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Detecting the adverse effects of major emergencies on financial markets and real economy is of great importance not only for short-term policy reactions but also for economic and financial stability. This is the lesson we learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper focuses on the risk spillover effect of the COVID-19 on Chinese energy industry using a high-dimensional and time-varying factor-augmented VAR model. The results show that the net volatility spillovers of the pandemic remain positive to all underlying energy sectors during January to June of 2020 and February to April of 2021. For the former sub-period, the volatility spillover of the COVID-19 is not only the highest, but also lasts longest for oil exploitation sector, followed by the power and gas sectors. While for the latter sub-period, the COVID-19 has relatively higher volatility spillovers to the power, coal mining and petrochemical sectors. These findings suggest that the COVID-19 has significant risk spillover effects on Chinese energy sectors, and the effects vary among different energy sub-sectors and across different periods of time.

This paper analyzes the causal relationship between trade policy uncertainty, government subsidies, and the role of political connections using annual data on Chinese energy firms from 2003 to 2018. The results show that when trade policy uncertainty increases, the Chinese government tends to increase subsidies for energy firms, and firms with political ties may receive more subsidies. Furthermore, firms with poor sales performance and in less marketized regions will be granted even more subsidies when uncertainty rises and firms are politically connected. We also observe that subsidies promote firms' fixed asset investments and innovations but decrease their overall investment efficiency.

This paper applies recently developed Fourier quantile unit root test to investigate time-series property of inflation in seven Eastern European countries. This method combines the quantile unit ro...

An acid-promoted multicomponent reaction for the synthesis of diverse fully substituted oxazole derivatives from simple and readily available arylglyoxal monohydrates, nitriles, and various C-nucleophiles has been developed. This protocol features wide functional group diversity which is capable of installing 4-hydroxycoumarin, 2-naphthol, and 1,3-cyclohexanedione motifs to oxazoles. Mechanistic analysis indicates that a classical Robinson-Gabriel reaction served as the key step for this tandem transformation.

An iron-mediated one-pot synthesis of 3-arylquinolines from o-nitrobenzaldehydes and β-nitrostyrenes has been developed. Iron acted as dual roles to trigger the reduction of o-nitrobenzaldehydes and reduction hydrolysis of β-nitrostyrenes, which subsequently integrated to quinoline derivatives.

This paper investigates the effects of financial deregulation on the energy enterprises' operational risks in China, based on 230 Chinese energy enterprises' yearly data spanning from 2003 to 2018. The results show that financial deregulation can lower the energy enterprise's operational risks through easing financing constraints and reversing the financialization tendency of energy enterprises. In addition, the impact of financial deregulation is heterogeneous across different features of energy enterprises. After replacing core indicators, changing model settings, and solving endogenous problems, the above conclusions are still robust, which provides robust evidence from the perspective of the interest rates liberalization.

This study investigates the effects of non-executive employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) on energy firms’ innovation. Based on 248 Chinese energy companies covered by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) database from 2006 to 2018, we document that non-executive ESOPs have a significantly positive impact on the number of patents applied by energy companies. To alleviate the endogeneity concerns, we adopt the two-way fixed effects model, the system generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM), and the instrumental variable approach to identify the causal relationship. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that non-executive ESOPs foster patent applications through risk-taking incentives implied by options, rather than the performance-based incentives. In addition, the positive effect is particularly pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, companies with higher R&D intensity, and companies with less free-riding. Our results highlight the importance of rank-and-file employee incentives for the technological innovation of Chinese energy companies, and provide clear policy implications to manages and regulators to design appropriate incentive schemes for employees to promote corporate innovation.

An acid-catalyzed multicomponent tandem cyclization protocol has been developed for the synthesis of polyfunctional dihydroindolizino[8,7-b]indoles from simple and readily available arylglyoxal monohydrates, tryptamines, and trans-β-nitrostyrenes or malononitrile. This reaction represents a highly efficient and convenient methodology for the synthesis of diversely substituted heteropolycyclic scaffolds under mild, metal-free conditions.

This study utilizes the nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model proposed by Shin, Yu, and Greenwood-Nimmo (2014) to quantify the potentially asymmetric transmission of positive and negative changes in each of the possible determinants of industry-level corporate bond credit spreads in China. The determinants we consider include the corresponding industry stock price, China’s stock market volatility, the level and slope of the yield curve (i.e., the interest rate), the industrial production growth rate, and the inflation rate. The empirical results suggest substantial asymmetric effects of these determinants on credit spreads, with the positive changes in the determinants showing larger impacts than the negative changes for most industries we consider. Moreover, the corresponding industry stock prices, the interest rate, and the industrial production growth rate negatively drive the industry credit spreads for many industries. In turn, China’s stock market volatility and the inflation rate positively affect the credit spreads at each industry level. These findings may be helpful to investors, bond issuers and policymakers in understanding the dynamics of credit risks and corporate bond rates at the industry level.

This study investigates the asymmetric effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and other possible determinants on the CNY–CNH spreads by utilizing the nonlinear ARDL model. For this purpose, we construct a novel EPU index based on the EPU indices of China and the G7 countries by using principal component analysis. The results show substantial asymmetric effects of the concerned determinants on the spreads. Moreover, the composite EPU significantly affects the spreads, with positive shocks to the composite EPU inducing widening CNY–CNH spreads.

A highly efficient chemoselective synthesis of multifunctionalized tetrahydro-1H-pyrrolo[1,2-c]imidazole and tetrahydropyrrolo[1,2-c]thiazole derivatives has been established from arylglyoxal monohydrates, nitriles, and thioureas. A series of control experiments suggested that this reaction proceeded through the convergent integration of two self-sorting domino sequences. This synthetic strategy is promising for diversity-oriented synthesis of alkaloid analogues.

A copper-catalyzed domino protocol for the synthesis of 2-(1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)aniline derivatives has been developed from simple and available isatins and hydrazides. This domino process integrated consecutive condensation, base-promoted ring-opening and the key copper-catalyzed decarboxylative coupling for intramolecular C-O bond formation.

A novel strategy has been developed for the direct synthesis of 2-aroyl-3-hydroxy-4-iodonaphthalenes from easily available (Z)-2-(hetero)arylidene-1-(hetero)arylbutane-1,3-diones in the presence of copper(II) oxide and iodine. This domino process involves consecutive methyl iodination/carbon–carbon double bond isomerization/6π-electrocyclization/aromatization/arene iodination sequences.

An acid-catalyzed multicomponent tandem double cyclization protocol has been developed for the synthesis of polyfunctional 4,9-dihydropyrrolo[2,1-b]quinazolines from simple and readily available arylglyoxal monohydrates, 2-aminobenzylamine, and trans-β-nitrostyrenes. This practical and metal-free reaction proceeds through an imine formation/cyclization/Michael addition/Henry cyclization protocol, resulting in the construction of four new bonds and two ring moieties directly in one pot.