Economics & Politics最新文献

This article investigates the impact of Data Element Marketization (DEM) on corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, using a quasi-natural experiment based on China's data trading platforms pilot policies. Employing a Difference-in-Differences (DID) framework, we find that DEM significantly enhances ESG outcomes by alleviating financing constraints, promoting digital transformation, and strengthening external supervision. Our results highlight that firms with higher intangible asset intensity and those located in more marketized regions experience stronger improvements in ESG performance. Additionally, DEM also helps mitigate greenwashing behaviors. This study contributes to the understanding how market mechanisms for data circulation can drive corporate sustainability and offers policy implications for advancing DEM reforms.

This study examines the impact of China's government-guided fund policy on corporate innovation quality from a venture capital perspective. It holds significant implications for comprehensively understanding the economic effects of government venture capital and the realization of sustainable development of enterprises. Using a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) approach, we analyze data from A-share-listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen (2008–2023) to empirically assess how government-guided funds influence enterprises innovation quality. Results show that firms receiving such investments exhibit a statistically significant improvement in their innovation quality. The effect is more pronounced among firms facing higher financing needs, including growth-stage enterprises, strategic emerging industries, and Nonpolitical connections enterprises. Mechanism analysis further reveals that government-guided funds enhance enterprises innovation quality by alleviating financing constraints and lowering agency costs.

This paper focuses on developing a utility—maximizing model, which points to an optimal defense budget allocation as well as a relationship between security and growth. We test the validity of our model empirically in the case of Greece and Turkey for the period 1971–2023, considering a set of geopolitical, institutional, and economic variables. Our results indicate that if the level of security attained is inadequate in terms of the threat faced, the economic environment becomes highly uncertain, thus depriving the economy from increasing its GDP. In addition, we point to the need for investment in domestic defense technology and infrastructure, both for facing threats and for promoting economic growth. At the institutional level our results indicate the crucial role of the regime type in smoothing the relationship between the two adversaries. The policy implications derived are based on the close relationship between national security, economic growth, and institutions, indicating the need for economies to invest in their domestic industrial base, in light of the latest technological progress and the multipolar nature of the international system.

We propose two opposing forces that impact the relation between electoral integrity and poverty. On the one hand, it is more costly to provide electoral integrity in states where there is more poverty due to transaction costs and opportunity costs. On the other hand, extreme levels of poverty attract media scrutiny and greater external monitoring of electoral integrity, giving rise to more demand for electoral integrity. Taken together, we expect electoral integrity to be a U-shaped function of poverty. We also hypothesize that electoral integrity will vary depending on the strength of state electoral laws. Expert-level survey data on electoral integrity from the 2016 US presidential election and the 2018 US congressional election, in combination with US state-level data on poverty, are strongly consistent with these predictions.

We explore the link between trade liberalization and forced labor theoretically and empirically. Our theoretical framework predicts that the net effect of trade on the use of forced labor depends on which sectors improve their relative terms of trade and if openness to trade triggers anti-forced labor policies in the country or by trade partners. Using two datasets, we show that trade openness increases the intensive margin of forced labor but not the extensive margin. Splitting trade partners by labor standards, we show that trade with high-standard countries reduces both margins, whereas trade with low-standard countries raises the intensive margin.

Data have become increasingly important in almost all aspects of society, including government, business, finance, and education. This study examines stock market reactions to the publication of formal regulations on the accounting treatment of data assets, which, among other things, specifies the accounting treatment related to corporate data resources and boosts the disclosure of related accounting information. We document that firms with higher data asset potential receive more positive market reactions to the regulations than those with lower data asset potential. Heterogeneity analyses suggest that the positive market reactions are concentrated in firms with technological attribute, higher technological factor intensity, and stronger market position. In addition, we observe that stronger external monitoring, higher stock liquidity, and better information disclosure amplify the positive market reactions. Overall, our findings provide systematic evidence of positive market reactions following data assets regulations and shed light on relevant policy-making and regulatory processes, which may be extrapolated to other emerging countries.

We investigate the effect of central bank independence (CBI) on fiscal stance: the direct impact on the primary balance and the impact on the reaction of the primary balance to the public debt. We also analyze the role of institutions in the effects of CBI on fiscal policy. We estimate fiscal reaction functions augmented by a measure of CBI using a panel of 98 countries. We find that CBI lowers the primary balance but strengthens its reaction to the government debt, hence increasing long-term fiscal sustainability. Other institutions, such as democracy, seem to strengthen the negative direct reaction of the primary balance to CBI.