Pub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-02-27DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107347
Alessandra Mezzadri
Building on critiques of Development as both immanent and intentional process, this contribution advances a vision of Development as life-making, grounded in a global feminist political economy approach centred on the concept of social reproduction. Moving beyond the methodological nationalism of many productivist paradigms, it redirects Development toward the regeneration of social, economic, and ecological conditions that sustain life; the dismantling of intersectional and existential inequalities; and the pursuit of social and economic justice. This new vision and definition restructure Development priorities along three axes: reproductive labour, life-sustaining sectors, and surplus populations. This reframing brings theoretical, political, and policy agendas into alignment with a project of planetary social justice, drawing on the diverse legacy of social reproduction feminism.
{"title":"Development as life-making","authors":"Alessandra Mezzadri","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107347","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107347","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Building on critiques of Development as both immanent and intentional process, this contribution advances a vision of <em>Development as life-making</em>, grounded in a global feminist political economy approach centred on the concept of social reproduction. Moving beyond the methodological nationalism of many productivist paradigms, it redirects Development toward the regeneration of social, economic, and ecological conditions that sustain life; the dismantling of intersectional and existential inequalities; and the pursuit of social and economic justice. This new vision and definition restructure Development priorities along three axes: reproductive labour, life-sustaining sectors, and surplus populations. This reframing brings theoretical, political, and policy agendas into alignment with a project of planetary social justice, drawing on the diverse legacy of social reproduction feminism.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"203 ","pages":"Article 107347"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147387668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-03-05DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107369
Hanna Fuhrmann-Riebel , Ben D’Exelle , Kristian López Vargas , Sebastian Tonke , Arjan Verschoor
Pro-environmental behavior, such as recycling, often needs to be regular to be effective, and interventions to encourage behavioral change may therefore need to be repeated; yet, little evidence exists on the optimal time pattern and frequency of such repeated interventions. To fill this gap, we investigate the impact of mobile text reminders on households’ recycling behavior in urban Peru by randomly varying the exposure length and continuity of reminders. We find that reminders increase both the likelihood that households start to recycle and the frequency of recycling among households that already did so before the intervention. The effects are stronger when reminders are repeated over a longer period. Our findings suggest that both limited attention and habit formation matter for recycling behavior, and that low-cost mobile text reminders can effectively support regular pro-environmental behavior.
{"title":"Can reminders promote regular pro-environmental behavior? Experimental evidence from Peru","authors":"Hanna Fuhrmann-Riebel , Ben D’Exelle , Kristian López Vargas , Sebastian Tonke , Arjan Verschoor","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107369","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107369","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pro-environmental behavior, such as recycling, often needs to be regular to be effective, and interventions to encourage behavioral change may therefore need to be repeated; yet, little evidence exists on the optimal time pattern and frequency of such repeated interventions. To fill this gap, we investigate the impact of mobile text reminders on households’ recycling behavior in urban Peru by randomly varying the exposure length and continuity of reminders. We find that reminders increase both the likelihood that households start to recycle and the frequency of recycling among households that already did so before the intervention. The effects are stronger when reminders are repeated over a longer period. Our findings suggest that both limited attention and habit formation matter for recycling behavior, and that low-cost mobile text reminders can effectively support regular pro-environmental behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"203 ","pages":"Article 107369"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147387671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-03-06DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107374
Madhobi Hossain , Francisca Farache , Carmen Lopez
The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically informed framework to analyse how the collective shaping of institutions facilitates women’s entrepreneurship. Despite extensive literature on the impact of institutions on women’s entrepreneurship, there is limited knowledge about how diverse actors can purposively and collectively influence institutional change to create a more supportive business environment. Using the concept of collective institutional entrepreneurship, this paper explores collaborative activities within a women’s entrepreneurial ecosystem aimed at transforming institutions that constrain their entrepreneurial development. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with 40 participants from six groups: women entrepreneurs, government-led organisations, non-governmental organisations, business associations, financial organisations, and higher education institutions. These actors represent development programmes in Bangladesh designed to promote women’s entrepreneurship. The findings present a process model outlining steps involved in shaping institutions, including gathering actors, utilising financial resources and social positions, and seeking legitimacy for women’s entrepreneurship. The model highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to strengthen collective efforts while identifying barriers that may impact sustainable outcomes. By capturing perspectives from diverse actors and examining programmes addressing various institutional constraints, this paper offers a holistic view of women’s entrepreneurship development.
