Table of Content

15 May 2024, Volume 0 Issue 5

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Theoretical Economics

Progress, Regional Differences, and Promotion Strategies of China's New Industrialization

LI Peng, JIANG Mei-qin

2024, 0(5):  3-16. 

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New industrialization is the core component and driving force for building a modern industrial system and a powerful modern socialist country. Facing the realistic background of profound changes in the major domestic and international situations, the connotation of new industrialization has taken on new characteristics. This paper constructs a new industrialization index system from six dimensions: people orientation, quality priority, independent innovation, green and low-carbon, digital and real integration, and open and circulation, and evaluates the new industrialization development level of each region during the“13th Five-Year Plan”period. The findings show that during the “13th Five-Year Plan”period, China's new industrialization development level has continued to improve as a whole, but the regional differences are obvious and there is a trend of expansion. Among them, the eastern region is the most important source of the promotion of the level of new industrialization. The results of industrial green and low-carbon transformation are obvious, but there is an expanding trend among the regions; the integration of the digital and the real is insufficient to support the new industrialization, and there are also significant regional differences. The results show that the regional differences in the new industrialization index mainly come from inter-regional differences. The overall regional differences in the independent innovation index are relatively the largest, which is an important focus to promote regional new industrialization synergy in the future. The digital development is undergoing regional differentiation, to which attention should be paid. The flow of cross-regional factors is not smooth, and there is still an obvious problem of regional market segmentation. In the process of promoting the new industrialization and the coordinated regional development, it is required to pay attention to the efficient collaboration between the two.

Local Government Debt Management System Reform and Corporate Labor Income Share

XIONG Jia-cai, HUANG Ling

2024, 0(5):  17-29. 

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Increasing labor income share is the core of optimizing the income distribution pattern and achieving common prosperity. Utilizing the implementation of the new Budget Law in 2015 as a policy shock on the reform of local government debt management system, this paper examines the impact of local government debt management system reform on the labor income share of enterprises. The findings show that the reform of local government debt management system has remarkably escalated the proportion of labor income attributed to enterprises. In the regions with greater financial pressure or with worse institutional environment, and in the enterprises with stronger financing constraints, the promoting effect of the reform of local government debt management system on the labor income of enterprises is more pronounced. As far as the mechanism is concerned, the reform of local government debt management system can help to reduce the strength of government taxes and non-tax revenue administration and constrain the increase of the implicit debt of local governments, thus helps enterprises to improve their financing availability and alleviate their financing constraints. In this way enterprises will invest more resources into labor factors, thereby increase the share of labor income. Therefore, the central government should continuously improve the regulatory system for local government debt, effectively control the scale of implicit local government debt, and alleviate the competition between the government and enterprises in the credit market.

Public Economics & Administration

Chinese-Style VAT Modernization: Initial Dynamics, Political Logic and Advancement Path

MAO Xiao-jun

2024, 0(5):  30-43. 

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Optimizing the value-added tax (VAT) system is one of the most important elements in building a modern tax system in the new era. In this regard, based on the typical facts of Chinese-style VAT modernization, this paper examines the functional changes in the process of institutional changes, and explores the proper positioning and optimization direction of the VAT law in the new era by integrating the external tax structure with the internal institutional design. At present, striking a balance between central financial control and local government incentives has always been the core issue in the design of China's VAT law. In the face of the constraints of the early reform and opening-up period, the reconstruction of China's compound tax system must rely on the turnover tax represented by the VAT. In the process of balancing local financial power and central control, the effectiveness of VAT in promoting the centralization of tax power has been amplified and strengthened, and eventually a compound tax system with VAT as the main body has been developed. Under the current tax structure, in order to stabilize local financial resources and maintain central financial control, it is necessary to continue to rely on the tax power concentration of VAT, so as to realize the modernization of Chinese-style VAT. In view of this, China's VAT law should be shifted from“sharing before centralization”to“tax collection before sharing”, with the specific design in the following directions: VAT needs to be fully adjusted towards the centralized tax position, continue to be taxed according to the principle of the place of production, and finally be divided among local governments according to the level of consumption.

