The Excellence Initiatives represent a significant investment in higher education, yet little is known about the causal impact of these programs on doctoral students and future researchers. Using a comprehensive student-level dataset, we apply a difference-in-differences approach to identify how China’s Double World-Class (DWC) Project affects PhD students’ research productivity. Our results indicate that the DWC Project significantly increases both the quantity and the quality of research output among PhD students in supported disciplines, even after controlling for supervisor-related effects. In addition, these impacts vary significantly across institutional tiers and academic fields. Lower-tier universities experience considerable increases in publication volume with slight enhancements in quality, while top-tier institutions show no notable variation in either aspect. Disciplinary patterns also vary: Science and medicine show improvement in both measures, while engineering displays little change overall. These findings demonstrate how excellence initiatives influence human capital development via doctoral training and provide evidence-based recommendations for education policymakers aiming to maximize returns on strategic higher education investments worldwide.

Purpose – Estimates disclosure of human capital management for Chinese listed companies. Investigate the patterns ofthe disclosure of human capital management acrossindustries and regions. Examine the determinants of human capital management disclosure in China. Examine the association between human capital management disclosure and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach – We employ natural language processing techniques on annual reports’ management discussion and analysissections.We construct exposuremeasuresforten human capitalmanagement dimensions and synthesize them into one comprehensive measure of human capital management disclosure. We conduct empirical analysis on the measure using a sample of Chinese listed companies during 2009–2022. Findings – We construct a measure of human capital management disclosure for 5,153 Chinese companies during 2009–2022. We find that firms with high HCM disclosure are more labor intensive and have more cash holdings and R&D expenditure but have lower sales growth, market-to-book ratio and leverage. HCM disclosure is associated with better future accounting performance but poor future market valuation. There are substantial variations in HCM disclosure across industries, geographic regions and ownership types. HCM disclosure has increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social implications – The increased HCM disclosure and its association with firm operating performance and market valuation indicate the relevance of HCM in corporate management and underscore the need for more robust and standardized disclosure of HCM in China. Our findingssupport recent regulatory efforts by CSRC to enhance the transparency and accountability in HCM disclosures and advocate for more explicit and specific HCM disclosure requirements in the future. Originality/value – We propose a quantitative measure of human capital management disclosure, which can be modified to apply to other markets. We construct a comprehensive, ready-to-use dataset for HCM disclosure for Chinese listed companies and conduct descriptive analysis on the dataset. We identify the patterns of human capital management disclosure and its determinants in China.

This study examines whether China’s Industrial Internet pilot policy (2017–2023) enhances firm innovation and explores the underlying mechanisms. Exploiting the staggered rollout of the policy across provinces as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that Industrial Internet adoption significantly increases firms’ innovation output. Mechanism tests show that the policy promotes knowledge accumulation, strengthens innovation persistence, and improves human capital allocation. We also document positive economic consequences, as treated firms earn higher returns to innovation. The effects are stronger for capital-intensive firms, those located in regions with advanced digital infrastructure, and firms undertaking joint or substantive innovation activities. Overall, the evidence highlights the Industrial Internet as an effective catalyst for firm innovation by deepening R&D capability and facilitating cross-industry knowledge flows.

The frequent occurrence of extreme weather events not only poses serious challenges to global economic growth and financial stability but also affects firms negatively across multiple dimensions. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2006-2016, this study aims to explore the effect of climate risk on firm export sophistication. The findings show that climate risk inhibits firm export sophistication, with the results varying depending on firm and industry types. Specifically, climate risk (i) inhibits export sophistication for firms with low government subsidies more than for firms with high government subsidies; (ii) restraints export sophistication for firms in high-tech industries rather than for low-and medium-tech industries; and (iii) reduces export sophistication for firms in low-marketization regions more than for firms in high-marketization regions. In addition, channel analysis shows that climate risk inhibits firm export sophistication by increasing financial constraints and reducing human capital.