{"title":"Women’s entrepreneurship through collective institutional shaping","authors":"Madhobi Hossain , Francisca Farache , Carmen Lopez","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107374","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107374","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically informed framework to analyse how the collective shaping of institutions facilitates women’s entrepreneurship. Despite extensive literature on the impact of institutions on women’s entrepreneurship, there is limited knowledge about how diverse actors can purposively and collectively influence institutional change to create a more supportive business environment. Using the concept of collective institutional entrepreneurship, this paper explores collaborative activities within a women’s entrepreneurial ecosystem aimed at transforming institutions that constrain their entrepreneurial development. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with 40 participants from six groups: women entrepreneurs, government-led organisations, non-governmental organisations, business associations, financial organisations, and higher education institutions. These actors represent development programmes in Bangladesh designed to promote women’s entrepreneurship. The findings present a process model outlining steps involved in shaping institutions, including gathering actors, utilising financial resources and social positions, and seeking legitimacy for women’s entrepreneurship. The model highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to strengthen collective efforts while identifying barriers that may impact sustainable outcomes. By capturing perspectives from diverse actors and examining programmes addressing various institutional constraints, this paper offers a holistic view of women’s entrepreneurship development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"203 ","pages":"Article 107374"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147387670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-03-02DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107375
Leif Brottem , Matthew Turner
Protected areas in Africa are sites of resource-related grievances and are located within socio-ecological landscapes where insurgent groups have increasingly operated. The connection between insurgency and protected areas is widely seen as resulting from resistance to coercive conservation, or from the role that protected areas serve as insurgent refuges. Research in Benin’s National Park W reveals that its emergence as a site of insurgency is shaped less by current grievances or refuge than by new forms of power that are grounded in histories of inter-group competition and changes in resource availability within a broader socio-ecological landscape. Long-term fieldwork shows how these landscape-level changes have intersected with different modes of park management to influence relations between managers and livestock herders which have in turn created opportunities for insurgents. Our analysis reveals two contrasting channels through which conservation zoning has shaped insurgent-local relations. The first involves resource users resisting expulsion from wildlife protection areas. The second involves users who align with insurgents to defend rights they have obtained through official park management policy. This channel demonstrates that attempts by managers to accommodate local needs can inadvertently produce new kinds of insurgent-local relationships through a combination of strict territorial management and ambiguous rights in special use zones. These findings point to a more complex etiology of how protected areas become sites of insurgency, highlighting the importance of the interaction of landscape-level resource competition and changing relations between conservation managers and rural inhabitants over time.
{"title":"Biodiversity conservation and contestations over land: Jihadist expansion in West Africa","authors":"Leif Brottem , Matthew Turner","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107375","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107375","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Protected areas in Africa are sites of resource-related grievances and are located within socio-ecological landscapes where insurgent groups have increasingly operated. The connection between insurgency and protected areas is widely seen as resulting from resistance to coercive conservation, or from the role that protected areas serve as insurgent refuges. Research in Benin’s National Park W reveals that its emergence as a site of insurgency is shaped less by current grievances or refuge than by new forms of power that are grounded in histories of inter-group competition and changes in resource availability within a broader socio-ecological landscape. Long-term fieldwork shows how these landscape-level changes have intersected with different modes of park management to influence relations between managers and livestock herders which have in turn created opportunities for insurgents. Our analysis reveals two contrasting channels through which conservation zoning has shaped insurgent-local relations. The first involves resource users resisting expulsion from wildlife protection areas. The second involves users who align with insurgents to defend rights they have obtained through official park management policy. This channel demonstrates that attempts by managers to accommodate local needs can inadvertently produce new kinds of insurgent-local relationships through a combination of strict territorial management and ambiguous rights in special use zones. These findings point to a more complex etiology of how protected areas become sites of insurgency, highlighting the importance of the interaction of landscape-level resource competition and changing relations between conservation managers and rural inhabitants over time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"203 ","pages":"Article 107375"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147387667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-02-26DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107367
