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Copyright of China Brewing is the property of China Brewing Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Chinese government aims to balance employment stabilization and emissions reduction when it initiates an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to control carbon emissions. However, the policymakers should not neglect the role of imperfectly competitive market structure and market power from incumbent firms. In view of this, classical framework of Berman and Bui's (2001) is extended in this paper to clarify the theoretical mechanism of employment effect of the ETS considering firm-level market power. In addition, based on the firm-level panel data from 2008 to 2019 of China, the employment effect of each pilot ETS is measured with the method of difference-in-difference-in-differences. Then a moderating effect model is established to verify the role of firm-level market power on the heterogeneous employment effect among the pilot ETSs. Moreover, the employment effect is further decomposed to evaluate the influential mechanism from the perspective of firms' strategic behavior. It is found that there is negative employment effect of China's ETS policy, due to the significant moderating role of firm-level market power. This decrease in labor demand is mainly dominated by a negative output effect rather than a positive substitution effect because strategic allowance sellers with stronger market power tend to hire fewer employees to reduce carbon emissions by controlling production scale. However, the heterogeneity of policy effects resulted by market structure is also identified in different pilot regions. Employment dividend has been found in Beijing and Tianjin where strategic allowance buyers manipulate the carbon market and hire more employees to consolidate their market power. Therefore, policymakers should improve the design of the ETS to overcome the adverse employment effect duo to the region-specific market structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the widespread access and integration of new energy generation into existing power markets is a key strategy for China to achieve peak carbon and carbon neutrality. A joint regulatory mechanism composed of government regulators, power generation enterprises, and third-party testing organizations has become an effective way to ensure the stable operation of the power market and safeguard the economic interest of all parties. In order to analyze the key factors affecting the mechanism and improve the regulatory efficiency, this paper constructs a three-party evolutionary game model, explores the motivations of the participants under different strategy choices, and establishes a set of indicator systems for evaluating producers. The evolutionary game model is numerically simulated using the unified dynamics method, and the evolutionary stable strategy analysis is used to reveal how the key parameters affect the outcome of the game and its dynamic process, so as to find out the potential driving factors affecting the strategy choices. The results of the study show that in the early stage of market development, it is crucial to improve the profitability of firms, and the government needs to impose strict penalties and high incentives. As the market gradually matures and becomes more transparent, the government can gradually reduce the level of penalties. At the same time, ensuring accountability mechanisms from higher authorities to the government is key to ensure the effectiveness of regulation. This study provides an important theoretical basis and policy recommendations for constructing a new regulatory structure for the electricity market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of bank market structure on firm innovation in China using a two-way fixed effects model. Our analysis is based on a dataset comprising 2,412,316 firm-city level observations. Our findings suggest that there exists a U-shaped relationship between bank market structure and firm innovation in China. Specifically, we identify that the financing channel is a crucial pathway through which bank market structure influences firm innovation. Moreover, our results indicate that this relationship is mainly driven by small firms and innovative firms, and is more pronounced in regions with stronger intellectual property rights protection or greater openness to foreign markets. In sum, this study contributes to the existing literature by advancing our understanding of the impact of bank market structure on innovation in Chinese firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a response to imbalanced economic development across different regions, this study aims to explore how the Fair Trade nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) promote inclusive growth in areas facing insufficient institutional supports and challenging local conditions in a developing market. Through a 5-year longitudinal case study in the context of small-scale tea supply from rural China, this paper explores and identifies a set of institutional voids blocking economic growth and challenging the realisation of the Fair Trade goals. We systematically describe how the Fair Trade NGOs intervene and integrate with other actors in local supply chains. The results reveal important and complex roles the NGOs play in coping with the institutional voids to stimulate Fair Trade. From an institutional perspective, this paper finds that the Fair Trade NGOs can leverage and shape local institutions through collaboration in market structure building, norm promotion, and cognitive development to achieve inclusive growth. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the crucial roles NGOs may play in Fair Trade, inclusive growth, and poverty alleviation. They offer important and practical guidance for NGOs, small farmers, as well as relevant government agencies in their initiatives to fight poverty and achieve economic equality and inclusive growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many electricity markets in the world have experienced the vertical unbundling where the generation and transmission sectors were separated from a vertically-integrated monopolistic power company. This restructuring could positively impact the productivity of the firms because of intensified competition and enhanced autonomy but could also negatively aect the productivity because of the loss of synergy and scaled economy. By exploiting the vertical unbundling that took place in China in 2003, this study finds that vertical unbundling increased the labour use of the generation firms and the material use of the transmission firms. Additional investigation reveals that generation firms suffer from an efficiency loss in labour use due to the loss of coordination after vertical unbundling and the transmission firms face an increased transaction cost in acquiring material and bear the additional cost transferred from the efficiency loss of the upstream generation firms. Our findings suggest that benefits of vertical unbundling relative to integration critically hinge on the market structure of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade