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Based on microlevel data from China's exporting firms, this study examines the effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in export destinations and its interaction with spatial heterogeneity on firms' CO2 emission behavior. We find that the effect of economic policy uncertainty in export destinations on firms' CO2 emission intensity is positive and quantitatively significant. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced in regions characterized by low financial constraints, weak environmental regulations or high marketization, in the eastern region and in firms whose primary export destinations are developing countries. Through a comprehensive discussion of the underlying mechanisms, the study finds that economic policy uncertainty primarily influences firms' CO2 emission intensity by increasing the intensity of fossil fuel usage and reducing the variety of clean products for export, while the impact of the green innovation channel is not statistically significant. From the perspective of spatial heterogeneity effects, our research findings provide empirical evidence and policy implications for governments in addressing the challenges posed by uncertainty shocks and environmental pollution governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Internet age, income inequality within peer groups has raised attention. We examine the effect of Internet penetration on peer income inequality and investigate whether the Internet penetration and peer income inequality relationship can be reinforced by human capital. Using a combination of macro and microdatabases of China over the period 2010–2018, we find that peer income inequality in China generally follows a downward trend from 2010. In addition, we show that Internet penetration significantly reduces peer income inequality. Internet penetration has a negative effect on peer income inequality among those under 40 years old, while the effect is reversed among those aged 40–60. Furthermore, human capital can reinforce the links between Internet penetration and peer income inequality. Our results confirm that a mixed indicator of Internet penetration and human capital investment should be part of an active economic policy aimed at reducing peer income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of annual report text information, we study the relationship between the annual report text's positive tone and corporate green innovation. Taking listed companies from 2010 to 2022 as a sample, we found that the positive tone of the annual report text significantly improves the company's green innovation while improving the quantity and quality of green innovation. The mechanism test shows that the main channels are easing corporate financing constraints and enhancing external attention. Regarding heterogeneity analysis, we found that the positive annual report text has a more significant effect on corporate green innovation in companies with high economic policy uncertainty and non-heavily polluting industries. Finally, we found that the positive tone of the annual report text can ultimately improve the company's long-term value through green innovation. Our study has enriched the theoretical research on the annual report text tone and provided empirical evidence for promoting enterprise green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of economic policy uncertainty on local government debt issuance in China and identifies a transmission channel through the cost of capital. Our findings demonstrate that economic policy uncertainty raises the cost of external financing for local governments, leading to decreased levels of debt issuance. Specifically, a 1% increase in uncertainty related to economic policy variations leads to a reduction in government debt issuance of 0.0478%. In addition, our analysis reveals that local governments located in regions experiencing lower fiscal pressure, lower economic catch‐up pressure, and higher sensitivity to uncertainty are more responsive to economic policy uncertainty changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between subjective perception of economic policy uncertainty (SPEPU) and ESG performance. We find that SPEPU could deteriorate ESG performance, especially corporate social performance and that this negative effect works through increasing financialization and weakening internal control, but could be mitigated by enhancing digital transformation and improving financial flexibility. Heterogeneity analysis further confirms that this negative effect of SPEPU on ESG performance is more pronounced for enterprises with no political connections, less information transparency and low marketization. Our conclusions are of practical significance for enterprises to maintain good ESG performance and promote their sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased risks of economic policy uncertainty and overexploitation of natural resources exist in China. At the same time, the growth rate of urban residents' consumption has generally declined. The paper analyses the role of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and natural resource exploitation on the urban residents' consumption in China. Based on the data from the first quarter of 2002 to the third quarter of 2021, the paper uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model to verify the asymmetric effects. Then the paper constructs a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model with stochastic volatility term to analyze the nonlinear responses. Impulse response analysis was used to further explain the relationship between the three. The negative impact of rising EPU on urban residents' consumption is larger than its reduction. Negative shocks to natural resource development increase the urban residents' consumption. Positive shocks reduce the urban residents' consumption. There is a time-varying non-linear effect of EPU and natural resource development on urban residents' consumption in China. The negative impact of EPU on urban consumption has been further exacerbated by major crises such as the financial crisis, COVID-19 and the post-crisis period. The negative impact of natural resource development diminished after the government introduced industrial upgrading policies and environmental regulations. This study provides constructive