Giorgio Fagiolo , Marina Mastrorillo , Grazia Pacillo
As of 2024, Jordan hosts over 1.3 million refugees—one of the highest refugee-to-host population ratios globally—posing significant challenges for sustaining refugee household livelihoods. To inform effective support strategies, this study quantifies household resilience using quarterly UNHCR data from 2022. We conceptualize resilience as the ability to maintain a minimum, normatively defined level of well-being when exposed to potential stressors. We focus on two core welfare indicators (real per-capita income and expenditure) and extend existing approaches by estimating the joint conditional probability that both indicators remain above defined normative thresholds. We further examine how resilience relates to dependence on unconditional cash assistance using household panel data with fixed effects, a framework designed to account for unobserved heterogeneity and mitigate targeting bias. Results show that: (i) resilience is higher in wealthier and less densely populated Governorates; (ii) average resilience declined across the four quarters of year 2022; (iii) lower resilience is observed among Syrian households and those residing outside Amman; and (iv) assistance displays a robust contemporaneous positive association with resilience, especially among more dependent and vulnerable households. Although primarily descriptive, these patterns offer indicative insights for refining targeting strategies and designing resilience-oriented social protection programs in protracted displacement settings.
{"title":"Investigating resilience of refugee households in Jordan","authors":"Giorgio Fagiolo , Marina Mastrorillo , Grazia Pacillo","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107367","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107367","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As of 2024, Jordan hosts over 1.3 million refugees—one of the highest refugee-to-host population ratios globally—posing significant challenges for sustaining refugee household livelihoods. To inform effective support strategies, this study quantifies household resilience using quarterly UNHCR data from 2022. We conceptualize resilience as the ability to maintain a minimum, normatively defined level of well-being when exposed to potential stressors. We focus on two core welfare indicators (real per-capita income and expenditure) and extend existing approaches by estimating the joint conditional probability that both indicators remain above defined normative thresholds. We further examine how resilience relates to dependence on unconditional cash assistance using household panel data with fixed effects, a framework designed to account for unobserved heterogeneity and mitigate targeting bias. Results show that: (i) resilience is higher in wealthier and less densely populated Governorates; (ii) average resilience declined across the four quarters of year 2022; (iii) lower resilience is observed among Syrian households and those residing outside Amman; and (iv) assistance displays a robust contemporaneous positive association with resilience, especially among more dependent and vulnerable households. Although primarily descriptive, these patterns offer indicative insights for refining targeting strategies and designing resilience-oriented social protection programs in protracted displacement settings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"203 ","pages":"Article 107367"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147387347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-03-03DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107353
Yiping Wu , Jinghong Zhou , Julan Du
This study uses American Community Survey microdata from 2005 to 2019 to investigate the interactive effect of parents’ education and immigrant status on their children’s economic and education outcomes. We find a significant positive correlation between the education achievements of parents and those of their children, which diminishes for immigrant parents. However, the low transmissibility likely reflects the upward mobility of immigrant children, who may surpass their parents’ and native children’s education levels, despite starting from similar or lower educational baselines. The influence of immigrant parents’ education on their children’s outcomes is complex, involving parental nurturing, pecuniary constraints, socioeconomic disparities, foreign credential non‑recognition, language barriers and cultural hurdles. Our findings present a nuanced picture. While the translation of educational mobility into broader economic mobility remains incomplete, there is a positive association between educational mobility and labor income mobility. Importantly, the analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity across immigrant subgroups. Distinct patterns emerge between immigrants from developed and developing countries, and intergenerational mobility outcomes also vary by parental race—particularly in families with Black fathers. These findings shed light on the challenges and implications of immigrant parents’ education for their children’s outcomes and emphasize the need to address these unique obstacles to secure the success of future generations.