market power serves as a significant indicator of pricing power within the trade market. This paper aims to examine the market structure of global forage trade from 1997 to 2020 and assess the market power of forage exporters in major importing countries, namely Japan, China, and South Korea, by utilizing an extended G-K model based on the theory of residual elasticity of demand. The findings of this analysis provide several key insights. Firstly, it is revealed that the United States and Australia hold a monopoly on forage trade, while China has emerged as the most pivotal market for worldwide forage trade. Notably, China's growing demand for forage imports is profoundly influencing the global forage trade landscape. Secondly, the extent and effectiveness of exporting countries' market power in forage-importing nations, such as China, varies considerably. Lastly, the market power of forage-exporting countries is determined by various factors, including the demand for forage in importing nations, export monopoly, import structure, demand elasticity, and the level of marketization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines multiple shocks to the external market of China's manufacturing industry based on a trade model with multi-level unobserved factors. We find that the global external market of main industries is suffering constant downward shocks since 2008, while the traditional (non-traditional) markets are further affected by downward (upward) shocks. Private enterprises are more sensitive to shocks. Further, the adjustment of US trade policy toward China has caused China's exports to the US to deviate from the normal path by around 10% from 2015 to 2019, while having no significant effect on China's exports to the other traditional markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Agricultural Outlook (1673-3908) is the property of Institute of Agricultural Information, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The electrification of the transportation sector is a pivotal strategy to curb carbon emissions from traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles. China, the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) market, leads this transformative shift. This paper aims to unravel the past decade's development story of the EV industry in China. We first provide a comprehensive overview of the EV development trend in China, including analysis of market structures, regional development variations, technology advancements, and the development of the essential infrastructure. We then summarize the different forms of subsidy programs, both monetary and non-monetary, designed to promote EV at both central and local levels, and evaluate the effectiveness of these programs and their contribution to reducing carbon emissions. We conclude by highlighting key aspects that could enhance the efficiency of subsidy programs and further propel the development of the EV industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a factor timing strategy with information from 146 characteristic‐based factors and a deep learning approach to capture the nonlinear predictability. The deep learning‐based factor timing strategy generates the highest economic value compared with the unconditional and alternative linear machine learning‐based portfolios and remains robust after controlling for traditional factor models and transaction costs. With the unique market structure of the Chinese stock market, we find that mispricing‐based theory helps explain the factor timing via deep learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to enable urban economic development, the use of the right value and asset value of rural collective construction land (RCCL) is increasingly becoming apparent and this market is experiencing rapid development. However, the arrangement of the governance structure of rural shareholding cooperatives (RSCs) can seriously affect the efficiency of collective construction land market transactions, since the governance of RSCs is related to the interests of farmers. Protecting the rights and interests of farmers while improving the governance efficiency of RSCs is a considerable challenge worldwide. To better deal with this challenge, this study used a field survey in Nanhai District, Guangdong Province, China, to estimate how the governance structure of RSCs affect the efficiency of RCCL market transactions. Tobit models were constructed, and the results show that (1) most of the governance functions of RSCs were not separate from the administrative management of the village committees, which leads to low efficiency of RSCs' governance; (2) leaders of rural collective economic organizations played a key role in governance efficiency; (3) from the perspective of collective land property rights, most village shareholders did not have decision-making power or supervisory authority in the RCCL transfers because they could not complete access to transaction information. Furthermore, most villagers felt that the amount of income distributed was unreasonable, and the rights and interests of farmers and village shareholders were not guaranteed by the RSCs. Therefore, we suggest that the Chinese authorities should strengthen their current efforts to construct a more open and fair governance structure of the RSCs and thus improve their market transaction efficiency. Our work provides some insights into ways to improve the governance structure and market transaction efficiency of RSCs, which can further contribute to the development of the RCCL market in other areas of China and worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• HSR affects air traffic directly and indirectly via airfare adjustment. • Airfare plays different roles in competition, feeding and long-term effects. • HSR quality and pre-entry airline market structure affect airfare adjustment. • Feeding effect dominates competition effect, causing more airline CO2 emissions. • Airfare adjustment mitigates HSR-induced air traffic and airline CO2 emissions. Airfare reduction is proposed by a theoretical paper to be a possible source of observed air traffic increase in some markets where high-speed rail (HSR) enters and competes with airlines. This paper aims to empirically test whether and to what extent the air traffic impact is channeled by the adjustment in airfares. To understand the varying empirical results found in the literature, we examine heterogeneous airline responses in traffic and airfare in relation to HSR qualities measured by HSR-air travel time difference and pre-entry market structure of airline as well as decompose HSR impacts into competition, feeding and long-term effects. Using a panel dataset of Chinese air routes, we find that airfare adjustment plays crucial roles in channeling HSR's air traffic impact. Our estimation suggests that HSR introduced over 16.5 million additional passengers to the sampled air routes in our study period, generating 2.17 million tons of extra CO2 emissions from air flights. However, these numbers would increase to 32.2 million additional passengers and 3.4 million tons of extra CO2 emissions after removing the price adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2012, green bond markets have boomed worldwide, particularly in the European Union, the United States, and China. Under this background, the researchers use the methods of literature research, qualitative analysis, and descriptive research to compare the structure of Chinese and American green bond markets and analyze their differences from the perspective of historical evolution, issuance standards, and market operation characteristics. The researchers believe that China's bank-oriented financial structure and America's market-oriented financial structure are the main reasons for the difference between the two countries. The researchers then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of China's green bond market and conclude that the advantages of China's green bond market structure lie in low risk and close relationships between banks and enterprises, while the disadvantages lie in low financial efficiency and give relevant suggestions. This article makes up for the lack of cross-country comparison in the existing research on the green bond market and provides a qualitative research perspective. The suggestions put forward have specific policy significance for developing the green bond market in China and other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity market-oriented reform and carbon emissions trading, as the main policies implemented in China's power sector, have a profound impact on China's green and low-carbon transition by promoting resource allocation efficiency and internalizing external environmental costs, respectively. Therefore, this paper constructed a dynamic recursive CGE model to measure the energy, economic, and environmental impacts of carbon emissions trading and electricity market-oriented reform from electricity market structure and pricing mechanism. The results show that the two policies have a synergistic effect on industrial structure optimization, energy consumption structure optimization, and carbon emission reduction. Specifically, the share of value-added of the tertiary sector, the growth rate of coal consumption, the share of thermal power consumption, and carbon emissions in 2030 are reduced by 5.70 %, 18.29 %, 2.55 %, and 2.838 trillion tons, respectively, compared with the scenario without carbon emissions trading and electricity market-oriented reform. However, imperfectly competitive market structures outperform perfectly competitive market structures in energy consumption structure and carbon emission reduction. Electricity price regulation is also more beneficial to GDP growth and increase in residential disposable income compared to price liberalization. To this end, returning emission trading scheme revenues to residents can effectively mitigate the adverse impacts caused by market-oriented reforms. • EMR is involved in market structure, pricing mechanisms, and market regulation. • EMR and CET have a synergistic effect on carbon reduction. • Energy consumption structure is better in imperfectly competitive market. • Electricity price regulation is more beneficial to GDP growth. • Returning ETS revenue to residents increases per capita disposable income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper selects four grain crops of rice, wheat, soybean, and corn, analyzes their foreign trade from 2002 to 2020, and estimates the virtual land resource. The research results show that China's grain has always been in the state of net import. China mainly exports rice and imports soybeans, and the market structure has an obvious trend of simplification. The net import of virtual land resources in China's grain has grown significantly and has outstanding contribution ability. The average annual net import is 62.25 million ha, which is almost equivalent to the arable land area of China's one-cropping area. The net import contribution of soybean virtual land resources is about 101 times of its sown area, while corn, rice, and wheat account for about 10.42, 11.69, and 74.66% of its sown area. The net importers of virtual land resources are relatively concentrated, mainly in Brazil, the US, Argentina, Ukraine, and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-tier earnings structures have recently received renewed attention in the context of labour market reform, but relevant evidence for emerging economies is lacking. Relying on four waves of repeated cross-section individual-level micro data and Oaxaca-type earnings decompositions, this study investigates the interplay between the tightening of employment protection legislation in China through the introduction of the Labour Contract Law in 2008 and the earnings gap between covered and uncovered urban workers. It shows that in urban China average monthly earnings are significantly higher for workers with as compared to those without an employment contract and documents that labour market reform went hand in hand with a doubling in the log earnings gap. As there were no newly emerging differences in observable characteristics between the two groups of workers, this doubling was entirely due to reinforced impacts of differences in workers' observable characteristics on earnings. Results are consistent with prominent theoretical models of a two-tier labour market, complement existing results for Europe and are robust to a wide range of alternative specifications, including those that addresses selection into labour force participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Policy & Internet is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This research examines the effects of executive political connections on corporate performance by comparing firms with mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and firms without M&A activities in the energy sector using China Securities Regulatory Commission industry data from 2008 to 2018. We integrate two theoretical approaches, resource dependence and the agency view into one framework, and find that executives' political connections have a positive effect on corporate performance when there are no M&A activities, which is consistent with the resource dependence theory; however, well-connected executives harm firm performance through M&A activities. Our main results still hold after considering endogeneity issues, substituting relevant variables, comparing the effect of the global financial crisis, and controlling for market structure. Our study provides significant insight into the energy sector, which can help practitioners and policymakers who want to make advancements in firms' competitiveness through better implementation of policies related to M&A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China-specific currency market framework of 'one currency, two markets' provides us with a unique natural experiment to investigate how the active offshore exchange rate frequently diverges from the onshore exchange rate. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we propose a methodological framework that first establishes four convexity–concavity indicators, and then employ time series clustering/segmentation techniques to explore the evolutionary patterns of the onshore and offshore Renminbi exchange rates from 2 May 2012 to 29 December 2017. The empirical results show that the methodology is able to recognize five scenarios in which the exchange rates behave in an unsupervised manner, arriving at a diagnosis of the evolutionary patterns for these two markets. The estimated inverse covariance matrices and the associated graphical representations highlight the assembled timestamps of clustering assignments and reveal time-invariant structures of the market state, with all the most relevant dependencies directly interconnected in these two markets. It also suggests that intervention operations should take into account investor attention, varying arbitrage opportunities for market participants in both markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2019, People's Bank of China launched the reform of Loan Prime Rate (LPR) quotation formation mechanism and then made continuous progress in the order of "new loans first, followed by exiting loans," dredging the interest rate transmission channel of "policy interest rate, LPR, loan interest rate." In 2020, Chinese financial institutions have mainly referred to LPR pricing for loans, and the marketization level of loan pricing has significantly improved. This paper analyzed the policy effects transmitted by LPR through constructing a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) decision model, and it was found that the financial market structure, pricing ability of commercial banks, and the degree of LPR application all affected the policy rate transmission effect and had an impulse impact on macroeconomic growth. Based on the above analysis, this paper proposed policy suggestions on the path of interest rate market-oriented reform and coping measures of commercial banks in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms' privacy protection strategies are affected by multiple factors. This study adopted a configurational perspective to examine how regulation policy environment, market structure, and the heterogeneity among enterprises affect their privacy protection policies. Using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis of Chinese listed platform enterprises, we found that three configuration conditions were associated with enterprises formulating a privacy policy with a high level of protection and two configuration conditions were associated with enterprises formulating a privacy policy with a low level of protection. The results showed that privacy protection laws were a necessary condition to ensure that enterprises actively exercised privacy protection. Coordinated regulation systems based on the Personal Information Protection Law and industry standards are recommended as the best practice to safeguard privacy protection in China. As lack of competition can result in two polarized privacy protection strategies, regulatory policies should emphasize the balance between data protection and encouraging necessary data sharing. Furthermore, the conjunctive effect between market structure and business models affected privacy policy formulation, which suggests that the positive effects of users' rational choices in a competitive market should be further reinforced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rich body of literature is stressing the crucial importance of migration and market evolution on the underutilization of housing in cities. Rural housing is unique given its less mature market structure. Drawing on an empirical case of Sunan, the work reported in this paper addresses underlying mechanisms of housing land underutilization in rural China. Employing a multi-level modeling approach, results suggest that the likelihood of underutilization relates to household and village features, such as family attributes, housing/parcel characteristics, type of villages, and geographical locations. Additionally, underutilization was also closely associated with regional contexts including local economic development levels and migration patterns. Theoretically, we conceptualized rural housing land underutilization as a land use transition with villagers' awareness of policy change possibilities in the context of both rapid urbanization and rural transformation with nested hybrid results. We argue that urban-rural differences do not induce underutilization. Rather, policy-induced overbuilding of new houses and insistence on retaining uninhabited older houses combined with the tendency for villagers' to view investments as a mechanism to retain ties to their rural hometowns drove underutilizaiton. • We propose a multi-scalar analytical framework on the underutilization of rural housing land. • We identify the nested impacts of factors at different levels on the utility of rural housing land. • The dualistically organized regime is argued as the primary driver of housing land underutilization in rural China. • The transition of rural space from productivism to post-productivism matters as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, narcotics control has been unable to overhaul the durable and arguably self‐regulating socio‐economic networks driving heroin production and distribution in northern Myanmar, the second biggest drug production area in the world. To overcome this territorial barrier, the Chinese state introduced in 2000 an opium substitution programme that involved bringing Chinese agribusiness firms together with ex‐poppy farmers and local elites in northern Myanmar to form a formal cross‐border market. The programme raises a unique empirical puzzle: how could formal market building play a socially progressive role when it is superimposed in a border region underpinned by a well‐established informal, if also mostly illegal, market structure? This paper addresses this question through a reflexive Polanyian analytical framework that examines the "market" through its connections with non‐economic factors over time. It makes a distinct conceptual contribution by incorporating the border as a tangible anchor from which to assess how the processes of redistribution, reciprocity, and market exchange constitute the opium substitution programme as a social "countermovement." Findings indicate Yunnanese firms negotiate border politics to engage in exchange with ex‐poppy farmers, establish reciprocal relations with local military elites, and implement the redistributive strategies of the Chinese state. Despite some success, this formal market‐building process continues to experience barriers generated by the pre‐existing informal market structure across the border region. Whether market building could further impact on economic restructuring in this border region and fully remove opium production from the border economy therefore remains an open question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development that is called "new normal," and China's construction industry plays a pillar part in China's economy. Nevertheless, the industry is large but not strong. This labour-intensive industry suffers from low concentration and fierce competition. Based on the organizational theory, which shows how market structure contributes to the growth of industry, this study aims to explore the impact of market concentration