As China's bond market expands rapidly, the complexity of financial guarantee networks and their implications for credit risk have become critical issues in both academic research and financial practice. Utilizing micro-level data from China's credit bond market spanning 2014 to 2024, this study constructs a multi-layer network incorporating bonds, guarantors, and issuing firms to empirically examine the impact of guarantor network centrality on bond credit spreads. The results reveal a significant U-shaped relationship: moderate centrality reduces spreads by bolstering market confidence, whereas excessive centrality increases them due to heightened systemic risk. Mechanism analyses identify systemic risk and information asymmetry as key mediating channels through which centrality affects credit risk premiums. Heterogeneity tests indicate that this U-shaped pattern is more pronounced among state-owned guarantors, real estate firms, and high-risk clusters within the network. Furthermore, both cross-layer connectivity within the multi-layer structure and regional financial development levels significantly moderate the centrality-spread relationship. These findings offer a structural perspective on credit risk pricing in emerging markets and provide valuable policy insights for credit rating system design, guarantee regulation, and systemic risk prevention. International investors could also leverage these findings to better assess systemic risk in interconnected financial markets across emerging economies.

In view of the divergence of existing research results on the relationship between ESG and investment returns, this paper constructs an S-score metric, which comprehensively measures corporate sustainability performance. It further tests the applicability of a sustainability-based investment strategy using this metric in China's A-share market. Using Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from May 2016 to April 2024 as the research sample, the S-score is constructed across five dimensions: Profitability, Growth Opportunities, Investment Efficiency, Risk Mitigation, and ESG Performance. The S-score is calculated using Z-score standardization and entropy weighted. Strategy effectiveness was tested through univariate grouping, bivariate grouping, and Fama-Macbeth regression, further examining strategy performance under varying market conditions, holding periods, and information environments. The study finds that the S-score demonstrates significant discriminative power for cross-sectional stock returns. The hedge portfolio based on this metric achieved an annualized excess return of 7.943% after adjusting for the China three-factor (CH-3) model. Its predictive power remains robust after controlling for variables such as market capitalization and book-to-market ratio, delivering significant positive returns across bull and bear markets, extreme pandemic conditions, and holding periods of up to eight years. From a behavioral finance perspective, this paper reveals that explanations such as the gradual diffusion of information and investors' limited attention span help elucidate the profitability of the S-score strategy. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of Sustainable Investing strategies in China's A-share market, indicating that ESG-integrated factor investing can optimize resource allocation. This research contributes empirical evidence on Sustainable Investing in emerging markets, providing insights for policy formulation and practical implementation while supporting the virtuous cycle between Sustainable Investing and long-termism.

Using a novel and dynamic measure of fund-level herding that captures the tendency of a fund manager to imitate the trading decisions of the institutional crowd based on a sample of 3490 mutual funds in China for 21 years between 2003 and 2023, we find that funds with higher herding tendencies face significantly elevated delisting risks. Additionally, herding behavior is associated with shorter fund lifespans, smaller asset bases, and higher portfolio manager turnover rates. These results remain robust after employing a battery of methods to address endogeneity concerns. Collectively, our study demonstrates that herding substantially amplifies funds’ running risks.

With the accelerating global aging population, the prevalence of cognitive impairments, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, is rising steadily, giving rise to a substantial and rapidly expanding market for memory services. This review aims to systematically examine the core development trends, driving factors, innovative service models, and challenges within the memory services market in the context of the aging economy. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the entire industry chain, spanning early screening, diagnosis, non-pharmacological interventions, long-term care, and technological support. By integrating the latest business models, policy directions, and evolving consumer demands, this article explores future development trajectories and investment potential in the memory services sector. The insights offered herein are intended to support practitioners, policymakers, and researchers engaged in this critical field by delivering an in-depth understanding of current market dynamics and emerging opportunities.

This paper examines why tax incentives fail to stimulate participation in China's third-pillar commercial pension insurance, emphasizing the role of rational inattention. Using household survey data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) spanning 2014-2022 and a difference-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) design, we find that pilot policy generated a statistically insignificant average effect on participation, with rational inattention - proxied by financial literacy - explaining much of its ineffectiveness. We develop a dynamic consumption-portfolio model featuring costly information acquisition, and then resolve limitations of standard models through a dynamic framework with distinct savings channels and policy-focused rational inattention. The models show that rational inattention distorts perceptions of tax benefits and wage growth, raising participation costs, while multiple savings channels dilute incentives. Only households with higher financial literacy substantially respond to the policy. Our results reveal how cognitive frictions undermine pension reform and offer implications for designing behaviorally-informed retirement schemes.