suggestions for the optimization of economic policies and the improvement of urban consumption. This study also enriches consumer theory and provides new evidence for the resource curse hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions, ecological pollution and a steadily rising global temperature have been widely acknowledged as the most severe risks to human survival in the last few decades. Alarming increases in global temperature and sudden climatic shifts are nature's way of warning us to curb the use of fossil fuels and adopt more sustainable practices. Therefore, the present study investigates the impact of financial stability, environmental regulations and uncertain economic policies on carbon emissions and investment in renewable energy. The study used a nonparametric DEA‐DDF technique to fulfil this objective using a balanced panel dataset comprising 28 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2021. Overall results demonstrated that financial stability reduces carbon emissions and accelerates investment in renewable energy projects. The findings imply that a financially stable economy like China encourages businesses to invest in cutting‐edge, environmentally friendly technology to boost productivity while reducing carbon emissions. Likewise, results show that stringent ecological regulations decrease carbon emissions and promote investment in renewable energy. Hence, stakeholders are keen to comply with environmental regulations in China to reduce carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy resources to avoid penalties. Finally, results suggest that uncertain economic policies increase carbon emissions and restrict access to credit from financial institutions for investment in renewable energy purposes in China. Findings imply that uncertainty in economic policies could lead to less environmentally friendly production practices that may increase carbon emissions and reduce the demand for renewable energy products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recovery of the global economy in the aftermath of COVID-19 faces enormous challenges. Ensuring stable income growth of the population has become an important means for developing countries to ensure sustained economic development. Raising the overall income of the population is a public initiative that benefits all citizens; therefore, governments of developing countries should promote the implementation of relevant public policies and the provision of public goods to ensure that existing economic instruments can benefit the entire population. In this regard, public space, as a typical form of public good, may play an important role in promoting the benefits of existing economic policies for all residents. This paper examines how residents' use of public space contributes to their income growth through social capital. Hypotheses are tested based on an econometric analysis of 1565 questionnaires received from Chinese workers. The results show that residents' use of public space can indeed be an important way to increase their income, which is realized through the enhancement of social capital. The research presented in this paper provides a new influence variable of public space to improve residents' income. Further, it improves people's understanding of the three classical concepts—public space, social capital, and income—by establishing the logical connection and theoretical explanation of physical space, emotional space, and value space in human society. The conclusions of this paper highlight the important role of public space in urban and rural development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have answered how different stakeholders' responses to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practice, including creditors, investors, and media, influence the relationship between ESG practice and high‐quality job‐seekers, which is reflected in corporate human capital inflow. Therefore, we analyze the nexus above theoretically from the perspective of stakeholder theory and examine empirically whether corporate ESG practice can promote corporate human capital inflow, drawing on 8924 firm‐year observations of Chinese‐listed companies during 2011–2020. The findings demonstrate that ESG practice stimulates corporate human capital inflow, which is enhanced when economic policy uncertainty, debt costs, equity costs, or the proportion of female directors is high, whereas weakened when the negative media coverage is high. Further research finds that an underlying mechanism, via corporate visibility, ESG practice can prompt corporate human capital inflow and that the elevating role is more significant in non‐state‐owned or non‐manufacturing enterprises than in state‐owned or manufacturing. Overall, our findings provide a new standpoint to comprehend the interaction of different stakeholder's responses to ESG practice, which enables scholars and managers to understand ESG practice and its effects better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study mainly investigates the effects of supply chain network centrality on firm innovation output. We uncover that supply chain network centrality has a negative impact on firm innovation. The negative impact of network centrality on corporate innovation quantity is stronger when economic policy uncertainty is higher and the firm belongs to high-tech industries. Similarly, the detrimental effect of network centrality on corporate innovation quality is magnified when the level of marketization is lower and the firm belongs to high-tech industries. Firms with high supply chain network centrality are associated with more severe short-sightedness, higher transaction costs, and greater operational risks, and thus inhibits firm innovation output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how China's subnational leadership rotations have affected local governments' policy choices. Utilizing the annual government work reports that outline provincial policy priorities, I find that shuffled leaders choose similar economic policies across different provinces, and this translates into similarities in several policy outcomes. I then show that such policy isomorphism has been driven mainly by convergence in which topics these reports cover, rather than by convergence in how the provincial leaders discuss a given policy issue. However, according