Taking the Stock Connect scheme as an exogenous shock based on data of China’s Ashare non-financial listed companies from 2009 to 2021, we identify the causal effect of stock market liberalization on green innovation. The baseline result based on a staggered difference-indifferences (DID) model suggests that stock market liberalization promotes corporate green innovation and this effect is similar to the green benefits of China’s mandatory environmental regulations. The results are robust to various checks, including the parallel trend tests, placebo tests, and the heterogenous time-varying treatment test based on Bacon decomposition and the DIDM approach. The enhanced continuity of corporate financing, improved corporate green governance and increased firm external technological collaboration are three plausible channels that allow stock market liberalization to promote corporate green innovation. Moreover, the effect is more significant for clean firms, non-SOEs, and firms in a good institutional environment. Further analysis suggests that the green innovation-enhancing effects of stock market liberalization are more likely to be high-quality innovation. Our paper provides new insights into understanding the green benefits of stock market liberalization and achieving sustainable economic development in developing countries.

In this paper, we investigate whether those enterprises adopting digital finance exhibit higher values. On the basis of the constructed fintech-related lexicon developed by the machine learning-based Word2Vec model, we employ the frequency of fintech-related words (phrases) in the management discussion sections of annual reports as a proxy variable for the degree to which enterprises apply digital finance. We utilize panel data regression and mediation models based on data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2022 and explore the impact of this degree of digital finance application on enterprise value. We find that the degree to which enterprises apply digital finance elevates their values. The in-depth integration of digital technology and finance directly enhances enterprise value by reducing financing costs. Additionally, the effects are more evident among small-scale firms and enterprises located in regions with lower marketization levels. However, in the face of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the positive effects on enterprises are relatively low.

Digital economy promotes the modernization of industrial structure by influencing the rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure through technical level and factor level; while excessive credit expansion hinders the modernization of industrial structure. This paper uses panel data from 31 jurisdictions in China to conduct empirical analysis, and finds that digital economy development shows a year-on-year rising trend, and there is a large gap between different regions. The conclusion still holds after the robustness test and regional heterogeneity analysis, thus enriching the understanding of mechanisms and regional differentiation of digital economy, credit expansion on industrial structure modernization.

Purpose – Using a sample of 9,898 firm-year observations from 1,821 unique Chinese listed firms over the period from 2004 to 2019, this study aims to investigate whetherthe marketrewards meeting or beating analyst earnings expectations (MBE). Design/methodology/approach –The authors use an event study methodology to capture marketreactions to MBE. Findings – The authors document a stock return premium for beating analyst forecasts by a wide margin. However,there is no stock return premium forfirms that meet orjust beat analystforecasts, suggesting that the market is skeptical of earnings management by these firms. This market underreaction is more pronounced for firms with weak external monitoring. Further analysis shows that meeting or just beating analyst forecasts is indicative of superior future financial performance. The authors do not find firms using earnings management to meet or just beat analyst forecasts. Research limitations/implications – The authors provide evidence of market underreaction to meeting or just beating analyst forecasts, with the market’s over-skepticism of earnings management being a plausible mechanism for this phenomenon. Practical implications – The findings of this study are informative to researchers, market participants and regulators concerned about the impact of analysts and earnings management and interested in detecting and constraining managers’ earnings management. Originality/value – The authors provide new insights into how the market reacts to MBE by showing that the market appears to focus on using meeting or just beating analyst forecasts as an indicator of earnings management, while it does not detect managed MBE. Meeting or just beating analyst forecasts is commonly used as a proxy for earnings management in the literature. However, the findings suggest that it is a noisy proxy for earnings management.

Purpose – This study aims to examine whether and how gender diversity on corporate boards is associated with voluntary nonfinancial disclosures, particularly water disclosures. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses corporate water information disclosure data from Chinese listed firms between 2010 and 2018 to conductregression analyses to examine the association between female directors and water information disclosure. Findings – Empirical results show that female directors have a significantly positive association with corporate water information disclosure. Additionally, internal industry water sensitivity of firms moderates this significant relationship. Originality/value – This study determined that female directors can promote not only water disclosure but also positive corporate water performance, reflecting the consistency of words and deeds of female directors in voluntary nonfinancial disclosures.

This study examines the impact of quantitative investment on stock price crash risk from the perspective of quantitative mutual funds holdings. The results show that quantitative mutual funds holdings can significantly reduce stock price crash risk, and this effect is more pronounced in subsamples characterized by executives with overseas backgrounds, higher internal governance efficiency, greater analyst attention, and higher profit volatility. Further research finds that quantitative mutual funds holdings can suppress the risk of stock price crash by smoothing the volatility of stock returns and optimizing the valuation of firms. This study sheds light on the effects of quantitative investment on stock price crash risk.

Dynamic efficiency is an essential issue in macroeconomics and finance, central to the analyses of economic growth, asset pricing, and fiscal policies for both academia and policymakers. We offer an integrated analysis of metrics from the perspective of interest rates and capital returns, examining the relationship between varying rates of return r and growthg in China. We compare the risk-free rate rf, the returns on assets re, and the returns on capital rk with the growth rate g. Our findings indicate that, in general, rf < g, g < re, and g < rk. As the economy slows, the gap between rf and g continues to shrink, while the signs suggest that returns to capital are falling slightly slower than the rate of economic growth. Furthermore, we use a state-space model to estimate China’s natural rate of interest r∗ and potential output growth rate g∗. We find that r∗ < g∗ and the gap between themhas gradually narrowed over the past two decades.

We investigate the impact of government environmental credit ratings on bond credit spreads based on a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2022. Empirical results demonstrate that a favourable environmental credit rating significantly reduces bond credit spreads, highlighting the incentivising effect of environmental credit ratings. Mechanism testing reveals that a good environmental credit rating diminishes information asymmetry and enhances an enterprise’s resource acquisition capabilities, reducing bond credit spreads. Furthermore, subgroup analyses suggest the reduction effect is more pronounced in enterprises with low debt and tax credit ratings.

We use the event study method to assess the impact of China's National Centralized Drug Procurement (NCDP) policy on the stock price of A-share listed companies in pharmaceutical industry. And the empirical evidence reveals that the policy has a negative effect on the share prices of firms won the bids in the past six centralized procurement. The stock prices of winning bidders were more negatively affected than those of non-winning bidders. If the winning bid price continues to be depressed, we cannot rule out the possibility of a collective abandonment of bidding by quality manufacturers.

本文首次对我国 2019 年新证券法生效前的内幕交易案件进行了一个全面和深入的实证研究，并与境外法域进行比较，揭示我国内幕交易法律的执行情况。我国对内幕交易的打击力度持续加大，案件数量显著增长，以行政处罚为主，但 2008 年后刑事处罚逐渐增加。内幕交易变得更为隐蔽，体现在非传统类型的内幕人增多、内幕信息主要与并购相关、选择只交易且利用他人账户交易等。我国的内幕交易处罚类型与境外法域基本接轨，处罚强度甚至居于前列，其主要的影响因素包括违法所得、社会影响、减轻处罚情节、是否使用他人账户等。基于这些发现，本文评价了 2019 年证券法相关修订，提出了相关完善建议，并指出了需要进一步研究的课题。