本研究利用2005 - 2019年美国社区调查（American Community Survey）的微观数据，考察父母受教育程度和移民身份对子女经济和教育成果的交互影响。我们发现父母的教育成就与其子女的教育成就之间存在显著的正相关，而移民父母的教育成就则不显著。然而，低传播率可能反映了移民儿童的向上流动性，尽管他们的教育基础相似或更低，但他们可能会超过父母和本地儿童的教育水平。移民父母的教育对子女成就的影响是复杂的，涉及父母养育、金钱限制、社会经济差距、不承认外国证书、语言障碍和文化障碍。我们的发现呈现了一幅微妙的图景。虽然教育流动性转化为更广泛的经济流动性仍然不完整，但教育流动性和劳动收入流动性之间存在正相关关系。重要的是，分析揭示了移民亚群体之间的实质性异质性。来自发达国家和发展中国家的移民之间出现了不同的模式，代际流动的结果也因父母的种族而异——特别是在有黑人父亲的家庭中。这些发现揭示了移民父母的教育对孩子的成就的挑战和影响，并强调需要解决这些独特的障碍，以确保后代的成功。
{"title":"The American dream revisited: intergenerational education mobility in immigrant households","authors":"Yiping Wu , Jinghong Zhou , Julan Du","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107353","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107353","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study uses American Community Survey microdata from 2005 to 2019 to investigate the interactive effect of parents’ education and immigrant status on their children’s economic and education outcomes. We find a significant positive correlation between the education achievements of parents and those of their children, which diminishes for immigrant parents. However, the low transmissibility likely reflects the upward mobility of immigrant children, who may surpass their parents’ and native children’s education levels, despite starting from similar or lower educational baselines. The influence of immigrant parents’ education on their children’s outcomes is complex, involving parental nurturing, pecuniary constraints, socioeconomic disparities, foreign credential non‑recognition, language barriers and cultural hurdles. Our findings present a nuanced picture. While the translation of educational mobility into broader economic mobility remains incomplete, there is a positive association between educational mobility and labor income mobility. Importantly, the analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity across immigrant subgroups. Distinct patterns emerge between immigrants from developed and developing countries, and intergenerational mobility outcomes also vary by parental race—particularly in families with Black fathers. These findings shed light on the challenges and implications of immigrant parents’ education for their children’s outcomes and emphasize the need to address these unique obstacles to secure the success of future generations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"203 ","pages":"Article 107353"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147387672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-03-10DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107373
Chei Bukari
This study examines the direct and spillover effects of corruption on firms’ tax evasion in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region plagued by both phenomena. Firm-level data on 17 SSA economies spanning 2008–2014 were sourced from the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey. I instrument for endogeneity of corruption using five variables, namely the number of days it takes to (i) clear exports, (ii) clear imports, (iii) obtain an operating license, (iv) time spent by senior management on regulatory compliance, and (v) the extent to which business licenses and permits are an obstacle the firm’s operation. I implemented a battery of endogeneity-correcting estimators: traditional instrumental-variable two-stage least squares (2SLS), Lewbel’s 2SLS, Oster’s bounding analysis, propensity score matching, and Kinky Least Squares. I find that corruption of tax officials (i.e., bribe expected/requested in exchange for a favourable tax inspection) significantly increases tax evasion. More critically, this study challenges prevailing assumptions from European and Central Asian contexts by demonstrating that corruption outside tax authorities—specifically bribes expected/requested in exchange for operating licenses and government contracts—also exerts substantial adverse spillover effect on tax compliance. Firms that perceived/experienced bribe requests in exchange for obtaining operating licenses evaded taxes at rates 24.2 percentage points higher than their counterparts who did not perceive/experience bribe requests in exchange for obtaining operating licenses. In contrast, a percent increase in perceived bribe rates for government contracts corresponded to a 2.1 percentage-point increase in tax evasion. Mediation analysis identifies working capital depletion as a key transmission channel. These findings underscore the need for multisectoral anti-corruption strategies to effectively combat tax evasion and enhance domestic revenue mobilisation in SSA.