to the event study estimates, this economic policy similarity may disappear soon after the shuffled leader leaves office, thus implying that the policy convergence might be transitory. One plausible explanation for these findings is that leadership rotations often indicate that the central government favors the policies implemented by these shuffled leaders, so they tend to replicate some of these policies after moving to the destination province. (JEL H11, H70) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, academics and governments are increasingly concerned about the growing size of non-financial enterprises' ownership of financial products. Taking corporations listed in the Chinese stock market as the research sample, this study investigates the impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty on corporate financialization. We find that EPU will exacerbate corporate financialization, which is robust after conducting a series of estimation tests. Further investigation reveals that financing constraints may be the primary channel by which EPU motivates corporate booming financial product holdings. The exacerbation effects are particularly prominent in firms with small size, non-SOEs, weak corporate governance, and firms at a low growth stage. Overall, our results provide a novel explanation for the behaviour of corporate financialization in emerging capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focus on the Chinese new energy stock market and explore the impacts of structural fossil energy price shocks and economic policy uncertainty (EPU). To this end, we synthesize the prices of three fossil energy sources, decompose the dynamics of fossil energy prices into energy supply shocks (SS), demand shocks (DS) and risk shocks (RS), and run a TVP-SVAR-SV model. Our findings show that SS significantly influence the new energy stock prices (NE) in that DS have a positive short-term impact for most of the sample periods while the mid- and long-term impacts of RS on NE are negative and larger than those of both SS and DS. We also find that in all three categories of shocks, EPU is the most important predictor negatively related to NE, indicating that a stable policy environment is essential to equity financing in the new energy market. Besides, different categories of EPU have varied impacts on NE in that exchange rate policy uncertainty (ERPU) has the most detrimental effect while the impact of trade policy uncertainty (TPU) shows a positive influence. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for both market regulators and investors participating in transactions of new energy stock portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of macroeconomic policy uncertainty (EPU) on micro-level entities has garnered increasing attention in economic circles. This study examines the influence of EPU on the efficiency of investments made by China's A-share listed companies between 2016 and 2021. Using a panel fixed effect model for analysis, the research reveals that EPU has a notable adverse effect on the investment efficiency of enterprises. Furthermore, it suggests that advancements in digital finance, strong ESG performance, and enhanced entrepreneurial confidence can mitigate this negative impact effectively. The study also highlights that enterprises with lower valuation, shareholder control, limited audit reputation, and no bank connections are more vulnerable to the impact of EPU on investment efficiency compared to those with higher valuation, manager control, strong audit reputation, and bank connections. Consequently, future efforts should be directed towards enhancing the stability and relevance of economic policies, promoting digital finance, and enhancing corporate governance structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is currently focusing on the cooperative control of air pollution and CO2 emissions, as well as the mitigation of economic policy uncertainty (EPU). By using panel data from 282 cities spanning from 2003 to 2017 and a newly constructed city-level EPU index, a spatial Durbin, two-way fixed-effects model is employed, with the aim of estimating the impact of EPU on the synergistic emissions intensity (SEI) of air pollutants and CO2. Additionally, this paper investigates the potential channels through which EPU influences SEI. It also explores how pressures related to environmental protection and economic development affect the impact of EPU on SEI. The results indicate that a unit increase in EPU will result in a rise in the SEI of local cities, adjacent cities, and total cities by 930.9%, 69,162.7%, and 70,093.6%, respectively. Moreover, the channel analysis suggests that EPU exacerbates SEI by undermining the upgrading of the industrial structure, augmenting industrial structure distortion, and escalating labor market distortion. Furthermore, the effect of EPU on SEI may be lessened by an increase in environmental protection pressure, while an increase in economic development pressure may exert a positive influence. Finally, this paper concludes by recommending that policymakers should prioritize the maintenance and stability of economic policies, facilitate the advancement of the industrial structure, enhance the efficiency of labor resource allocation, and underscore the significance of managing urban air pollution and CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the shift towards protectionist policies in the United States' foreign economic policy, particularly in relation to China. It explains that these policies prioritize fair trade over free trade and aim to compensate Americans affected by unfair economic practices and counter China's rise as a competitor. However, the article argues that protectionism may not be a wise choice for the US in its competition with China. It suggests that protectionist measures could potentially weaken the US economy and give China more leverage, while other major economies could exploit or circumvent these measures. The article recommends that the US follows liberal economic principles and policies instead. It also highlights the challenges and costs associated with limiting China's access to US-developed technologies and the potential alienation of other major economies and developing states. [Extracted from the article]