and market power on firm's turnover and profit. Using statistical analysis and panel data of 37 China's construction companies from 2009 to 2018, this study proposes and calculates the market concentration (CR) and the market power (MP) of China's companies. Then the augmented Cobb–Douglas production function and OLS regression are used to explore the growth factors of China's construction industry. The results show that the market concentration increases both the turnover and profit of construction firms. However, market power increases the profit of construction firms while decreases the turnover. In addition, the companies that are China's non-state-owned have overseas income or are civil engineering and construction have more advantages in the growth of the construction industry in "quality". This study provides a reference to understand the structures of the construction industries and the structural effect on the growth of different types of firms and could be replicated in other countries with the similar situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that online product reviews can indicate the position of a competitive brand. Even though reviews on different platforms may express different opinions, most studies are based on only one platform. This may lead to an inaccurate analysis of market structure. To solve this problem, we develop a novel market structure analysis based on multi-attribute group decision-making which can integrate reviews from different platforms. Multiple platforms more comprehensively reflect the market than single platforms do. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we conduct a case study of mobile phone reviews across three top e-commerce platforms in China. In addition, we propose a process to generate priorities for product-attribute improvements using a cross-platform market structure analysis method. Our experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current rapid development of online car-hailing services creates a serious challenge to the existing paradigm of market governance and antitrust policy. However, the debate on the market structure of the car-hailing platform requires more empirical evidence to uncover its functions. This research adopts an interdisciplinary methodology based on computer science and economics, and including software reverse engineering tools applied to the interoperability of the terminal application and resource allocation model, to demonstrate the topological market structure of personal data resources allocation in China's car-hailing industry. Within the discussion of the hybrid nature of technology and economy, the analysis results clearly show that China's car-hailing platform services present a multi-sided market structure when seen from the perspective of personal data resource allocation. Personal data resource (PDR), that is considered an essential market resource, is applied as an asset transferred unhindered between platforms via the application programming interface, and thus, creating a new market allocation mechanism. The connection between the car-hailing platforms and social media platforms is an essential aspect of the market competition in the domain. As applications of online platforms increase in the global context, this research offers a new perspective in personal data resource allocation with implications for the governance of the platform economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the CEPII-BACI database and China Customs database from 2000 to 2011, this paper combines the degree of export experience of enterprises with their own trade network to study the differential effects of accumulated export experience on the dynamic evolution of enterprises' overseas market network structure and further explores it from the perspective of community and neighbors. The results of this study show the following. (1) The location choice of Chinese enterprises' overseas market depends significantly on the structure of export network constructed in the past and tends to choose regions with closer geographical and economic ties as export target countries. There is a significant path dependence effect. However, enterprises with rich export experience are no longer subject to the constraints of geographical space and will make the overseas market layout more "decentralized." (2) The decision making of export market location depends on the community distribution of export network. The path-dependent effect of export market layout in the export network community is significantly greater than that outside the community and tends to choose the intra-community region for overseas market layout. (3) The export network of adjacent enterprises has a significant impact on the location of enterprises' overseas market. However, enterprises with rich export experience are less dependent on the geographic network expansion effect of their neighbors and tend to choose markets with close economic links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some Chinese local governments include informal workers in their welfare systems while others exclude them? This article argues that local officials attempt to balance multiple, conflicting, top-down career-evaluation criteria by developing different inclusion mechanisms. The central mandate to build an inclusive welfare regime incentivizes local officials to embrace welfare "outsiders" (informal workers and nonlocal workers). However, other top-down policy goals and the locally defined citizenship (hukou) system disincentivize the full integration of outsiders. Faced with this political dilemma, local officials have strategically incorporated different types of outsiders into their welfare regimes. Their strategies depend on local labor market structures—specifically, the extent to which informal workers overlap with nonlocal workers. This hypothesis is tested using an original data set derived from thirty-one Chinese provinces, covering the period between 2005 and 2015, as well as two rounds of national-level survey data. Findings suggest that recent Chinese welfare expansion has ironically consolidated, even exacerbated, regional inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies identify cost as a key factor determining the effectiveness of economic sanctions. We argue that failing to account for market dynamics in the sector in which sanctions are imposed undermines the validity of estimates of the economic costs imposed on target countries, and we propose that market structure powerfully conditions sanctions effectiveness. To examine the effect of market structure, we trace the causal path through which economic sanctions purportedly lead to targets' behavior changes, and we reveal the prevalence of adjustments that minimize the cost to the target. Our empirical data is drawn from a sanctions episode that can be evaluated as a best-case scenario for the imposition of effective economic sanctions: China's 2010 embargo of rare earth elements supply to Japan. We show that Japan was able to adjust to avoid the Chinese sanction's bite despite the dominance of Chinese producers and Japan's seeming vulnerability as a key downstream consumer of rare earths. Our