{"title":"When it rains, it pours: On the spillover effects of corruption on firms’ tax evasion","authors":"Chei Bukari","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107373","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107373","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the direct and spillover effects of corruption on firms’ tax evasion in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region plagued by both phenomena. Firm-level data on 17 SSA economies spanning 2008–2014 were sourced from the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey. I instrument for endogeneity of corruption using five variables, namely the number of days it takes to (i) clear exports, (ii) clear imports, (iii) obtain an operating license, (iv) time spent by senior management on regulatory compliance, and (v) the extent to which business licenses and permits are an obstacle the firm’s operation. I implemented a battery of endogeneity-correcting estimators: traditional instrumental-variable two-stage least squares (2SLS), Lewbel’s 2SLS, Oster’s bounding analysis, propensity score matching, and Kinky Least Squares. I find that corruption of tax officials (i.e., bribe expected/requested in exchange for a favourable tax inspection) significantly increases tax evasion. More critically, this study challenges prevailing assumptions from European and Central Asian contexts by demonstrating that corruption outside tax authorities—specifically bribes expected/requested in exchange for operating licenses and government contracts—also exerts substantial adverse spillover effect on tax compliance. Firms that perceived/experienced bribe requests in exchange for obtaining operating licenses evaded taxes at rates 24.2 percentage points higher than their counterparts who did not perceive/experience bribe requests in exchange for obtaining operating licenses. In contrast, a percent increase in perceived bribe rates for government contracts corresponded to a 2.1 percentage-point increase in tax evasion. Mediation analysis identifies working capital depletion as a key transmission channel. These findings underscore the need for multisectoral anti-corruption strategies to effectively combat tax evasion and enhance domestic revenue mobilisation in SSA.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"203 ","pages":"Article 107373"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147387669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-03-02DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107371
Mingjin Luo , Shengquan Wang
Motivated by the global trend of green and low-carbon transformation and the dual-carbon goal, the development of China’s green finance has been expedited. Based on the data of Chinese listed companies, this paper examines the influence of green finance development on the labor share. We find that (1) The development of green finance exerts a negative effect on the overall labor income share of enterprises, primarily through accelerating the substitution of capital for labor and enhancing enterprise productivity. (2) The impact of green finance on the labor income share is more significant for heavily polluting enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, and labor-intensive enterprises. (3) The strong bargaining power of workers within the firm and the acquisition of government subsidies effectively mitigate the negative impact of green finance on the labor income share. Nevertheless, the increase in labor costs intensifies the negative impact of green finance on the labor income share. (4) Regional-level analysis indicates that green finance has promoted the allocation of labor from the polluting sector to the clean sector. Green finance only has a reducing effect on the labor income share in heavily polluting sectors, and its overall impact on the regional labor income share is not remarkable.
{"title":"Green finance and labor income share: evidence from China","authors":"Mingjin Luo , Shengquan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107371","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107371","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Motivated by the global trend of green and low-carbon transformation and the dual-carbon goal, the development of China’s green finance has been expedited. Based on the data of Chinese listed companies, this paper examines the influence of green finance development on the labor share. We find that (1) The development of green finance exerts a negative effect on the overall labor income share of enterprises, primarily through accelerating the substitution of capital for labor and enhancing enterprise productivity. (2) The impact of green finance on the labor income share is more significant for heavily polluting enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, and labor-intensive enterprises. (3) The strong bargaining power of workers within the firm and the acquisition of government subsidies effectively mitigate the negative impact of green finance on the labor income share. Nevertheless, the increase in labor costs intensifies the negative impact of green finance on the labor income share. (4) Regional-level analysis indicates that green finance has promoted the allocation of labor from the polluting sector to the clean sector. Green finance only has a reducing effect on the labor income share in heavily polluting sectors, and its overall impact on the regional labor income share is not remarkable.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"203 ","pages":"Article 107371"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147387673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2025-12-18DOI: 10.1016/j.gfj.2025.101228
Yuanqi Zhou , Ya Zhang , Zhenghua Shuai , Yu-en Lin
Share pledging is not strictly regulated in emerging markets, making it into a mechanism for controlling shareholders to cash out financing. Using data from Chinese listed companies (2008–2020), this study examines the relationship between controlling shareholder share pledging and corporate investment efficiency by incorporating the reinvestment behavior of pledged funds into an analytical framework. Results reveal a significant negative correlation between share pledging and investment efficiency by reducing information transparency, weakening corporate social responsibility(CSR), and damaging the effectiveness of internal control. However, pledged fund inflow can alleviate financing constraints and function as a reservoir to improve investment efficiency. When pledged funds flow into the enterprise, the reservoir effect becomes dominant, particularly in firms experiencing underinvestment issues. In this scenario, share pledges alleviate financing constraints, improve corporate investment efficiency. In contrast, when pledged funds flow out of the enterprise, weakened corporate governance from equity pledges triggers the tunneling effect, which exacerbates agency conflicts and reduces investment efficiency. Further analysis reveals that the tunneling effect is weaker for companies with high audit quality, strong media attention, and check-and-balance ownership. These findings, which remain robust after a series of tests including instrumental variable method(IV), propensity score matching(PSM), and alternative variable measurements, contribute to understanding share pledges' actual impact and mechanisms on firm-level resource allocation, yielding significant theoretical and practical insights for improving corporate governance and regulatory systems in emerging markets.
