ISE 2024 Issue 3 Table of Contents and Abstracts
International Studies of Economics (ISE)
Volume 19, Issue 3
Ecology versus economic development: Effects of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt strategy
Guan Gong, Yu Zhao
Ecological versus Economic Development: A Study of the Policy Effects of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt
How does factor market distortion affect green innovation? Evidence from China's sustainable development demonstration belt
Feifei Tan, Chenyu Sun
How Does Factor Market Distortion Affect Green Innovation? Evidence from China's Sustainable Development Demonstration Belt
Government subsidies and corporate environmental, social and governance performance: Evidence from companies of China
Pei Peng, Mengzi Sun
Government Subsidies and Corporate ESG Performance: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies
Environmental regulation and environmental performance of enterprises: Quasi-natural experiment of the new environmental protection law
Xiuying Chen, Huajie Liu, Sheng Liu
Environmental Regulation and Corporate Environmental Performance: A Quasi-Natural Experiment of the New Environmental Protection Law
A sweet burden? The effect of bride prices on parents' health
Yuan Chen, Yue Ding, Jingwei Huang, Xun Li, Kaidi Wu
A Sweet Burden? The Effect of Bride Prices on Parents' Health
Effects of adult children's marriage on household stock market participation: An event-study difference-in-differences approach using Chinese micro data
Haopeng Sun
Effects of Adult Children's Marriage on Household Stock Market Participation: An Analysis Based on the Event-Study Difference-in-Differences Approach
and Chinese Micro Data
Abstract
Ecology versus Economic Development: Effects of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt Strategy
Abstract: This paper takes the Yangtze River Economic Belt strategy as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the impact of prioritizing ecology on
economic development. The empirical results show that the implementation of the strategy significantly reduced urban industrial wastewater emissions
and promoted the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure toward technology-driven services while maintaining stable economic growth.
On average, the implementation of the strategy reduced the average annual urban industrial wastewater emissions by about 21.9%, increased the economic
growth rate by about 1.9%, and raised the share of service industry output and the share of productive service industry personnel by about 4.9% and 2.4%,
respectively. In addition, heterogeneity analysis shows that variables such as population density, infrastructure, human capital level, and government
intervention capacity are factors affecting the heterogeneity of policy effects. The Yangtze River Economic Belt strategy provides valuable insights into how
developing countries can achieve a balance between economic development and environmental protection.
How does factor market distortion affect green innovation? Evidence from China's sustainable development demonstration belt
Abstract: Green innovation meets the simultaneous demands of green and innovation-driven development models when it is deemed as a key to realizing
a green economic transition. However, factor market distortion impedes China's green development through factor mobility and resource allocation. Under
such circumstances, we detect whether and how factor market distortion affects green innovation from various perspectives in the case study of China's
Sustainable Development Demonstration Belt. The findings demonstrate that the distortion has a pronounced inhibiting effect on the green innovation
growth in the study area. For the eastern and more-developed cities, factor market distortion considerably inhibits green innovation improvement, while
the impact is less pronounced in the western (or central) and less developed cities. Furthermore, the factor market distortion negatively affects green
innovation through some effective paths, like energy efficiency and environmental regulation. From a spatial perspective, the green innovation's spillover
effect could be reduced by both the distortions of the labor market and capital market. Thus, this study would provide strong theoretical support for
enhancing the factor market system and improving the multiregional green innovation power in China, as well as scientific suggestions on transitioning to
China's sustainable development.
Government subsidies and corporate environmental, social and governance performance: Evidence from companies of China
Abstract: Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is crucial for companies to attain sustainable development, which is a key reference for
assessing the value and growth potential of a company. Government subsidies can provide incentives for companies to prioritize environmental preservation,
meet their social duties, and improve their governance performance. This paper empirically examines the effects and mechanisms of government subsidies
on corporate ESG performance, using an Ologit multiple ordered regression model based on data from Chinese listed companies. We find that not only do
total government subsidies significantly improve firms' ESG performance, but both environmental and non-environmental subsidies also have the similar
effect, albeit with different impact mechanisms. The analysis of the mechanism suggests that government subsidies can enhance corporate ESG performance
by promoting green innovation, alleviating financing constraints, increasing charitable donations, and attracting social attention. This paper holds significant
practical value as it presents empirical findings as a basis for reforming China's subsidy policies, showcasing the actual impact of diverse subsidy policies and
the heterogeneity.
Environmental regulation and environmental performance of enterprises: Quasi-natural experiment of the new environmental protection law
Abstract: Whether command-control environmental regulation can play a positive role in circumstances of imperfect market incentive-based environmental
regulation remains rarely explored. Using the difference-in-difference model, we find that command-control environmental regulation can significantly
improve the environmental performance of heavily polluting firms. This result still holds after a sequence of robustness tests. The analysis of the economic
mechanism indicates that the new environmental protection law mainly contributes positively to the environmental performance of high-polluting firms by
improving the quality of their environmental investments and pollution treatment disclosures, and by reducing the government subsidies they receive to
improve the environmental performance of high-polluting firms. Meanwhile, the new environmental protection law has a more pronounced impact on heavily
polluting enterprises in the eastern region, with imperfect internal control, stronger environmental regulations, more distant political connections, greater
pressure on regional GDP growth and weaker industry competition. This paper confirms the effectiveness of the new environmental law in improving
environmental performance of heavily polluting enterprises in pursuit of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, and provides new evidence to test the
weak Porter hypothesis in the context of transition economies.
A sweet burden? The effect of bride prices on parents' health
Abstract: The bride price, as an informal institution originated from traditional culture, is pervasive in many areas of the developing world in a form of a
payment from the family of the groom to that of the bride at marriage. We study the effects of bride price on parents' health in China. Using information on
bride price payment and various health measures from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we find that the bride price significantly reduces
self-reported health among the grooms' parents after addressing the endogeneity issue with average sex ratio within a family computed as an instrumental
variable. The reductions are heterogenous across urban and rural areas. Mechanism analysis suggests the negative health outcomes are driven by family debt,
heavier psychological stress and longer work hours caused by bride price payments.
Effects of adult children's marriage on household stock market participation: An event-study difference-in-differences approach using Chinese micro data
Abstract: This paper examines households' stock market participation responses to a critical life-cycle event, adult children's marriage. An event-study
difference-in-differences approach is employed to facilitate identification, which compares changes in the stock market participation behaviors of households
that experience children's marriage with households that experience it later as well as households that never experience it. Exploiting household-wide
variations in exposure to children's marriage using the China Family Panel Studies data over the 2010–2020 period, this paper finds that 2 years after children's
marriage, households significantly enhance their likelihood of participating in the stock market. Households' willingness to participate increases by 1.1 to 1.6
percentage points depending on specifications. This paper's finding supports time-varying risk aversion at the household level. Mechanism analysis indicates
that children's marriage raises household risk preferences because it mitigates parental old-age support concerns and alleviates households' consumption
commitment to housing and children.
