Using Chinese data, we investigate the impact of the China Semi-Mandatory Payout Policy that sets an explicit requirement that firms need to distribute at least 20% of their average annual net profits as cash/stock dividends accumulatively in three consecutive years before refinancing via seasoned equity offerings. Firms with the payout level below (above) the cutoff imposed by the Semi-Mandatory Payout Policy are regarded as Treated (Control) group. We find that Treated firms are more likely to cut investment, especially long-term innovation investment, and perform poorly compared to Control group due to lack of money. Treated firms also tend to use earnings management assisting in financing through the debt market as an alternative way to raise money. The negative impact of cutting investment caused by the Semi-Mandatory Payout Policy is more pronounced for firms suffering from severe financial constraints, firms having good corporate governance, and firms located in less financial development areas. We attribute findings to the difficulty of accessing capital that is implicitly increased the China Semi-Mandatory Payout Policy, which alters firms’ behavior leading to insufficient investments and destroys firms’ value.

本文以《关于实施上市公司股息红利差别化个人所得税政策有关问题的通知》的实施为自然实验，考察降低股利税对公司现金分红的影响。研究发现：（1）在股利税降低的年份，上市公司分红水平和意愿显著提高，并且管理层持股越多，现金分红增加的可能性越大，而在股利税不变的年份则不存在这种关系，表明降低股利税能够激励管理层增加现金分红。（2）降低股利税对管理层增加现金分红的激励作用仅在公司治理水平较高或法律环境较好时显著，表明现金分红是公司治理的“果”而不是“因”。（3）股利税降低仅能激励非国有企业的管理层增加现金分红。（4）投资者认可管理层因股利税降低而增加现金分红的行为。本文的政策含义在于，降低股利税能够达到促进上市公司进行分红的目的，但要从根本上提高我国上市公司分红水平，关键在于进一步完善上市公司的治理机制。

本文以 2009 2019 年公开发行的公司债与企业债为样本考察债券承销商与债券发行公司的空间临近性对债券 资成本、违约概率以及债券期限的影响。实证检验发现 当承销商与公司在同一省份或者承销商与公司距离更近时，债券融资成本越低；并且，承销商的声誉以及公司信息透明度会削弱承销商空间临近性对降低债券融资成本的作用；此外，我们还发现承销商与高和中等信用水平公司的空间临近增加了所发行债券的期限，与低信用水平公司的空间临近效果则相反；最后，我们发现承销商与公司的空间临近降低了债券违约概率。本文的发现在考虑内生性、地方政府关联程度以及排除一线城市的影响下依旧成立。

本文采用2000年到2017年中国A股上市公司的数据为样本，研究了流动性 共性与企业投资水平之间的关系。研究结果发现，个股的流动性共性显著降低了企业的投资 水平，经过一系列内生性和稳健性检验后该负相关关系依然不变。此外，基于信息不对称的 视角，从信息透明度、两权分离度和机构投资者持股三个方面对该负相关关系进行了深入检 验，经研究发现，信息越不透明、两权分离越大的企业，其流动性共性与企业投资水平的负 相关关系是增强的;而机构投资持股比例越高的企业该负相关关系是减弱的。最后，还发现 流动性共性与企业过度投资呈正相关关系。

我们对正式与非正式负债所产生的公司治理作用差异进行了比较分析。基于对中国民 营企业内的负债进行结构性区分，我们的实证研究发现，商业信用负债可以提升企业的投资 效率，而金融信用负债则会降低企业的投资效率。该结果说明，商业信用负债融资可以通过 给企业提供监督而发挥有效的公司治理作用，但金融信用负债融资却难以发挥应有的监督作 用，其债权人反而可能成为大股东利益侵占的对象。通过强化家族大股东对公司的控制力， 所有者管理可以促进商业信用负债融资更好地发挥其公司治理作用，但也可能会加剧大股东 对金融信用债权人的利益侵害。总体上看，债权人身份差异对应着差异化的公司治理作用。