Talent Introduction, Individual Income Tax Incentives and Enterprise Labor Income Share

SUN Qun-li, HAN Chao-sheng

2024, 0(5):  44-57. 

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Implementing the strategy of strengthening the country with talent in the new era, improving talent incentive policies and enhancing talent competitiveness will play an important role in optimizing income distribution patterns and promoting high quality development of the economy. Taking the reform of personal income tax preferential policies in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in 2019 as an event impact, this paper examines the impact and mechanism of high-end talent introduction on the labor income share of enterprises with the data from listed companies in China. The findings show that the preferential policy of personal income tax has reduced the relative cost of enterprises labor factors, and significantly increased the share of labor income within the policy. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that competitive industries, non-state-owned enterprises, non-capital-incentive enterprises and and high-tech enterprises are more affected by personal income tax preferential policies. The mechanism analysis reveals that the personal income tax incentive policy has reduced the relative price of talent factors, which can not only motivate enterprises to increase their investment in human capital and facilitating the deepening of human capital, but also improve their innovative investment and increase the number of their R&D staff and skilled personnel, so as to increase their labor income share. Therefore, it is recommended to increase tax incentives for talents and promote the improvement and efficiency of personal income tax preferential policies; improve the talent introduction system and enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises; and optimize the talent training system of enterprises and increase the share of labor income.

Modern Finance

Banking Fintech, Economic Policy Uncertainty and Corporate Investment Behavior

FENG Yong-qi, CAO Yue

2024, 0(5):  58-72. 

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At present, uncertainty has become normal, and the role of banking fintech empowering the development of the real economy is more and more significant. In theory, banking fintech has the function of optimizing the allocation of financial resources and alleviating the negative impact of economic policy uncertainty on enterprises. Based on the data of banking fintech patents and corporate loans from 2013 to 2022 in China, this paper explores how banking fintech adjusts the inhibitory effect of economic policy uncertainty on corporate real investment. The findings show that, firstly, banking fintech could significantly alleviate the inhibitory impact of economic policy uncertainty on corporate investment, and this effect is more significant in the state-owned enterprises and the enterprises with lower digitalization levels or lower financial risks. Secondly, banking fintech primarily exerts a mitigating effect by reducing financial frictions and by decreasing the option waiting value. Thirdly, banking fintech could weaken the negative effect of the economic policy uncertainty on corporate financialization, and further enhance the level of corporate social responsibility bearing. Therefore, the government and the banking sector should actively promote the development of fintech, enhance the banking sector's ability to provide personalized services to enterprises, strengthen the integration of fintech with the real economy, and improve the regulatory system and the risk prevention system.

Banking Fintech, Lending Distance and Banking Competition: From the Perspective of Credit Diversification

FENG Jue, WANG Ying-dong, CHEN Meng-jie

2024, 0(5):  73-85. 

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Fintech has produced far-reaching changes in the banking business model and has become the key for banks to break through the competition in the credit market. By making use of the data of banking fintech patents, the data of listed company borrowing, and the geographic information of commercial banks from 2013 to 2021, this paper systematically assesses the effect of fintech development on real banking competition and its mechanism. The findings show that banking fintech has significantly intensified the banking competition and expanded the diversified access for enterprises to get credit. The mechanism analysis shows that banking fintech has intensified the banking competition by expanding the lending distance between banks and enterprises, and this mechanism is more significant in areas with scarce financial resources, which helps to improve the fairness of financial services. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of banking fintech on banking competition is more pronounced among firms with higher financing constraints, insufficient market attention, or leading digital transformation, which has effectively improved the allocation efficiency of credit resources. Further analysis reveals that the development of fintech can contribute to the improvement of the competitive environment of the credit market for different types of banks. Therefore, attention should be paid to the impact of the enabling effect of fintech on banking competition, and the development of banking fintech should be standardized and steadily promoted. At the same time, financial supervision should be strengthened to prevent disorderly competition, so as to continue to assist the high-quality development of enterprises.

Business Administration

Humor Advertisement and Consumer Ambivalent Attitude

LI Xue-xin, LIAN Yi-zhen, LI Lin

2024, 0(5):  86-100. 

