近年来，随着气候风险的不断累积，中国极端气候灾害事件发生的频率和强度持续上升，对企业正常的生产经营造成了十分严重的影响。本文手工整理了应急管理部自然灾害数据，构建了考虑企业子公司数量及所在地的气候灾害冲击加权平均指标，基于2007—2022年中国A股上市公司数据，实证研究了气候灾害冲击对企业债务融资成本的影响及作用机制。结果表明，气候灾害冲击显著提高了企业的债务融资成本，冲击造成企业营业收入下降和固定资产减值与折旧增加是其中的影响机制。异质性考察发现，气候灾害冲击提高债务融资成本的效应在受到“信贷歧视”更严重的民营企业和规模较小企业中更加显著，且在受气候灾害影响程度较大的行业和金融业市场化水平较低地区的企业中更加显著。进一步研究表明，企业能够通过使用商业信用融资、提高风险感知水平和改善ESG表现缓解气候灾害冲击造成的融资贵问题。本文为气候灾害这一因素对企业融资贵问题带来的重要影响提供了更为直接的证据，对企业防范和化解气候灾害冲击带来的负面影响具有积极的现实意义。

旨在推动实现生态环境根本好转的质量型环境治理政策在多大程度上能够协同降碳，如何进一步提质增效，是推进“双碳”战略过程中亟需解答的关键问题。特别地，签署《巴黎协定》以来，中国在减污降碳协同增效面临着不同于以往的新形势和新任务。然而，受限于数据可得性，现有研究尚未提供这一时间段内的定量分析直接证据。本文使用新近的企业层面较为精细的碳排放数据，基于《打赢蓝天保卫战三年行动计划》（国发〔2018〕22号）的研究场景，系统分析了“双碳”背景下空气质量目标政策的微观降碳效果与增效机制。研究表明，蓝天保卫战能够协同降低企业碳排放强度，平均降幅约为15%，单个企业年均降碳量约为1.2万吨。这一效果主要由碳排放总量下降驱动，而非以生产活动收缩为代价，也未引起区域间和产业链上的碳泄漏问题。并且，与现有研究强调行业结构调整不同，本文发现高碳排放企业也实现了显著的减排效应。增效机制方面，蓝天保卫战主要通过促进企业绿色低碳投资发挥作用，而人力结构优化、绿色研发创新等机制尚未明显起效，同时缓解融资约束有助于提升协同降碳效果。本文的研究表明，进一步完善现有大气污染防治制度体系，辅以大规模节能降碳设备更新、优化生产要素配置以及绿色金融等组合措施，能够有效兼顾环境、气候和经济效益，助推减污降碳协同增效。

本文分析了全球数字金融的发展趋势，提出监管科技和金融安全的重要性日益凸显，数字基础设施建设的必要性增强，数字货币将成为经济运行的基石，传统经济理论的边界被迅速拓展，以及纸币消失与“金融元宇宙”的诞生等五个趋势，并从信息经济学的角度分析了数字经济发展对传统经济结构、数字经济理论对传统经济理论的冲击与挑战，并从信息经济学的角度辩证阐述了不确定性的含义，认为数字金融的发展将激发新质生产力，为创新和变革提供潜能。

Digital transformation (DT) is an ongoing and costly process that requires careful planning and the motivation of top executives (CEOs). This research analyze the CEOs compensation as a motivation to embrace DT by reducing agency issue. We determine the extent of DT through a textual analysis method and utilize data from Chinese publicly traded companies spanning the period between 2007 and 2020. Our study findings are threefold, (a) we observe a positive relationship between CEOs' pay gap and DT, highlighting the significant role CEOs compensation plays in encouraging CEOs to adopt digitalization, (b) we find that managerial shareholding significantly enhances this relationship, (c) we note that the relationship between CEOs pay gap and DT is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises compared to non-stateowned enterprises. Additionally, we discover through channel analysis that agency cost and audit quality mediate the relationship between CEOs pay gap and DT potentially by reducing the agency problem between CEOs and shareholders. These findings are vital for comprehending the pay practices and behaviors of corporate executives regarding digitalization in China. Importantly, the study results remain robust when considering instrumental variables (IV), propensity score matching (PSM), and alternative techniques.

