth expectations, the green technology will be reduced by 0.956% which exacerbates regional air pollution. Furthermore, the green technology can explain 6.5% of air pollution induced by government economic growth expectations.

Decision makers of new high-tech startup firms always want to choose an optimal time to launch their products which are under research and development (R&D) to obtain the maximum net income of these firms. However, existing models fail to consider the optimal release time of products for these new high-tech startup firms. In this paper, the optimal time to launch the product of the R&D project is assumed to be the first time when the product of the R&D project is released to the market. Based on this assumption, we develop a continuous-time model to find the optimal time at which the startup firm launches its product of the R&D project by considering the price of the similar product. Employing the methods of dynamic programming and variational inequalities, we also provide a closed form solution to our model. We also find that these high-tech startup firms prefer to delay their product release time when the price of the similar product is at a phase of rapid growth or the price has considerable uncertainty. Moreover, some numerical examples are provided to investigate the properties of our model.

This article examines how land commodification has changed the dynamics of hukou policy innovations in China. The increasing demand of local governments for land to fuel industrialization and urban...

China’s soybean price fluctuates due to the current economic and trade frictions between China and the United States. Brazil and the United States are regarded as two oligarchs in China’s soybean import market. A dynamic price game model is established, and price elasticity parameters are estimated by using statistical data and Rotterdam model. The stability of Nash equilibrium point is discussed through bifurcation diagram, maximum Lyapunov exponent, evolutionary trajectory, and time series diagram. The influence of price adjustment speed on equilibrium price is analyzed. The numerical simulation of price adjustment speed is carried out, which is compared with the actual situation of imported soybean price before and after the trade friction. The results show that the model constructed in this paper can reflect the changing trend of price and demand and predict the short-term import soybean prices of Brazil and the United States. The forecast accuracy of price fluctuation is high. The results provide model and theoretical reference for price game under trade disputes and provide methodological reference for forecasting the price of imported goods.

This paper studies the impact of the development of green finance on China’s energy consumption structure. In terms of the construction of the green finance index (GFI), this paper selects 17 basic indexes from the three aspects of economy, finance, and environment, uses the improved entropy weight method to construct the GFI, and studies the spatial spillover effect of the GFI of China's provinces. This paper further studies the impact of green finance on traditional and renewable energy consumption. We first uses panel regression to determine that the development of green finance has a positive effect on the slowdown of traditional energy consumption and acceleration of renewable energy consumption, and then further studies the spatial characteristics of green finance development on energy consumption by using spatial Durbin model. The results show that there is a positive spatial spillover effect in the development of green finance among provinces in China. The development of green finance contributes to the conversion of traditional to renewable energy consumption. The effect of green finance on the transformation of energy consumption structure is mainly reflected in the direct effect. Therefore, the government should support the green finance, reduce traditional energy consumption and increase renewable energy consumption.

Land conversion control in China remains in the shadow of the planned economy. Highly hierarchical governments fully control both land quotas and land approval, which are indispensable for each added area of construction land. But the actual mechanisms of land resource distribution, because they are masked by the ambiguity of institutional provisions, are opaque. This article discusses the theoretical influence of regional favouritism to birthplace on the expansion of construction land. Using a provincial-level dataset and detailed information about political cadres in the Ministry of Land and Resources, we estimate an econometric model that reflects the relationship between regional favouritism and construction land expansion. The results indicate that, all else equal, the birthplaces of political cadres receive a larger scale of construction land expansion than other locations. We further explore the paths of regional favouritism influencing construction land expansion. The results show that land approval and tolerance of illegal land due to regional favouritism together contribute to the expansion of construction land.

This study explores the conditions under which financialization may foster sustainable total factor productivity (TFP). We examine the inverted U-shaped relationship between corporate financialization and TFP by employing a panel threshold model using microeconomic non-financial panel data from Chinese firms in the 2007 to 2018 period. Our results suggest that the turning point is more significant in holding short-term financial assets and state-owned enterprises. The threshold effect suggests that technical innovation determines the optimal threshold at which TFP is affected by financialization. Further, financialization is considered an alternative to cash in order to increase the value of capital, leading to a positive effect on TFP. Contrary to their positive effects below the optimal thresholds, financialization exceeds a certain level, displaces technical innovation, and becomes detrimental to TFP. Our analysis thus establishes the importance of sustainable growth of TFP and minimize the adverse effect of financialization.

