Table of Content

15 July 2022, Volume 0 Issue 7

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Theoretical Economics

An Explanation of Enterprises' “Departing from the Real to the Virtual”: From the Perspective of Negative Externalities of Zombie Enterprises

YAO Peng, XU Chao, DU Shu-guang

2022, 0(7):  3-15. 

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Zombie enterprises occupy a lot of scarce social resources and make ineffective investments, which distorts the market allocation of production factors and causes a series of negative external effects on the development of normal enterprises. By making use of the data of industrial enterprises above the designated size in China and the data of A-share listed companies, this paper conducts an empirical research. The findings show that regional zombie enterprises have significantly improved the level of asset financialization of normal enterprises, and the results are still robust when the instrumental variable method and different measurement indicators are adopted. The results of the channel analysis show that aggravating the financing constraints of normal enterprises, increasing the tax burden of normal enterprises, and creating a large amount of excess capacity are important ways for zombie enterprises to induce the asset financialization of normal enterprises. The results of the extensive analysis show that there is heterogeneity in the impact of zombie firms on the normal firms. Specifically, zombie enterprises have a greater impact on the non-state-owned enterprises, the industries with high dependence on external financing, and the regions with strong degrees of government intervention, while their impacts on the state-owned enterprises, the industries with lower external financing dependence, and the regions with weak government intervention are smaller.

Research on the Influencing Path of Skill Premium in the AI Era

LI Zhi-qiang, LIU Ying, WEI Lin

2022, 0(7):  16-26. 

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As a new driving force in guiding China's high-quality economic development, AI and other new technologies also bring some important questions for us to answer, such as whether their application will lead to a rise in skill premium and affect labor income inequality. Based on the national floating population and urban cross-sectional data in 2018, this paper conducts an empirical study. The findings show that the intelligent technology has significantly enlarged the skill premium, in which the agglomeration economy and entrepreneurial activities are the main paths influencing skill premium. It is further found that there are group effects and selection effects in the influence of intelligent technology on skill premium. The skill bias of intelligent technology is more obvious in the groups with stable jobs, higher income, longer mobile time and outside-the-city movements. This means that in the era of artificial intelligence, the rational use of intelligent technology can give full play to the skill premium.

Public Economics & Administration

Will Vertical Fiscal Imbalance Inhibit the Improvement of Regional Innovation Efficiency

LIU Liang-liang, HE Jun

2022, 0(7):  27-37. 

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Deepening the reform of the financial system is an important focus to promote the high-quality economic development, and improving regional innovation efficiency is a strong driving force to promote the high-quality economic development. Therefore, under the background of high-quality economic development in the new era, this paper explores the issue of regional innovation efficiency from the new perspective of vertical fiscal imbalance. Based on China's provincial panel data from 1998 to 2018, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of vertical fiscal imbalance on the regional innovation efficiency and its mechanism. The results show that the vertical fiscal imbalance can significantly inhibit the improvement of regional innovation efficiency, which leads to the loss of regional innovation efficiency. The results of mechanism analysis show that“competition for growth”between local governments has strengthened the negative impact of vertical fiscal imbalance on regional innovation efficiency, while“competition for innovation”has weakened the negative impact of vertical fiscal imbalance on regional innovation efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to correct the mismatch between the fiscal power and the administrative power of local governments, standardize the competition behaviors among local governments, improve the political assessment system of local officials and other measures, so as to appropriately reduce the degree of vertical fiscal imbalance, guide local governments to change from“competition for growth”to“competition for innovation”, and promote the improvement of regional innovation efficiency.

Government R&D Funding, Internet Development and China's Innovation Efficiency

REN Yue-wen

2022, 0(7):  38-51. 

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Since the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy and the“Internet Plus”strategy, the Chinese government has actively explored how to give effective play to R&D funding and the Internet so as to improve innovation efficiency. By making use of the provincial panel data from 2006 to 2018, this paper examines the impact of government R&D funding and Internet development on the innovation efficiency in China. The results show that both government R&D funding and Internet development have significant promoting effects on the innovation efficiency, and the government R&D funding has a stronger effect on enterprises than on research institutions. The Internet development has a significant positive moderating effect and threshold effect on the above funding effects. When the Internet development crosses a certain threshold, the effects of government R&D funding all turn into a significant promotion effect, and the threshold value of government R&D funding to enterprises is lower and the effect is stronger than that to research institutions. The above conclusions are consistent in different regions, especially in coastal areas. Therefore, it is suggested to increase government R&D funding, especially for enterprises, and pay attention to providing long-term and stable R&D funding for research institutions; actively upgrade the level of Internet development and narrow the gap in Internet development among different regions; accelerate the integration and penetration of the Internet with innovation factors, effectively create an interconnected environment for government, industry, universities, and research institutes, and give full play to the effect of the Internet platforms.