This study investigates the impact of early leadership experiences on innovation performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. Using Enterprise Survey for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in China (ESIEC) cross-sectional datasets, it examines the mediating role of psychological traits and the moderating effect of age in this relationship. The analysis employs fixed effects models to control for regional and industry-specific unobserved characteristics. Results indicate a significant positive relationship between early leadership experiences and innovation, with psychological traits mediating this relationship strongly in younger entrepreneurs. For older entrepreneurs, early leadership has a more direct and stronger impact on innovation. These findings underscore the importance of early leadership development in education phase and suggest that the influence and pathways evolve with age, offering particular insights into the formation and application of social and human capital in the entrepreneurial journey

The role of Market-incentive environmental regulation (MIER) within the framework of environmental governance is patently evident. While extant literature lauds the advantageous outcomes attributed to the environmental protection tax (EPT) which as a representative of MIER, our empirical inquiry presents a contrasting narrative. By employing the sophisticated Difference-in-Difference-in-Difference (DDD) methodology and utilizing data from A-share listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2015-2022, our investigation reveals a significant decrease in firms’ total factor productivity (TFP) following the implementation of EPT. Our core assertion is fortified through the discernment of two plausible mechanisms, namely, the production downsizing effect and the production capital crowding-out effect. Building upon this revelation, we delve into the nuanced pathways through which firms can strategically mitigate the impacts of EPT, encompassing the enhancement of human capital, amplification of research and development (R&D) investments, and fortification of overall firm resilience. Heterogeneity analysis discloses a notably heightened impact of EPT on TFP of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), larger enterprises and enterprises located in eastern regions. Ultimately, an approximately cost-benefit analysis conclusively demonstrates that the benefits derived from EPT far surpass the costs incurred by the concomitant industrial output reduction, which further illustrates the rationale for the implementation of EPT.

Do firms adjust their hiring decisions after receiving environmental punishments? Using data on over 4.3 million job postings for Chinese listed firms from 2015 to 2021, we find that firms subjected to environmental punishments will subsequently increase their corporate green hiring (i.e., employees with green skills). Pressure from local environmental concerns and regulatory efforts incentivizes firms to increase their demand for employees with green skills. Environmental punishments have a more pronounced effect on corporate green hiring for non-state-owned enterprises and firms with lower financial constraints. Moreover, green hiring can have a remediation effect on firms' environmental performance and stimulate their green innovation activities and spillover effects on other firms within the industry. Overall, our findings shed light on corporate hiring decisions under environmental regulations.

We examine the effect of minority shareholder voting rights on labor investment efficiency using a sample of Chinese firms. Taking advantage of the difference-in-difference setting, our study reveals that the expansion of minority shareholder voting rights has a detrimental effect on labor investment efficiency. Through analysis of holding period and a managerial shortsightedness index based on textual analysis, we find that this outcome can be attributed to the fact that minority shareholders typically prioritize short-term gains over long-term corporate growth. Moreover, the impact of voting power is more pronounced in determining the investment efficiency of rank-andfileemployees. Our results are more significant for firms that face severe financial constraints, are non-state-owned enterprises, exhibit lower levels of internal control, possess fewer female managers, demonstrate lower human capital quality and higher labor intensity. Taken together, our paper suggests that minority shareholders could be myopia in making labor decisions.

Based on the panel data of listed manufacturing companies in China from 2010 to 2019, the artificial intelligence (AI) index is constructed using the industrial robot data provided by the International Federation of Robotics, and the two-way fixed effect model is used to test the impact of AI on the total factor productivity (TFP) of enterprises. The results show that AI significantly improves the TFP of manufacturing enterprises, and this conclusion remains valid after robustness tests and endogeneity processing. AI promotes TFP by improving the level of human capital and technological innovation, and management and operational levels positively regulate the promotional effect of AI on the TFP of enterprises. Compared with manufacturing enterprises in the central and western regions, AI boosts the TFP of those in the eastern region; compared with non-state-owned enterprises, AI boosts the TFP of state-owned enterprises; and AI significantly boosts the TFP of high-tech and non-high-tech enterprises.

This study explores how foreign competition impacts the capital structure of domestic firms. While import competition is associated with a decrease in domestic firms’ leverage, we propose a novel perspective concerning the positive effect of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on leverage. FDI competition can boost demand for debt via productivity spillover to domestic firms, and also increase supply of debt by inducing lenders to herd toward foreign investors. Using Chinese firm-level data, we find that the positive effects of industry inward FDI on domestic firms’ leverage are more pronounced in high-tech industries and industries where foreign investors exhibit a high degree of herding behavior. Our instrument variable approach, employing industry exchange rates and import tariffs, supports these findings. Additionally, we reveal that the positive effect of FDI on local firms’ leverage is amplified when the firms have stronger absorptive capacities, receive foreign capital, and experience more human capital transfers from foreign rivals.