{"title":"Share pledging by controlling shareholders and firm investment efficiency: Evidence from China","authors":"Yuanqi Zhou , Ya Zhang , Zhenghua Shuai , Yu-en Lin","doi":"10.1016/j.gfj.2025.101228","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfj.2025.101228","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Share pledging is not strictly regulated in emerging markets, making it into a mechanism for controlling shareholders to cash out financing. Using data from Chinese listed companies (2008–2020), this study examines the relationship between controlling shareholder share pledging and corporate investment efficiency by incorporating the reinvestment behavior of pledged funds into an analytical framework. Results reveal a significant negative correlation between share pledging and investment efficiency by reducing information transparency, weakening corporate social responsibility(CSR), and damaging the effectiveness of internal control. However, pledged fund inflow can alleviate financing constraints and function as a reservoir to improve investment efficiency. When pledged funds flow into the enterprise, the <em>reservoir effect</em> becomes dominant, particularly in firms experiencing underinvestment issues. In this scenario, share pledges alleviate financing constraints, improve corporate investment efficiency. In contrast, when pledged funds flow out of the enterprise, weakened corporate governance from equity pledges triggers the tunneling effect, which exacerbates agency conflicts and reduces investment efficiency. Further analysis reveals that the <em>tunneling effect</em> is weaker for companies with high audit quality, strong media attention, and check-and-balance ownership. These findings, which remain robust after a series of tests including instrumental variable method(IV), propensity score matching(PSM), and alternative variable measurements, contribute to understanding share pledges' actual impact and mechanisms on firm-level resource allocation, yielding significant theoretical and practical insights for improving corporate governance and regulatory systems in emerging markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46907,"journal":{"name":"Global Finance Journal","volume":"69 ","pages":"Article 101228"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-01-02DOI: 10.1016/j.gfj.2025.101232
Shi-jie Jiang , Lehang Zeng , Mei-Chih Wang
This research delves into the cash flow underwriting in the U.S. property-casualty insurance market, a strategic approach in which insurance companies trade off underwriting profits in hopes of higher investment returns. Spanning from 1954 to 2023, this study utilizes nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and multiple threshold NARDL (MTNARDL) models to uncover how interest rate fluctuations affect underwriting profits and investment income ratios. We discovered compelling differences: while the short-tail line aligns with rational market behavior, the long-tail line reacts significantly, echoing the nature of cash flow underwriting. At the aggregate industry level, the dominance of cash flow underwriting in the long run is primarily driven by these long-tail business lines, which account for a substantial share of underwriting exposure. Furthermore, a pattern of long-run asymmetric adjustment is also observed between investment income ratios and interest rates, indicating that while underwriting profits decline with rising interest rates, investment income can offset these losses to a certain extent. Through asymmetric causality tests, we further illustrate how positive and negative interest rate shocks uniquely influence profitability across various business lines. This study not only bridges conflicting theories of rational markets and strategic underwriting but also equips industry stakeholders with critical insights to navigate the complex rhythms of the insurance market.
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