本文研究了公司被并购对劳动力技术升级的影响。用中国上市公司 2000-2016 年的面板数据样本，在控制了公司相关变量以及年份和公司的固定 效应后，研究发现被并购后公司的劳动力总数、常规低技能劳动力数量、非常 规高技能劳动力数量均有增加，但是常规低技能劳动力占比显著减少，非常规 高技能劳动力占比显著增加。此外，公司中本科及以上学历的劳动力数量和比 例均有显著上升。在异质性分析中，研究发现并购对非国企比对国企对于劳动 力技术升级的影响更加显著，对高竞争行业中的公司对于劳动力技术升级的影 响同样更加显著。本文的结果在用工具变量解决了内生性后依然稳健。上述研 究结果表明，资本市场的并购活动对劳动力市场的技术升级有显著促进作用。

Peer-to-Peer lending platforms encourage borrowers to obtain various credit certificates for information disclosure. Using unique data from one of China's largest Peer-to-Peer platforms, we show that borrowers of lower credit quality obtain more certificates to boost their credit profiles, while higher-quality ones do not. Uninformed credulous lenders take these nearly costless certificates as a positive signal to guide their nvestments. Consequently, loans applied by borrowers with more credit certificates have higher funding success but worse repayment performance. Overall, we document credit certificates fail to accurately signal borrowers' qualities due to adverse selection, resulting in distorted credit allocation and investment inefficiency.

This paper examines the relationship between the large-scale construction of broadband infrastructure and digital financial inclusion in rural China. To make causal inferences, we exploit a quasi-natural experiment and use a difference-in-differences identification strategy with panel dataset of Chinese counties from 2014 to 2018. The results show that broadband infrastructure significantly contributes to digital inclusion. Further, we distinguish between two dimensions of digital inclusion, namely, the coverage and the usage. We find that while broadband infrastructure significantly promotes the coverage dimension, its effect on the usage dimension is limited. Besides, the effects of broadband infrastructure on digital inclusion, and in particular on the usage dimension, are larger in areas with higher levels of human capital, higher levels of social capital, and higher penetrations of bank branches. Taking into account those moderators is important to fully harness the potential of broadband infrastructure on financial inclusion.

本文以2005-2015年中国A股上市公司的数据为研究样本，探究了股价崩盘风险与公司银行贷款和现金政策的关系。研究发现，股价崩盘风险越高，公司所能获得的银行贷款规模越小、成本越高；与此同时，股价崩盘风险高的公司会选择更高的现金持有水平，相应的，现金持有的边际价值和现金-现金流敏感性也更高，上述结论在经过稳健性检验后依然成立；进一步的，股价崩盘风险与公司现金持有、现金持有边际价值和现金-现金流敏感性的正相关关系在信息不对称程度和外部资金依赖程度高的公司中更加显著。研究表明，股价崩盘作为信息不对称背景下公司隐藏负面信息的极端后果，银行一定程度上能够识别并在信贷决策上进行调整，而公司在外部融资渠道受阻的情况下会更加依赖内部融资，基于现金的预防性动机，选择更高的现金持有水平。本文不仅从融资决策的角度探讨了股价崩盘风险的经济后果及其可能的影响机制，同样拓展并丰富了银行信贷机制和公司流动性管理的相关

In this paper, using news reports and stock trading data from China, we document that stocks covered by the same media platform tend to comove together and refer to it as media-driven comovement. This finding remains significant both by conducting time series regressions of individual stock returns on co-coverage portfolio returns and by calculating the Pearson correlations among stocks that are co-covered by the same media platform. This is a novel type of comovement since it cannot be fully explained by common factors (e.g., additions to market indices) that lead to comovement but accords well with the investment habitat view. Besides, we find no statistically significant relationship between the frequency of co-coverage and the magnitude of comovement. To better illustrate the economic significance of this media-driven comovement, we construct a trading strategy which earns a monthly return of 115 basis point.