Modern Finance

Economic Growth and Sovereign Debt Default: From the Perspective of Investor Sentiment

YUAN Xiao-hui, WANG Bo

2022, 0(7):  52-64. 

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The impact of investor sentiment on economic activities is crucial. Based on the quarterly and annual unbalanced panel data of 64 countries from 2000 to 2020, this paper studies the impact of investor sentiment on economic growth and sovereign debt defaults. The findings show that countries with more optimistic investor sentiment are more likely to experience slower economic growth and sovereign debt defaults, especially those countries with huge current account deficits; and the investor sentiment is potentially asymmetrical, excessive optimism will significantly increase the default amount proportion and the default probability of sovereign countries. The results of the mechanistic analysis show that overly optimistic investor sentiment can affect a country's economic situation by accumulating large amounts of debt and reducing investment. Therefore, under the current external environment, sovereign countries should pay more attention to the fundamental information when making investments and financing, use external capital prudently, continue to strengthen supervision, and prevent the accumulated risks due to excessive optimism.

Can the Executive Turnover of Commercial Banks Accelerate the Exposure of Non-Performing Loans? A Study Based on the Sources of Successors and Professional Experience

WANG Wei-cheng, ZHANG Qiao-yun

2022, 0(7):  65-75. 

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Based on the unbalanced panel data of 118 commercial banks from 2008 to 2019, this paper empirically tests the relationship between the executive turnover and the exposure of non-performing loans. The findings show that the turnover of major executives can rapidly reveal the non-performing loans (NPL) of commercial banks. The succeed executives appointed from the outside are more able to accelerate the exposure of the NPL of commercial banks than those promoted from the inside. The succeed executives with abundant professional experiences are more able to accelerate the exposure of the NPL of commercial banks than those with less professional experiences. The results of the mechanical test show that the executives can accelerate the exposure of NPL through restricting the “time for space” behavior of commercial banks. Further studies find out that that executive turnover can quicken the exposure of NPL is significant mainly in the commercial banks with higher ratio and larger scale of NPL. The executive turnover at the time of larger fluctuation of the performance of commercial banks can effectively quicken the exposure of NPL, while the longer accumulated tenure of outgoing executives have negative impact on the exposure of NPL. Therefore, commercial banks should optimize the selection decisions of the successive executives, improve the relevant mechanism of corporate governance concerning the executive turnovers, and urge commercial banks to fully expose the hidden risks.

Business Administration

How Dose Big Data Capability Contribute to Transformation and Upgrading of Enterprises? A Multiple Mediation Model of Technological Innovation and Business Model Innovation

WANG Xin, LIU Ke-chun, ZENG Jing-wei

2022, 0(7):  76-86. 

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In the context of digital economy, transformation and upgrading have become a common theme of concern from all walks of life, and big data capability is regarded as a kind of organizational dynamic capability in the digital era, which will inevitably have an important impact on the transformation and upgrading of enterprises. Based on technological innovation and business model innovation, this paper constructs a multiple mediation model to explore the impact of big data capability on corporate transformation and upgrading and its mechanism, and conducts an empirical test on the acting path of its role with the survey data of 954 enterprises. The findings show that big data capability can have a significant positive impact on corporate transformation and upgrading, and technological innovation and business model innovation have synchronous and chain mediating effects between big data capability and corporate transformation and upgrading. Further comparison of the mediating effects reveals that there are significant differences in the three indirect paths of big data capabilities affecting corporate transformation and upgrading.

The Impact of Advertising Appeal of Trans-Boundary Union on the Brand Attitude of Consumers

HAN Jie, WANG De-sheng

2022, 0(7):  87-99. 

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To rapidly grow and gain consumers' attention in the manner of trans-boundary union has become a new trend in the marketing practice of local brands. The previous researches have focused on the use of scarcity heuristics of single brand to enhance the persuasion effect of product advertisements; however, there is a lack of sufficient explorations on how advertising appeals of trans-boundary union affecting consumers' brand attitudes. From the perspective of perceived coolness, this paper conducts three experiments to investigate the mechanisms by which the advertising appeals of trans-boundary union affect brand attitudes. The results show that the distinctive advertising appeals can better prompt consumers' brand attitudes than the limited-opportunity advertising appeals. The perceived coolness is playing a mediating role between the advertising appeal of trans-boundary union and brand attitude. The brand complementarity and the comparison focus are the boundary conditions for the existence of the mediating effect of perceived coolness, that is, the mediating effect only exists when both parties in the cooperation are low property complementary or the consumers focus on the differences between the brands. The conclusions of this study have enriched the relative researches on the advertising persuasion in brand cross-over marketing context and have important management enlightenment for the trans-boundary marketing practice of local brands.

