Table of Content

15 January 2023, Volume 0 Issue 1

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Theoretical Economics

From Real to Virtual or Serving the Major Business: A Restudy of Corporate Financialization from the Perspective of Industry Heterogeneity

FANG Zi-yi, ZHANG Guo-sheng, LI Xin-jue

2023, 0(1):  3-16. 

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The combination of production capital and financial capital is an important form of modern enterprise development. The existing literatures generally pay attention to the impact of corporate financialization on the development of China's real economy. However, under the assumption of homogeneity, most studies ignore the heterogeneity characteristics of subdivided industries. Thus, it is necessary to conduct new researches on enterprise financialization based on the subdivided industries. The information and communication technology (ICT) industry has the heterogeneous characteristics of high innovation and high growth; its industrial heterogeneous characteristics will obviously affect the motivation and consequences of corporate financialization. The findings of the study based on the data of China's A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2019 show that the financialization of ICT enterprises does not squeeze out the earnings of enterprise entities, but increase the proportion of real income, and that its impact is mainly on serving the major business rather on breaking away from the real to the virtual. On the contrary, the financialization of the non-ICT enterprises does obviously squeeze out the earnings of the entities, and results in the decreasing ratio of the real income; its impact is mainly manifested as breaking away from the real to the virtual rather than serving the main business. It is found through examining the relative mechanisms that the heterogeneous characters of high innovation and high growth of ICT industry are the fundamental reasons why corporate financialization can serve the main business. The corporate financialization can improve the proportion of the real income of the incumbent enterprises through promoting corporate technological innovation and scale expansion; it has played a role in supporting the continuous expansion of productive capital in the ICT industry rather than the expansion of corporate book value.

Research on the Impact of Global Value Chain Embedment on the Efficiency of China's Green Economy

YIN Tian-bao, ZHAO Hong-yan, ZHONG Ying-jia

2023, 0(1):  17-28. 

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To boost high-level opening to the outside world and green development is China's strategic choice for its future high-quality economic development. Based on the customs micro-database from 2001 to 2014 and the provincial panel data, this paper measures the global value chain (GVC) embedment and the green economy efficiency index in China's 30 provinces; then, on this basis, it empirically explores the impact of GVC embedment on the green economy efficiency. The results show that GVC embedding can promote the improvement of green economy efficiency significantly, but this promoting effect gradually decreases with the passage of time, and that there exists obvious heterogeneity in geographical location and time stage. The results of the test of mediating effect and moderating effect show that GVC embedding can promote the efficiency of green economy by optimizing industrial structure, promoting green innovation and stimulating green consumption demand. Moreover, the absorptive capacity of human capital, R&D investment, financial development and Internet development level can also positively moderate the positive impact of GVC embedding on green economy efficiency. In addition, the“diffusion effect”of GVC embedding on the efficiency of green economy will decrease with the increase of geographical distance. Therefore, on the basis of continuously expanding the level of opening up, the governments of different regions should pay attention to the cultivation of high-quality talents and the efficiency of scientific research funds, improve the constructions of regional financial system and information infrastructures, and break down the inter-regional administrative barriers, so as to let GVC embedding play an effective role in promoting the efficiency of green economy.

Public Economics & Administration

Historic Background, Theoretical Basis and Main Contents of the Construction of China's Modern Financial System: Reflection on Deepening Financial and Tax Reform Proposed by the 20^th National Congress of CPC

KUANG Xiao-ping, XIONG Gao-peng

2023, 0(1):  29-42. 

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The modernization of the fiscal system is a dynamic process that constantly adapts to the characteristics of the times and responds to the needs of reality. The report of the 20^th Party Congress calls for further improvement of the modern fiscal system to provide strong support for the high-quality development and comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country. In the new era and new journey, the construction of China's modern financial system should be based on the three major contemporary background transitions, i.e., the main social contradictions in the new era, the logic of national governance, and the stage of Chinese-style modernization. We should re-understand the dominant position of the state in the finance, pay attention to the state attributes of the finance, and adhere to the dominate position of the state in the finance from the historical logic of the party-state system led by the Communist Party of China, the theoretical logic of the Marxist view of the state, and the practical logic of integrated development and security. The basic elements of the modern states and the socialism with Chinese characteristics are the basic principles of reshaping the modern fiscal system. In terms of specific paths, the historical mission of the political party and the state, the rule of law in line with Chinese national conditions, the whole process of people's democracy and other concepts of modern state construction should be integrated into the constructions of the budget system, the taxation system, the intergovernmental fiscal relations, the fiscal expenditure management system, the government debt management system, and other modern fiscal systems, so as to achieve the target of making the finance as the foundation and important pillar of national governance.

