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How do investors' risk preferences influence the relationships between investors' online channel use intensity and both their trading behaviors and performance? This study answers this important question even as investors are increasingly rely on the Internet for their trading activities. We leverage rare and unique micro-level historical dataset from more than 7,000 investor accounts over a 44-month period between 2010 and 2013 at a large brokerage firm in China. The dataset and analyses enable us to provide new insights into how investors' online channel use intensity and risk preferences jointly influence their trading behaviors and performance, even though some other aspects of financial markets have changed considerably over the years. The findings reveal that although online channel use intensity is associated with increased trading volume, trading frequency, and investment returns, these effects differ across investors with different risk preferences. We find that while online channel use intensity has strong positive effects on transaction frequency for both risk-seeking and risk-averse investors, it has a much lower effect on trading volume for risk-averse investors than for risk-seeking investors. We further find that risk-averse investors with higher online channel use intensity outperform investors with other risk preferences in terms of investment performance. This paper contributes to the emerging literature at the intersection of information systems and behavioral finance by revealing the moderating role of risk preferences in the relationships between investors' online trading channel use intensity and both their trading behaviors and outcomes. We discuss the implications for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the main driving force for the digital transformation of the construction industry, the uncertainty of digital technology in the application process has seriously hindered the high-quality development of the construction industry. In order to promote the wide application of digital technology in the construction industry and clarify the key uncertainties in its application process, this paper identifies the uncertainty index system of digital technology application based on the LDA topic model and literature analysis; the DEMATEL-ISM method is used to construct the multilevel hierarchical structure model of the uncertainty indicators in the application of digital technology to study the mutual influence among the indicators and to find the key uncertainty indicators. The research results show that the uncertainty indicators of the application of digital technology in the construction industry are divided into five levels: policy, industry, personnel, economy and law, and that the perfection of the policy guarantee system is the key uncertainty indicator for the investment return period of digital technology application. The standard contract model for digital technology is a direct uncertainty indicator for the application of digital technology in the construction industry. The results of this study help researchers and practitioners to focus on the key barriers and provide a list of key elements for construction companies to promote the application of next-generation digital technologies to improve digitalization of the construction industry. This study also provides a policy reference to further promote the digital transformation of the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the effect of the expansion of the digital economy on the quality of regional investment introduction in China using city-level data from 2011 to 2019. The findings of the study indicate that the growth of the digital economy can greatly raise the calibre of regional investment, and this conclusion has withstood a number of robustness tests, including endogeneity. The growth of the digital economy primarily draws high-quality foreign investment through enhancing productivity, attracting talent, and increasing return on investment. A region's high-quality development plan can increase the promotion effect of the digital economy on the quality of foreign investment, but the promotion effect of the digital economy on the quality of foreign investment clearly demonstrates regional variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With reference to Ohlson' model, we optimise earnings persistence model and express earnings persistence measure as a function of return on equity (R.O.E.), dividends payout ratio and other factors. Our theoretical model reveals that dividends payout ratio has little effect on the earnings persistence, while R.O.E. has a decisive effect on earnings persistence. Using quarterly earnings data of 872 listed firms in China over 2011–2020, we calculate the Revised Persistence value of earnings (RPer value) of our earnings persistence model, and find that the Rper value of our model have more explanatory power than that of Kormendi and Lipe' model. Our study also suggest that quarterly earnings are useful and have information content. Both the theoretical model and empirical results of our research are of great significance to understand and support the implementation of semi-compulsory cash dividends rules in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of education on entrepreneurial choice is ambiguous in both theory and empirics. Based on the data from the 2016 China Labour-Force Dynamics Survey, this paper studies the impact of China's Higher Education Expansion (HEE) policy initiated in 1999 on the entrepreneurial behaviour of urban college students and its transmission mechanism by employing the difference-in-difference approach. The results show that the implementation of the HEE policy has significantly promoted the entrepreneurship of urban college students and the HEE policy stimulates urban college students' entrepreneurship by decreasing the rate of return to urban college students' education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's coalbed methane (CBM) industry is in an extremely important "climbing period" and "strategic opportunity period", which can be generally characterized by "three low and one small": low degree of exploration and development, low adaptability of main technology, low return on investment and small development scale. Under the "carbon peak and neutrality" background, the development status of CBM industry is systematically combed. The resources, technology, management problems and reasons are analyzed. Strategies and countermeasures to accelerate the industrial development are put forward according to the factors such as efficient development of resources, major technical breakthrough, talent team training, policy formulation and implementation, return on investment and so on. The existing problems are as follows: (a) The overall occurrence conditions in China are complicated and the development is difficult compared with the other countries. (b) The research precision accuracy of CBM resource conditions is not enough. (c) The adaptability of technology is poor. (d) The management mode is not suitable. In view of these problems, this paper puts forward the "two steps" development strategy and the technical and management countermeasures of "five in one". The corresponding "five in one" technology and management countermeasures are the formulation and implementation of relevant safeguard measures in accordance with the principle of collaborative innovation in five aspects: resources, technology, talents, policies and investment. Through the above measures, the dream and grand blueprint of CBM industry shall be realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current international system fosters change which is catalysed by a factor that is vital to any state's growth in the 21st century - the mastery of technology. To be precise, artificial intelligence (AI) constitutes the powerful leverage that countries will need to know how to use in order to gain the hegemonic advantage. It follows that the development of AI will be paramount in revolutionising the face of future, intelligentised