In this paper, we reveal that in the Chinese stock market, the significant negative relationship between tail risk and expected returns only exists when excluding the bottom 30% market capitalization (small-cap) stocks, a finding that helps to reconcile the mixed result of the tail risk effect in China. In mechanism exploration, irrational biases of investors (including underreaction to bad news, preference for tail risk of stocks in capital loss, and overoptimism) and limits to arbitrage in the market may induce the negative tail risk effect in the Chinese stock market. In addition, we also find that implementing the margin trading system reduces the tail risk and suppresses the negative tail risk effect for target stocks.

In this paper, we find a negative cross-sectional relationship between the change in left-tail risk and expected returns in the Chinese stock market. This effect cannot be explained by the common control variables and existing factor models in China, including the four-factor model (CH4) proposed by Liu, Stambaugh, and Yuan (2019). Additionally, we observe that investors exhibit a stronger preference towards change in left-tail risk for stocks with lower capital gains overhang (CGO).

In China, the national statistical office provides flow type house price index which is the price of periodical housing trade but, in most developed countries, the adjusted house price index is preferred which is the stock type price index and reflect the value of all houses rather than new houses. Although, in the long run, the flow type house price index converges to real value of all houses, due to the rapid development of Chinese economy in the past decade, the flow type price index is significantly biased in reflecting the value of all houses. This paper firstly summarizes the background and method of adjusted house price index. Then, based on the particular situations of China, a more appropriate method is developed. Given on the available statistics, China’s national and provincial adjusted house price indices are calculated and discussed.

As one of China’s major trading partners, Competition and cooperation with Japan in international trade play an unignorable role in China's economic development. Based on previous studies and balance-of-payments theory, we collected data on the exchange rate as well as China-Japan import and export trade from 2013 to 2018. SVAR model was utilized to analyze the influence of the exchange rate on international trade between China and Japan. Results show that a stable mutual relationship between the exchange rate and China's export trade with Japan exists in long term, but there is no strong correlation between the exchange rate and China’s import trade with Japan; in short term, the fluctuation in the exchange rate restrains the progression of China-Japan trade.

One problem raised by the lack of energy efficiency is the generation of more greenhouse gases (GHGs) that can cause air pollution and climate change. Ecological efficiency (eco-efficiency) means the efficiency of resources used. A poor performance from this efficiency can then be detected for further improvement. In this research, we conduct an assessment on the eco-efficiency for some European countries as they consume a large part of global energy annually. A total of 17 European countries were selected as decision making units (DMUs) and assessed by the Slacks-based measure (SBM) Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. Indices including Catch-Up, Frontier-Shift, and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) have been used to evaluate eco-efficiency, as well as efficiency change, technological change, and productivity change, over 2013&ndash, 2017. In the model, energy consumption and share of renewable energy are used as energy inputs, and labor productivity and gross capital formation are used as economy inputs. On the other hand, GDP is used as a desired output, and CO2 emissions is used as one undesired output. The experimental results show that the 17 countries as a whole lacked eco-efficiency in 2013&ndash, 2017, implying more efforts are required to improve their eco-efficiency.

BackgroundAnxiety is burdensome and common in youth. Sedentary behaviour has been identified as potentially modifiable dangerous factors for many diseases. Nevertheless, little is known about the relationship between sedentary behaviour and the risk of anxiety symptoms in youth. Therefore, we aimed to examine the association among youth in 24 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).MethodsData from the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) were analyzed in 59587 youth aged 12-15 years. Most of the country-wide data were nationally representative. Anxiety symptoms were self-reported. Multivariable logistic regression and meta-analyses of country-wise estimates were conducted.ResultsThe prevalence of anxiety symptoms was 10.3%. Countrywide meta-analysis demonstrated that sedentary behaviour of >2 h/day (vs.≤2 h/day) was associated with an increased risk of anxiety symptoms (OR = 1.22; 95% CI = 1.10-1.37).ConclusionsThis study provides multi-national evidence of the dangerous effect of sedentary behaviour against anxiety symptoms among youth in LMICs. Decreasing the level of sedentary behaviour during adolescence could be an important target for reducing the prevalence of anxiety.