This paper investigates the spillover effect of government locations on economic growth by exploring more than 180 relocation events of city governments in China. Empirical results demonstrate that government relocations improve regional economic growth measured by night lights. This positive effect decreases with the distance to city governments' new locations. Government relocations are also found to accelerate urbanization. Potential mechanisms include the changes in land conversion and firm birth patterns in the move-in areas. These results indicate that the relocation of local governments can be an effective place-based policy to improve economic growth and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the moderating role of the macroeconomic environment in the crash risk-policy uncertainty sensitivity. We find that managers have lower risk perception and crash risk is less sensitive to policy uncertainty during periods of economic expansion. Managers' risk perception is the critical channel through which the macroeconomic environment affects the relationship between crash risk and policy uncertainty. Consequently, when firms' managers have an accurate understanding of the future economic environment, the moderating effect of economic growth is lower. This manifests in the weaker moderating effect of economic growth for SOEs and firms with stronger managerial ability, lower managerial ownership, and high media attention, which further supports the risk perception channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the roles of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and geopolitical risk (GPR) in energy import (EI) is vital to ensuring energy security in China. The exploration utilises the TVP-SV-VAR methodology to seize the time-varying connection among EPU, GPR and EI. In light of the quantitative discussion, we discover that EPU exerts an adverse effect on EI, emphasising that the uncertainties in economic policies would reduce energy imports in China, which conforms to the theoretical hypothesis. GPR had a favourable impact on EI before COVID-19, primarily due to the changes in energy prices and diversification of imports, which turned negative after this epidemic because of economic recovery and more severe geopolitical events, which is not perfectly consistent with the qualitative analysis. Besides, the exploration replaces EI with oil import (OI) and ascertains the robustness of the reported conclusion. By comparing, the influences from EPU and GPR on coal import (CI) and natural gas import (NGI) are entirely different from OI primarily due to the substitution effect and geopolitical property. In the increasingly challenging economic and political environment context, the exploration will offer significant lessons for China to ensure the security of energy imports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy explores the origins of the US-led liberal multilateral economic order in the post-war world and the threats which that order now faces, drawing on contributions from two different groups of people—academic international relations (IR) scholars and international economists. This introductory essay attempts to weave the various strands of this intellectual collaboration together. First, it provides a narrative history of how economic collaboration emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War. Second, it describes the nature of the global economic governance that emerged and provides a new formal framework for analysing it, making use of the idea of 'concerted unilateralism'. Third, it explores how contemporary challenges—a broadening of policy requirements, the rise of economic nationalism, and the rise of China as a new hegemon—mean that the global economic order is now in flux. And finally, it concludes with a general observation that runs through the paper: that IR scholars are inclined to analyse international economic regimes, economists to study particular policy proposals, and that these two perspectives can—and should—complement one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on how small (weak) states respond to the geopolitical rivalry of great powers often centers around the hedging strategy, where small states tend to maintain their diplomatic independence by taking nonexplicit sides and stances to better safeguard their security and interests in the face of increasing external uncertainty. This paper, however, provides another powerful way of explaining this from the perspective of nonstate actors through the changing attitudes and strategies of the Malaysian Rail Link (MRL) in the Malaysia-China East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project. This paper shows that due to the unique nature of firms, small state firms will choose to respond to external great power games with economic hedging, and performance legitimization and particularistic legitimization determine the strength of small states' economic hedging and when firms and the governments they represent choose performance as a way to enhance legitimacy, small state firms will choose to use economic soft hedging as their primary mode of response. Conversely, economic complex hedging is more pronounced when particularistic legitimization is used to enhance legitimacy. The findings of this paper also demonstrate that small state firms have a complex connection with the government. On the one hand, small state firms are the implement and influential representatives of the ruling government's foreign policy, inheriting the government's essential interest pursuits and expectations. On the other hand, the enterprise itself is also a vital interest organization. It will also formulate economic policy according to its own needs. However, the MRL shows that the Malaysian government firmly controls the tiny state firms and is an important tool and instrument for the foreign economic game of the small state government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic policy uncertainty has prominent effects on investment and output. Using unique transaction-level data in China, this paper explores the impact of economic policy uncertainty on land transaction premiums in China. On average, a 1% increase in the policy uncertainty level reduces land transaction premiums by 3.907 percentage points. The impact of policy uncertainty is more profound for firms with tighter financial constraints and land located in cities with lower