warfare. This paper focuses on the elaboration of the AI narrative from a neorealist perspective, and its effects on the military and economic factors which will be most decisive in determining whether China will outpace the US in the years to follow. To this end, a comparative analysis will be employed, and document analysis will serve as the research method of choice. Not only will AI be essential to drive social change, but it will also be imperative in the development of military tools, such as target detection systems (TDS), and surveillance systems, both of which will serve as case studies to support the hypothesis that rapid AI developments stem from existing geopolitical tensions and competition, which drive the need for both countries to militarise. The growth potential of these technologies also prophesises a return on investment, for whichever state aims to employ them, in terms of both economic and military potential, international relevance, and, ultimately, security in the international system. As such, the important role of multinational domestic companies cannot be overstated in this case, and will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to perform a comparative analysis of the ways in which corporate governance systems and practices influence the financial performance of companies based in Pakistan and China. This study employs the multidimensional Corporate Governance Index (CGI) as a metric to evaluate the effectiveness and caliber of governance practices. The CGI, which includes stakeholders such as shareholders, the board of directors, audit procedures, financial disclosure, employee involvement, and societal factors, functions as a comprehensive indicator of the efficacy of an organization's governance. An assortment of financial performance metrics--including Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Market-to-Book Value Ratio (P/B), and Price-Earnings Ratio--are examined for their impact by the empirical model utilized in this study. Fifty firms hailing from Pakistan and China were included in the sample developed using this model. A nuanced relationship appears to exist between CGI scores and financial performance metrics, according to the findings. The CGI scores demonstrate a moderate correlation with ROA, ROE, and P/B ratios for Pakistani firms. However, a significant correlation is observed with P/E ratios. On the contrary, the CGI ratings exhibit a robust and statistically significant correlation with every evaluated financial performance indicator in the case of Chinese firms. The distinction can be ascribed to China's implementation of governance models that are more resilient and adaptable. The significance of effective governance mechanisms in improving financial outcomes is highlighted by these results. These insights provide significant value to organizations aiming to improve their governance frameworks and procedures, potentially resulting in heightened profitability and enhanced shareholder wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 34 products from China's commodity futures market, this study examines the impact of social network attention and sentiment on its futures market returns. A machine learning text analysis algorithm was used to construct social network investor sentiment in consultation with three search volume indices. We find that: social network sentiment is a good predictor of commodity futures returns, investor attention has a significant positive impact on returns and absolute returns, and the Baidu index is better at forecasting returns than the Sogou and 360 indices. In addition, we examine how social network sentiment affects returns at different levels. We find that extremely high, market social network sentiments of investors changed the predicted results significantly; thus, the bases of the specified trading strategies of investors were altered. Regulators should therefore incorporate investor sentiment into regulatory targets and enhance retail investor education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on business and economies globally. This paper aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on firm performance in China's high-tech industries. The population of this paper is 116 companies listed on the sci-tech innovation board (STAR market) of the Shanghai stock exchange. DuPont analysis is applied to measure firm performance including return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), asset turnover ratio (ATO), and profit margin. The empirical results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant and negative impact on ROE, ROA, and ATO in high-tech industries, and research and development (R&D) investment has a moderating role in the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and firm performance. The findings may play a guiding role for corporate managers and policymakers to overcome this formidable crisis in the era of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, the 19th CPC National Congress proposed to "establish a sound economic system of green, low-carbon and circular development", which indicates the direction of high-quality economic development in the new era of China. Clean power investment is a powerful way to promote high-quality economic development by adopting non-fossil-energy utilization and low-emission technologies, as well as creating new jobs. Meanwhile, large-scale investment and a long investment return period result in negative effects on local economies. To better understand the effect of clean power investment, this paper selects panel data of thirty provinces in China from 2010 to 2019 to establish a spatial Durbin model to explore the impact of clean power investment on regional high-quality economic development. The results show that inter-regional high-quality economic development shows significant spatial auto-correlation characteristics. Clean power investment has not only a positive direct effect on high-quality economic development but also generates positive spatial spillover effects. Human capital, degree of government intervention, and urbanization rate have positive effects on regional high-quality economic development, while they play a suppressed role on neighboring regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public capital plays a key role in national economic production in developing countries, and it has become the focus of factor reform in China. This paper aims at studying the dynamic characteristics of China's public capital and the return rate. To this end, this paper inventories the public capital stock from 1978 to 2017; constructs a two-sector model to derive the necessary condition for optimal investment related to the return rate, and empirically tests it; estimates the output shares of the two sectors and calculates the rate of return to capital; and illustrates the dynamic evolution of public capital and the return rate from the time and regional dimensions. The study shows that, first, public capital has grown significantly. The portion of public capital held in the form of state-holding is increasing year by year. However, the proportion of public capital to total capital has decreased from 81% to 35%. Second, the growth of public capital has effectively balanced the gap of capital between regions. Third, the rate of return to capital has been decreasing, with two sectors' return rates having converged in 1981 and in 2010–2013. This paper measures the stock of public capital and its return rate, which is beneficial for formulating the policy of public capital in economic production and distribution, as well as exploring the path to achieving common prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A portfolio selection model with return as triangular intuitionistic fuzzy number is developed in this study to assess and select portfolios on China Stock Exchange. Although the portfolio selection has been widely investigated, and most studies have regarded return and risk as the main decisive criteria, there are many uncertainties in the financial market, such as social, political and human psychological factors, which makes