What is the impact of China's One-Child Policy on the labor market outcomes of the only children that it engendered? This paper quantifies the wage income gap between only children and their peers (i.e. those with siblings), and uncovers the channels that underlie it. We find that only children receive no higher wage income than their peers, once differences in schooling attainment and family background are accounted for. In fact, we learn that the OCP resulted in an only child wage penalty, which may be due to only children possessing inferior socio-emotional attributes that are valued in the labor market. Our results deliver important insights for China as only children continue to dominate its labor force at a rapid pace.

Finance contributes to poverty alleviation through economic growth, and the development of green finance is related to the sustainable development of the world economy and environment. Green finance not only helps promote sustainable economic development but also helps reduce poverty. Based on the analysis of related theories about green finance and poverty alleviation, this paper selects 18 indicators from three dimensions of economic development, financial development, and social environmental development and uses the improved entropy method to measure the green finance development index of China’s 25 provinces and municipalities from 2004 to 2017. The results show that the development level of green finance in China’s 25 provinces and municipalities is quite different. On the basis of the above analysis, make an empirical analysis of the impact of the green finance development index on poverty alleviation using multiple regression analysis and static panel and dynamic panel estimation methods. The research results show that there is a significant positive correlation between green finance and poverty alleviation; the higher the level of green finance development, the more conducive the poverty alleviation. So, this paper suggests that poverty can be better alleviated by improving the level of green finance development, financial asset level, and economic development level.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore trading strategies that exploit investors’ anchoring bias. Design/methodology/approach This paper forms portfolios based on nearness ratio and other anomaly variables under one- and two-way sorts. The portfolio return series are then regressed on Fama and French three factors to extract abnormal returns. Findings First is to use anchoring as a technical signal. A strategy that trades against anchoring buys stocks with prices near their 52-week high and sells stocks with prices far below their 52-week high. Based on deciles, the strategy generates a significant value-weighted monthly α of 1.13 percent, after accounting for the market, size, and value factors. Further, the strategy is profitable among both large and small stocks; the trading profit is higher among younger firms and more volatile stocks, but is similar between subsamples formed on number of analysts, level of institutional ownership, and number of institutional owners. The strategy is more profitable following periods of high investor sentiment. Second is to combine anchoring with known anomalies. For a broad set of 26 anomalies, a trading strategy that combines anchoring with the anomalies increases the value-weighted monthly α from an average of 0.61 percent to an average of 1.38 percent. While part of the profits can be attributed to momentum, momentum itself does not explain all the profits. Originality/value This paper presents empirical evidence that anchoring bias explains the profitability of a broad set of anomalies and describes practical trading strategies that exploit the anchoring bias.

In this paper we first studied the predictive power of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) by analyzing it in the traditional housing returns model, which included macroeconomic variables. Then we expanded the model to consider structure breaks and asymmetry and explored the optimal predictive model for housing returns. Last, based on the optimal model, we tested the predictive performance of specified EPU components. These analyses were employed on aggregate and different tier cities for the China housing market by using the flexible generalized least squares estimator to conduct in-sample and out-of-sample forecast evaluations. Empirical results revealed that our proposed model suggests EPU is superior to the traditional housing returns model in terms of in-sample and out-of-sample forecasts. We also found that extending the model to consider structure breaks and EPU asymmetry enhanced the prediction performance of the model. In addition, empirical results also showed that monetary policy uncertainty has the strongest predictability on housing returns in first-tier cities, while fiscal policy uncertainty has the strongest predictability on housing returns in the country, the second-tier, and third-tier cities.

In this study, firstly, the qualitative analysis of big data industry statistical classification system is carried out, and the idea of quantitative verification of big data industry statistical classification system is proposed, so as to determine a scientific and reasonable big data industry statistical classification system. Secondly, the input-output table of big data is compiled. Especially for the “non pure” big data industry sector size measurement. Finally, the contribution of big data industry to economic growth is deduced.

