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Can historical culture explain persistent regional differences in economic expropriation? We document that the levels of tunneling and opacity of Chinese public firms are negatively associated with regional Confucian culture, captured by data from the Qing Dynasty of Imperial China (1644--1912 AD). The results are robust to controlling for local economic development, enforcement of property rights, and geography and to using two instruments constructed from data in the Ming Dynasty (1368--1644 AD). The findings suggest that culture represents a fundamental force that constrains economic expropriation, which has important implications for economic development (Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson, 2001; Rajan and Zingales, 2003).

Grassland degradation in arid and semi_arid steppe results from the integrated impacts of nature and human factors and is one of the most important ecological and economic issues in China. It is necessary to discriminate between natural and human_induced degradation for purposes of rehabilitation and restoration of degraded steppe regions. Based on existing research, we proposed a method that integrated regression analysis and residual analysis to discriminate between areas degraded by human activities and those caused naturally. We applied this method to the Xilin Gole Steppe in Inner Mongolia, China as a case study using Pathfinder NOAA/AVHRR NDVI data from 1983 to 1999 and meteorological data within the same time period. Firstly, we constructed a regression model using the first 6 years (1983_1988) of data for each pixel between annual maximal NDVI and meteorological data (precipitation and temperature) including a time lag for precipitation. Secondly, the difference or residuals between actual and predicted maximal NDVI were derived for the latter 11 years (1989-1999). The analysis of the trends in the residuals of the first data set over time indicated that pixels with negative trends were human_induced degradation. The results showed that the Xilin Gole Steppe experienced a heavier degree of human_induced degradation from 1989 to 1999 with larger areas being impacted. The results are in accord with the status quo of the study area.

Chinese Abstract: 以文化会影响经济绩效为理论预设，本文研究了儒家对公司绩效的影响。研究结果表明儒家为公司的逐利行为提供了合法性，因此有助于提升公司的盈利能力。其次，儒家可以有效提升监督机制的效率，但削弱了激励机制对财务绩效的边际贡献。此外，研究结果表明儒家与法律制度存在显著的替代关系。本文为儒家影响公司绩效提供了新的证据，纠正了一些对中国儒家的偏见。English Abstract: Based on the basic assumption that culture can influence economic performance, the paper studies the influence of the Confucianism on the corporate performance. The conclusions mean that the Confucianism provides legitimacy to profit-driven behavior of corporation, so the cultural context of Confucianism contributes to improvement of corporate performance. Secondly, the Confucianism can increase the efficiency of monitoring mechanism, but weaken the marginal contribution of the incentives to financial performance. In addition, the conclusions mean there exists substitution relation between the Confucianism and law. The paper provides evidence that Confucianism have significant effects on corporate performance, and corrects some prejudices about Chinese Confucianism.