it difficult for us to describe the risks in line with empirical evidence. To fill this gap, first, a literature review was conducted to clarify the current situation and shortcomings of portfolio selection. Second, the triangular intuitionistic fuzzy number was used to fuzzify the coefficients of the objective function and the constraints in the portfolio model. Third, the triangular intuitionistic fuzzy number model was transformed into a linear programming model by using the selected exact ranking function, and the model was solved by MATLAB. Finally, the historical monthly returns of 10 stocks in China's Stock Exchange from December 2017 to November 2020, lasting 36 months, were selected to demonstrate the model. The results indicate that the portfolio selection model with triangular intuitionistic fuzzy number can better meet the uncertainty of the real securities market, and more reasonable investment decision guidance can be provided for investors. Besides, the limitations of this study are pointed out, and implications and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biofortification is a new agricultural intervention to alleviate hidden hunger in China and even the world. Exploring the impact of farmers′ adoption of biofortification on return on investment (ROI), which is calculated from farmers′ production net income and profitability, can provide empirical support for the development of sustainable agriculture. This paper examines the impact of the adoption of biofortification on ROI using cross-sectional data from a survey of farmers in China. An endogenous switching regression model that accounts for selection bias was used in the research. The empirical results revealed that the adoption of biofortification has a positive and statistically significant impact on ROI. A heterogeneity analysis also revealed that comparatively high annual income adopters and female adopters tend to benefit more from the adoption of biofortification than middle- and low-income adopters and male adopters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research presents the interrelationships between banking performance, competitiveness and sustainability of the three banking systems and the impact of each sustainability variable selected on the other macroeconomic indicators in short, medium and long-time horizon. The empirical study involved the use of a panel Auto Regressive Vector methodology and was based on macroeconomic indicators relevant to the performance of the banking system (return on assets, return on equity, an annual growth rate of Gross Domestic Product), as well as indicators that can be assimilated to sustainability (renewable fuels used, CO2 emissions). The dependent variables were return on assets and the annual growth rate of Gross Domestic Product. The global sample analyzed comprises 29 countries, spread over three continents (Europe, North America, Asia), with data collected over a 10-years period (2011-2020). These countries together account for approximately 62% of global GDP (data from 2020). The research results show that as banks invest in green energy and sustainable products, competitiveness will also increase, which will have a negative impact on profitability in the short term. In the medium and long term, this impact will become positive also in terms of profitability increase. This strategic move to develop sustainable business models and to finance a higher percentage of green investments also adds extra competitive advantages, such as reputation and smart differentiation, from other less sustainability-oriented banking systems. The process impacts the systemic level, the macro perspective, the banking organizational level, the micro perspective, together with the perception of the customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) and diversification DEA are two common data-driven evaluation approaches, which have been widely used in the estimation of portfolio efficiency. The above two DEA approaches usually use the risk and expected return indicators to build the input-output process of portfolios. However, this input-output process derived from the risk and expected return is inconsistent with the actual investment process, since the real input should be the initial wealth, and the output should be the terminal wealth. To address this problem, we propose a novel input-output process based on the initial and terminal wealth of portfolios. We transform the terminal wealth into the rate of return and construct a stochastic attainable set by using portfolio returns. We provide three deterministic estimation approaches to deal with the stochastic attainable set, and then obtain three deterministic attainable sets. We further propose three stochastic DEA models to estimate the portfolio efficiency by using the above three deterministic attainable sets. Finally, we provide an empirical analysis to assess the portfolio efficiency of 50 open-ended funds in China. The results show that there are some differences in the portfolio efficiency and its ranking between the proposed DEA models and the existing DEA models, which further verify the rationality of the proposed DEA models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the (un)intended consequences of a mandatory dividend payout regulation for firms’ financial reporting choices using a natural experiment in China. Beginning in October 2008, China required firms desiring to raise new equity capital to maintain a cumulative dividend payout ratio of at least 30% over the past 3 years. We find that firms with a cumulative payout ratio from the prior year very close to but slightly lower than the mandated dividend threshold report lower discretionary accruals but do not increase dividends. In addition, this pattern is more pronounced in firms with greater cash flow deficits, firms with faster sales growth, and firms located in regions with lower bank development. We also find that the negative discretionary accruals are concentrated in firms with return on equity well in excess of another regulatory benchmark. In contrast, the only firms that increase dividends in response to the regulation are firms with a positive cumulative payout ratio far below the mandated threshold. Because dividend payout regulations have been suggested as a possible solution to agency problems, our results provide important policy feedback about the effectiveness of such regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Chinese overcapacity in the steel and coal industry has been on the rise since 2013, which leads to the misallocation of resources and decreases in production efficiency. In 2015, the Chinese central government adopted a series of de-capacity policies to resolve excess capacity and improve corporate profitability. However, there is scant evidence on the impacts of de-capacity policies on the firm profitability. Based on the data from Chinese listed companies in the steel and coal industry, this study constructs the difference-in-difference (DID) method to investigate the effects of the de-capacity policy on the profitability of listed companies in the steel and coal industry empirically. The results show that the de-capacity policy significantly increases the return on equity (ROE) of the experimental group, which is higher than that of the control group by 12.4%. That is partially because of the improvement in gross profit margin, management efficiency, and return on manpower due to the de-capacity policy. This study offers new evidence on the efficiency of China's de-capacity policy toward the steel and coal industries through data at the enterprise level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper selected Vanke as the case to study the governance problems of Vanke and the protection of the interests of small and medium shareholders under the situation of equity disputes. At the same time, the study further explored the advantages and disadvantages of the dispersed ownership structure, the long-term impact on the company's development and the choice of the involved corporate governance methods under the current Chinese capital market