This study assesses the impact of China’s Green Credit Guidelines (GCG) 2012 on the quality of firms’ green innovation and their financial asset allocations. While examining patent applications and grants, our findings reveal that, although the GCG 2012 led to a significant increase in green patent applications, its influence on granted patents, especially in the invention category, was minimal. This highlights a discrepancy between innovation intent and quality, suggesting that highpolluting enterprises (HPEs) prioritize rapid policy compliance rather than substantial environmental improvements. However, HPEs seem to prioritize liquidity over long-term financialization, potentially indicating enhanced credit allocation efficiency.

Local financial development is crucial for advancing regional financial supply side structural reform, enabling local governments to leverage financial instruments to effectively mobilize land resources and foster competitive growth. The introduction of numerous financial products linked to land-related rights and interests has resulted in a pronounced transmission and interconnection of fiscal and financial risks across regions. This study examines the impact of local financial development on land financialization in China using panel data from prefecture-level cities and detailed information on land mortgages. The findings indicate that the establishment of city commercial banks (CCBs) contributes to the progress of land financialization by incentivizing local government financing vehicles to participate in land mortgage financing, increasing the transfer of debt risks to the financial sector. Notably, the impact of CCBs on land financialization is more pronounced in regions with urban agglomeration, high GDP manipulation, inadequate local financial regulation, and robust implicit government guarantees. Further analysis reveals that CCB establishment has negative spillover effects on land financialization in neighboring areas, while expansion strategies such as establishing intercity branches, engaging in cross-regional mergers, and relaxing regulations have mitigated the rise of land financialization at the regional level. This study provides policy recommendations that focus on reducing local governments’ reliance on land financing and enhancing the prevention and management of financial risks.

The level of corporate risk-taking impacts debt default as a crucial investment decision. Hence, this must be examined considering resource allocation. This study uses A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2021 as samples to empirically explore the impact and mechanism of corporate risk-taking level on debt default risk. The results show that corporate risk-taking can significantly inhibit debt default and the risk of debt default by promoting total factor productivity. Further, the higher the level of enterprise financialization of the firm, the higher the stock liquidity, and the higher the level of managerial confidence, the stronger the inhibitory effect of corporate risktaking on debt default. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the inhibitory effect of corporate risk-taking on debt default is more significant in large-scale enterprises, enterprises with lower regulatory shareholdings, and enterprises with standard unqualified audit opinions. The study provides guidance for enterprises to improve the level of risk-taking and resource allocation efficiency effectively. Moreover, it provides empirical support for regulators to effectively prevent "waves of defaults" and even "waves of bankruptcies" in the real economy.

Using data from Chinese A-share listed companies for the period 2007–2022,we investigates the impact of financialization on the long-term use of short-term debt (LUSD). Our findings reveal that increased financialization leads to a stronger issue of LUSD. Financialization squeezes long-term investments and equity financing levels of firms, thereby leading to LUSD. Moreover, the rise in financing costs and the degree of financing constraints intensify the effects of financialization on LUSD. The smaller the scale of the enterprise, the shorter its operating period, the higher its operational risk, the greater the promoting effect of financialization on LUSD.

This paper examines the impact of collateral shocks on corporate financialization using a sample of Chinese-listed firms from 2008 to 2021. We find a statistically and economically significant positive effect of collateral appreciation on financialization, consistent with profit-chasing motives, even after addressing endogeneity concerns. Additional tests reveal the effects are more pronounced among financially constrained, bank-dependent, and high-agency-cost firms. Financialization also elevates the risktaking and financial risks of firms. Overall, we provide novel evidence that collateral shocks stimulate corporate financialization, with implications for incentives, regulation, and systemic risk monitoring.

Efficient enterprise development plays a crucial role in the achievement of economic efficiency, which is reflected in the improvement of total factor productivity (TFP). This study examines the effect of corporate maturity mismatch on TFP and explores whether financialisation influences this relationship. This study uses data from Chinese A-share listed non-financial enterprises from 2007 to 2019. We find that maturity mismatch negatively impacts TFP through performance inhibition, agency costs, and capital allocation efficiency reduction. Additionally, we find that financialisation positively moderates the negative effect of corporate maturity mismatch on TFP, and the effect is more pronounced when a firm has higher risk-bearing capacity and greater governance efficiency. We use two-stage least squares to demonstrate the robustness of our results.