K. Larsen, M. Soner and G. Žitkovic kindly pointed out to us an error in our paper (Cvitanic et al. in Finance Stoch. 5:259–272, 2001) which appeared in 2001 in this journal. They also provide an explicit counterexample in Larsen et al. ( https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.02087 , 2017). In Theorem 3.1 of Cvitanic et al. (Finance Stoch. 5:259–272, 2001), it was incorrectly claimed (among several other correct assertions) that the value function $u(x)$ is continuously differentiable. The erroneous argument for this assertion is contained in Remark 4.2 of Cvitanic et al. (Finance Stoch. 5:259–272, 2001), where it was claimed that the dual value function $v(y)$ is strictly concave. As the functions $u$ and $v$ are mutually conjugate, the continuous differentiability of $u$ is equivalent to the strict convexity of $v$ . By the same token, in Remark 4.3 of Cvitanic et al. (Finance Stoch. 5:259–272, 2001), the assertion on the uniqueness of the element $\hat{y}$ in the supergradient of $u(x)$ is also incorrect. Similarly, the assertion in Theorem 3.1(ii) that $\hat{y}$ and $x$ are related via $\hat{y}=u'(x)$ is incorrect. It should be replaced by the relation $x=-v'(\hat{y})$ or, equivalently, by requiring that $\hat{y}$ is in the supergradient of $u(x)$ . To the best of our knowledge, all the other statements in Cvitanic et al. (Finance Stoch. 5:259–272, 2001) are correct. As we believe that the counterexample in Larsen et al. ( https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.02087 , 2017) is beautiful and instructive in its own right, we take the opportunity to present it in some detail.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the dividend policy for firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The results are consistent with the prediction of the catering theory in that managers choose a dividend policy to cater to the demand of investors. Design/methodology/approach Logistic regressions are used to test the catering theory hypothesis. Findings The results find that the firms distribute more stock dividends than other types of dividends when the dividend premium (DP) for stock dividends is positive. In contrast, firms shift from stock dividends to other types of dividends such as mixed dividends and cash dividends when the DP for stock dividends is negative. Originality/value The marginal contribution of this paper is that the firms change their dividend policy via DP to cater to the demand of investors.

Market Making (also known as liquidity providing service) is a well-known trading problem studied in multiple disciplines including Finance, Economics and Artificial Intelligence. This paper examines the impact of Market Spread over the market maker’s (or liquidity provider’s) convergence ability through testing the hypothesis that “Knowledge of market spread while learning leads to faster convergence to an optimal and less volatile market making policy”. Reinforcement Learning was used to mimic the behaviour of a liquidity provider with Limit Order Book using historical Trade and Quote data of five equities, as the trading environment. An empirical study of results obtained from experiments (comparing our reward function with benchmark) shows significant improvement in the magnitude of returns obtained by a market maker with knowledge of market spread compared to a market maker without such knowledge, which proves our stated hypothesis.

In this study, based on the regional land-use risk space division (regional ecological risk source/receptor space identification) using production–living–ecology analysis, three spatial function indexes, i.e., production, living, and ecology function indexes, were proposed for regional ecological risk assessment (RERA) with respect to human disturbance. The first two indexes can be regarded as regional ecological risk source indexes, whereas the final index can be regarded as a regional ecological risk receptor index. Using an artificial assignment method based on the land-use types and Defense Meteorological Program Operational Line-Scan System (DMSP/OLS) nighttime light intensity data, these three spatial function indexes were effectively manifested. By incorporating these indexes with eco-environmental vulnerability proxies, an RERA framework was established and applied in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone (PLEZ), which is an ecological-protection and economic-development coordination-oriented region in China. The results suggest that (1) the DMSP/OLS nighttime light intensity data correlated well with the spatial distribution of regional urban/town areas; consequently, it was reasonable to use this dataset for representing regional production-living function space (urban/town area). (2) Overall, the forestlands and winter waterbodies of Poyang Lake were in the high-risk grade, and so did the Nanchang City construction land area; in contrast, the final risk levels of winter wetlands and croplands were relatively low. (3) Owing to the highest human disturbance (including both production and consumption human activities) and eco-environmental vulnerability level, urban/town areas such as Nanchang City had the highest final risk grade. (4) The low, medium, high, and very high-risk grades accounted for 21.22%, 39.53%, 36.31%, and 2.94% of the region, respectively. I believe that the proposed land use function indexes will be helpful in conducting human-caused RERA research in the future. Furthermore, the assessment results can provide a scientific basis for regional ecological risk management within the PLEZ.

