Table of Content

15 December 2023, Volume 0 Issue 12

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Theoretical Economics

The Productivity Growth Effect of Digital Economy: Dividend or Divide?

ZHENG Guo-qiang, WAN Meng-ze

2023, 0(12):  3-16. 

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The digital economy has become a key force driving the improvement of production efficiency, but the unbalanced development trend of the digital economy may exacerbate the production efficiency gap between regions. The regional coordinated development and common prosperity in the era of digital economy are faced with new problems and new challenges. Based on the panel data of prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019, this paper conducts an empirical study of the relationship between the development of digital economy and the total factor productivity and the regional heterogeneity. The findings show that digital economy has a significant productivity growth effect, which is mainly reflected in pure technological progress. The digital economy has failed to empower the growth of total factor productivity through the improvements in technical efficiency and scale efficiency. The mechanism analysis reveals that digital economy mainly promotes the growth of total factor productivity through the innovation-driven effect, the entrepreneurial incentive effect, the industrial upgrading effect and other channels, but the impacting effect is only significant in the eastern region. The results of the regional heterogeneity show that the higher the productivity efficiency and economic development level of the city, the more obvious the productivity growth effect of the digital economy, which leads to the“productivity gap”between regions. The results of the threshold effect test reveal that the increasing marginal effect of digital economy and the relative insufficiency of the less developed cities in talent agglomeration, financial development and fixed investment has strengthened the“productivity gap”between regions.

A Study of the Impact of Digital Economy on Corporate Total Factor Productivity

HU De-long, SHI Man-zhen

2023, 0(12):  17-29. 

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To develop digital economy is conducive to improving the innovation ability of enterprises, realizing economies of scale and scope, and reducing transaction costs. A perfect market economic system is conducive to creating a fair environment and improving the efficiency of social resources allocation at the macro level, stimulating industrial technological innovations and accelerating the diffusion of technology at the meso level, and improving the efficiency of enterprise resources allocation at the micro level. This paper conducts an empirical study based on the index of the development level of digital economy at the city level in China during the period of 2011-2020 and other data. The findings show that the digital economy can significantly improve the total factor productivity of enterprises, but its role will be slightly different according to the differences in ownership, industry, and the city where the enterprise is located. The digital economy can effectively enable the market to play a decisive role in resources allocation, and marketization is an important function mechanism for the digital economy to enhance the total factor productivity of enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to lead the digital transformation of enterprises by setting the state-owned enterprises as the models, to drive the technological progress with high-tech industries as the leader, to enhance the level of digital inclusion based on the construction of smart cities, and to improve the high-level socialist market economic system by taking the development of the digital economy as an opportunity.

Public Economics & Administration

The Supervision, Economic Supervision, and Budget Review and Supervisionby the National People’s Congress in the New Era

DENG Li-ping, DENG Qiu-yun

2023, 0(12):  30-38. 

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The system of the National People’s Congress is the fundamental political system of China, which determines the inherent requirements and essence of the supervision by the National People’s Congress. In the past decade of the new era, starting from the essence of the supervision by the National People’s Congress and following the requirements of the CPC’s basic line of centering around economic construction, the supervision by the National People’s Congress has been further expanded from budget review supervision and state-owned asset management supervision to economic supervision, and the three milestone achievements have been made.Especially, the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Strengthening Supervision over Economic Work was passed in 2021, which endows the National People’s Congress with profound connotations in economic supervision from both broad and narrow perspectives. In order to further strengthen and improve the supervision work of the National People’s Congress in the new era, this paper reviews the development of the National People’s Congress system over the past decade and summarizes the practical exploration of economic supervision by the National People’s Congress, including the budget review and supervision by the National People’s Congress, from the perspectives of the supervisory subject and the supervisory objects. In the future, the National People’s Congress should, in accordance with the framework and requirements of the supervision and the economic supervisionby the National People’s Congress, help to realize the Chinese style modernization with the modernization of the economic supervision by the National People’s Congress and make great contributions to the comprehensively promotion of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, by putting efforts into combining the two institutional foundations and closely grasping the changes in domestic and international situations.

Research on the Influence of VAT Credit Refunds on Corporate Tax Compliance

YU Jie, LI Lu-lu

2023, 0(12):  39-52. 