Purpose – This study aims to investigate whether firms purchase directors’ and officers’ liability (D&O) insurance when the country-level economic policy uncertainty (EPU) is high. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses D&O insurance data from Chinese listed firms between 2003 and 2019 to conduct regression analyses to examine the association between D&O insurance and EPU. Findings – The results show that government EPU, despite being an exogenous factor, increases the likelihood of firms’ purchasing D&O insurance, and this effect is more pronounced when firms are exposed to great share price crash risk and high litigation risk, suggesting that firms intend to purchase D&O insurance possibly due to the accentuated stock price crash risk and litigation risk associated with EPU. In addition, the results indicate that the effect of EPU on the D&O insurance purchase decision is moderated by the provincial capital market development and internal control quality. Practical implications – The study highlights the role of uncertain economic policies in shareholder approval of D&O insurance purchases. Originality/value – The study enriches the literature on the determinants of D&O insurance purchases by documenting novel evidence that country-level EPU is a key institutional factor shaping firms’ decisions to purchase D&O insurance.

Software and accounting advances have led to a rapid expansion in and proliferation of loyalty tokens, typically bundled as part of product price. Some tokens, such as in the airline industry, already account for tens of billions of dollars and are a major contributor to revenues. An open question is whether, as technology evolves, firms will have a strong incentive to make loyalty tokens tradable, raising regulation issues, including with monetary and banking authorities. This paper argues that for the vast majority of tokens, issuing firms have a strong incentive to make them non-tradable. The core incentive for token issuance here is that an issuer can earn a higher rate of return on the ``float'' (tokens issued but not yet used) than its retail customers can, much like a bank. Our main finding is that an issuer earns higher revenue by making tokens non-tradable even though the consumer would be willing to pay a higher price for tradable tokens. We further show that an issuer with stronger market power tends to allow more frequent token redemption, and its revenue is more token-dependent. We test the model's predictions with data on airline mileage and hotel reward programs and document consistent empirical results that align with our theory.

In the digital era, the information value of online prices, characterized by weak price stickiness and high sensitivity to economic shocks, deserves more attention. This paper integrates the high-frequency online inflation rate into the dynamic Nelson-Siegel (DNS) model to explore its relationship with the term structure of interest rates. The empirical results show that the weekly online inflation can significantly predict the yield curve, particularly the slope factor, while the monthly official inflation is predicted by yield curve factors. The mechanism analyses indicate that, due to low price stickiness, online inflation is more responsive to short-term economic conditions and better reflects money market liquidity, thereby having predictive power for the yield curve. Specifically, online inflation for non-durable goods and on weekdays shows stronger predictive power for the slope factor. The heterogeneity in price stickiness across these categories explains the varying impacts on the yield curve.

本文借助于2009年货币供给冲击，使用2005-2013年中国书画的独特艺术品拍卖数据库，为货币非中性理论提供了一个艺术品市场的证据。研究发现：第一，在货币供给冲击后，杰作拍卖成交价格增长率比非杰作高出约13.80个百分点。第二，进行一系列稳健性检验后，结果依然成立。第三，异质性分析表明，著录次数越多、名人珍藏和著名艺术家创作的杰作价格增长幅度更大。本文的研究结果验证了哈耶克关于“货币冲击引致相对价格变动”的“货币非中性”理论，也丰富了对于艺术品市场杰作效应成因的理解。

本文构建并校准了一个包含内生能源与产业结构的多部门动态一般均衡模型，研究了中国能源与产业结构的升级过程以及其与碳排放之间的关系。研究发现，能源生产技术的进步通过改变各产业的生产成本推动了产业结构转型，而产业结构转型从能源需求侧减少了高排放化石能源的使用。结果显示，2009~2020 年宏观产业结构转型推动了能源结构的转变并显著降低了碳排放量，其累计减少的碳排放量相当于 2020 年中国年排放量的 10%。同时，本文求解了“双碳”目标下最大化居民福利的碳税安排，发现内生税率随经济增长而快速上升，具有显著的发展阶段依赖性。在发展阶段早期实行较低的碳税税率可以维持更高的资本回报率，有利于资本积累、产业升级和经济增长。

When examining corporate governance in China, it is crucial to recognize the unique socioeconomicstructures and legal systems at play. The mechanisms of corporate governance theorized in the West might not necessarily have the same impact in China. In particular, given China’s distinct feature of the domestic economy and its socio-political structure, the results of introducing a hostile takeover system might not align with common anticipations that scholars and policymakers in China and elsewhere broadly share. In greater detail, this paper highlights the significant market imperfections in the Chinese economy, stemming from information asymmetry, imperfect product markets, and capital-market inefficiency. These market imperfections suggest that an active hostile takeover regime might not function effectively in China, as its disciplinary mechanism operates successfully in other advanced countries. Additionally, this paper underscores that due to China’s distinctive features—including its state-owned corporate landscape, the dominance of controlling shareholders in private corporations’ ownership structures, and its unique brand of socialism—the introduction of an active takeover regime could produce unintended consequences in the Chinese economy. Overall, challenging the prevailing perspective, I posit that within the Chinese hostile takeover framework, corporate governance is not as influential as one might assume.