The Influence of the Office-Term Changes of Local Governments on the Deviation of Local Fiscal Revenue Budget and Final Account

FENG Hui, YIN Qiang

2023, 0(1):  43-56. 

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The establishment of a modern budget management system is the internal requirement of the fiscal and tax system reform in the new era, while the scientific budget preparations and standardized implementation are the key links in the modern budget management system. Budget is an important policy instrument for the government to intervene in the economy. During the period of concentrated changes of local official terms, the rational local officials have the motive to strategically use budget tools to achieve their political and economic goals, which will cause cyclical deviation of budgets. By making use of the data of 30 provinces across the country, the findings of this study show that the deviation of budgets has a budget cycle that changes with the changing of the official terms of the local governments. The deviation of budgets shows a pattern of “first rising then declining”before and after the change of official terms. Before the changes of official terms, there is a high degree of uncertainty in the change of officials and the central supervision is stronger, the economical behaviors of local officials are more likely to opt for“leaving some leeway”; after the changes of official terms, the changes of officials are decided, the central supervision becomes weakened, the promotion competition and the fiscal revenues increase jointly encourage local officials to choose the “aggressive”economic policy. In order to make the budget more scientific and further standardize the budget behavior of local officials, it is necessary to improve the promotion incentive mechanism of officials, perfect the economic target responsibility management system, standardize the budget management of fiscal revenue, and strengthen the supervision mechanism of government budget.

Modern Finance

Effective Paths in Central Bank Communication: Identification Based on Contents and Forms

SUI Jian-li, LIU Bi-ying, LIU Jin-quan

2023, 0(1):  57-69. 

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This paper conducts a theoretical analysis of information friction and belief shock as well as a test with a SVAR model. The findings show that the fundamental shock can increase the expected macroeconomic indicator bias and the belief shock can decrease the expected macroeconomic indicator bias, and that the fundamental shock mainly acts on the actual macroeconomic indicators, while the belief shock mainly acts on the expected macroeconomic indicators. Further, the text recognition technology for big data is used to identify the contents of central bank communication both in the written form and verbal form, thus to identify the effective path of action of central bank communication. The results of the analysis show that central bank communication can indirectly act on expectation bias by moderating the beliefs of micro-subjects. Among them, the written-form communication and the narratives about economic fundamentals are suitable for regulating the output beliefs; and the verbal-form communication and the narratives about monetary policy tendencies are suitable for regulating inflation beliefs; the written-form communication is more effective than the verbal form in regulating expectation bias, and the narratives about economic fundamentals are more effective than the narratives about monetary policy tendencies. Therefore, central bank communication needs to play a full role in regulating the beliefs of micro agents and correcting expectation bias, especially the written-form communication and the narratives about economic fundamentals.

Heterogeneous Influences of Public and Semi-Public Equity on Enterprise Innovation

LIU Ye, LU Pu-ying, WANG Meng

2023, 0(1):  70-81. 

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The start-up enterprises realize their entrepreneurial exit and obtain liquidity by transferring their equity to public equity or semi-public equity. However, the different effects of the two exit modes on corporate innovation are often ignored. Taking the venture enterprises supported by China's risk capitals as the sample, this paper conducts an empirical study based on the difference-in-difference and the difference-in-difference-in-difference models. The findings show that both transferring to public equity and semi-public equity can significantly promote corporate innovation, and the transfer to public equity has a stronger promoting effect, which is contrary to the information confidentiality hypothesis proposed by foreign countries. The result of the mechanism test shows that transferring to public equity and semi-public equity can alleviate external financing constraints and provide financial support for enterprises. However, the enterprises transferring to semi-public equity have stronger earnings management motives in order to transfer to public equity in the future, while the enterprises transferring to public equity have weaker earnings management motivation in order to maintain their reputation and facilitate refinancing. Therefore, compared to transferring to semi-public equity, transferring to public equity can better motivate enterprises to invest in long-term innovation activities. Moreover, the fact that the enterprises with strong innovative ability are more willing to transfer to public equity indicates that the proprietary costs of information disclosure do not offset the advantages of public equity in such aspects as financing, etc..

