This study investigates how abnormally hot temperatures affect firms’ environmental behavior in China. We find that firms exposed to abnormally hot temperatures participate in more environmental engagement. We also find that this improvement effect is driven mainly by environmental concerns, including public concerns, CEOs, and governments. Our results remain intact after an array of robustness tests. Further analysis shows that the effect of abnormally hot temperatures on corporate environmental engagement is more pronounced in SOEs, heavily polluting firms, and firms located closer to local environmental protection agencies. Moreover, the positive impact of environmental engagement on firm value is stronger when firms are exposed to abnormally hot temperatures. Overall, this study sheds light on the potential stimulation of firms’ environmental actions by global warming, which is yet to be fully understood.

We investigate the impact of financial geographic density on corporate financial asset holdings in emerging market. We proxy for financial geographic density by calculating the number of financial institutions around a firm within a certain radius based on the geographic distance between the firm and financial institutions. Using data on publicly listed A-share firms in China from 2011 to 2021, we find that financial geographic density has a positive impact on nonfinancial firms’ financial asset investments, especially for the firms located in regions with a larger number of banking depository financial institutions or facing greater market competition. An increase in the number of financial institutions surrounding firms increases corporate financial asset holdings by alleviating information asymmetry. Moreover, we document that Fintech has little impact on the relationship between financial geographic density and corporate financial asset holdings. As the rise of financial geographic density, firms hold more financial assets for precautionary motives, which contribute to corporate innovation.

统筹金融开放和安全是构建高水平开放型金融新体制的基本要求。本文以美国货币政策为切入点，先从实证角度分析美国加息对我国产出的影响，然后构建包含跨境金融关联的两国DSGE模型，定量分析美国货币政策的溢出效应及应对之策。研究发现，美国加息1个百分点使中国产出下降约0.4个百分点，其中贸易渠道和金融渠道分别使中国产出下降0.2个百分点。分析作用机制发现，UIP偏离机制使金融中介净值波动和汇率波动相互强化，外部融资溢价机制使金融中介净值波动和企业净值波动相互强化，正是这两个机制放大了美国货币政策的外溢效应。进一步研究发现，金融开放度越高和汇率越缺乏弹性，美国加息冲击对我国变量的传导效应越显著。基于不同的福利函数特征，本文构建了统一的政策评估框架，对宏观审慎政策和双支柱调控应对美国加息冲击的有效性作出了精准评估。结果表明，无论是针对国内金融机构信贷监管的宏观审慎政策还是针对跨境资本流动和外汇相关的宏观审慎政策，均能降低美国加息的溢出效应，且宏观审慎政策有效性与汇率制度无关。在联合最优政策组合下，货币政策无需对名义汇率作出反应，外汇市场要强化价格调控淡化数量干预。在货币政策和宏观审慎政策相互协调搭配下，双支柱调控通过维护经济金融稳定具有显著的社会福利增进效应。本文为构建高水平开放型金融新体制，以金融高质量发展加快推进中国式现代化提供了政策启示。

收益率非对称性定价是金融研究中长期存在争议的重要问题。本文创新性地提出了基于概率分布、反映收益率整体非对称性的新测度（Return Asymmetry, RA），首次为该争议提供了跨市场的系统性证据。研究发现：首先，RA测度在中、美等主要市场均能负向预测股票横截面收益率，其解释力较传统测度显著提升；其次，RA的定价优势源于其对收益率复杂分布信息的更全面捕捉，特别是能有效识别系统与特质非对称之间的交互效应；最后，通过博彩偏好、投资者情绪、关注度和套利限制等多维度渠道分析，证实行为因素是驱动收益率非对称性定价的核心机制。本研究不仅有助于弥合学术分歧，更建立了具有全球适用性的非对称定价分析范式。