conditions. This paper adopted the event research method and selected the period from June 2015 to June 2017 (24 months) as the observation period to analyze the market performance impact of Vanke in the equity disputes. At the same time, this paper also measured Vanke 's individual stock rate of return (R it ) and market rate of return (R mt ), and calculated Vanke 's normal rate of return [ E (R i,t )], abnormal rate of return (AR i,t ), and cumulative abnormal rate of return (CAR i ) during different event windows ([−3,10]). Vanke 's shareholding was too dispersed and the stock price had been sluggish for a long time, which had greatly reduced the acquisition difficulty and cost of Baoneng , thus triggering the "barbarian invasion" of Baoneng . In the struggle for control, whether it was Vanke 's anti-takeover measures or China Resources , Baoneng , and Evergrande 's competition for equity, their actions had harmed the interests of small and medium shareholders. The market supervision department was too lenient to supervise and punish the interests of small and medium shareholders, and opportunism made behaviors that infringe on the interests of others more reckless. However, small and medium shareholders cannot actively participate in the company's management decision-making to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, which intensifies the violations of all parties in the equity disputes, thus forming a vicious circle. Therefore, the protection of the interests of small and medium shareholders required the joint efforts and consciousness of regulators, small and medium shareholders, and acquirers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in China is fast growing as the country's urbanization accelerates. WWTPs, part of the high-energy-consumption industry, must use a lot of energy in wastewater treatment. PV projects in WWTPs are viable solutions for energy conservation, but PV project investors, WWTP owners, and government authorities need to conduct rigorous economic and ecological assessments. This article examines the PV potential, financial feasibility, energy savings, and emission reduction effect of large-scale WWTPs in China using the cable-supported system. Furthermore, China's total PV power potential for urban WWTPs has been assessed at 5.6 GW for the first time. According to economic feasibility analysis, 26 of the 31 WWTP-PV projects in China's various regions are economically viable. Moreover, the WWTP-PV projects can assist WWTP in reducing carbon emissions by 10%–40%. Further sensitivity analysis reveals that practically all WWTP-PV projects will be viable in the future, assuming that certain solar resource requirements are met, and appropriate investment strategies are implemented. • China has a total PV power potential of 5.6 GW for urban WWTPs. • The economic feasibility analysis shows most WWTP-PV projects in China are viable. • The WWTP-PV project can help WWTP reduce carbon emissions by 10%–40%. • The PV potential of a WWTP is correlated with its planned wastewater treatment capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Till now, comprehensive and quantitatively meaningful analyses of stock market participation outcomes of retail investors have been limited by data sources in developing countries. This article devised a special questionnaire related to stock investment to measure the financial literacy (FL) and stock investment return (SIR) for the subjects with stockownership in China and to theoretically and empirically study the effects of objective FL, self-assessed FL, and their composite FL on SIR. The results of the comparative analysis showed that self-assessed FL has a greater effect on SIR than objective FL, and the effect is mediated by risk preference. In addition, we found that competent and overconfident respondents have higher SIR, while under confident respondents cannot gain from the stock market. We also found that risk preference has a positive mediating effect in the relationship between competence and overconfidence and SIR, and a negative mediating effect in the relationship between under confidence and SIR. We thus concluded that confident investors can gain more stockholding returns via taking more risks regardless of the level of their actual financial knowledge. Our findings would be a meaningful complement to the studies of stock market participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the heterogeneous effects of cooperative membership on smallholder farmers' financial performance, measured by net returns, return on investment (ROI), and profitmargin. We employ an innovative two-stage predictor substitution model combined with an unconditional quantile regression model to address the endogeneity of the cooperative membership variable and analyze data collected from 626 banana farmers in China. Results, in general, show that cooperative membership improves banana farm financial performance. Particularly, we show that cooperative membership affects net returns and ROI positively and significantly across the selected unconditional quantiles, with the highest impact occurring at the highest 80th quantile. Cooperative membership also has a positive and significant impact on the profit margin for all quantiles (except for the 20th quantile), but the larger impacts occurring at the lower quantiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine how the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and bank profitability changed during COVID-19. Based on the data of 34 Chinese banks and 39 Pakistani banks, this study uses ordinary least squares (OLS) to examine this relationship during the COVID-19 era. Profitability is measured by return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), and IC is measured by the value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) model. The findings show that, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, IC has managed to sustain its positive influence on bank profitability in China and Pakistan. Among IC components, our study reports that human capital is the only IC resource that continues to enhance ROA and ROE of Chinese and Pakistani banks during the pandemic period. Our study suggests that policymakers should pay more attention to IC resources, which has the potential to improve banks' profitability even during crisis times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines that how China's antidumping actions against other counties affect the returns to capital of involved industries. Using CSMAR from 1997 to 2015, we estimate the excess returns of a firm's equity by three different methods. Then combining with the Global Antidumping Database, we conduct an empirical analysis. Our empirical results show that China's antidumping investigation in specific industries promotes the return on equity of listed companies in the industry, meaning antidumping has positive impact on returns to capital. Antidumping promotes the marginal and average market value of firms' investment, thus showing excess returns on their equity, and then firms invest. As the investment stock increases, firms tend to be in equilibrium and excess returns fall. Furthermore, this paper conducts a series of heterogeneity analyses from the perspectives of capital intensity, capital specificity, and corporate ownership, and proves that antidumping measures can significantly increase the rate of return on capital in the industries involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding has become an increasingly attractive way of financing for capital-constrained enterprises. It differs from traditional financing methods, such as bank credit and trade credit, along several dimensions. In this paper, we explore the threshold effect in crowdfunding from the perspective of dynamic investment behavior. Using the investment level data from a large crowdfunding website in China, we establish a panel threshold model. Specifically, we have the following three aspects of interesting findings. First, the number of investors will increase dramatically when the investment amount is close to the threshold. Second, the herding behavior