Business Administration

Research on the Enabling Effects of Customer Empowering Behaviors from the Perspective of Resources

GUO Gong-xing, TIAN Jian, CHENG Bao

2023, 0(1):  82-93. 

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Based on the resource conservation theory, this paper explores the enabling effect of customer empowering behaviors on employees' self-oriented outcome (job satisfaction) and customer-oriented outcome (customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior) and its mechanism of action by collecting the supervisor-employee matching data in the three stages. The results of the data analysis based on 365 valid questionnaires show that customer empowering behaviors have a significant positive impact on job satisfaction and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior, that harmonious work passion plays a mediating role between the customer empowering behaviors and job satisfaction and the customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior, and that job autonomy not only moderates the relationship between customer empowering behaviors and harmonious work passion, but also moderates the mediating effect of harmonious work passion between the customer empowering behaviors and job satisfaction and the customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. This study not only enriches the literatures on customer empowering behaviors in theory, but also provides valuable implications for improving the job satisfaction and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors of frontline service employees in practice.

CEO Stock Price Crash Experience and Enterprise Risk Taking: Common Occurrence or Self-Created Suspicion

XU Fei

2023, 0(1):  94-107. 

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Stock price collapse can seriously affect the healthy development of capital markets; it is urgently needed to study the specific impact of stock price collapse on the executive behaviors and enterprise operation. Based on sensory adaptation and the law of generalized fear, this paper puts forward two kinds of competitive hypotheses:“common occurrence”and“self-created suspicion”. It constructs an analytical framework of“stock price collapse experience -- CEO behaviors -- enterprise risk taking”to conduct an empirical test by using the data of A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2019, so as to reveal CEO's behavioral characteristics at the post stock price collapse stage. The main conclusions include：（1）CEO stock price collapse experience will significantly reduce the level of enterprise risk-taking, this verifies the view of“self-created suspicion”;（2）highly educated CEOs and male CEOs are more likely to reduce the level of enterprise risk-taking after experiencing the stock price crash, and the experience of stock price crash induced by corporate internal reasons has a more obvious negative impact on CEO risk-taking;（3）CEO's share price collapse experience mainly reduces the enterprise risk-taking level by reducing the enterprise's financial leverage, credit sales, bad debt losses, over investment and underinvestment, and by increasing the proportion of enterprise working capital. Therefore, the enterprise managers should not only pay attention to the antecedents of the stock price collapse, but also pay attention to the consequences of the stock price collapse, so as to serve the enterprise management practice after the stock price collapse.

Industry & Trade

Has Stricter Pollution Discharge Standard Triggered the Porter Effect? Micro-Evidences from Chinese Water Polluting Enterprises

GUO Yu-hui, WU Han-ran, ZHANG Zheng

2023, 0(1):  108-119. 

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The discharge standard of pollutants is the basic tools of environmental regulation, whose dynamic update process of“replacing old with new, replacing loose with strict”is the main driving force for the green transformation of China's manufacturing industry. This paper manually collects the information of 60 industrial water pollutant discharge standards issued in China from 2005 to 2013 and makes use of the micro-data of Chinese water polluting enterprises at the same period to conduct an empirical study on whether stricter standards can promote enterprise green total factor productivity and trigger the Porter effect by employing the multi-phase DID method. The findings show that the green total factor productivity of enterprises increased by an average of 2.28% after the improvement of the standards and that this impact is more significant in the enterprises with high pressure to meet the standards, in the enterprises with strong financing capacity and in the regions with strong law enforcement. The results of the mechanism analysis show that enterprises can achieve green transformation through the materialized technological advances contained in equipment upgrading and rebuilding and the improvement of resources utilization efficiency and management efficiency. Besides, although stricter standards failed to increase the number of green patent applications of enterprises, they significantly improved the patents quality of the enterprises. At the same time, the technological transformation needs of the affected industries would indirectly induce the green patent research and development in the upstream equipment manufacturing industry, which means that the Porter effect overflows into the upstream industries.

How Does Regional Integration in China Affect Carbon Emission Efficiency?

XU Bin, KE Da, LIU Yang-qian-yu

2023, 0(1):  120-131. 