We revisit cross-asset time-series momentum (XTSM) and single-asset time-series momentum (TSM) in China's stock and bond markets. With a fixed-effects model, we find a positive momentum from bonds to stocks and a negative momentum from stocks to bonds, with both momentum persisting for no more than six months. By employing a cross-grouping method, we find that the choice of lookback periods and asset signals impacts the performance of XTSM and TSM. A comparison between XTSM, TSM, and time-series historical (TSH) portfolios reveals that XTSM outperforms in small/midcap stocks and government bonds, while its performance is weak in large-cap stocks and corporate bonds. A spanning test confirms that XTSM generates excess returns that other pricing factors can not explain. XTSM is more prone to momentum crashes. Increased market stress has similarly adverse effects on XTSM and TSM. Furthermore, Market illiquidity, IPO counts, new investor accounts, and consumer confidence index positively correlate with the returns of XTSM and TSM portfolios, while IPO first-day return and turnover rate correlate negatively. The effects of these sentiment indicators exhibit heterogeneity.

This study investigates the influence of smart supply chain management on the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance of Chinese manufacturing firms spanning from 2009 to 2022. Our findings reveal a positive association between smart supply chain management and enhanced ESG performance, a relationship consistently upheld across various analytical methodologies. Additionally, we uncover that smart supply chain practices stimulate corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure, contributing to heightened transparency and subsequently bolstering ESG metrics within firms. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates that the positive effect of smart supply chain management on ESG outcomes is particularly pronounced among firms that are operating in less competitive and more environmentally impactful industries, receiving heightened media scrutiny, and influenced by Confucian principles. This research provides actionable insights for firms seeking to advance their ESG initiatives.

This research examines the impact of short selling on the financing cost of corporate bonds using panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning the period from 2007 to 2022. The study aims to investigate the potential cross-market information spillover effects within the short selling system. The findings indicate that short selling significantly reduces the financing cost of corporate bonds, with a more pronounced effect observed under greater short selling forces. The robustness of the results is confirmed by controlling for various potential influencing factors and addressing the endogeneity issue through Propensity Score Matched Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) methodology. Moreover, the research reveals that the alleviation of information asymmetry serves as the primary mechanism through which short selling exerts its impact, particularly in regions with well-developed financial markets and favorable legal environments. This study offersa novel perspective of short selling in China and it sheds light on its cross-market spillover effects. By effectively enhancing resource allocation efficiency in capital markets, short selling emerges as a potent tool for mitigating information disparities between bond investors and enterprises.

The U.S. Treasury yields reached a 20-year high under acute inflation pressure in the post-pandemic era amid aggravated geopolitical conflicts. To quantify the underlying effects of regional geopolitical risks (GPRs) of key U.S. strategic interests, we employ an extended affine term structure model with unspanned GPRs and conventional macroeconomic drivers. We find that GPR shocks, particularly those manifesting U.S.-China rivalry, contribute more to expectations and variations of inflation and yields than shocks to U.S. macroeconomic variables. The results warn on the adequacy of monetary policy in curbing inflation in a fragmented global order with escalating GPRs.

In this study, we investigate the impact of the development of the digital economy on corporate innovation and value using data of listed firms in China spanning the years 2011 to 2018. Our findings reveal a positive correlation between the development of the digital economy and corporate innovative activities, with a more pronounced effect observed in growth-stage firms, labor-intensive enterprises, and companies situated in underdeveloped regions. To establish a causal relationship, we employ a quasi-experimental approach utilizing the "Broadband China" pilot program. Using a difference-in-difference framework, we establish a causal link between the advancement of the digital economy and the increased innovative activities. Furthermore, our research underscores that digital economy development enhances firm value by promoting innovative activities. These results support the view that the digital economy plays a pivotal role in increasing firm value and fostering sustainable development in the overall economy.