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This study analyzed the impact of environmental regulation, specifically the "2+26" regional strategy for air quality improvement, on corporate research and development (R&D) investment in China. We developed a theoretical model based on the argument that R&D investment rises with regulation intensity. Using 2010–2019 data from China's listed companies located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas, we treated the $2+26$ policy as a quasi-natural experiment and adopted a difference-in-differences approach to explore its effect on firm R&D input. A positive association was observed between firm R&D intensity and the $2+26$ strategy's implementation in major polluting industries. Our results provide in-depth insights into the $2+26$ strategy's economic consequences, which are potentially of interest to both scholars and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The income gap between urban and rural households is a prevalent social issue in many countries, including China. This study examines the effect of information and communication technology (ICT) diffusion on the urban–rural income gap in China. We theoretically analyse how ICT infrastructure construction, financed by fiscal transfers, in rural areas narrows the rural–urban income gap. Further, our empirical results show that both ICT penetration at county level and ICT usage at household level narrow the rural–urban income gap. Moreover, compared to computer access, the newer generation of ICT devices (smartphones) has stronger effects in narrowing the rural–urban income gap. We find that smartphones play a key role in the reduction of this income gap by increasing the agricultural product operational income of rural households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the impact of population aging on the composition of taxes in an overlapping generations model. Taxes are levied on both income and expenditure, with the median voter being pivotal in the political-economy theoretical framework in question. As in Razin, Sadka, and Swagel (2002. "The Aging Population and the Size of the Welfare State." Journal of Political Economy 110 (4): 900–918. doi:), an increased fraction of retirees in the population leads to lower income taxes. Conversely, the results for expenditure taxes are ambiguous. The main proposition is that the composition of taxes–defined as the extent to which taxes are levied on income relative to expenditure–falls unambiguously with the share of retirees increasing as the tax burden is rebalanced toward the retired population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents the determinants of local government size corresponding with the work experience of political leader. Utilizing the city level data on the size of government and political officials in China, government size is found to be negatively associated with local political leaders' work experience in business. This relationship holds more firmly in poor cities or those with stronger fiscal decentralization. Moreover, we find evidence supporting that both fiscal decentralization and the size of public funded system contribute to the expansion of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of economic policy uncertainty on firm performance. Utilizing a news-based index of economic policy uncertainty and firm-level data in China, firm investment, employment, and revenue are found to be negatively associated with policy-related economic uncertainty. This negative relationship is weakened in state-owned enterprises (a fall in investment of 5.61%, employment growth of 0.09%, and sales growth of 0.31%) compared to that of non-state-owned enterprises (a fall in investment of 7.79%, employment growth of 0.14%, and sales growth of 0.34%). We explore several potential explanations and find evidence supporting that economic policy uncertainty reduces the incentives of firms to expand their operation through the mechanism of risk-taking, cash holdings and tax burden. Given this microscopic study on mechanisms, our analysis provides a reference for policy-makers to effectively reduce economic fluctuations. [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]

This paper examines how COVID-19 affects firm research and development (R&D) using the data of Chinese-listed companies from 2018 to 2020. Our results show that COVID-19 significantly inhibits firm R&D input. However, such significant evidence mainly exists on firms classified as private enterprises, with smaller size, or belonging to high-technology industries. Moreover, we find evidence that the epidemic reduces firm revenue but, in the meantime, increases the financing constraint, leading to less R&D investment. The conclusion of this study provides a theoretical basis and practical reference for enterprises to make better decisions on innovative activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hardness and wear resistance of amorphous Al–Mn alloy coatings can be improved by incorporating ceramic particles into them to extend their application. In this paper, Al–Mn/WC composite coatings have been prepared with electrodeposition in stirred AlCl3–NaCl–KCl–MnCl2 molten salts at 180 °C with the addition of WC particles. The effects of stirring speed (400–700 rpm) and cathode current density (15–75 mA/cm2) on the produced Al–Mn/WC composite coatings have been studied. At 600 rpm and 700 rpm, the Al–Mn/WC composite coatings exhibited the best uniform distribution of the embedded WC particles, with the tested microhardness value up to 650 HV0.1, compared with 530 HV0.1 of the Al–Mn alloy. Moreover, under various cathode current densities, the best quality of the Al–Mn/WC composite coating was obtained at 55 mA/cm2, with a homogeneous distribution of WC particles and the highest microhardness value (670 HV0.1). It is expected that this method could be extended to be applied for the preparation of aluminum-based and magnesium-based ceramic composite coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is the source of power for high-quality development, and a relaxed institutional arrangement is a necessity for promoting innovation in enterprises. This paper examines the impact of fault tolerance on corporate innovation, theoretically analyzes the positive effects of fault tolerance on stimulating innovation, and estimates the influence of fault tolerance on corporate innovation by using the panel data of listed manufacturing companies from 2007 to 2019, taking the quasi-natural experiment of fault-tolerance system in various places since the new round of stateowned enterprise (SOE) reform. This study finds that the fault-tolerance system has significantly improved the R&D investment and patent application of the pilot SOEs, but the incentive effect is mainly reflected in the utility model patents; fault-tolerance system mainly promotes corporate innovation by alleviating managers' career worries and improving governance ability. Furthermore, the fault-tolerance system is more effective for small and medium-sized SOEs with low market competition and can alleviate the restriction of agency cost on corporate innovation. In addition, the fault-tolerance system has not yet had a significant spillover effect on private enterprises. These results show that in the SOE reform, it is necessary to strengthen the institutional arrangement of fault tolerance and create a relaxed environment to encourage innovation; it is necessary to organically integrate fault-tolerance-system design into executive measurement and corporate governance, promote faulttolerant system to be implemented in a wider range of enterprises, and enhance the incentive effect on high-quality innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]