No abstract

Finance is a pillar industry of national governance. It also provides a solid guarantee for achieving the official Double Carbon target. The question of how to forefront the role of environmental governance in the reform of fiscal and taxation systems, whilst also motivating enterprises to enhance Environment in Environmental, Social, and Governance (EESG) considerations is worth investigating in depth. This study takes A-share listed companies in China from 2001 to 2020 as examples. The effect of Performance-Based Budgeting (PBB) reform on the EESG of these enterprises is empirically examined through quasi-natural experiments using a multi-time difference-in-difference model. We find that PBB significantly optimizes the EESG of the enterprises. The placebo test, the difference-in-difference method, and a series of other robustness tests all support this conclusion. Furthermore, it is suggested that the environmental governance effect of PBB is more significant in areas with heavy financial pressure and stronger government audit. The environmental governance effect of the PBB reform is significant for enterprises with government contracts, strong green innovation capabilities, or high financing constraints. The mechanism test is performed, and the results suggest that the influence mechanism of this environmental governance role lies in the fact that PBB has improved environmental protection subsidies and enhanced fiscal transparency. Through the economic consequences test, we find that enterprise EESG can bring economic benefits to enterprises, which is reflected in the improvement of enterprise return on total assets, price-to-book ratio, and total patent authorization. This study enriches literature on the economic consequences of PBB, and has significance in deepening current fiscal and tax system reform, vigorously optimizing the major strategy of carbon peak and carbon neutrality.

PurposeTo explore the state of this conditional Granger causality when other cities are not factors, we investigate housing market networks in China's major cities by using a combination of conditional Granger causality and network analysis.Design/methodology/approachAlthough housing market networks have been well discussed for different countries, the question of housing market networks in China's major cities based on the conditional causality perspective has yet to be answered.FindingsWe discover that second-tier cities are more influential than first-tier cities. Although the connectivity of the primary housing market is more complex than the diversified connectivity observed in the secondary housing market, both markets are scale-free networks that exhibit high stability. Moreover, we reveal that geographic conditions and economic development jointly determine the housing market's modular hierarchical structure. Our results provide meaningful information for both Chinese policymakers and investors.Originality/valueBy excluding the influence of other cities, our conditional Granger causality identifies the true casual relation between cities' housing markets. Moreover, it is the first paper to consider the primary housing market and secondary housing market separately. Specifically, Chinese prefer new house rather than second-hand house from both speculative and self-housing. Generally speaking, the new house price is lower than the second-hand house price since the new house is off-plan property. Therefore, understanding the difference between primary and secondary housing markets will provide useful information for both policymakers and speculators.

As the world becomes more concerned about carbon emissions, the Chinese government, which is a large contributor to carbon emissions, has also begun to pay attention to the issue of carbon emissions. Environmental regulatory policies have been implemented to improve the environment, but are these policies really conducive to improving firms’ eco-innovation performance? This paper empirically investigates the relationship between environmental regulation policies and firms’ eco-innovation performance in China and finds that: firstly, environmental regulation in China is inadequate and that manufacturing eco-innovation performance is generally low; secondly, there is a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation policies and firms’ eco-innovation performance; thirdly, there is significant industry and regional heterogeneity in the induced effects of environmental regulation tools; and fourthly, there is a mediating effect of industrial agglomeration on the promotion of firms’ eco-innovation performance. The conclusions of this paper are: firstly, that the Chinese government should continue to improve environmental regulations and strictly enforce them so that green becomes the colour of ‘economic recovery’; secondly, that the Chinese government should develop scientific and reasonable environmental regulatory policies according to local conditions; thirdly, that Chinese companies should increase their spending on research and development; and fourthly, that the Chinese government needs to optimise the industrial layout and support mechanisms. The Chinese government should play an active role in industrial agglomeration in technological innovation.

Abstract:In the past few years, the rise of Chinese economy in the world is commonly witnessed, so RMB exchange rate has gradually become an economic variable affecting the world economy that cannot be neglected. Under this background, this paper combines with monetarism research framework with mature foreign research, takes the currency model of elastic prices as the starting point, and establishes vector auto-regression model to study the factors influencing RMB exchange rate variation. Because there are rare researches on this aspect domestically, RMB exchange rate is the important economic variable gradually concentrated by domestic and foreign scholars, this paper also equips with significant theoretical and realistic meaning. The main discoveries of this paper include: 1. Excessive currency has the biggest effects on RMB exchange rate. 2. The pushing appreciation function of domestic economic increases (including first order lagging term) on RMB exchange rate. 3. The increase of current domestic v and FIR value will all lead to the depreciation trend of RMB exchange rate.On the basis of empirical research conclusion, this paper puts forward political advices: improving the property rights system; optimizing economic increase mode, improving the domestic market efficiency; loosing the management and supervision degree on capital account.