before the threshold interval is more obvious than after that. Third, to explore the internal mechanism of the threshold effect, we deduce three impact factors: fundraising target, crowdfunding price, and fundraising duration. We find that the first two moderator factors above have positive moderating effects, while fundraising duration has the opposite one. Our results support the assumptions of return on investment and postponed decision making. Finally, we further conduct our analysis through a battery of robustness tests. Our study could help crowdfunding creators to better manage the threshold effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic natural gas (SNG) from coal gasification technology has become an alternative method to alleviate China's natural gas shortage. However, the Chinese SNG industry still faces a series of problems, such as low profits, high carbon emissions, and water shortages, and Chinese SNG policy is cautious and unstable. Considering economic, energy security, and environmental constraints, this study analyses the future of SNG in China by using a system dynamics model. The results are as follows. In under various circumstances, SNG production is projected to reach 20.8–44.2 bcm by 2030. SNG production could reduce the dependence on gas imports to 23–40% in 2030, which may help to reduce the risk of natural gas imports. The energy production efficiency index, EROI (Energy Return on Investment), of SNG is only approximately 1.5, and thus, economic profitability will remain very low for a long time; in general, price subsidies will be conducive to increasing SNG production. Based on these results, the study provides some suggestions for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kuancheng Traditional Chestnut Cultivation System is located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Water Containment Function Area. The Traditional Chestnut Cultivation System is characterized by agroforestry compound, and some studies have shown that the compound planting of chestnut has better ecological benefits than the single chestnut planting mode. However, most of the local farmers in Kuancheng are mainly engaged in single chestnut cultivation. Through ecological compensation, farmers are being encouraged to change their chestnut planting mode, which can achieve the purpose of inheriting China's important agricultural heritage and improving the ecological benefits. This paper introduces preference coefficients to correct for opportunity costs, and through interviews and questionnaires, we obtained the input and output of the single chestnut cultivation, chestnut-maitake, chestnut-millet, and chestnut-chicken and the income of laborers working outside the home in the Kuancheng area. Through analysis and calculation, we obtained the following results: (1) Although the net income of the three chestnut composite modes is higher, their economic input is higher than that of a single chestnut planting mode, and the return on unit investment is lower. (2) The average income of young and middle-aged workers who work outside is higher than that of the local farming industry, so the local chestnut agroforestry plantation has a higher opportunity cost. (3) The final calculation shows that the chestnut-chicken agroforestry operation mode needs no compensation, the chestnut-maitake plantation mode is compensated at least 1608.5 USD ha–1 yr–1, and the minimum compensation for the chestnut-millet plantation mode is 198.3 USD ha–1 yr–1, which can guarantee that farmers receive the full value of their creations. Ultimately, farmers are incentivized to revive the traditional agroforestry production mode to achieve both economic and ecological benefits while inheriting agricultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental valuation (FV) perspective has been extended to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) in China by focusing on the role of forecasted earning‐to‐price ratio and return on equity (ROE). Forecasting the variables is being done using a linear dynamic panel data technique. The findings of the two‐step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) analysis indicate that the forecasted E/P ratio and ROE significantly explain a portion of the variation in the SZSE stock return and remain highly statistically significant after risk proxy variables are included. Additionally, it confirms the existence of size, momentum, liquidity, and dividend yield in the SZSE. This supports the usefulness of an FV perspective based on the unique characteristics of the Chinese equity market in explaining stock returns and their potential utility in forecasting future stock returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents a computational form of the Intelligent Portfolio Theory for investing and trading in stock markets with two multi-factor models and two trend following trading strategies. The Intelligent Portfolio Theory for stock investment goes beyond the classical portfolio theory by using multi-factor models for stock selection and quantitative trading strategies instead of buy-and-hold. In China A-share market, a special multi-factor Model 1 is developed targeting at the food and beverage sector, which is made up of 7 effective and non-redundant factors selected from 20 candidate factors representing 6 categories: valuation, technology, size, profitability, growth ability, and solvency. A more general multi-factor Model 2 targeting at all the stocks in the whole stock market is also developed, which is constructed as a rule-based system integrating fundamental and technical analysis inspired by the empirical approach of CANSLIM. The multi-factor models are used to forecast or rate the future return of each stock in the sector, and then a small number of stocks are selected to form a portfolio. Each selected stock in the portfolio is then traded using a trend following trading strategy. Two strategies are developed, Strategy 1 with the high-low price channel breakout, and Strategy 2 with the parabolic stop and reverse indicator. The first intelligent portfolio trading system integrates Model 1 with Strategy 1, and is tested on an in-sample data of 7 years and also on an out-of-sample data of 2 years. The second system couples Model 2 with Strategy 2 and is tested on a data of 2 years. Both intelligent portfolio trading systems generated significantly useful performance in terms of annual returns and maximum drawdown. The test results confirmed the effectiveness of the Intelligent Portfolio Theory with proposed multi-factor models and trading strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid and large scale construction activities consume significant resources and make impacts on the environment. To support policy for emission reduction and route of low-carbon society development, this paper estimated building stocks and building embodied carbon emissions (BECEs) in China's 31 provinces from 1997 to 2016 by material flow analysis (MFA). Furthermore, global and local Moran's indices were employed to investigate the geographical clustering patterns, and temporal and spatial decomposition models were proposed to identify the driving forces. The results reveal the total BECEs has boomed from 9.67 billion tons in 1997 to 28.99 billion tons in 2016. BECEs in 31 provinces have experienced consistent increase but obvious differences in growth rate, and are spatially inclined to decrease from eastern coastal regions to western inland regions. The change of spatial agglomeration pattern is complex and variable. It presents that a long and narrow "H-L agglomeration" is located in the two northernmost provinces and the other 29 provinces enforce a sequence arrangement with an order of "H–H", "L–H", "H–L", and "L–L" from east to west. Temporal decomposition results show that investment scale, economic level, and population density are the main driving forces for the increase of BECEs from both national and provincial levels, while the main reasons for the decrease are technical level and return on investment. Spatial decomposition results demonstrate that population density and