results show that measures of economic cost that fail to capture key components of market structure are not valid in assessing sanctions effectiveness, and the ability to impose economic costs on target countries is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, as an alternative to the surplus utility, we propose a performance‐price‐ratio (PPR) utility and specialize the customer choice model with a PPR maximization criterion. With the PPR‐based choice model, we investigate a pricing game between retailers in a competitive market. Through transferring the decision variable from price to performance‐price ratio, the first‐order condition of the game becomes a linear equation system, which enables us to develop a closed‐form equilibrium solution. The solution reveals how product performance and price sensitivity affect equilibrium pricing, market share, and revenue. With the developed theoretical results, we carry out empirical studies with a rich data set obtained from the China TV market. At the individual product level and the brand level, we calibrate the PPR‐based choice model and the widely used surplus‐based model with a Bayesian information criteria‐based stepwise multivariate regression method. The regression results suggest that the PPR‐based model fits both the product‐level and brand‐level data better than the surplus‐based model. Through the stepwise selection of independent variables, we find that the leading features affecting a TV's performance are 3D TV functionality and its screen size. Moreover, we explore how the market equilibrium evolves with the game decision sequence, market structure, and new product entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rare metal mineral market, as a complex system, multiple decision-making among the stakeholders increases the complexity in its market structure and dynamic process. The unreasonable compensation pricing mechanism for the development of the rare metal mineral resources in China requires to be studied. Drawing on the methods of game theory model and chaos control analysis, this paper builds theoretical model of rare metal mineral market structure, corporating related parameters of rare metal in the game theory model, to conduct the chaotic nature and path analysis, expecting to solve the bottleneck problems that restrict the rare metal pricing and resource security and enhance the waste valorization for the sustainability. Specificly, a Cournot-Nash Equilibrium model is built to analyze the Cournot-equilibrium point, the stability of the Cournot Equilibrium point, the chaotic status, as well as the pattern to chaos of the game system in the rare metal mineral resource market, numerical simulation is used to verify the model. The conclusions facilitate the formulation of industrial economic policies and further improvement of managerial strategies to solve market problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of China Textile Leader is the property of China Textile Information Center and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines whether banking transparency and competition affect financial stability of banks and transparency acts as a conduit in effecting the competition among banks to increase or decrease their financial stability. This study uses multiple variations of a two-step system generalized method of moments approach on annual data from 164 Chinese commercial banks from 2000 to 2014. The results of this study showed that transparency with market power lessens the insolvency risk of banks as well as credit market risk; one could infer that market discipline works more robustly in the presence of disclosure requirements. This study supports existing market literature that China's banking transparency is a significant determinant of changes in financial stability given the market structure of its banking system while controlling for several exogenous and endogenous variables. The results are robust by using alternate proxies for market structure, banking transparency and financial stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Nigeria-China relations and sustainable food security in Nigeria. The recognized and actual bilateral relations between both countries, established since 1971, have been among the largest in Africa with both parties providing a humongous market structure for each other. However, the nature of their bilateral relationship has been largely unequal, with China enjoying the largest share of profits. Despite the interest accorded to this configuration in International Studies, the implication of the same on Nigeria’s quest for food security and its sustainability has not been given much attention. This paper, therefore, seeks to investigate and establish the relationship, if any, between Nigeria-China bilateralism and sustainable food security in Nigeria. In order to achieve this, the research adopts qualitative and descriptive methods. Also, data is sourced from secondary outlets. This study finds that although there exists an unequal bilateral relationship between Nigeria and China, this relationship is relatively balanced compared to the relationship with the west. Ultimately, the paper recommends that Nigeria should improve its competitiveness through the diversification of its oil dependent economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The factors with information are key to predict stock returns. Previous studies on disagreement mainly focus on the report of the analysts and the sentiment or belief of investors, as well as the trading volume or turnover, ignore the structure among stocks. In this paper, we come up with a new concept of the market structure disagreement and measure it based on the K-means clustering algorithm and Gini impurity. The experiments for the CSI100 stock market show that the market structure disagreement could improve the predicting direction accuracy of machine learning algorithms nearly 1.5%. Specifically, trading volumes and net capital inflows affect the market structure disagreement, which increases with the log difference of trading volumes and decreases with the growth rate of net capital inflows. This paper proposes a new information factor, structure disagreement, which is significantly helpful for investors with market timing, especially for the investors using machine learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by solid economic developments, emerging economies are experiencing significant institutional change, particularly in regulatory structures and market systems. Coupled with fierce market competition and reforms, serious challenges for the sustainable development of new ventures are created due to smallness and newness liabilities. This study examines how new ventures grow and adapt to the rapid environmental shifts in emerging economies by exploring the effects of entrepreneurial bricolage. This study found that entrepreneurial bricolage has a positive impact on both new venture growth and adaptiveness. Further, institutional voids have contrasting effects on these two relationships. The effectiveness of entrepreneurial bricolage on new venture growth is stronger in a context with serious institutional