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Based on the data of 30 provinces in China except Tibet, Taiwan Province, Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions from 2003 to 2019, this paper uses the Super SBM model with unexpected output to measure the carbon emission efficiency of each province, constructs the comprehensive level indicator of regional integration by making use of the integration level of the commodity markets, the labor markets and the financial markets, and analyzes the impact of regional integration, industrial structure advancement, fiscal expenditure scale and the interaction between regional integration and the latter two on carbon emissions efficiency and its spatial effect. The findings show that regional integration is conducive to improving carbon emission efficiency, and this effect will be positively regulated by the advancement of industrial structure and negatively regulated by the scale of financial expenditure; the advancement of industrial structure is conducive to improving carbon emission efficiency, while the expansion of financial expenditure is not conducive to improving carbon emission efficiency, if the level of industrial structure is too low or the scale of financial expenditure is too large, there is a sub optimal strategy to improve carbon emission efficiency by reducing the level of regional integration; regional integration can promote the carbon emission efficiency of adjacent provinces, but this spillover effect is also subject to the positive regulation of industrial structure advancement and the negative regulation of fiscal expenditure scale. Therefore, we should continue to promote the upgrading of industrial structure to ensure and strengthen the role of regional integration in promoting carbon emission efficiency. While stimulating the vitality of market players, the government should also be proactive and promising, allocate more financial expenditure in environmental protection investment, focus on cultivating local competitive industries, and actively implement the regional integration strategy. And the carbon emission policy must focus on regional coordinated development.

Modern Accounting

Has the Payroll Control Improved the Total Factor Productivity of the State-Owned Central Enterprises?

ZHU Bao, MA Zhong

2023, 0(1):  132-145. 

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The gross payroll control is an important way to narrow the income gap of employees in enterprises with different ownerships. Then can the gross payroll control promote the efficiency transform of central enterprises on the basis of promoting fairness? Taking the A-share listed companies controlled by central enterprises from 2015 to 2021 as the samples, this paper collects the related information about gross payroll control manually to examine the impact of gross payroll control on total factor productivity of central enterprises. The findings show that the total wage control has enhanced the total factor productivity of central enterprises. Further research shows that improving the external fairness of employee compensation, enhancing the performance sensitivity of employee compensation, and urging enterprises to reduce redundant employees are important ways for gross payroll control to improve the total factor productivity of central enterprises. The above-mentioned impact is more obvious in the samples of the monopoly industries and the mature central enterprises. This conclusion shows that gross payroll control can promote social equity and enhance enterprise efficiency by making overall plans and take all factors into consideration. While narrowing the gap of employee salaries between different ownerships, the efficiency of employee incentive of the central enterprises is improved. Therefore, the related government departments should further implement the gross payroll control policy, refine the gross payroll management methods for special matters such as staff adjustment and asset restructuring, implement differentiated gross payroll management for the funding enterprises, and give play to the role of gross payroll control in improving the quality and efficiency of central enterprises.

Will the Actual Controller Staying behind the Curtain Increases the Degree of Earnings Management? Evidences from Private Listed Companies

LUO Jing-bo

2023, 0(1):  146-156. 

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There are many literatures on the behavior of actual controllers in enterprises, but few studies take the impact of the special situation on the corporate earnings management into consideration, i.e., the actual controller does not formally serve as an executive in the company but in fact staying behind the curtain to control the company. Based on the data of China's A-share private listed companies, this paper studies the impact of the actual controller not serving as a senior executive on the earnings management. The findings show that the actual controller not serving as a senior executive has a significantly positive impact on the real earnings management level, while no impact has been found on accrued earnings management. The result of the acting channel test shows that the actual controller will improve the company's real earnings management level through increasing cash dividends, taking up the funds of the company, and increasing the on-the-job consumption of the senior executives. Further research finds out that the positive impact of the actual controller not serving as the senior executive in the company on the real earnings management level is more significant in the private enterprises with lower legal management or in the private enterprises with lower media attention and lower equity incentive level. Therefore, the regulatory agencies should continuously improve the clauses concerning the rights and obligations of the actual controllers in The Company Law, and strengthen the supervision on the actual controller and the intensity of punishment on the illegal behaviors of the actual controller. The stakeholders should also take the initiative to identify and supervise the behaviors of the actual controllers who are behind the scenes.