Manufacturing Service providers (EMSs) offer services to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). However, increasing challenges require an EMS to be more capable, adaptable and responsive. For survival, an EMS manager has to understand its relative efficiency in the industry. In addition, an investor also requires such information for investments. In this research, we propose a novel approach, which combines GM(1,1) with a two-stage super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SBM) model, to forecast and assess the efficiencies of 18 EMSs. The GM(1,1) was first used to forecast future data of EMSs, and then the two-stage super-efficiency SBM model was used to measure the marketability and profitability efficiencies for an EMU in two stages. The results build a ‘past-current-future’ view on the two efficiencies for each EMS. In addition, the profitability efficiency can help justify the reasonability of marketability efficiency. Our results showed that Hon Hai tops the rankings in both profitability and...

When patents support anti-competitive conduct, innovation can be damaged not only by lack of market access but by the prohibitive costs of litigation. The creation of patent barriers is inconsistent with IP protection and enforcement agreed upon under the World Trade Organization and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (‘TRIPS’). The study uses the US Apple v HTC IP legal case to investigate anti-competitive market behavior and trade barriers. The research provides a formal patent analytic methodology and the case analysis result. The research method tests whether patent conflicts and technical trade barriers are significantly encouraged by existing IP laws.

Establishing a game theory model, this paper captures the effects of output subsidy on energy efficiency under Cournot competition and Stackelberg competition. Three types of subsidies are considered in the model, namely without subsidy, unilateral subsidy and bilateral subsidy. The findings indicate that firms without subsidy are not willing to improve energy efficiency. Also, subsidy stimulates the subsidized firms’ outputs while deters the outputs of other firms. Meanwhile, the equilibrium subsidy intensity depends on firms’ position. Furthermore, the minimal subsidy budgets under different situations are presented. Especially, given the fixed subsidy budget, the output of the subsidized firm is the highest if this firm plays the leading position. In addition, certain subsidy can reduce the total emission, while overdue subsidy cannot reach the environmental object.

The 1994 Riegle Neal (RN) Act removed interstate banking restrictions in the US. The primary motivation was to permit geographic risk diversification (GRD). Using a factor model to measure banks’ geographic risk, we show that RN expanded GRD possibilities in small states, but that few banks took advantage. Using our measure of geographic risk and an empirical model of bank choice of branch network, we identify preferences towards GRD separately from the contribution of other factors that may limit the expansion of some banks after RN. Counterfactual experiments based on the estimated structural model show that risk has a significant negative effect on bank value, but this has been counterbalanced by economies of density/scale, reallocation/merging costs, and concerns for local market power.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to estimate the union-nonunion pay gap impact separately for wages and bonuses as well as total compensation to include both wages and bonuses in China. The way in which the impact varies as control variables are added is illustrated as is how the impact varies by the type of firm ownership. The overall pay gap is also decomposed into a component due to differences in their pay determining characteristics as well as a component due to differences in their returns to those characteristics. These separate components are also calculated throughout the pay distribution.Design/methodology/approach– Using the 2010 China Family Panel Studies Survey, a nationally representative survey in China, the methodology involves different estimation procedures as appropriate for the nature of the data and the dependent variables. First the authors estimate a single equation to determine the union-nonunion pay gap. Then the authors estimate the union impact on the various components of compensation (wages and bonuses). Next the authors decompose the relative contribution of each factor in explaining the wage gap. Finally, quantile regressions are used to examine the union impact across various levels of the pay distribution.Findings– The authors find a gross union-nonunion pay gap (wages + bonuses) of 42 percent, dropping to 12 percent after controlling for the effect of other pay determining factors. The union impact on wages is only 8 percent, but bonuses are about twice as high for union workers. The union impact is essentially zero for (state-owned firms) SOEs and for foreign-owned firms but it is large at 16 percent for private firms and even larger at 22 percent for government agencies. Of the overall pay gap of 42 percent, about three-quarters is attributable to differences in their endowments of pay determining characteristics and about one-quarter to differences in the returns for the same endowments of characteristics. Quantile regressions reveal that the pure or adjusted union wage premium exhibits a u-shaped pattern being highest in the bottom and to a lesser extent the top of the pay distribution.Originality/value– There are a dearth of studies examining the union-nonunion pay gap in China. Of the studies that examine this issue, all of them are at the enterprise level with no studies at the individual level. Taking a nationally representative dataset at the individual level, the authors are able to estimate the union-nonunion pay gap in China. The authors identify the portion of the gap that reflects differences in endowments of pay determining characteristics and the portion that reflects different returns to those characteristics, and the relative contribution of the different variables to those components; and how these components change over the pay distribution. The authors also offer explanations for many of these patterns.