voids, while the effectiveness of entrepreneurial bricolage on new venture adaptiveness is weaker in a context with serious institutional voids. These findings not only enrich our knowledge on the implications of entrepreneurial bricolage, but also advance our understanding of the emerging economy context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to promote the structural optimization of the banking industry and improve the national economic level. The analysis method based on the co-integration test is adopted to study the relationship between market structure optimization and economic growth in the banking industry. Firstly, the current economic growth condition, development trend, and the development of the banking industry are analyzed. Secondly, the model between the bank market institutions and the economy is constructed, and the data source of the model is analyzed. Thirdly, the stationarity test, co-integration test, and regression analysis of the studied data are carried out based on the co-integration test. The results show that there is a significant negative correlation between the concentration of banks and the overall economy, and there is a significant negative correlation between the market structure of banks and the downgrading growth of various industries. Also, the variables of social material input level and human capital input have a significant positive correlation with the economy. It is hoped that the results of this study can provide a good guiding significance for China's economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the price dispersion among China's "Big Three", namely, Air China, China Eastern and China Southern in the presence of high-speed rail (HSR). It has been found that HSR is positively and significantly associated with airline price dispersion on the long-haul routes, which may suggest that the presence of HSR can facilitate airline cooperation in setting prices and outputs, thereby leading to greater price dispersion. However, on the short-haul routes where HSR is highly substitutable, the HSR competition effect dominates, and smaller price dispersion is observed. All the market structure and competition variables included in this study support the conclusion that price dispersion is greater in more concentrated and more densely travelled markets. The contribution of airline cost to price dispersion is limited. • This paper examines the price dispersion among Chinese main carriers in the presence of high-speed rail (HSR). • The presence of HSR is positively and significantly associated with airline price dispersion. • Price dispersion is greater in more concentrated and more densely travelled markets. • The contribution of airline cost to price dispersion is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive analysis has long been recognized as the cornerstones of firm's strategic management and business activities. With the advent of the multi-channel clickstream, this paper studies the competitive market structure by developing a novel generative model. We first aggregate the multi-channel clickstream data to construct a consideration set for each user. Then, a novel sparse influence topic model (SITM) is proposed to segment an overall market into submarkets by leveraging the consideration sets at the individual level. Compared with the current generative models, the proposed SITM model considers the limited interest and the influence of products to generate users' choice behaviors. Based on the multi-channel clickstream data from 109,081 users on 3779 cars, we empirically analyze the competition structure in China's automotive market. Experimental results show that the proposed model can obtain deep insights of the competitive market structure and the competition power of each car in the market. It can also help managers understand user's personalized interesting in the competitive market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fake online reviews are so prevalent that e-commerce platforms attempt to control it from affecting the trustworthiness between buyers and sellers. The issue has also attracted sporadic scholarly endeavor to understand this new field. To address this issue, we propose a new model to examine three interrelated stakeholders of e-Commerce platforms: experienced buyers, future buyers and the online sellers in terms of purchasing behaviors and sales with three objectives. Experienced buyers influence future consumers' behaviors and increase sales from sellers. Using data collected from the largest online e-commerce platform in China, we test relevant hypotheses. Our findings show that experienced buyers and their positive reviews increase future buyers' purchasing and promote corporate sales. These findings contribute knowledge to the online feedback mechanism and literature on fake review studies. This study also provides a novel method to help buyers avoid fake online review from a market structure perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economics literature contains many theoretical analyses of imitation and differentiation strategies but relatively few empirical studies of these topics due to the limitation of data and methods. This paper conducts empirical research on competitive behavior among three dominant Chinese satellite TVs. It indicates that: 1) Program selection decisions of dominant satellite TVs primarily depend on their previous decision, showing decision inertia, which is verified by the fact that shock of each satellite TV's previous decisions best explains its current decision. Meanwhile, there is strategic dynamic interaction between each other, in the form of a mixed strategy with both imitation and differentiation. 2) Degree of imitation depends on satellite TVs' competitive positions. Leaders tend to differentiate, while pursuers incline to imitate. 3) Satellite TVs' decision patterns show heterogeneity related to program types. A satellite TV's decisions on its representative and advantageous programs are less affected by its competitors, while decisions on other programs suffer greater impacts. And heterogeneity is more obvious in pursuers. Impacts of market structure and degree of imitation on program ratings are further studied. Results indicate that: 1) Competitive pressure has negative crowd-out effect on leaders' program ratings, while it has positive spillover effect on pursuers. This finding is consistent with the fact that rating gap between first-class dominant satellite TVs and second-class dominant ones has narrowed. 