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VAT credit refund is an important measure for building a modern tax system in China, which highlights the profound transformation of the modernization of the national governance system and the governance capabilities. While the VAT credit refund brings policy dividends to enterprises, it also brings about a series of problems in tax collection and management and in tax non-compliance.Based on the relative data of Chinese listed manufacturing companies from 2013 to 2021, this paper empirically analyzes how the VAT credit refunds policy affects corporate tax compliance. The results show that the implementation of the VAT credit refunds policy has effectively stimulated enterprises to improve their tax credit rating, thereby enhancing the degree of their tax compliance. The results of the mechanism analysis show that the VAT credit refunds policy can promote corporate tax compliance by alleviating corporate financing constraints and optimizing corporate governance. Corporate reputation also plays a positive regulatory role. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect of the VAT credit refunds policy in improving corporate tax compliance is more evident in non-state-owned enterprises, that the incentive effect of the policy is more significant in larger scale enterprises under the incentives of the VAT credit refunds policy, and that the higher the degree of marketization of the locations, the greater the disincentive effect of the VAT credit refunds policy on the tax non-compliance of enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to expandthe scope of the VAT credit refunds policy coverage, to further alleviate corporate financing constraints, to actively cultivate the main market players, and to motivate enterprises to improve their tax compliance with the tax credit ratings.

Modern Finance

The Breaking of“Rigid Payment”in Bond Market and Enterprise Risk Information Disclosure

BAI Jun, QIAO Jun, WU Shuang

2023, 0(12):  53-67. 

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Breaking the“rigid payment”of the bond market is an important measure of China’s financial market reform. This paper conducts a study based on the data of the listed companies from 2008 to 2021 and the difference-in-difference model. The findings show thatwhen the“rigid payment”of the bond market is broken, the level of enterpriserisk information disclosure will be significantly lowered. This negative effect is more significant among the enterprises with weaker implicit government guarantee capacity, with insufficient regional financial resources, with lower credit rating, or without third-party guarantee. The impact of the breaking of the“rigid payment”in the bond market on the internal mechanism of the bond-issuing enterprises to reduce risk information disclosure is realized through increasing the negative sentiment of investors and intensifying the financing constraints of enterprises, thus improving the motivation of enterprise information manipulation. The results of the economic consequence reveals that when the“rigid payment”is broken, although enterprises’ reducing the risk information disclosure will reduce the costs of corporate debt financing, the abnormal volatility of the capital markets will be intensified, which goes against the capital market stability. Therefore, efforts should be made to improve the bond risk hedging mechanism, to build a market-oriented credit mechanism, and to strengthen the supervision of enterprise text information, so as to alleviate the credit impact of the breaking of“rigid payment”on the market.

VAT Rate Simplification and Enterprise Equity Financing

LI Ying, ZHANG Yu-feng

2023, 0(12):  68-80. 

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Raising the level of equity financing is the key path for enterprises to activate the capital market, increase the proportion of direct financing and improve the function of the capital market. Then, does the high efficient resource allocation effect of Value-added Tax (VAT) rate simplification help to promote corporate equity financing? By choosing the sample data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2012 to 2021, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of the VAT rate simplification policy implemented in 2017 on corporate equity financing. The results show that the implementation of the simplified tax rate policy has significantly promoted the equity financing of enterprises; its influencing mechanism is to improve the internal value of enterprises and the information efficiency, then further improve the equity financing of enterprises. At the same time, the effect of the simplified tax rate policy on promoting equity financing of enterprises is more significant in the enterprises with higher credit discrimination and more applicable tax brackets. In addition, the good institutional environment of capital market has improved the effect of the VAT rate simplification policy on the promotion of corporate equity financing. Specifically, in the groups with a higher degree of marketization and higher degree of capital market openness, the positive effect between the simplified tax rate and corporate equity financing is more significant. Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to continue to optimize the VAT rate simplification policy, formulate differentiated tax supporting policies for different kinds of enterprises, play the combined role of tax reduction policies and the capital market system, and boost investors’ confidence, so as to promote the equity financing of enterprises.