A driving force of urban development is “accumulation by dispossession” which occurs through expropriation, privatization, and commodification of land. While the macro theory is now well refined, there is still much we do not know about how the underlying processes occur and how they shape economic development and urbanization. In this study, we analyze 2009 survey data of land expropriation cases across 12 Chinese cities, and find that expropriation takes different forms leading to specific outcomes. In half the cases, local governments followed central government policies requiring them to pay standard rates of compensation, but in the other half, local governments negotiated with farmers over the terms of expropriation. In the latter scenario, farmers were more likely to receive compensation higher than the standard rate, particularly if they were embedded in local power structures, which we argue could be counteracted if all households in a rural collective negotiate one agreement rather than ...

The price of industrial land in China has been found distorted and remarkably low. However, it is overlooked that industrial land price is relatively high in some regions. This local variation cannot be explained by classical theories on land price that focus on local economic level, population density, and location factors. We propose a theoretical framework incorporating local economic structure and governments’ behavior in regional competition, to interpret the formation of industrial land price in China. We first model local firms as foot-tight ones, whose relocation costs are enormous, and outside firms as foot-loose ones, whose relocation costs are negligible. Then we divide local governments as outside-capital-dependent governments (OCDGs) and non-outside-capital-dependent governments (NOCDGs) according to the role of outside capital in local economic structure. In such a setting, OCDGs are supposed to aggressively pursue outside firms and use industrial land as a critical endowment to engage in race-to-bottom competition, making the price extremely low. On the contrary, the optimal strategy for NOCDGs, who lack strong incentives in attracting outside investment, is to stay aside and let potential land users compete to determine the land price, resulting in a higher land price. Evidence from quantitative results and comparative case studies with process tracing based on Suzhou and Wenzhou together prove the validity of this theory. This paper advances the conventional understanding of industrial land price and concludes with implications on industrial land policies and sustainable development.

In recent years, China has made great efforts to resolve the health inequality caused by household registration restrictions, and the unequal allotment of health services faced by migrant workers has been effectively alleviated. However, inequality in health services may exist not only between migrant workers and local citizens but also among migrant workers. Thus, the unbalanced utilization of health services among migrant workers deserves attention. Using data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), we examined the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and healthcare-seeking behavior through multivariate regression analysis. Then, from the perspective of SES, this study divided migrant workers into different groups to explore the characteristics of healthcare-seeking behavior in different groups. The results showed that SES had a significant relationship with healthcare-seeking behavior. Those with high SES were more likely to use high-quality health services. By subdividing the category of migrant workers, we found that the utilization of health services among migrant workers was unbalanced. Education and income had significant gradients in multiple measures of healthcare-seeking behavior, while occupation had no significant difference in the behavior. Migrant workers with higher income and education were more likely to use high-quality health services. Especially for migrant workers who had high incomes (above 15,000 CNY) or whose educational backgrounds were graduate level or above, their utilization of health resources was significantly higher than that of other groups. When designing particular policies to improve the healthcare-seeking behavior of different SES migrant workers, we should pay attention to the low-education groups and low-income groups. Policymakers can reduce the current health inequality of migrant workers by strengthening health education and increasing medical subsidies to achieve health equality among migrant workers and between migrant workers and local citizens.