provincial area are the main driving forces for the difference between provincial and national average, and others cause the difference among provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charitable donation and energy-saving R&D are two common approaches to fulfill corporate social responsibility (CSR). A recent survey in China shows that most firms prefer donating to investing in energy-saving research and development. To understand firms' preference, we develop a game model to investigate the optimal CSR decisions and profit of the firm, which considers donation and energy-saving R&D approaches, respectively. Then, we analyze how the government subsidies for CSR, as well as the unit production cost and the R&D cost of energy-saving product, affect the firm's CSR decisions and the CSR rate of return. Finally, we study the triple bottom line approach, i.e., considering donation and energy-saving R&D approaches simultaneously, and investigate the interaction between the above two approaches. The results show the following. (1) Government subsidy is an important driver for the firm's CSR fulfillment and the triple bottom line approach is optimal if the government simultaneously provides two subsidies. (2) When the government subsidy for energy-saving product is moderate, the firm will choose the approach with high profit and high CSR rate of return. (3) The CSR rates of return of different approaches are also compared to reveal the efficiency of the CSR fulfillment and the firm may sometimes choose an approach with low CSR rate of return to pursue high profit. We identify why and when firms prefer charitable donation to energy-saving R&D approach and determine the threshold of the firm engaging CSR for the government to formulate CSR subsidy policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to construct an accounting method for the domestic value-added rate for exports by considering environmental costs and using a developing country, China, as an example, to measure the "positive" and "negative" economic benefits obtained by industrial sectors linking to the global value chains (GVCs), namely the comprehensive rate of return. On this basis, the impact of industrial intelligence on the comprehensive rate of return of the GVCs is further explored. When environmental costs are considered, the comprehensive rate of return of China's industrial sectors linking to the GVCs is reduced by approximately 15%. Industrial intelligence is conducive to improving the comprehensive return rate of China's participation in GVCs. And the accumulation of human capital and the improvement of the competitiveness of export products are important mechanisms for industrial intelligence to affect the comprehensive rate of return of the GVCs. The improvement of industrial intelligence level in pollution-intensive industries has the most obvious promotion effect on the comprehensive rate of return of GVCs, followed by capital and technology-intensive industries, while labor-intensive industries are not sensitive to this effect. • This study calculates the comprehensive return rate of China's participation in GVCs. • The comprehensive return rate is reduced by approximately 15%. • Intelligence development is conducive to improving the comprehensive rate of return. • Human capital and the competitiveness of export products are important mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is intended to investigate the role of Venture-Capital Syndication (VCS) background in the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and portfolio firm performance (PFP); specifically, this article examines the moderating effect of VCS's leading firm background and member heterogeneity on the effect of IC on PFP. This study used a modified VAIC model to measure IC to compose a 4-component variable including human capital, structural capital, relational capital, and innovation capital. The data were collected from VCS-backed and listed firms in China during 2014 to 2018 applying the pooled OLS model for hypotheses test, Generalized Method of Moments (GMMs) to reduce endogeneity and unobserved factor control, and also return on equity (ROE) instead of ROA for the robustness test. Empirical results showed that IC and its components can improve PFP for VCS-backed firms in China; in detail, IC showed greater impact on performance of firms invested by foreign lead investors than in private or government VCS, specially reflected in the impact of innovation capital on PFP. Furthermore, IC showed weaker impact on PFP of mixed VCS-backed firms compared to pure VCS-backed firms and showed diminished effect on higher VCS member heterogeneity mainly reflected in the impact of relational capital on firm performance. These findings propose a new way of combining IC and VC to improve firm performance and are beneficial to theoretical development of IC and VC as well as a perspective for VC firm managers to choose suitable partners prior to join a VCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is trying to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures and financial performances (FP) through mediating role of the employee productivity (EP). This study classifies the CSR performances into four contexts, for instance, environment social governance (ESG), environmental improvement activity scores of CSR, social welfare activity score, and governance structure improvement score. The banking performance is classified into three different aspects such as returns on assets (ROA), returns on equity (ROE), and nominal interest margin profit (NIMP). The study covers the data set start from 2008 to 2019 regarding thirty commercial banks of China. The study uses the linear, non-linear, and quadratic techniques to explore the association between CSR disclosures and banking performances. The linear model result shows that the governance score is significant influencing the banking performance. Moreover, the employee productivities are also positive significant affecting the baking performances. The non-linear results of model show that composite score of ESG with employee productivity has significant influence on financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates a translog cost function for 29 Chinese provinces between 1979 and 2018. The results imply that investment in public infrastructure reduces costs in all provinces. Comparing the estimated rate of return to infrastructure with the rate of return to private capital, our results indicate underinvestment for the initial period after the economic reforms; however, after 2010 our results show overinvestment in infrastructure. Infrastructure capital is a substitute input to labor, private capital and intermediate inputs. Finally, public infrastructure growth contributes positively to labor and total factor productivity growth, but the effect is small. The growth of private capital and intermediate inputs are the most important factors that boost the growth of labor productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the linkages of the movements in Renminbi (RMB) to volatility of exchange rate returns of other currencies before and after the yuan devaluation on 11 August 2015. A comparison between the onshore Chinese yuan (CNY) and the offshore Chinese yuan (CNH) is made. Standard regression methods underestimate the tail dependence between yuan and other exchange rate volatility, as financial data are non-normally distributed, especially when extreme event occurs. We apply Gumbel copulas to capture the presence of tail dependence between RMB returns and the volatility of exchange rate returns for 13 selected currencies, and found dependencies not revealed by the standard ARCH models. The tail dependence has increased after the RMB devaluation, suggesting that RMB depreciation is associated with higher downside risks in these currencies. This is most obvious in the currencies of Asian and ASEAN-5 countries that have strong trade and financial linkages with China. The dependence structure has shifted away from the dominance of onshore CNY rates before the devaluation to the growing importance of more volatile