2) Imitation leads to higher program ratings, indicating possible presence of herd behavior among Chinese audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how diagrams are performed in actual scientific practice by examining two studies of the structure of periodic markets in rural China before and during the World War II. These are Ching-Kun Yang's pioneering study of systematic field observations of Chinese periodic markets in the 1930s, and the US anthropologist William G. Skinner's model, which accounts for the social and economic structure of rural China. In both cases, the empirical studies involved in uncovering the Chinese market structure are closely connected to Western theories of geographical research: Yang's research is influenced by the Chicago School of Sociology, led by Robert E. Park and Ernest Burgess; Skinner's theoretical research applies the central place theory of Walter Christaller and August Lösch of the German Location School. The author argues that the social scientists' practices demonstrate how diagrams have a specific epistemic virtue for guiding the idealization and representation, both as a process and end product, in formulating explanations for the distribution of locations. Moreover, whereas the diagrams are represented as pure geometrical shapes, they not only are the outcome of idealization but also play an important role in guiding the process of evidentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Understanding the impact of engineering design on product competitions is imperative for product designers to better address customer needs and develop more competitive products. In this paper, we propose a dynamic network-based approach for modeling and analyzing the evolution of product competitions using multi-year buyer survey data. The product co-consideration network, formed based on the likelihood of two products being co-considered from survey data, is treated as a proxy of products' competition relations in a market. The separate temporal exponential random graph model (STERGM) is employed as the dynamic network modeling technique to model the evolution of network as two separate processes: link formation and link dissolution. We use China's automotive market as a case study to illustrate the implementation of the proposed approach and the benefits of dynamic network models compared to the static network modeling approach based on an exponential random graph model (ERGM). The results show that since STERGM takes preexisting competition relations into account, it provides a pathway to gain insights into why a product may maintain or lose its competitiveness over time. These driving factors include both product attributes (e.g., fuel consumption) as well as current market structures (e.g., the centralization effect). With the proposed dynamic network-based approach, the insights gained from this paper can help designers better interpret the temporal changes of product competition relations to support product design decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between bank diversity and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) firm innovation in China to evaluate the impact of recent bank deregulation. Design/methodology/approach: Using a large data set that includes 8,143 firm-year observations of 1,122 listed SME firms in China and baseline and robustness regression analyses, the authors identify how bank diversity affects firm innovation and via what economic mechanisms. Potential endogeneity problems are considered and addressed in the design and analysis to minimize research bias. Findings: The authors find robust evidence that bank diversity improves firm innovation. Specifically, the findings suggest that the positive effects of bank diversity on firm innovation are only significant for the firms which are more external finance dependent, have fewer growth opportunities and/or located in the provinces having low financial market development. Originality/value: This study provides novel evidence and insights into the relationship between banking market structure and the determinants of firm innovation in the Chinese context, as a result of China's banking deregulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the contributions of various factors in the differences in polarisation across China, India, and Indonesia using micro‐simulation and decomposition methods. Using household expenditure from harmonised data from these countries, China was found to have the highest polarisation, while India has the lowest. Using India as the base country, the differences in the labour market structures in India and Indonesia have a slightly decreasing effect on polarisation. The effects of the differences in demographic composition and expenditure structures/parameters, however, are uncertain. Further, the differences in polarisation between China and Indonesia can be explained mostly by the differences in the expenditure structures. China's expenditure structure tends to increase polarisation, as evidenced by the resulting reduction in the size of the middle class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementing the dual-credit policy has brought about a milestone shift in China's automotive market, which plays a significant role in automakers' innovation. This study constructs an evolutionary game model based on the Hotelling theory to explore the impact of the dual-credit policy on the innovation strategies of conventional automakers (CAs) and new energy automakers (NAs). Further, a multi-agent simulation model is used to analyze the intrinsic mechanism of the endogenous and exogenous elements of the policy on innovation-decision behaviors. The results show that the dual-credit policy can effectively promote CAs' technology innovation and electrification, but the incentive effect shows a high degree of heterogeneity across the different scales of NAs. Notably, the competitive market environment significantly affects the incentive effect of the dual-credit policy on NAs' technology innovation. The revision of the dual-credit policy will mainly affect the innovation dynamics of NAs: the effect of the new energy vehicle (NEV) accounting multiplier is positive, whereas the effect of proportion requirements for NEVs production and standard model credit is negative. The findings further show the threshold effect of the credit transaction price on automakers' innovation incentives, with the price threshold being higher for NAs than for CAs. • Complex market structures were focused on. • Infulence of dual-credit policy on different automakers shows noticeable differences. • Influence mechanism of dual-credit policy elements was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the carbon-neutral goal set for 2060, China has promoted renewable energy development for more than two decades. Meanwhile, China's electricity market is undergoing a new round of reform by introducing more market-oriented mechanisms and changing the market structure. This paper investigates the impact of three electric utility market structures experimented with in China on promoting renewable energy through a simulation model. The three market structures are vertical monopoly, weak monopoly (separation of power generators and grids), and monopolistic competition (Cournot-Nash competition). The model is calibrated with the actual data of the regional utility network in Beijing, Tianjin, and Tangshan areas. The simulation results show that the electricity market structure plays a vital role in renewable electricity, and the competition among utilities tends to benefit renewable energy development (wind power here). The study's conclusions are helpful to our understanding of further reforms in the electric utility industry and the long-term clean energy target in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]