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Humor advertisement is a common type of advertisements, which is playing an important role in improving consumer product attitudes and promoting the development of the advertising industry. Based on the SOR theory and the elaboration likelihood model, this paper explores the impact, mechanism, and boundary conditions of humor advertisement on consumer subjective and objective ambivalent attitudes with three experiments. The results indicate that, firstly, compared to non-humor advertisement, humor advertisement could significantly exert negative impact on consumers' subjective and objective ambivalent attitudes. Secondly, there are differences in the mechanism of the impact of humor advertisement on consumers' subjective and objective ambivalent attitudes, which could alleviate the subjective ambivalent attitudes from the positive emotion through the peripheral paths, while produce a negative impact on the objective ambivalent attitudes both from the perceived AD credibility through the cognitive path and from the positive emotion through the peripheral path. Thirdly, by enhancing the“distraction effect”and by leveraging the“vampire effect”, the feasibility AD appeals and the desirability AD appeals could respectively moderate the impact of humor advertisement on consumers' subjective and objective ambivalent attitudes significantly. Based on the above research findings, it is suggested that enterprises can use humor advertisements to affect consumers by enhancing their trust in the advertising content, their positive cognitive understanding of the product, and their positive emotions when watching the advertisements. And by changing the means of expression of humor advertisements, enterprises can also achieve the targeted exertion of differentiated effects on the ambivalent attitudes of consumers.

Digital Transformation and Allocation of Decision-Making Power: Empirical Evidence from Enterprise Groups

XU Wen-shuai, PENG Jian-fei, WU Yun-lang

2024, 0(5):  101-113. 

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Little attention in the existing literature is paid to the impact of digital transformation on the allocation of decision-making power within enterprise groups. By making use of the data of A-share listed companies from 2007-2020, this paper analyzes the relationship between digital transformation and the allocation of decision-making power in enterprise groups. The results show that digital transformation has significantly reduced the the concentration of decision-making power allocation in enterprise groups, and that the down movement of decision-making power can contribute to the better integration between the expertise and decision-making for the subsidiaries, which ultimately increases their innovation output. This conclusion remains robust after controlling the possible endogenous issues. The mechanism analysis shows that digital transformation facilitates decentralized management in enterprise groups mainly by reducing the agency costs of the subsidiaries. It is found through distinguishing the types of digital transformation that both the underlying technology and practical applications of digital transformation contribute to reducing the concentration of corporate decision-making power allocation. The results of the test based on the enterprise characteristics and the compatibility of digital transformation between parent and subsidiary companies show that digital transformation has a more significant impact on the decentralization of decision-making power allocation in non-state-owned and high-tech enterprise groups. The high digitalization of parent companies and subsidiaries is more conducive to the formation of a decentralized governance model in enterprise groups. Therefore, the government authorities should further accelerate the pace of digital transformation to optimize the allocation of decision-making power within enterprise groups, thereby promote the construction of a strong and innovative country.

Industry & Trade

Digital-Intelligence Integration Empowerment and Green Transformation of Manufacturing Enterprises

KUANG Chang-e, LIU Jiang-yue, LI Wen-yi

2024, 0(5):  114-127. 

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As a key path to promote the green transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing enterprises, digital-intelligence integration plays an important role in the development of digital China and a manufacturing power. Taking China's A-share manufacturing listed companies from 2007 to 2021 as the research object, this study comprehensively uses the text analysis method, the coupled coordination model, and the threshold effect model to empirically test the impact and mechanism of digital-intelligence integration on the green transformation of manufacturing enterprises. The results show that the integration of digital and intelligence has a significant enabling effect on the green transformation of manufacturing enterprises, and that this result still stands after a series of robustness tests. The integration of digital and intelligence empowers manufacturing enterprises with green transformation through green cognition and green innovation. The promotion effect of digital-intelligence integration on green transformation of enterprises is greater in the state-owned enterprises and the heavily polluting enterprises. The impact of digital-intelligence integration on the green transformation of enterprises presents a non-linear characteristic, with a threshold effect. Therefore, in order to fully leverage the empowering role of digital-intelligence integration in the green transformation of manufacturing enterprises, technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud computing, and big data should be used to improve enterprise management, strengthen corporate green awareness, promote corporate green innovation, and build a new model of digital-intelligence integration empowering green transformation. It is also required to leverage the demonstration effect of state-owned enterprises, continue to deeply implement the digital economy development strategy, actively promote the achievement of the“dual carbon”strategy goals, and promote the green transformation of enterprises with“digitalization and intelligence”as the core.