offshore CNH rates after the devaluation. Hence, any large depreciation in CNH will lead to a higher volatility in the other exchange rate returns, and the corresponding downside currency risks are higher than those of the CNY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests whether economic value added (EVA) as a performance evaluation metric incentivizes public administrators to increase the performance of public organizations. It utilizes data from Wind Info Database (WIND) and finds that the adoption of EVA as a performance evaluation metric incentivizes public administrators to increase the overall efficiency of the public organizations under study. The study suggests that public administrators make prudent investment and operating decisions after the adoption of EVA as their performance evaluation metric, thereby increasing the overall organizational performance. Using 2274 firm-year observations for the period from 2009 to 2010 in China, this paper uses first-difference change analysis methodology that takes care of firm-level unobservable heterogeneities and addresses endogeneity concerns, thereby producing robust results. The change analysis setting has been used in prior studies to find the effect of certain treatment (e.g., Lyons et al. 2001; Kerr et al. 2006; Pal and Pohit 2014). Lyons et al. (2001) argue that the change analysis focuses on studying differences before and after services (i.e., the presence and absence of treatment) that are received. In our research design, the treatment is adoption of EVA by the SASAC, which occurred in year 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the productivity effect of two categories of core infrastructure investment in China, by matching a panel of manufacturing firm‐level production data with province‐level infrastructure investment data. Cross‐industry variation in infrastructure reliance using input–output table information is employed to address potential endogeneity issues. We find that firms in an industry that relies more heavily on infrastructure in production experience higher productivity growth from more infrastructure investment. On average, the annual rate of return to core infrastructure investment in China is about 23% during 1998–2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An efficient hydrometallurgical process for recovering valuable metals was designed. • Technical feasibility from both environmental and economic perspectives was explored. • Local life cycle inventory relating to hydrometallurgical process was established. Waste mobile phones contain significant amounts of valuable metals and non-metallic materials. Consequently, the extraction of valuable materials from discarded phones, which is a more cost-effective method compared with primary mining, is an essential step for maximizing the recovery of secondary resources and minimizing e-waste pollution. We designed a green and efficient path for recovering valuable metals from waste mobile phones and explored its technical feasibility from both environmental and economic perspectives through life cycle assessment and revenue expenditure model. The results showed that the hydrometallurgical process had three characteristics of high recovery efficiency, significant environmental friendliness and economic feasibility. The recovery efficiencies of valuable metals were higher than 90%. Simultaneously, the return on investment was 29%, indicating that the recycling enterprises can achieve self-sufficiency. Thirdly, the environmental benefits were more significant compared to environmental damage released by hydrometallurgical process, representing a significant environmental friendliness. Within the overall recycling process, the core process made the greatest contribution to the environmental burden (45.38–65.68%), followed by manual disassembly process. A comparison of sub-processes in core process revealed that the mechanical crushing and sorting phase had the greatest environmental impacts that were primarily attributed to power consumption. Consequently, future research should focus on the development of energy-efficient pretreatment techniques and energy-saving equipment. The industrial practice of recycling waste mobile phones is still in its infancy in China. Future studies should also focus on the comparing different treatment processes, with the aim of providing technical support for the advancement of industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important representation of the evolution of the rural human–land relationship in the process of urban–rural transformation development, labor migration between rural and urban areas has become the core impetus for agricultural transformation in China's traditional farming areas. An in-depth analysis of the internal mechanism of the evolution of agricultural production patterns driven by rural–urban migration at different phases helps to find solutions for ensuring the sustainable development of the countryside. This paper analyzes the relationship between rural–urban migration and the evolution of the rural human–land relationship, then introduces the city power and the rural power in the push–pull theory, and finally establishes an interactive analysis framework for rural–urban migration and agricultural transformation. The results demonstrate that the part-time rural labor and the frequent rural–urban migration in Yucheng City are the normal conditions for the labor to participate in agricultural production; and the low registered population urbanization rate and the return of the elderly labor have become the main features of the rural–urban migration in the new era. Furthermore, the state of rural–urban migration in Yangqiao Village has become the impetus of the farmland use transition and homestead use change at the village level; the arrangement fragmentation of agricultural production and the change in traditional agriculture production modes are the important factors affecting agricultural transformation in Yangqiao Village. In the context of rural vitalization, agricultural transformation in traditional farming areas needs to pay more attention to the future livelihood systems of small peasants. It is important to promote rural transformation to create more employment opportunities based on local conditions and attract rural migrants to return to start businesses in the countryside. • Analysis framework about rural-urban migration and agricultural transformation is established based on 'push–pull' theory. • The effects of rural-urban migration on agricultural transformation in China's traditional farming areas are analyzed. • The low urbanization rate and the return of the elderly migrants become the main feature of the rural labor migration. • Creating employment opportunities and attracting return migrants to start businesses is important for rural vitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the rates of return to education in rural China using primary survey data collected in 2016. Estimated average returns to education are 3.1 per cent. However, careful statistical analysis is required when estimating the returns to education. The paper demonstrates that when employment interruptions are accounted for, the measured returns to education rise. Our results also confirm that mismeasurement of the wage rate by using an hourly wage rate (versus daily or monthly earnings) raises the estimation of rates of return to education. Finally, our results suggest that the return to education is nonlinear in education levels but only when it reaches the tertiary level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the anti-corruption campaign, "Hunting the Tigers," incurs a significant short-term loss of shareholders' returns. Design/methodology/approach: A sophisticated event study approach is employed. Findings: The results show that the "Hunting the Tigers" has incurred a significant short-term loss of investment returns for shareholders in China's main stock market board. In addition, the beginning of a new assault on China's official mogul corruption in another round of political anti-corruption cycle after the 18th