This paper measures the “greenium” in China’s stock markets with data during 2011-2020. We find that the green stocks outperform the brown ones in China and public climate concern brings the greenium. Based on the phenomenon, with panel regression, we furtherly figure out that the firms’ stock returns are positively correlated with their ESG rating, and public climate concern strengthens the relationship, which suggests that China’s stock investors behavioral bias contributes to greenium.

This paper examines the effects of digital finance and corporate stock price crash risk, and the underlying mechanisms, using panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies between 2012 and 2021. Specifically, we focus on whether digital transformation and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance are intermediary channels through which digital finance mitigates corporate stock price crash risk. By employing panel regression and mediation effect models, we demonstrate that digital finance significantly reduces corporate stock price crash risk. This conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness tests, including the replacement of core explanatory variables, lagging digital finance by one period, using alternative dependent variables, applying the instrumental variables method, and system GMM estimation. More importantly, we find that digital finance curbs stock price crash risk by enhancing digital transformation and ESG performance. In addition, we reveal that digital finance has heterogeneous effects on corporate stock price crash risk. The inhibitory effect of digital finance on stock price crash risk is more pronounced in the central and western regions of China and for companies with lower internal control levels, higher information transparency, and higher financing constraints.

We investigate, for China’s investable companies, the relation between stock returns and firm characteristics, and the impacts on the relation of the 2001-2003 financial reforms to further liberalize stock markets. For the first time in the literature, we document coexistence of a positive size effect and a growth effect, and the importance of liquidity and positive earnings for returns; and we also show that they underwent a structural break upon the reforms. These results are robust across 12 alternative panel model specifications with different ways of estimating and controlling for the market beta, different proxies for market portfolios, the problem of outliers considered, and the January effect allowed for.

This paper assesses the impact of the recent financial reforms in China. Following the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization, financial liberalisation has picked up considerable momentum. Measures introduced encompass deregulation in the banking sector and refinements in various financial markets, as well as allowing more freedom for Chinese and foreign investors to participate and interact domestically and overseas. Compared to other studies on financial liberalisation, this study focuses on a relatively narrower aspect of financial reforms namely, the impact on stock market liquidity. Using a panel data set drawn from the Shanghai stock market, we find a positive and significant liquidity impact associated with the recent round of measures, which reflects not only an improvement in capital allocation efficiency in China’s equity market but, from a financial stability point of view, also a reduction in its vulnerability. The finding also provides evidence on one of the important channels in which financial liberalisation can be transformed into economic growth over time.