The fiscal relationship between the central and local governments has a profound impact on the formation and governance of local government debt. From the theoretical perspectives of decentralization incentives and moral hazard, the institutional roots of local government debt risk in China lie in that, on the one hand, local competition under fiscal decentralization would drive economic growth, but it also potentially leads to excessive borrowing for investment by local governments. On the other hand, due to insufficient fiscal rules, local governments have formed widespread expectations of central government bailouts, exacerbating the moral hazard of excessive borrowing. The experiences of the EU and the US, both of which are unified currency areas, provide important enlightenment for China. After the European debt crisis, the EU recognized the need to establish a unified and credible fiscal rules system to effectively supervise local fiscal behaviors through clear punishment mechanisms. The US, through its federal system, curbed local debt expansion by relying on a more well-established fiscal decentralization framework and utilizing more comprehensive information disclosure and market-based debt pricing mechanisms. Drawing from these experiences, a feasible reform direction for China to resolve local debt risks is to address both the supply and demand sides of funding, establish credible fiscal rules, and further strengthen financial market constraints. By adjusting decentralization incentives and controlling moral hazard to optimize the central-local fiscal relationship, China can use reform as a driving force to promote stable growth and risk prevention.

In the context of comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, how to solve the difficulties faced by rural industries, such as weak technological support, insufficient vitality of factors, lagging industrial transformation, and low quality and efficiency, has become an urgent practical problem to be solved. It is of great significance to systematically explore the basic logic, functional mechanism, practical difficulties, and key paths of empowering rural industrial revitalization from the perspective of new quality productive forces. The new quality productive forces can promote the transformation of rural industries towards intelligence, intensification, integration, and sustainability through technological restructuring, factor recombination, mode reshaping, and consciousness reconstruction. However, it still faces adaptability contradictions in rural areas, such as weak technological application foundation, imbalanced allocation of production factors, weak industrial transformation and upgrading, and insufficient green transformation momentum. To solve the above contradictions, we need to focus on the following key paths: consolidating technological applications by improving new infrastructure, breaking through core key technologies, and strengthening the mechanism for transforming achievements; solidifying the foundation of factors by cultivating new talents, optimizing factor governance, and smoothing capital channels; driving industrial transformation by optimizing resource allocation, developing characteristic industries, and cultivating new business models; and promoting green development by strengthening technological trust and cultivating the market.

The free flow of the labor force is of great significance for the balanced development between regions and the optimal allocation of human capital. Taking the implementation of the policy for the direct settlement of medical treatment in different locations as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper conducts an empirical study based on the data of China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) from 2013 to 2018. The findings show that the implementation of the direct settlement policy for medical treatment in different locations can significantly promote the intra-provincial mobility of rural labor. The mechanism analysis indicates that this policy can facilitate the family migration of the rural labor force. If the emotional needs of migrating populations to reunite with their families can be met, their willingness to move will increase. At the same time, since the policy is implemented, the labor supply of migrating families has increased, and the probability of engaging in entrepreneurial and business activities with higher premium income has risen, leading to an increase in the total income level of migrating families, which will in turn enhance their willingness to move into the cities. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the mobility decisions of the married, previously migrated, relatively older, and relatively less healthy rural labor force are more significantly affected by the policy. In large cities with relatively developed economies and abundant medical resources, the policy can play a better role in attracting the rural labor force to migrate in. Therefore, the various regions should further optimize the direct settlement policy for medical treatment in different locations and the related supporting measures, and incorporate the family factors into the formulation process of medical security policies, so as to facilitate the free flow of labor force and promote the transformation of their mobility mode towards family-based mobility.

The transformation of government functions is an important element of deepening economic system reform, and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has explicitly called for the improvement of the institutional mechanism for the development of new quality productive forces in accordance with local conditions and the further deepening of reforms in a comprehensive manner around the promotion of Chinese-style modernization. The new quality productive forces have expanded the cognitive and practical fields of government function transformation, and it is possible to understand how the new quality productive forces drive the transformation of government functions from the theoretical logic of the Marxist theory of productive forces determining the relations of production, the historical logic of the modernization of the national governance system and the governance capacity, and the value logic of the people-centred development ideology. In terms of the transformation of government functions, the formation of new quality productive forces is a complex systematic project, currently facing the risks and challenges such as the blurred boundaries of modern industrial systems challenging the scientific level of industrial policies, the regulatory dilemmas arising from disruptive technological innovation activities in emerging fields, and the crowding out effect of new factor substitution reducing satisfaction with government public services. In view of this, the transformation of government functions driven by the new quality productive forces should take the scientific industrial policy as an effective means to promote the optimization of the allocation of government resources, strengthen the regulatory innovation in emerging fields to cultivate and develop the data factor markets, improve the relevant supporting relief measures to build an ecosystem of data security, and deepen the coupling and synergies of the pluralistic main bodies to promote the construction of a community of human destiny.

