Rice vs.Wheat:How Rice Farming Shaped Informal Finance in China

China’s financial system is characterized by the coexistence of both formal and informal finance,and informal finance appears to be more prevalent in the south of the country compared to the north.In this paper,we use the historical demarcation of rice-farming regions and the percentage area of rice sown to ascertain the regional distribution of rice farming in the south and wheat farming in the north in order to analyze the role of rice farming in the evolution of different types of financial institutions in China.We find that rice cultivation has a positive effect on informal financial development,though its impact on formal finance is insignificant.Unlike wheat farming,rice cultivation requires farmers to collaborate during busy farming seasons and necessitates the construction of irrigation systems.Such collaboration helped enhance an acquaintance society,in which both parties to transactions enforced the rules and contract terms of their own initiative,paving the way for informal finance.This paper not only demonstrates the cultural roots of the regional financial disparities in China but also expands the research on the ways in which farming practices from the past have shaped the development of China’s present financial markets.

A blockchain and IoT-based lightweight framework for enabling information transparency in supply chain finance

Supply Chain Finance(SCF)refers to the financial service in which banks rely on core enterprises to manage the capital flow and logistics of upstream and downstream enterprises.SCF adopts a self-testing and closed-loop credit model to control funds and risks.The key factor in a successful SCF service is the deployment of SCF businessoriented information systems that allow businesses to form partnerships efficiently and expedite cash flows throughout the supply chain.Blockchain Technology(BCT),featuring decentralization,tamper-proofing,traceability,which is usually paired with the Internet of Things(IoT)in real-world contexts,has been widely adopted in the field of finance and is perfectly positioned to facilitate innovative collaborations among participants in supply chain networks.In this paper,we propose a BCT and IoT-based information management framework(named BC4Regu),which works as the regulatory to improve the information transparency in the business process of SCF.With BC4Regu,the operation cost of the whole supply chain can be significantly reduced through the coordination and integration of capital flow,information flow,logistics and trade flow in the supply chain.The contributions in this paper include:(1)proposing a novel information management framework which leverages Blockchain and IoT to solve the problem of information asymmetry in the trade of SCF;(2)proposing the technical design of BC4Regu,including the Blockchain infrastructure,distributed ledger-based integrated data flow service,and reshaped SCF process;and(3)applying BC4Regu to a group of scenarios and conducting theoretical analysis by introducing the principal-agent model to validate the BC4Regu.

Six Measures to Help SMEs out——An Interview with the Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology

With the global economic turmoil and the changes in Chinese economic pol- icies in 2008,small,and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)have all felt the early-coming of a"cold season".They have been undergoing extreme dif- ficulties in doing businesses due to a series of factors including

县域SMEs融资存在的主要问题与对策研究——来自湖南省的调查

通过对湖南省195家县域经济体的SMEs进行问卷调查,发现县域SMEs普遍存在着融资意愿偏好于国有商业银行和信用社;融资途径和结构单一;非正规金融拓展空间受限;融资手续繁琐、抵押率过低等问题。然后,从加快担保体系建设;创新产品和业务开拓县域SMEs信贷市场;建立有效的直接融资体系等3个方面提出建议和措施,缓解了县域SMEs融资难的问题。

Value of big data to finance:observations on an internet credit Service Company in China

Background:his paper presents a case study on 100Credit,an Internet credit service provider in China.100Credit began as an IT company specializing in e-commerce recommendation before getting into the credit rating business.The company makes use of Big Data on multiple aspects of individuals’online activities to infer their potential credit risk.Methods:Based on 100Credit’s business practices,this paper summarizes four aspects related to the value of Big Data in Internet credit services.Results:1)value from large data volume that provides access to more borrowers;2)value from prediction correctness in reducing lenders’operational cost;3)value from the variety of services catering to different needs of lenders;and 4)value from information protection to sustain credit service businesses.Conclusion:The paper also discusses the opportunities and challenges of Big Databased credit risk analysis,which needs to be improved in future research and practice.

Empirical research on the SMEs＇ credit-guarantee in China

After the authors' thorough study of the experiments of other countries and regions, it is posed that credit-guarantee is the key for solving the problem of the difficulties of SMEs' financing.Based on two surveys and interviews with 57 SMEs and some commercial banks' staff, this study on the practice and implement action of SMEs' credit-guarantee revealed some problems existing in the practical process. A series of policy suggestions are given for improving the SMEs' credit-guarantee in China.