Firstly, the article elaborates on the concepts of metaverse and industrial metaverse, pointing out that the metaverse has driven changes and optimizations in multiple dimensions such as urban form, social organization form, and industrial production form; Secondly, the metaverse has empowered urban governance in Guangzhou, improving the efficiency of urban management, enhancing the city's emergency management capabilities, improving the quality of interaction between people and the city, and promoting the construction of a smart city; Once again, the focus was on the practices and good results achieved by Guangzhou in utilizing blockchain technology, digital twin technology, generative artificial intelligence technology, unmanned aerial vehicles+AI and other technologies in urban governance and serving the public; Finally, it is clarified that metaverse related technologies will promote the integration of carbon based civilization and silicon-based civilization in urban and social governance. Humans can use silicon-based civilization technology to expand their living space and improve their quality of life, while silicon-based civilization can also draw inspiration from the culture and emotions of carbon based life, achieving more comprehensive development.

How does executive authority affect household behavior? I develop a model in which the executive branch of the government is partially constrained. These constraints credibly limit intervention under normal conditions but can be overridden when a sufficiently large fraction of the population is in distress. Households anticipate this and strategically coordinate their financial risks through public markets, creating collective distress that compels government bailouts. Weaker constraints lower the threshold for intervention, making implicit guarantees more likely. The model explains why implicit guarantees are prevalent in China and predicts that such guarantees may discontinuously emerge elsewhere as executive constraints gradually weaken.

This paper investigates whether increased female representation on corporate boards affects firms’ bond financing costs. Exploiting the 2017 Big Three’s campaigns as a plausibly exogenous shock, we document that firms experiencing larger increases in female board representation, induced by the campaigns, experience significant reductions in bond yield spreads and improvements in credit ratings. We identify reduced leverage and enhanced workplace environment as key mechanisms, and show that the effects are stronger among firms with greater tail risk and information asymmetry. An alternative identification strategy based on California’s SB 826 regulatory mandate yields consistent results. Our findings suggest that board gender diversity enhances governance in ways valued by credit markets.

This paper reconciles the debates on carbon return estimation by introducing the concept of equity duration. Our findings reveal that equity duration effectively captures the multifaceted effects of carbon transition risks. Regardless of whether carbon transition risks are measured by emission level or emission intensity, brown firms earn lower returns than green firms when the equity duration is long due to discount rate channel. This relationship reverses for short-duration firms conditional on the near-term cash flow. Our analysis underscores the pivotal role of carbon transitions' multifaceted effects on cash flow structures in understanding the pricing of carbon emissions.

This study identifies an incentive-compatible mechanism to foster individual environmental engagement. Utilizing a dataset comprising 100,000 randomly selected users of Ant Forest—a prominent personal carbon accounting platform embedded within Alipay, China's leading BigTech super-app—we provide causal evidence that individuals strategically engage in eco-friendly behaviors to enhance their credit limits, particularly when approaching borrowing constraints. These behaviors not only illustrate the green nudging effect of BigTech but also generate value for the platform by leveraging individual green actions as soft information, thereby improving the efficiency of credit allocation. Using a structural model, we estimate an annual green value of 427.52 million US dollars generated by linking personal carbon accounting with BigTech credit. We also show that the incentive-based mechanism surpasses green mandates and subsidies in improving consumer welfare and overall societal welfare. Our findings highlight the role of an incentive-aligned approach, such as integrating personal carbon accounts into credit reporting frameworks, in addressing environmental challenges.

This study examines how classified boards affect workplace safety, an important dimension of employee welfare. Using comprehensive establishment-level injury data from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a novel classified board database, we document that firms with classified boards experience 12-13% lower workplace injury rates. To establish causality, we employ instrumental variable and difference-in-differences approaches exploiting staggered board declassifications. The safety benefits of classified boards operate through increased safety expenditures, reduced employee workloads, and enhanced external monitoring through analyst coverage. These effects are strongest in financially constrained firms and those with weaker monitoring mechanisms. Our findings support the bonding hypothesis that anti-takeover provisions facilitate long-term value creation by protecting stakeholder relationships and provide novel evidence that classified boards benefit rank-and-file employees, not just executives and major customers. The results reveal an important mechanism through which governance structures impact employee welfare and challenge the conventional view that classified boards primarily serve managerial entrenchment.