Against the backdrop of better coordinating development and security, effectively preventing and resolving risks in key areas, financial technology provides new possibilities for regional financial risk governance. Based on the panel data from 31 provinces across the country from 2008 to 2022, this study empirically investigates the impact of financial technology on regional financial risks. The findings show that financial technology suppresses regional financial risks through the pathways of “stabilizing the economy”, “stabilizing finance”, and“preventing diffusion”. The intensity of financial regulation and the level of marketization both play a dual threshold effect between fintech and regional financial risks, and the impact of fintech on regional financial risks is influenced by two regulatory strategies:“tolerance”and“prudence”. Therefore, in the early stage of financial technology development, regulatory authorities should focus on improving the institutional system, promoting regulatory sandbox pilot projects, and increasing regulatory investment, and implement the regulatory strategy of “prudence over inclusiveness”. In the mid stage of financial technology development, regulatory authorities should take differentiated supervision and market-oriented regulation as the starting point, and implement the regulatory strategy of “tolerance greater than prudence”. In the later stage of financial technology development, regulatory authorities should fully leverage the power of the government and the market, and implement a regulatory strategy that emphasizes both inclusiveness and prudence.

Green innovation has the dual advantages of being driven by innovation and green development. Hence, whether financial support for the real economy can effectively enhance the level of green innovation in enterprises is of great significance for achieving green and sustainable development in the economy and society. Based on the data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2022, this paper takes the national pilot policy for industry and finance cooperation as a quasi-natural experiment, then it examines the impact of the pilot policy on corporate green innovation and its mechanism by using the staggered difference-in-differences method. The findings show that the pilot policies have significantly improved the level of green innovation in enterprises. The mechanism test reveals that the pilot policies can enhance the level of green innovation in enterprises by leveraging resource allocation effects and supervisory governance effects. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect of pilot policies on improving the level of green innovation in enterprises is more prominent in enterprises with lower executive green awareness and corporate governance, as well as in enterprises with higher market competition. The expansion analysis reveals that the pilot policies have a significant promoting effect on both substantive and strategic green innovation of enterprises. Therefore, it is recommended that the government departments should further improve the industrial and financial cooperative policy mechanism and the green finance system, adhere to the combination of policy guidance and financial innovation, improve the precision of financial support for the real economy and explore a new pattern of green development for enterprises by adapting measures to local conditions and implementing classified policies.

Promoting data element sharing and achieving enterprise upgrading are crucial foundations for shaping a new pattern of high-quality development. Based on a quasi-natural experiment scenario provided by public data openness and employing the data from China’s A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2022, this study examines the impact of data element sharing on enterprise upgrading and its underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that data element sharing can significantly drive the upgrading of micro-level enterprises, a conclusion that holds true after a series of robust tests. The mechanism analysis indicates that external resource support and internal resource optimization are two key channels through which data element sharing promotes enterprise upgrading. Further analysis shows that data element sharing has significant upgrading effect on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and non-high-tech firms, playing a vital“timely assistance”role in the economy. Moreover, the micro-level empowerment effect of data element sharing is more pronounced in regions with stronger legal protection and better resource endowments, suggesting a“synergistic linkage”is formed between data element sharing, legal system protection, and element resource supply. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the government should enhance the openness of data elements. Simultaneously, enterprises should fully explore the application scenarios and latent functions of public data, activate the creative vitality of data elements, and optimize corporate resource allocation efficiency.

The previous researches on brand reputation building not only ignored the differences in enterprise scale, but also failed to consider the role of physical stores at the market terminals. In view of this, this paper adopts a single case longitudinal study method and takes Shilu Health, a small and medium-sized enterprise, as an example to analyze the process of establishing brand reputation of SMEs at the market terminals. After about six years of in-depth participation and data collection, it divides the development process into four phases, namely product quality, service quality, putting people first, and Agricultural-Food-Health, so as to establish a local theoretical framework of bidirectional causality. Specifically, the foundation for establishing the reputation of terminal brands in the small and medium-sized enterprise market is to“be a good person and do a good job”both inside and out side of the store. Its origin is“benevolence and righteousness”, that is, the“heart of loving others”. The formation process focuses on the accumulation of customer experience and brand story over time, and its essence is the customer’s trust in the brand, that is, entrusting it because of trust. The effectiveness test is reflected in recommending repeat purchases, member recharge, and crisis assistance, with the core being“return”, that is, customers thanking the brand with actions. The establishment of brand reputation requires efforts in the“cause”, and the“effect”will naturally come into being. Good causes lead to good results, and the cause and effect are mutually transformed. Based on the above conclusion, SMEs should pay attention to“being a good person and doing well”both inside and outside the store, value the interactions with stakeholders, seize opportunities to create brand stories, do good deeds, accumulate virtue in daily life, and form a good brand reputation.