rent-to-price ratios. The influence of policy uncertainty becomes weaker after the anti-corruption campaign in China, especially in provinces scrutinised by the central inspection teams, implying that improvements in the political environment alleviates the impact of policy uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent changes in economic policy pose challenges to normal business production and operations. However, little is known about the non-market strategies adopted by firms in emerging economies, such as China, in response to economic policy uncertainty. This study proposes that firms in China respond to high levels of economic policy uncertainty by increasing philanthropic donations and bribery. In addition, this study argues that private firms and state-owned firms implement different strategies to cope with economic policy uncertainty. Specifically, the study suggests that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are more likely, than non-SOEs, to respond to economic policy uncertainty by increasing corporate philanthropy, and less likely to respond by increasing expenditure on bribes. This study obtained empirical evidence to support these views, based on an analysis of a dataset of 2,904 listed Chinese firms from 2008 to 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study focuses on the energy consumption (EC) and environmental pollution caused by carbon consumption in China's development. The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region is selected as the primary focus of investigation. To gain insight into the relationship between China's economic growth (EG) and carbon reduction (CR), two major research elements, the impact of each on the other is examined. The study mainly uses decoupling models and influence models to analyze the decoupling relationship and effectiveness between CR and EG. The research results showed that there was a difference between long-term and short-term effects. The short-term effect in the YRD region was manifested as a continuously improving decoupling state, while the long-term effect was manifested as the significant impact of population and per capita Gross Domestic Product on CR. The effect value of EC factor was 0.43, while the effect value of CR factor was 0.07. In functional comparison, the role of EC factors was more significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of China's new power system, various regions have implemented policies mandating the integration of new energy sources with energy storage, while also introducing subsidies to alleviate project cost pressures. Currently, there is a lack of subsidy analysis for photovoltaic energy storage integration projects. In order to systematically assess the economic viability of photovoltaic energy storage integration projects after considering energy storage subsidies, this paper reviews relevant policies in the Chinese photovoltaic energy storage market. It analyzes the cost and revenue composition of photovoltaic energy storage integration projects, and constructs a system dynamics model for the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of such projects. Taking a specific photovoltaic energy storage project as an example, this paper measures the levelized cost of electricity and the investment return rate under different energy storage scenarios. Combining energy storage allocation ratios and internal rate of return indicators, this paper analyzes the net present value of photovoltaic energy storage integration projects under different subsidy standards. The results indicate that, while the current energy storage subsidy policies positively stimulate photovoltaic energy storage integration projects, they exhibit a limited capacity to cover energy storage investment costs, thereby failing to incentivize capital market participation in the construction of such projects. Rational allocation of energy storage capacity and optimization of corresponding subsidy policies are crucial prerequisites for enhancing the economic viability and widespread adoption of photovoltaic energy storage integration projects. This study not only aids in investment decision making for photovoltaic power stations but also contributes to the formulation of energy storage subsidy policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploration employs the generalized supremum augmented Dickey-Fuller (GSADF) approach to explore whether there are digital tech bubbles in China. The empirical results suggest the existence of multiple digital tech bubbles, which are mostly accompanied by an excessive rise. However, the appearance of digital tech bubbles is curbed since 2016, mainly due to the increasing mature regulations in relevant fields. Besides, bubbles in different digital technologies are similar during the same period, which could be attributed to the close relationships among them. Additionally, we further investigate the factors influencing the explosive behaviours, and find that the Chinese stock market positively affects digital tech bubbles, while economic policy uncertainties and situations negatively influence such explosive behaviors. In the context of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, these conclusions provide valuable implications to achieve the target of constructing a "Digital China" by becoming moderately cautious about potential bubbles in the digital tech industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impacts of global economic policy uncertainty (GEPU) and domestic (Chinese) economic policy uncertainty (CEPU) on the long-run volatility of the tourism stock market in China based on an improved GARCH–MIDAS–X model. Empirical results reveal that both CEPU and GEPU have significant negative effects on the long-run volatility of China's tourism stock market. It is further identified that the impact of GEPU on tourism companies' performance is short-lived. The findings suggest that tourism-related practitioners should monitor both CEPU and GEPU when conducting risk assessments related to tourism investment and policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of growing worldwide attention towards environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations, this study investigates how ESG performance affects the probability of stock price crashes. The research explores samples of Chinese A‐share listed companies during the period from 2010 to 2019. The outcomes indicate that commendable ESG performance lowers the likelihood of stock price crashes, and these results persist robust even after executing a series of robustness and endogeneity examinations. Moreover, the available evidence indicates that good ESG performance mitigates the risk of stock price crashes by curbing both earnings management and corporate risk. However, the positive influence of good ESG performance on reducing the risk of stock price crashes diminishes when analyst coverage increases. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis infers that the effect of good ESG performance in reducing stock price crash risk is more significant for non‐state companies. Heightened economic policy uncertainty weakens the effect of good corporate ESG performance in mitigating stock price crash risk. Of the three ESG performance dimensions—environmental, social, and corporate governance—the latter is the most effective in lessening such risks. This research carries notable implications for reinforcing the ESG disclosure arrangement in China and other developing economies. It also guides government institutions and regulators in the creation of policies that foster high‐calibre economic progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs minimum spanning tree and generalized forecast error variance decomposition methods to investigate the connectedness and risk spillovers across China's commodity sectors from January 2016 to December 2021. The results show that total connectedness within the commodity system is time varying. Chemical is the main risk driver, while other sectors occasionally dominate the system. These two methods achieve consistent results in identifying the systemically important sector and dynamic connectedness. In addition, we find that Chinese economic policy uncertainty and the investor sentiment index have significant impacts on total connectedness. Our findings have implications for preventing systemic risk for policymakers and managing commodity portfolio risk for investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with similar research mainly focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Australian mainstream media using discourse analysis, this paper explores the reasons for the narrative shift by conducting semi-structured interviews with leading and well-known Australian narrative producers. This paper takes two conditions as a given. Firstly, the BRI narratives in Australian mainstream media shifted in tone from mostly positive to highly critical. Secondly, the Australian mainstream media's increasingly negative attitudes towards the BRI are essentially not just about the BRI but the Chinese government. Based on my analysis and interviews, this paper makes contributions by filling in the gap of finding out reasons to explain this narrative shift. More concretely, this paper finds out that while mainstream media is influential in many areas of national policy making, mainstream media reporting on foreign affairs is less so. By comparison, the Australian government's BRI or China policy has a significant impact on Australian mainstream media reporting. This narrative shift has been driven by international politics and Australia's China policy, influenced by Australian audiences' preference of local news and their local position, and its democratic responsibilities. Meanwhile, the vagueness and constant changing characteristics of the BRI do not help the understanding of the BRI in Australian media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamic linkages among economic policy uncertainty (EPU), the green bond market, the carbon market, and the macroeconomy using the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model with monthly data spanning from January 2016 to December 2021. Additionally, it assesses the robustness and accuracy of the empirical results through the Bayesian vector autoregressive (BVAR) model. The findings indicate that EPU negatively affects the green bond market in the short term but has a positive impact in the medium and long term. Conversely, EPU has a positive impact on the carbon market in the short term but a negative impact in the medium and long term. Furthermore, the green bond market negatively influences the carbon market in both the short and medium to long term. These results suggest that emerging markets, such as the green bond and carbon markets, are influenced by EPU. The adverse impact of the green bond market on the carbon market, however, contributes to expediting China's attainment of its low-carbon objectives. Appropriate economic policies can play a vital role in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. The study also reveals that the US-China trade war has expedited the development of green capital markets in China, despite its impact on the green economic transition in the country. These findings provide insights for the government and investors to formulate suitable strategies for risk mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of China's Digital Economic Policy (DEP) on industries' green innovation. It contributes to the existing literature on technology policy evaluation by challenging the assumption that this impact is similar across different industries. To achieve this, a conceptual framework is proposed, highlighting the asymmetric influence of the DEP on green innovation. By analysing panel data from 35 Chinese industrial subsectors, including 15 heavily polluting industries (HPIs) and 20 non-HPIs, between 2010 and 2020, this study reveals that the implementation of the DEP results in significantly higher levels of green innovation of HPIs as opposed to non-HPIs. The DEP's positive impact on green innovation of HPIs is primarily facilitated through industrial structure upgrading. Moreover, this study finds that the DEP has a greater effect on green innovation of HPIs with a lower state-owned ratio, higher total factor productivity or higher capital dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of rapid global economic transformation, the influence of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) has penetrated all fields of production and life. It is significant to study how it affects the regional carbon emission intensity for regional sustainable development. Based on the data from 30 provinces from 2004 to 2017, this paper takes a complete account of spatial heterogeneity and the dynamic impact of economic policy uncertainty on carbon emission intensity using a spatial econometric model. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) For more than ten years, there have been significant differences and instabilities in economic policy uncertainty and carbon emission intensity in different regions of China. (2) China's local carbon emission intensity shows an objective spatial aggregation effect, which is significant, spatially auto-correlated and clustered. (3) Based on the national level, economic policy uncertainty will significantly increase the regional carbon emission intensity. Additionally, economic policy uncertainty has a significant positive spatial spillover effect, which may increase carbon emission intensity in neighboring provinces. (4) Based on the provincial level, the impact of economic policy uncertainty on carbon emission intensity in various regions is significantly positive, with the most significant impact on the western region. Based on the above conclusions, the paper proposes policy suggestions to stabilize the regional carbon emission intensity in all directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its thriving economy, well‐crafted policies, diverse and lively multicultural society, and advanced infrastructure, the United Arab Emirates plays a significant role in the Middle East. It has become strategically and economically important to both the United States and China, and both countries have established strong strategic partnerships with the Gulf state. As the UAE is a small yet ambitious state, both powers are crucial to its strategy for maintaining security and diversifying its economy. Thus, to secure its interests, the UAE has adopted a strategy of balancing its relationships with Washington and Beijing. This article examines the strategy and aims to predict its direction in light of the increasing competition and rivalry between the two global powers. The analysis is part of a special issue examining the responses of Gulf countries to rising Sino‐American competition, edited by Andrea Ghiselli, Anoushiravan Ehteshami, and Enrico Fardella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, we explore the effects of monetary policy shock on the economic growth in systemically important countries such as the US, the Euro Area and China and their impact on Ukraine. Thus, the war in Ukraine and the rise of key policy rates by central banks to curb inflation have had a significant negative impact on economic activity. There has been both a significant decrease in trade activity and a slowdown in the services sector growth, which was the main engine of global economic growth at the beginning of 2023. Based on the vector autoregression model results, we demonstrated a slight initial decline of GDP growth with following stabilization in response to the rise of key policy rates in the US. In China, this decline is much bigger and constitutes 11% after the shock. In the Euro Area, we also observe a similar pattern as in the US with an initial decline up to 2% and a further return to equilibrium. Analyzing the results of the forecast error variance decomposition, we should note that GDP fluctuations in systemically significant economies are mainly explained by their own fluctuations. The key policy rate’s contribution ranges from 1% in the US to 11% in China. At the same time, economic growth in China is less vulnerable to inflation fluctuations, in the Eurozone we observe the most sustained one among the considered economies. In addition, the study shows that the key policy rate in the United States has a positive effect on the one in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of China's population control policy on its economic transitions and long‐run equilibrium theoretically and quantitatively. The model‐predicted technological progress is assumed to be driven by population size and education level. With population control, the total number of children decreases; however, the average education level increases. Since the overall effect on technological progress is ambiguous, we performed a quantitative analysis of the model. The results demonstrate that population, technological progress, and income per capita move in endogenous cycles. The impact of China's population control policy depends on the timing of its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do gains from globalization erode support for economic nationalism? We study how North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)‐enhanced local access to US markets affected Mexican demands for protectionist platforms. The left—led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)—underperformed in cities benefiting from export‐access gains during the 2006 presidential elections. This effect is observed strictly in 2006—the only post‐NAFTA election in which debates over trade integration played a salient role. Our findings are robust to controls for import‐competing pressures from NAFTA and the China shock. AMLO's 2006 protectionist platform likely cost him that year's election, and campaign media strategies in 2012 map to this earlier backlash. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adhering to long‐termism is essential for sustaining and promoting corporate innovation in the face of future uncertainty. In this study, we use machine learning and text analysis methods to construct a proxy variable for managerial long‐termism and explore how managerial long‐termism affects corporate innovation using a sample of 13,117 firm‐year observations from 2010 to 2020 in China. We find managerial long‐termism has a positive effect on corporate innovation, which is mainly achieved by mitigating agency problems. The positive effect of managerial long‐termism on corporate innovation is more pronounced when an enterprise faces stronger economic policy uncertainty and has more slack resources. Additional analysis shows that managerial long‐termism accelerates exploratory innovation and contributes to the high‐quality development of enterprises. Our findings advance research on long‐termism in corporate governance and generate meaningful insights into the antecedents of corporate innovation from the perspective of time preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]