A Study of the Impact of Industrial Robot Application on the Markup Rate of Export Enterprises

FAN Dong-mei, LI Ying

2024, 0(5):  128-141. 

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In the current wave of the fourth industrial revolution, how to use new technologies to break the “low markup rate trap”faced by traditional manufacturing exports is an important issue to be solved to promote the high-quality development of China's trade. By integrating the matching data from the China Industrial Enterprise Database, the China Customs Database and the World Industrial Robot Database from 2006 to 2013, this paper explores the impact of industrial robot application on the markup rate of export enterprises and the intrinsic mechanism. The findings show that the application of industrial robots has significantly increased the markup rate of manufacturing export enterprises, and this conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests, such as adjusting for sample selectivity bias and dealing with endogeneity. Industrial robot application mainly enhances the markup rate of exporting enterprises by increasing the price of export products and reducing labor costs. The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that industrial robot application has promoted the markup rates of most manufacturing export enterprises, especially for those in areas with higher aging levels or those of capital-intensive industries, non-state-owned enterprises and export enterprises after the financial crisis, which have a greater increase in their markup rates. Therefore, in order to enhance the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing exports and promote the high-quality trade development, it is of great significance to actively promote the popularization and application of industrial robots, reduce the application cost of industrial robots, and formulate policies tailored to different industries and enterprises with different ownership according to local and current conditions.

Modern Accounting

Enterprise ESG Performance and the“Double High Deposit and Loan”Anomaly

GAO Yan-ge, FENG Jian

2024, 0(5):  142-153. 

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In recent years, the abnormal phenomenon of listed companies holding high amounts of cash while borrowing short-term loans has become the focus of social attention. Taking A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2021 as samples, this paper examines the impact of the ESG performance of enterprises on the “double high deposit and loan”anomaly. The findings show that the good performance of corporate ESG can significantly inhibit the“double high deposit and loan”anomaly. The mechanism analysis shows that good enterprise ESG performance can improve their information transparency, reduce their agency costs and alleviate their financing constraints, so as to restrain the “double high deposit and loan”abnormal phenomenon. The heterogeneity analysis shows that in industries with higher competition and in regions with poor market environment, the enterprise ESG performance has a more significant inhibitory effect on the“double high deposit and loan”anomaly. The analysis of economic consequences reveals that the enterprise ESG performance can inhibit the “double high deposit and loan”phenomenon, thus reduce the risk of stock price collapse of enterprises. Therefore, to effectively manage the“double high deposit and loan”phenomenon of enterprises, enterprises should actively improve their ESG performance level, so as to promote the orderly operation of the capital market and the high-quality development of the economy.

Information Disclosure Regulation by Industries and Financing Cost of Corporate Equity

WU Shan, ZOU Meng-qi

2024, 0(5):  154-164. 

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Information is the foundation for the efficient operation of the capital market, thus the construction of information disclosure system plays a key role in improving the functions of the capital market. Taking the Industry Information Disclosure Guidelines issued in batches by Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges as exogenous shock events, this paper examines the impact and mechanism of information disclosure regulation by industries on the financing cost of corporate equity. The results show that the information disclosure regulation by industries can significantly reduce the financing cost of corporate equity. The mechanism analysis reveals that the information disclosure regulation by industries can alleviate information asymmetry between internal and external parties of the company, reduce the operational risks of companies, optimize corporate governance structures, and ultimately reduce the financing cost of corporate equity. The economic consequence analysis shows that the information disclosure regulation by industries can increase the actual earnings and expected values of companies. Therefore, the regulatory authorities should improve the regulatory system for industry-based information disclosure, the company management should actively disclose the industrial operating information, and the investors should take the non-financial information disclosed by firms as an important basis for decision-making.