Supportive tactics for innovative and sustainability performance in emerging SMEs

For this research,we examined the influence of access to domestic and international financing on sustainability performance with a mediating role of innovative performance and a moderating role of access to government support.Data were collected from 317 small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)through structured questionnaires.The results indicated that access to domestic and international financing significantly contributes to sustainability and innovative performances.Accordingly,we found a partial mediating role of innovative performance between access to domestic financing and sustainability performance as well as between access to international financing and sustainability performance.Access to government support significantly moderates the relationship between access to domestic finances and innovative performance as well as between access to international finances and innovative performance.Practitioners and policymakers should encourage national and international financial institutions and banks to facilitate SMEs by lending them funds for innovative activities and sustainability performance.Moreover,the government should support SMEs,so that they can contribute to economic growth and the gross domestic product.The implications from these matters will be further discussed in this paper.

Research on the Correlation between Accounting Information Distortion and Corporate Debt Financing

Accounting information plays a key role in economic development. Macroscopically speaking, accounting information isthe basis of macro-decision-making. Microscopically speaking, accounting information is the effective embodiment of enterprise＇smanagement ability and status, and is also the basis for many investors to make reasonable investment decisions. Therefore, it can beseen that the distortion of accounting information will cause negative effects in many aspects. Ringing. Based on this, this paper selectsA-share non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges fi＇om 2011 to 2016, analyzes the impact ofaccounting information distortion on corporate debt financing costs, and introduces internal control into the study of the relationshipbetween the tw0. Through empirical analysis, we find that： the effectiveness of internal control and debt financing costs significantlynegative correlation; accounting fraud and accounting manipulation are two indicators of accounting information distortion and corporatedebt financing costs significantly positive correlation; internal control can significantly inhibit the correlation between accountinginformation distortion and debt financing costs.

Does access to credit reduce SMEs’tax avoidance?Evidence from a regression discontinuity design

This study investigates the effect of targeted reserve requirement ratio cuts(TRRRCs)on tax avoidance among small and micro enterprises(SMEs)with operating revenues below specific cutoffs in China.Using a regression discontinuity design,we causally show that,by increasing loan availability,TRRRCs significantly alleviate the financial constraints and cash dependence of SMEs and consequently reduce tax avoidance.This is especially the case among firms with lower market power and higher entertainment and travel costs.Our findings provide evidence for the real effect of TRRRCs on corporate tax avoidance and show the inclusive effect of TRRRCs on SMEs.In doing so,we indirectly reveal a rent-seeking channel underlying bank lending,thus offering clear policy implications for regulators.

An Alternative Proposal for Financing for the Agricultural Sector (Agricultural SME’s Bonds)

In today’s environment,where SME’s financing continues to be a serious problem,systems that facilitate non-bank financing models different from traditional ones should be considered.In the present article a model of financing based on bonds for SME’s is proposed,very suitable for the agricultural sector or any group with little access to traditional financing.To improve the analysis,a fuzzy logic system is proposed that allows the most representative variables to be properly selected and take into account the uncertainty of the environment and the subjectivity of the analysts.

SMEs’Development in Afghanistan:Issues and New Management Perspectives

This research focuses on SMEs’development in Afghanistan:issues and new management perspectives.This study has been conducted and finished with an in-depth research results,findings,as well as recommendations for not only SMEs’owners but also relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as financial institutions.The study mainly included surveys through questionnaire-with both open and close-ended questions-as well as face to face and virtual interviews with owners of SMEs,governmental and non-governmental organizations and financial institutions like lending banks.For data collection,the main target groups were owners of the SMEs.More than 100 SMEs were selected as sample size and were reached and asked for their opinions about research questions and other open and close-ended questions among which more than 90 responses were received(40 from small and more than 50 from medium sized enterprises).Apart from SMEs,interviews with three relevant governmental and three non-governmental organizations as well as three financial institutions like lending banks were conducted.Based on main findings of this research,limited access to sustainable finance,insecurity,high operational cost,lack of support,and limited access to national and international markets are the most current and main challenges of SMEs in Afghanistan.Findings of this research also show that the service and the e-commerce sectors are making great advancement comparing to manufacturing sector in Afghanistan owing to more and more people’s access to internet every day.In fact,Afghanistan has a great opportunity for e-commerce since people’s access to internet has been increasing dramatically-from 4.7 million users in 2018 to 7.65 million users in 2020.Furthermore,according to findings of this research,most of the SMEs in Afghanistan are also referring to e-business mainly because of avoiding from being taxed by the government or getting licenses.This paper also provides some recommendations for SMEs owners,governmental and non-governmental organizations(donors).