With the rapid development of China’s digital economy, digital transformation has gradually emerged as a novel competitive advantage for enterprises development, playing a crucial role in strategic decision-making for outward direct investment mode. Based on the samples of A-share listed enterprises in China from 2005 to 2020, this paper empirically examines the impact of digital transformation on the mode selection of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) for Chinese enterprises, and further explores the moderating effect of corporate competitive strategy. The findings show that digital transformation can significantly promote enterprises to choose the cross-border merger & acquisition (M&A) as the investment mode, and this result still holds after considering the endogenous problems and through a series of robustness tests. The moderating effect analysis reveals that the enterprises’ differentiation strategy will strengthen the promoting effect of digital transformation on corporations’ choices of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, however, the promotion effect of the cost leadership strategy on digital transformation is not obvious. The heterogeneity test shows that digital transformation drives enterprises to choose cross-border mergers and acquisitions to enter technology intensive industries, and this investment choice effect is concentrated in state-owned enterprises and enterprises in the eastern region. Based on the above results, the process of digital transformation should be accelerated, and a reasonable corporate strategic planning should be used as an external positive condition to fully leverage the effect of digital transformation on enterprises’ choice of outward direct investment modes. In addition, enterprises should fully consider their own differentiated characteristics and make rational investment mode decisions to achieve high-level open-up.

Under the dual background of Chinese adherence to the policy of expanding the opening to the outside world and vigorously developing the digital economy, it is of great significance to explore the spillover effect of foreign direct investment on enterprises’ digital technology. Based on the data at regional level and at enterprise level from 2010 to 2021, this paper empirically tests the impact of foreign direct investment on the digital transformation of Chinese enterprises from the perspective of corporate dynamic capability. The findings indicate that foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a crucial role in driving the digital transformation of enterprises and facilitating technology spillover effects. This technology spillover effect is stronger when enterprises have higher dynamic capabilities. Specifically, the higher opportunity recognition ability, integration and restructuring ability, and organizational flexibility ability of enterprises can strengthen the driving role of foreign direct investment in the digital transformation of enterprises. For enterprises in the eastern region, non-state-owned enterprises with stronger willingness for digital transformation, and enterprises with higher internal governance levels, foreign direct investment has a stronger technology spillover effect on the digital transformation of enterprises. According to the research findings, the government needs to further optimize the business environment, strengthen infrastructure construction, enhance regional technology absorption capacity, in order to better introduce and utilize foreign direct investment, and fully leverage its role in promoting the development of China’s digital economy; while enterprises need to improve their dynamic capabilities and corporate governance level, so as to make rational use of and allocate market resources, realize their own transformation and upgrading, and achieve long-term development.

Previous literature suggests that under the pre disclosure system, insiders can obtain excess returns by reducing their holdings. However, there are few studies that explore how to curb opportunistic holdings by insiders from the perspective of the waiting period of the pre disclosure system. From the perspective of the waiting period of the pre disclosure system, this paper studies the impact of extending the waiting period on insider reduction behavior. The findings show that extending the waiting period can suppress opportunistic behavior of insiders who quickly reduce their holdings. Specifically, extending the waiting period can suppress the tendency of insiders to quickly reduce their holdings after the waiting period ends and reduce the benefits of such rapid reductions. The mechanism analysis shows that extending the waiting period can weaken the advantage of insiders in utilizing short-term private information and reduce the degree of information asymmetry during the waiting period. However, further analysis reveals that after extending the waiting period, insiders may gain more benefits from non rapid reduction of holdings, indicating that insiders may engage in opportunistic behavior of obtaining the right to reduce holdings in advance and waiting for trading opportunities. To this end, it is necessary to revise the pre disclosure system for insider reduction, appropriately extend the waiting period for insider reduction plans, and weaken the autonomy of insiders in implementing reduction plans.

Against the backdrop of strengthening the construction of new digital infrastructure of China, micro enterprises will also enhance their digital infrastructure at the enterprise level. This paper explores the impact and mechanism of digital new infrastructure on cost stickiness of enterprises from the perspective of micro enterprises. The findings show that new digital infrastructure for enterprises can optimize their capital structure and achieve precise marketing, thus reducing their cost stickiness. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the reduction effect of enterprise digital new infrastructure on cost stickiness is more significant in enterprises belonging to the manufacturing and high-tech industries. The analysis of productivity effects shows that new digital infrastructure for enterprises can reduce their cost stickiness, thereby improving their production efficiency. Therefore, enterprises should actively layout digital new infrastructure projects, break down information barriers with the help of digital new infrastructure, achieve dynamic decision-making and control, and improve cost control efficiency.