Using political turnovers in mayoral appointments at the prefecture-city level in China, we show that investors in the municipal corporate bond market price their concerns for rising local political uncertainty into bonds and relocate capital toward other corporate bonds issued by local firms. Municipal/non-municipal corporate bond issue spreads increase (decrease) by 8.9 (14) basis points before the expected political turnover of mayors and reverse afterwards. The effect is more prominent for bonds issued in cities with investors who have a strong local preference, suggesting investors switch from MCBs to local non-MCBs in their bond holdings. The pricing effect is also stronger for bonds issued in regions with more developed financial markets and bonds with lower credit ratings. Lastly, bond market participants only price in the political risk induced by the turnovers of politician with direct involvement in local economic activities.

This study investigates the impact of independent directors' participation in the shareholders meeting on corporate governance, and finds that the more frequently the independent directors attend shareholder meetings, the lower the degree of earnings management by the enterprise; the mechanism test shows that more information increases the probability, frequency, and severity of independent directors’ subsequent dissenting opinions; This study identified a new channel for independent directors to independently obtain true information and this is of great significance for regulators, shareholders, company board, and other stakeholders with an interest in how the information influence independent directors governance effects.

The advantages and disadvantages of universal banking have long been debated. Using the successive granting of lead underwriter qualifications to commercial banks in China as a quasi-natural experiment, we study the impact of universal banking on non-financial firms’ investment decisions. We find that after a firm’s main lending banks qualify as lead underwriters, the firm’s investment increases by 7.7 to 8.3 percent on a gross or net basis. The underlying mechanism is that universal banking can generate informational economies of scope and relax constraints on the provision of external finance. In contrast, we find no evidence on the conflict of interest between universal banks and their customers. Our study, therefore, sheds light on the potential gains from universal banking.

We investigate the impact of the geographic proximity of underwriters on bond characteristics by using corporate and enterprise bonds issued in China from 2009 to 2019. We find bonds underwritten by underwriters in close geographic proximity are associated with lower financing costs, longer maturity in high and medium credit rating firms, shorter maturity in low credit rating firms, and lower default risk. Further, we find substitution effects between the geographic proximity of underwriter and underwriter reputation, and also between the geographic proximity of underwriter and firm transparency on reducing the costs of bond financing; i.e., a better reputation of the underwriter or higher transparency of the firm will weaken geographical proximate underwriters’ effects. Our results are robust in subsamples when firms have different degrees of local government connections.

Using samples of corporate bonds issued by Chinese A-share firms from 2007 to 2019, we examine how the type of local bond underwriting firm, specifically, whether the local underwriter has foreign shareholders or does not have foreign shareholders, affects the number of bond covenants. Our findings suggest that local underwriters with foreign shareholders (UFS) add more covenants to their bonds to protect the interests of bondholders than local underwriters without foreign shareholders (UNFS). Thus, having UFS underwrite bonds in an emerging market generally helps investor protection. Our conclusion remains robust to alternative metrics of bond covenants and foreign shareholders, and after accounting for endogeneity. Additional analyses suggest that the effect of UFS on bond covenants is more salient when: 1) the issuer is opaque, has a dual board chair and CEO, or is a non-state owned firm, 2) the issuer is located in a poor legal environment, in a low marketization area, or a region with poor economic development, or 3) the foreign shareholder of the local underwriter has experience in its home market, is from a country with a better legal environment, or has ample experience in the Chinese underwriting business.

This study investigates the effect of financial technology (FinTech) development on stock price crash risk. We show that the development of FinTech can inhibit management from deliberately hiding bad news and alleviate information asymmetry, thereby reducing stock price crash risk. This effect is more pronounced among non-state-owned enterprises, firms with poor information environments and low-quality internal controls, and those in competitive industries and regions with high marketization. Overall, these findings suggest that the development of FinTech can mitigate the deliberate concealment of bad news by management and improve the timeliness of disclosure, leading to lower risks faced by investors.

基于社会网络理论，从资金支持和技术知识角度构建资金流和知识流网络，并进行多重网络解耦研究。利用我国创业板 2010-2019 年科技型上市公司的资金来源数据及专利数据，构建以科技金融网络代表企业所处的资金流网络，以知识网络代表企业所处的知识流网络，将企业技术创新嵌入在科技金融网络与知识网络的多重网络结构中，探讨企业科技金融网络与知识网络的关系特征和结构特征对企业技术创新的影响，并分析科技金融网络联系强度和知识网络联系强度，分别对科技金融网络、知识网络结构特征与企业技术创新间关系的调节作用。实证结果表明，科技金融网络联系强度和中心度对企业技术创新均具 有正向影响，知识网络联系强度和中心度均对企业技术创新呈倒 U 型影响；科技金融网络联系强度对科技金融网络中心度与企业技术创新间正相关关系的调节作用不显著，但正向调节知识网络中心度与企业技术创新间的倒 U 型关系；知识网络联系强度负向调节科技金融网络中心度与企业技术创新的正相关关系，正向调节知识网络中心度与企业技术创新的倒 U 型关系。

近年来，我国大力推动绿色金融发展的顶层设计，制定和出台了一系列促进绿色金融发展的法律法规，逐步探索构建起我国绿色金融体系。2007 年 7 月 12 日环保总局、人民银行、银监会三部门联合提出《关于落实环境保护政策法规防范信贷风险的意见》，标志着绿色信贷这一经济手段全面进入我国污染减排的主战场。2016年 8 月 31 日，中国人民银行、财政部等七部委联合发布《关于构建绿色金融体系的指导意见》，成为中国和全球的绿色金融元年。邮储银行在绿色信贷发展方面做了大量的工作，本文结合邮储银行绿色金融实践，从机构及产品角度分析绿色金融发展存在的问题，包括：产品创新不足、业务联动不足、资源配置不足、资源分配机制落后。据此，本文结合招商银行、兴业银行等金融机构的先进案例，提出邮储银行绿色金融供给侧改革意见和建议，一是以创新思维推动绿色信贷产品创新，二是形成跨部门多层级的联动营销机制，三是以市场为基础从需求出发配置资源，四是肩负敢于作为勇于担责的使命责任。

应对国际气候变化的政策框架有两类：一是减排政策，政府补贴、碳税与碳配额作为市场性政策的代表，从奖励与惩罚两方面下手，各有千秋，碳税政策或更符合我国国情；二是绿色金融，当下统一绿色金融界定标准、激励绿色信贷、进行环境信息披露制度、气候风险分析和前瞻性压力测试是较优的政策选项。

本文以2006年至2015年我国上市公司为研究对象考察了期权激励对企业并购行为的影响及其作用机制。实证结果表明，授予高管的期权激励显著提升了企业发起并购的可能性和并购规模，缓解代理问题和提升风险承担是期权激励影响企业并购行为的潜在机制。异质性分析结果表明，高管特征差异对期权激励效果具有重要影响，期权激励对企业并购的影响在管理者年龄较高、管理者任期较长以及管理者相对薪酬水平较低的企业中更加明显；同时，企业产权性质也会影响期权激励的效果，期权激励对企业并购行为的影响在非国有企业中更加突出。进一步，本文还发现期权激励提升了企业并购的财务业绩，实现了高管的股票期权回报。本文的研究丰富和拓展了期权激励影响企业并购活动的相关研究，对制定合理的激励机制以及理解企业并购行为具有一定的参考意义。