The ambiguous return pattern for the PEGR (the ratio of the stock’s price/earnings to its estimated earnings growth rate) strategy has been documented in literature for the US stock markets. As stock prices and earnings per share (EPS) are objective data, earnings growth rate, however, is estimated by analyst whose method partial explains the PEGR vague return pattern. The purpose of this study is not to deny or substitute analysts’ estimation, but rather, to provide a simple and popular method, log-linear regression model, to forecast the earnings growth rate (G), and examine whether the typical PEGR effect, such as PER (price/earnings ratio) or PBR (price/book ratio) effect, exists by using our alternative estimation method. Our evidence indeed shows that returns on the lowest PEGR portfolio not only dominate over all higher PEGR portfolios, but also beat the market with stochastic dominance (SD) analysis, which is consistent with our prediction. Our results, at least, imply that using the log-linear regression model to construct the PEGR-sorted portfolios can benefit investors and the model is also a good choice for analysts in their forecasting.

This paper investigates the link between inward foreign direct investment flows and host country corruption levels using annual data for developed, developing and transitional countries, over the 2002-2015 period. We find that the nonlinear specification provides a better characterisation of the relationship between corruption and inward FDI flows. Furthermore, we find that this relationship is a function of the development status of the host country. Finally, the marginal impact of corruption levels on FDI seems to be statistically significant at a higher level when a nonlinear (as opposed to a linear) specification is used.

This study uses a new fresh look to investigate the linkages between the CBOE VIX and stock market volatility. In this paper, we use 13 stock markets of the G20 to do our research and document several important findings. First, in most countries, the VIX and its large component have statistically significant effect and can lead to high stock market volatility. Compared to the R-squares, we find that large VIX has stronger explanation ability to the international stock markets volatility. Second, out-of-sample results indicate that the VIX can help to increase the forecasts accuracy, especially the large VIX. Additionally, the robust tests support our main conclusions.

China and the United States are the two largest economies in the world, and there is a strong complementarily between their economies, so the volume of their bilateral trade is also very large. However, with the development of trade exchanges, bilateral trade friction also intensifies; especially in recent years, American trade deficit with China has grown very rapidly. In order to reverse the situation, the United States launched several trade litigations and implemented tough trade sanctions against China. It led to trade disputes between the two countries, which seriously damaged the healthy development of Sino-US relation. So we compares the similarities and differences between the two trade frictions, pointing out both valuable experience and negative lessons from Japan in handling Japan-US trade friction, so as to provide reference to China for easing Sino-US trade friction.

Information diffusion has been a crucial issue in social network research. The influence maximization problem asks for ways to identify nodes that are able to maximally diffuse information through a network. Recently, game-theoretical methods emerged that partitions a network into coalitions, and facilitate influence maximization. A notable example is a method based on Shapley value [13]. A major disadvantage with this approach is the lack of consideration of externality on coalition formation. In this paper, we propose consensus value for influence maximization (CVIM) to overcome this limitation. After forming coalitions using consensus value, the method selects initial coalitions based on the gain of each coalition, and finally chooses seed nodes in the selected coalitions. Empirical evidence over several real-world networks demonstrates that CVIM produces better results of influence maximization while significantly reducing the running time as compared to existing approaches.

Based on a comprehensive review of previous studies about the threshold effects of financial development on the process of foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers, the present work roundly measures the financial development from the aspects of scale, structure, and efficiency and applies a multiple threshold regression model to estimate the threshold effects of financial development on FDI spillovers, and then examines the inherent relationship between FDI spillovers effects and the financial development from the three aspects, respectively, in different regions of China, based on regional panel data from 2000 to 2014. The results revealed that there are two thresholds of financial development scale, structure and efficiency, existing in the FDI spillover processes in different regions. The FDI spillovers effects are greatest in the eastern region and are generally smallest in the western region. There is a negative correlation between FDI spillovers effects and the financial development scale or efficiency in eastern and central region. Moreover, there is positive correlation between FDI spillovers effects and the financial development structure in eastern and central region. Additionally, there is a positive correlation between FDI spillovers effects and the financial development scale, structure, or efficiency in western region. The capital, labor, and regional technology progress have positive effects on economic growth in different regions and the effects of financial development on economic growth are not unanimous in each region. Based on the empirical results, some policies on how to develop regional finances and how to introduce FDI to promote economic growth are recommended.