Business Administration

Research on the Enhancement Mechanism of Digital Capability on the Innovative Ecosystem Resilience of Platform E-Commerce Enterprises

WU Qun, HAN Tian-ran

2023, 0(12):  81-93. 

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The in-depth promotion of the digital economy has accelerated the complex and changeable market ecology. In the face of the dynamic environment of high-frequency innovation and fierce competition, how to leverage digitalization to improve the resilience of the innovative ecosystem has become an important issue for platform e-commerce enterprises to achieve high-quality development. This paper explores the impact of digital capability on the resilience of the innovative ecosystem of the platform e-commerce enterprises. The results of the empirical test based on 608 questionnaires collected from platform e-commerce enterprises show that digital capability can exert a significant positive impact on the innovation ecosystem resilience of the platform e-commerce enterprises, that the supply chain collaboration plays a mediating effect between digital capability and the innovative ecosystem resilience of the platform e-commerce enterprises, and that the value co-creation willingness can positively regulate the relationship between the digital capability, the supply chain collaboration and the resilience of the innovative ecosystem of the platform e-commerce enterprises. The above conclusions indicate that cultivating digital capability can enhance the shock resistance capability of platform e-commerce enterprises, and enhance the adaptability and learning ability of platform e-commerce enterprises by building a supply chain collaboration platform and improving the value co-creation willingness of innovation subjects, so as to enhance the resilience of the innovative ecosystem of platform e-commerce enterprises.

Research on the Legitimacy Acquisition and Asset Divestment of Newly Appointed CEOs

WU Jiong, LI Han

2023, 0(12):  94-106. 

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In recent years, the asset divestment behavior of newly appointed CEOs has become increasingly common. Based on the data from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2010 to 2021, this study empirically tests the relationship between CEO succession sources and asset divestitures. The findings show that the succeeded CEO from external tends to divest assets. The analysis of the impact mechanism reveals that due to being faced with the more stringent internal and external legitimacy pressures, the succeeded CEO from external needs to adopt the strategies of transmitting signals to the outside and maintaining the internal relationships to establish legitimacy. Therefore, the succeeded CEO from external will divest assets to meet the funding needs for implementing the strategic actions. The results of the heterogeneity analysis reveal that the higher the CEO’s personal risk goals and the higher the company’s economic benefits, the more likely the external successors of CEO is to engage in asset divestment. The new CEOs from non family members or from the external other than family members are more inclined to divest assets. The results of the economic consequence analysis reveal that the asset divestment behavior of the external successors of CEO can improve the short-term performance of the enterprises. To this end, the newly appointed CEO should actively establish legitimacy, make reasonable choices for the company’s resources allocation during asset divestment; the enterprises should promote the coordination and integration between the new CEOs and other executive members; and the external stakeholders need to strengthen their understanding and supervision of the new CEOs and the operation of the enterprises.

Industry & Trade

Intermediate Trade Network and Enterprises’ Labor Income Share

YANG Zhi-hao

2023, 0(12):  107-119. 

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The income distribution under the open economy is the core issue to achieve the goal of common prosperity. Based on Page Algorithm, this paper makes use of the data from the China Industrial Enterprise Database, the customs database and the global bilateral trade database etc. to estimate the corporate centrality of intermediate trade network, and then explores how the centrality of intermediate trade network acts on the corporate labor income share. The findings show that improving the centrality of intermediate trade network of enterprises can significantly reduce the share of labor income. The conclusion is still robust when the impacting threshold value test with mixed variable, the instrumental variables and the quasi natural experiments are adopted to relieve the endogeneity. The mechanism analysis shows that the centrality of intermediate trade network affects the share of labor income through the factor costs, technical progress and wage raising mechanisms. The expansion analysis reveals that increasing the support of education and technology, improving the domestic upstream supply capacity, and expanding the scale of domestic demand will alleviate the inhibition of the centrality of intermediate trade network on the share of labor income. Thus, we should actively promote the construction of the secondary distribution mechanism led by the government and the tertiary distribution mechanism represented by charity activities, increase financial investment in education, scienceand technology, improve the supply capacity of the domestic supply chain, cultivate the potential demandsin the domestic markets, and then achieve the goal of common prosperity in the process of high-level opening up.

