We examine empirically and theoretically the effects of industrial robot adoption on corporate financing. Empirically, using firm-level panel data on robot deployment in China, staggered across both provinces and industries, we find that robot adoption reduces the cost of debt and increases leverage. We hypothesize that the underlying reason is that being a substitute for labor, robots provide a hedge against fluctuations in labor costs. A model based on this hedging argument delivers additional testable predictions concerning determinants of the relation between robot adoption and corporate financing, which are borne out in the data, providing support for the proposed mechanism. Our evidence is inconsistent with alternative channels behind the observed relations.

In the era of digital economy, innovation in industrial chain and supply chain is an important part of industrial transformation and upgrading, and also an inevitable choice for enterprises to win competitive advantages. The competition between enterprises is not only about products and services, but also about the industry chain, supply chain, and value chain; The autonomy and controllability of the supply chain and its management level determine the quality of enterprise operation and development. This paper analyzes the characteristics of Midea Group's intelligent supply chain management, discusses the supply chain financial characteristics of Haier, Sany Group and Xiaomi, and confirms the importance of industrial chain and supply chain Financial innovation for high-quality development of manufacturing industry. Pointing out the necessity and feasibility of digital technology empowering innovation in logistics and supply chain management, smart supply chain is the guarantee for large-scale personalized customization, and supply chain finance plays an important role in the development of industrial clusters.

In the new wave of sustainable finance, firms are under increasing pressure from stakeholders to engage in ESG activities, among which the role of financial analysts is a key driving factors of corporate sustainability. This paper investigates the effect of analyst coverage on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Using the dataset of listed firms in China from 2009 to 2020, we find that analyst coverage significantly improves the target firm’s ESG scores. We validate three non-mutually exclusive channels through which analyst coverage encourages ESG engagement: (1) encourage firms’ awareness on ESG issues via ESG-oriented information production; (2) alleviate ESG undervaluation and strengthen the financial relevance of ESG performance; (3) mitigate financial constraints to support corporate ESG activities. We establish causality with an instrumental variable estimation and a difference-in-differences approach. Our findings highlight the information intermediary role of financial analysts in driving corporate sustainability.

Service oriented manufacturing is a new industrial form that integrates manufacturing and service development in the process of industrialization. In the era of digital economy, developing service-oriented manufacturing is an important way to strengthen the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry, an important measure to expand domestic demand strategy, and an inevitable requirement to reshape the manufacturing value chain, enhance the resilience of the industrial chain, and promote the transformation of the manufacturing industry from large to strong. The article elaborates on the driving force for enterprises to carry out service-oriented manufacturing, which comes from fierce market competition, customer heterogeneity, and customer demand for complete solutions; Analyzed the mechanism and path of service-oriented manufacturing in the digital economy era, pointed out that digital empowers the transformation of the manufacturing industry, and promotes the global value chain climb of China's manufacturing industry; The article points out that changing from B2C to C2B is a fundamental disruption to the operational logic of the manufacturing industry; Analyzed the new characteristics and trends of service-oriented manufacturing such as personalized customization and product lifecycle management, and elaborated that lifecycle management is the high-end of the manufacturing value chain in the digital economy era. Chinese manufacturing enterprises should accelerate their transformation and strive to climb towards the high-end of the manufacturing value chain; Introduced the practices of companies such as Rolls Royce, Siemens, General Electric, and Sany Group in product lifecycle management. It is pointed out that adding high-quality, efficient, and differentiated services to industrial products is of great significance for enterprises to achieve differentiated competition and climb the global value chain of China's manufacturing industry.

Based on the connectedness time-frequency domain decomposition method are adopted in this paper. With the help of network topology for visualization, the characteristics and transmission path of financial risks in the time-frequency domain under major emergencies are studied. The results show that after the occurrence of MPEs, the level of risk spillover in China's financial market usually decreases in the short term, medium term and long term. When the policy has a long time lag or the market reaction is not timely, the medium term risk spillover will be higher than the short term risk spillover.

A relatively mild form of government failure - for example, bureaucrats can count but do not differentiate quality - can significantly affect the efficacy of industrial policy. We investigate this idea in the context of China's largest pro-innovation industrial policy using a structural model. We find that the return to the subsidy program is -19.7\% (but would be 7.8\% if the mild government failure can be removed). Furthermore, the welfare loss is exacerbated by patent trade.

We investigate the role of evidence-based information in shaping individuals’preferences for trade policies through a series of survey experiments that contain randomized information treatments. Each treatment provides a concise statement of economics research findings on how openness to trade has affected labor market outcomes or goods prices. Across annual surveys from 2018-2022, each administered to a representative sample of the U.S. general population, we find that information influences trade policy preferences in complex ways. Information highlighting the link between trade and manufacturing job losses significantly raises expressed preferences for more limits on trade. Strikingly, information on the price benefits of trade (or the cost of tariffs) also induces protectionist policy choices, indicating that these preferences do not respond symmetrically to information on the gains versus losses from trade. We find evidence that these expressed preferences are driven in part by how the received information interacts with one's political identity, resulting in prior-biased belief updating, as well as by pre-existingconcerns over the impact on American jobs and over trade with China. Information that solely communicates the benefits of trade is thus unlikely to succeed unless it addresses these prior beliefs and concerns.

Hukou, China’s household registration system, affects access to public services and signals the strength of a person’s local social network, guanxi. We use a collective model and data on household consumption and spouses’ hukou status to show that hukou plays a crucial role in determining within-family bargaining power. Wives who bring the family more lucrative hukou enjoy significantly higher bargaining power than other wives. Still, these wives have less bargaining power than their husbands. Large differences in preferences between husbands and wives, especially regarding alcohol, tobacco, and clothing, allow us to identify these disparities.

In this chapter, we review the development of the insurance industry in China. We provide a comprehensive discussion of its regulatory framework, major insurance segments, market structure, InsurTech, social insurance and the prospects for the future development.

“双碳”目标下企业的绿色投资及风险管理策略受到预期碳价格变动的影响，并且绿色投资最优决策需要企业权衡投资不足的机会成本和绿色债务无法偿还的违约成本。考虑外部融资风险和随机流动性冲击，本文建立一个理论模型，量化研究碳价格对企业最优绿色投资规模和绿色债券信用利差的影响机制。碳资产可被质押使得碳价格在直接影响违约边界的同时，也通过影响绿色投资规模间接影响企业的违约边界，且模型发现由于碳价格对企业违约概率和违约成本的非对称影响，碳价格对信用风险的直接影响大于间接影响。理论结果与进一步的实证分析表明：碳价格的提高能够改善绿色投资企业的信用风险，降低绿色债券信用利差；存在碳价格的高低双重门槛来决定企业的最优绿色投资决策，当碳价格低于影子价格时，随着碳价格的提高，最优绿色投资规模增加、现金持有水平降低，而当碳价格处于显著大于影子价格的较高水平时，碳价格的提高反而降低最优绿色投资规模、提高现金持有水平；此外，当碳价格分别大于和小于高低门槛值时，企业绿色债券信用利差随着绿色投资规模的增加而分别相应地增加和减少。本文研究有助于更深入地理解碳定价机制对企业绿色投资决策和绿色债券定价所发挥的作用与微观机理。