Industry & Trade

Does the New Pattern of Dual Circulation Promote the High Quality Development of China's Digital Trade: From the Perspective of Innovation Ability and Product Space

LI Hui-juan, LI Wen-xiu, DAI Dan-dan

2022, 0(7):  100-111. 

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China's digital trade is trapped in the dilemma of“imitative innovation”and “low-end locking”due to its“both ends outside”embedding pattern in the global value chain. From the perspective of innovation ability and product space, this paper uses the input-output method to explore whether the new pattern of dual circulation can promote the high-quality development of China's digital trade. The results show that the new pattern of dual circulation is playing a significant role in promoting the high-quality development of China's digital trade. Participating in the international circulation has a positive impact on the high-quality development of China's digital trade through the intermediary channel of the backward imitative innovation capability, while participating in the domestic circulation has promoted the high-quality development of China's digital trade through the intermediary channel of the forward independent innovative capability, and their promotion effects are affected by product space density and product technical complexity respectively. The expansion analysis reveals that there is heterogeneity in the impact of the new pattern of dual circulation on the quality of China's digital trade. This study provides important policy enlightenment for China's digital trade enterprises to deal with the impact and challenges of the counter-globalization and external risks, form a new pattern of dual circulation, especially make use of the super large-scale advantages of domestic unified large circulation to cultivate local independent innovative ability, and improve the product space density and the technical complexity, so as to finally realize the high-quality development of China's digital trade.

A Study of the Impact of the Opening of Digital Service Market on the Servitization Level of the Manufacturing Industry

ZHOU Nian-li, BAO Ya-nan

2022, 0(7):  112-122. 

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Digital services have been widely and deeply integrated into the production and operation links of the traditional manufacturing industry. Based on the industrial data of 17 manufacturing industries in 42 economic entities from 2005 to 2018, this paper conducts an empirical study on the impact of the opening of digital service market for economic entities on the servitization level of the manufacturing industries. The results show that the opening of digital service market can significantly promote the service level of the manufacturing industry by improving the allocation effect, the R&D innovation effect, and the substitution effect of low-skill labor factor. The opening of digital service market has a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the servitization of the manufacturing industry. It can be seen from the subsample regression that the opening of the digital service market has a promoting effect on the improvement of the professional servitization, communication servitization and financial servitization of the manufacturing industry. Compared with the high-income countries, the opening of digital service market in the low-and middle-income countries has a more significant effect on the improvement of the level of servitization of the manufacturing industry. The higher the position of the manufacturing industry in the value chain, the greater the promotion effect of the opening of the digital service market on its level of servitization.

Modern Accounting

Has the Off-Office Audit System for Natural Resources Assets on Leading Officials Improved the Structural Quality of the Manufacturing Industry?

WU Chang-nan, SHUAI Yan

2022, 0(7):  123-137. 

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The off-office audit of natural resources assets on leading officials is a major institutional innovation in the construction of ecological civilization in China. On the basis of theoretically explaining the mechanism of the pilot off-office audit of natural resource assets on the leading officials on the structural quality of the manufacturing industry, this paper adopts the panel data of China's 92 prefecture-level cities from 2012 to 2017 and employs the double difference (DID) method to empirically analyze the impact of the off-office audit of natural resource assets on leading officials on the structural quality of the manufacturing industry in pilot cities. The findings show that the off-office audit can significantly improve the rationalization degree and the advanced degree of the industrial structure of the manufacturing industry in the pilot cities. It is revealed through further research on the impact mechanism that the pilot off-office audit can improve the innovative ability of the pilot cities, which in turn can improve the structural quality of the manufacturing industry. The results of the analysis of the moderating effect show that in the cities with greater pollution control pressure, the improving effect of the pilot off-office audit on the rationalization and upgrading of the manufacturing industrial structure is much more significant.

Equity Pledge Risks of Private Enterprise, State-Owned Capital Participation and Local Government Bailout

HUANG Yi-song

2022, 0(7):  138-148. 

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Taking the private listed companies with equity pledge risks from 2017 to 2019 as research samples, this paper theoretically analyzes the impact of state-owned capital participation in private enterprises on their access to local government bailouts and conducts an empirical test. The findings show that among the private enterprises with equity pledge risks, the private enterprises with state-owned capital participation have a greater probability and intensity to obtain local government bailouts; the greater the proportion of state-owned capital, the greater the probability and intensity of private enterprises to obtain bailouts. It is found through further research that the above-mentioned promotion effect is less obvious in the samples of private enterprises belonging to strategic emerging industries, or located in the regions with higher degree of marketization, or with non-local state-owned capital. In terms of the bailout effect, the equity pledge risks of the bailed out private enterprises have been alleviated, and the short-term market reaction is positive; the greater the bailout strength, the more significant the bailout effect. The above research results indicate that the state-owned capital participation can help private enterprises to obtain local government bailouts, thereby alleviating the equity pledge risks of private enterprises.