Can Environmental Target Constraints Promote the Upgrading of Heavily Polluting Manufacturing Industries? Evidence from the Emission Reduction Targets of the 11^th Five Year Plan

BAO Tong

2023, 0(12):  120-132. 

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In the context of actively promoting green development in China, the environmental target constraints are of great significance for leading the energy conservation, consumption reduction and green transition of the manufacturing industry. Regarding the target responsibility system of environmental protection implemented in the 11^th Five-Year Plan as a quasi-natural experiment and based on the data of Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database from 1998 to 2009, as well as the COD emission reduction targets data of the provinces (the autonomous regions or the municipalities directly under the central government) during the 11^th Five-Year Plan period, this paper constructs a three-dimensional panel set of“year-city-two-digit manufacturing industries”. It then conducts an empirical test of the impact of the target responsibility system of environmental protection on the upgrading of the heavily polluting manufacturing industry with the difference-in-difference-in-difference model. The results show that the target responsibility system of environmental protection has significantly promoted the upgrading of heavily polluting manufacturing industries, and that this effect does not exist in the short term. In the regions with lower degree of marketization and lower pollution control ability, this effect is more obvious. The mechanism analysis reveals that, on the one hand, the target responsibility system of environmental protection has promoted the upgrading of the heavily polluting manufacturing industry through the resource reallocation between cities, intra-city industries and intra-industry enterprises; on the other hand, it has realized the upgrading of the heavily polluting manufacturing industry through increasing the innovation numbers of the polluting enterprises and strengthening the strategic innovation behaviors of polluting enterprises. Further research reveals that with the help of the upgrading effect of the heavily polluting manufacturing industry the target responsibility system has improved the industrial energy efficiency and cleanliness, achieved energy conservation and emission reduction, and thus promoted the green transition of the heavily polluting manufacturing industry. Therefore, it is necessary to establish specific and rolling emission reduction targets to break market segmentation, guide the regions to create products based on comparative advantages, improve the evaluation accuracy and support of governments for high-quality innovations, and fully leverage the empowering role of the environmental protection target responsibility system in the high-quality transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

Modern Accounting

Can Corporate Digital Transformation Curb Stock Mispricing?

LI Zhen-zhen, WANG Ai-Dong, LI Hai-jian

2023, 0(12):  133-143. 

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Solving the problem of mispricing is an important prerequisite for the healthy operation of China’s capital market. Taking China’s A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021 as samples, this paper analyzes the impact of enterprise digital transformation on stock mispricing. The findings show that the digital transformation of enterprises can effectively curb stock mispricing. The mechanism test reveals that the digital transformation of enterprises can reduce information asymmetry and alleviate investor irrationality, thereby helping to curb stock mispricing. The analysis of the regulatory effects reveals that media coverage and high public attention can enhance the inhibitory effect of enterprise digital transformation on stock mispricing. The heterogeneity test reveals that the inhibiting effect of digital transformation on stock mispricing is more significant in enterprises with a higher proportion of institutional investors’ shareholding and a higher level of digital strategy leadership in the management. Therefore, it is necessary to establish, improve and promote the long-term supporting mechanism for the digital transformation of enterprises.

Can Tax Incentives Promote the Digital Transformation of Enterprises?

HUANG Yi-song

2023, 0(12):  144-156. 

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Digital transformation has a profound impact on the business, process and modes of enterprises. How to promote enterprise digital transformation has become a hot topic in the current practical and academic circles. Taking China’s A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2020 as the research samples, this paper examines the impact of tax incentives on the digital transformation of enterprises and its mechanism. The findings show that tax incentives can promote the digital transformation of enterprises. The analysis of the function mechanism shows that tax incentives can promote the digital transformation of enterprises by improving enterprise innovation and easing enterprise financing constraints. Further test reveals that when enterprises are faced with greater environmental uncertainty and stronger competitive advantages, tax incentives have more significant effects on the promotion of enterprise digital transformation. The above research results have expanded the researches on the impact factors of enterprise digital transformation and the economic consequences of tax incentives, providing empirical evidences and policy references for Chinese government departments to adhere to the policy of reducing taxes and fees, increase the strength of tax returns, and promote enterprises to realize digital transformation faster and better.