National Congress of the CPC has reduced this price significantly. Originality/value: This finding should be perceived as the price of the corruption of official-business collusion within capital markets in contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial returns of forest plantations are an important concern around the world. In this research, we focused on South China's timber investments, collected data from the Pingxiang, Guangxi Province, China, which is the demonstration zone of Fast-growing and High-yielding Timber Plantation Base Construction Program and National Timber Strategic Storage and Production Bases Construction Program, and used capital budgeting analysis method and sensitivity analysis to compare different scenarios of planted forest management. The results showed that excluding land costs, (1) the financial returns of Eucalyptus forest managed by small business were excellent, having an IRR of 28% per year and a LEV of $7555 per ha, but it had a high risk with fluctuations of cost, timber price and timber yield; (2) the results for the Experimental Center of Tropical Forests indicate that the Eucalyptus forest and Castanopsis hystrix forest returns were greater than those for Cunninghamia lanceolata forest and Pinus massoniana forest, with having IRRs of 24%, 21%, 13% and 10% per year respectively. The mixed planted forest of Castanopsis hystrix × Eucalyptus and Castanopsis hystrix × Pinus massoniana had the features of high profits and low risks; (3) the forest farmers had lower levels of returns for Eucalyptus forest management in South China, but were still in the middle rank of global comparisons. This study gave a view of China's timber investment and provided more options of improving the economic returns of planted forest management to both small businesses and forest farmers in South China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the share privatization process in China to investigate whether and how the removal of market frictions is associated with efficiency gains. Prior to the reform, domestic A-shares were divided into tradable and non-tradable shares. As a result of the reform, holders of non-tradable shares compensated holders of tradable shares in order to make their shares tradable. We show that size is positively associated with both the gain in risk sharing and the price impact of more shares coming on the market as a result of the reform. Our study highlights the role of risk sharing in China's share issue privatization process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Long-term reversals in U.S. stock returns are better explained as the rational reactions of investors to locked-in capital gains than an irrational overreaction to news. Predictors of returns based on the overreaction hypothesis have no power, while those that measure locked-in capital gains do, completely subsuming past returns measures that are traditionally used to predict long-term returns. In data from Hong Kong, where investment income is not taxed, reversals are nonexistent, and returns are not forecastable either by traditional measures or by measures based on the capital gains lock-in hypothesis that successfully predict U.S. returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of suitable locations for rooftop photovoltaic projects (RPVP) is critical for optimizing power generation efficiency and return on investment. However, traditional methods of site selection that rely on subjective assessments of index weights can compromise accuracy, while complex calculations may limit adaptability to changing real-world data. In this study, we proposed a data-driven ensemble learning framework that integrates socio-economic, environmental, climate, and geography factors to optimize RPVP site selection. Using data from 1589 counties in China, we mapped eight criteria to feature variables to facilitate machine learning classification. Furthermore, the K-means algorithm was employed to enhance the model's robustness against outliers. The findings indicate that the proposed stacking model exhibits superior performance in comparison to other classifiers, as evidenced by the higher scores of performance metrics. Specifically, for positive instance prediction, the stacking model achieves the highest Precision scores. According to the rankings of Precision scores derived from the four ensembled models, we categorized counties suitable for RPVP development into five priority tiers. The ensemble learning framework provides a valuable and reusable tool for advancing county-level RPVP site selection and serves as a motivation for selecting other renewable power plant sites. • Ensemble learning is used in site selection of rooftop photovoltaic projects. • Stacking model presents the best performance on minimizing the erroneous selection. • The suitability of power plant siting is divided into several levels. • The proposed site selection tool can adapt to changing real-world environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive system for assessing contaminant emissions, including the dominant contaminant reduction effects, recessive contaminant reduction effects, and contaminant reduction efficiency indexes. The system is used to evaluate the linkage changes in contaminant emissions reduction across different sectors, the ease of regulation, and the returns on emissions reduction efforts. The study's results demonstrate that firstly, COVID-19 initially reduced contaminant emissions across almost all sectors, although this effect waned over time. Secondly, applying conventional regulatory measures to sectors with high reductions in contaminant emissions may not yield the expected results. Thirdly, while some sectors may be more difficult to regulate, they may offer a higher return on investment in terms of emissions reduction. Based on the above results, the paper advocates for timely measures to consolidate environmental gains, prevent rebounding of contaminant emissions, prioritize supervision and management of easily regulated sectors, prioritize upgrading of cleaner production in sectors with high reduction efficiency indices, and increase investment in environmental technology. • Created a new comprehensive system for assessing contaminant emission changes. • Quantified the unique linkage changes of contaminant emissions during COVID-19. • Developed new models to reveal contaminants' regulatory difficulty and return. • The innovative reduction effects of four key contaminant indicators were measured. • Applied WHEM firstly in research across multiple areas of contaminant emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the 1996-98 security regulations in China, the accounting rate of return on equity (ROE) has to be greater than 10 percent for three "consecutive" years for a firm to qualify for stock rights offers. Despite declining economic conditions during this period, the percentage of firms reporting ROE between 10 and 11 percent is about "three" times that for 1994-95. This unique regulatory environment provides a natural experimental setting for the empirical assessment of earnings-management behavior and its consequences. This study examines whether listed Chinese firms manage earnings to meet regulatory benchmarks and whether regulators and investors consider the quality of earnings in their respective regulatory and investment decisions. On the basis of a sample of listed Chinese firms from 1996 to 1998. we observe that managers execute transactions involving below-the-line items and use income-increasing accounting accruals to meet regulatory ROE targets for stock rights offerings. The firms that apply for, but fail to receive, regulatory approval manage earnings more significantly than do firms that receive approval and pair-matched control firms. Our market study also suggests that investors differentiate the quality of earnings and put less value on earnings suspected of a greater degree of management. Overall, our results imply that the regulatory bodies and investors to some extent make rational adjustments for the quality of earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]