This paper investigates how rural families in China use marital and post-marital transfers to compensate their sons for unequal schooling expenditures. Using a common behavioral framework, we derive two methods for estimating the relationship between parental transfers and schooling investments: the log-linear and multiplicative household fixed-effects regression models. Using data from a unique household-level survey, we strongly reject the log-linear specification. Results from the multiplicative model suggest that when a son receives 1 yuan less in schooling investment than his brother, he obtains 0.47 yuan more in transfers as partial compensation. Since our measure of transfers represents a substantial fraction of total parental transfers, sons with more schooling likely enjoy higher lifetime consumption. Redistribution within the household may be limited by either the parents’ desire for consumption equality or bargaining constraints imposed by their children. Controlling for unobserved household heterogeneity and a fuller accounting of lifetime transfers are quantitatively important.

Dramatic changes in the social economic environment have made companies place more emphasis on integrating social media into their overall marketing strategy. Many features of social media commerce will be developed as tactics to implement social network marketing strategy. Enterprises increasingly need to develop an innovative and effective approach to social media in order to be competitive. With the right new service development phase, companies can gain competitive advantage in service-driven markets. The present study aims to refine a multi-service design for the case study company – MOS Burger. It examines the implementation of a new geo-social networking solution, and the application of the theory of inventive problem-solving (TRIZ). In the problem definition stage, the research analyzes the problems faced by the enterprise. In the service resolution stage, the contradiction analysis and 40 inventive principles are used to examine the prior process of ordering meals, to establish the principles for...

This article proposes a new model to measure the risk appetite in absence of option prices. Without options transaction, traditional measurements cannot be made. This article establishes a Risk Appetite (RA) indicator by way of change measure and simulation, with two density functions, i.e. risk-neutral density and historical density. The RA indicators use the data from the Property Composite Index (PCI) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index (SSECI). The empirical result shows that investors involved in the real estate security market have lower RA compared to those in the general security market. Particularly, RA indicators for both indices started to fall markedly in early 2008 and even more so after September 2008. The changes in RA suggest that the overall investors’ attitudes nowadays towards China's stock market are never as pessimistic as before.

To date, there is ample evidence on the determinants of domestic charitable contributions made by US firms. However, to the best of our knowledge, no one has investigated the determinants of foreign charitable contributions made by US firms. Using the Socrates KLD database and the US M&A data for the 2004–2010 period, we find evidence that foreign giving by US manufacturing firms is linked to certain key variables. Specifically, we find evidence that variables found significant in the domestic giving literature (pre entry return on assets, size, debt to asset ratio, market to book ratio, and research and development expense as a function of sales) are also found significant for foreign giving. However, and notably, cultural distance and foreign sales percentage have been found to be important discriminators between manufacturing firms who give abroad and those who do not. It appears that high international business experience (proxied by the foreign sales ratio) and operations in culturally distant countries motivate foreign giving. Finally, subsample analysis involving developed and developing countries suggests that cultural distance matters for developing countries, but does not for the developed country subsample. Firm level profitability matters for developed countries, but not for developing countries. Future research may be expanded to include the dollar amounts of giving and a bigger sample size. Differences in foreign giving patterns between manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms, and by firms in countries other than the US, may also be explored.

Unlike options, warrant issuance changes the distribution of the stock price process. Indeed, firms issuing warrants are also debt financed. In this situation, it is natural to consider the distribution of the stock price process for a firm, which is debt–warrant combination. This paper is devoted to provide a risk-management tool, namely the stock price distribution of a firm issuing both debt and warrants. We also apply the theoretical results to the risk-management. Moreover, some empirical studies are given to illustrate the impact of issuing warrants and debt on the stock price distribution. The empirical evidence confirms the theoretical findings and shows that issuing warrants and debt has effects on the distribution of stock price processes.