Adjustment of Administrative Divisions and Upgrading of Industrial Structure in Hefei Metropolitan Area:Taking"Partitions of Chaohu"as a Quasi-natural Experiment

Administrative regions are an important environment for the operation of China's market economy.The relevant economic subjects cannot predict the policy of adjustment of administrative divisions and carry out conscious migration behavior,adjustment of administrative divisions can be regarded as a quasi-natural experiment.The three cities of Hefei,Wuhu,and Ma'anshan,which are directly related to the adjustment of the administrative division of Chaohu,are taken as the treatment group,and the seven adjacent cities of Lu'an,Huainan,Chuzhou,Bengbu,Anqing,Chizhou,and Tongling are taken as the control group.Differences-in-Differences method and relevant control variables affecting the upgrading of industrial structure are used to test.The test results show that"Partitions of Chaohu"has a significant industrial structure upgrading effect by promoting the optimization of spatial layout,the cross-regional flow of production factors and the effective management of Chaohu Lake Basin.At the same time,the increase of total retail sales of consumer goods,urban fixed assets investment,public utility expenses in science,education,culture and health,and population plays a significant positive role in promoting the upgrading of industrial structure,while foreign direct investment plays a certain inhibition role in the upgrading of industrial structure.In order to meet the ever-developing space demands and enhance the impact on surrounding areas,the Hefei metropolitan area should be driven by technological innovation,strengthen the integration of industrial chains,improve the business environment and transportation network,and continuously promote the upgrading of industrial structure and the formation and development of new productive forces.

The Effect of Urban Agglomeration Expansion on PM_(2.5) Concentrations: Evidence from a Quasi-natural Experiment

This study constructs a quasi-natural experiment based on the expansion of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration(YRDUA) of China in 2010 to investigate the impact and inner mechanism of urban agglomeration expansion on fine particulate matter(PM_(2.5)) concentrations through propensity scores in difference-in-differences models(PSM-DID) using panel data from 286 prefecturelevel cities in China from 2003 to 2016. The results show that 1) urban agglomeration expansion contributes to an overall decrease in PM_(2.5)concentration, which is mainly achieved from the original cities. For the new cities, on the other hand, the expansion significantly increases the local PM_(2.5)concentration. 2) In the long term, the significant influence of urban agglomeration expansion on PM_(2.5)concentration lasts for three years and gradually decreases. A series of robustness tests confirm the applicability of the PSM-DID model.3) Cities with weaker government regulation, a better educated population and higher per capita income present stronger PM_(2.5)reduction effects. 4) Urban agglomeration expansion affects the PM_(2.5)concentration mainly through industrial transfer and population migration, which cause a decrease in the PM_(2.5)concentration in the original cities and an increase in the PM_(2.5)concentration in the new cities.Corresponding policy suggestions are proposed based on the conclusions.

Impact of an official accountability audit on industrial structure adjustment:a case study of environmental regulation in China

As a unique environmental regulation in China,the official accountability audit was piloted in 2014.With a focus on prioritizing the ecological environment,officials in pilot districts have implemented economic construction,adjusted industrial structures,and promoted coordinated development between the economy and environment.The effects of implementation have garnered widespread attention from society.However,there is limited research on the impact of an accountability audit on industrial structure adjustments.Using the“Accountability Audit of Officials for Natural Resource Assets(Trial)”released in 2015 as a quasi-natural experiment,this study collected panel data from 279 cities between 2013 and 2017.It then empirically analyzed the impact mechanism and effects of the accountability audit on industrial structure adjustment using the Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Differences model.The research findings indicate that the accountability audit directly impacted industrial structure adjustment,promoting the upgrading of the primary industry to the secondary industry and restricting the development of the tertiary industry.In addition,the audit is beneficial for enterprise entry,but not conducive to technological innovation,and has no significant impact on foreign direct investment.This conclusion fills a gap in the existing research and provides valuable insights for policymakers.

Environmental regulation and firms'performance:a quasi-natural experiment from China

This paper investigates whether environmental regulation affects firm's performance including productivity,wage and employment using firm-level data in 1996-2007.The identification uses Two Control Zones(TCZ)policy implemented by the Chinese government in 1998,in which tougher environmental regulations were imposed in TCZ cities but not others.By difference-indifferences estimation,we find that tougher environmental regulation leads to larger increase on both total factor productivity and wage,and firms tend to employ fewer workers under pressure of environmental protection.Heterogeneous tests show that the impacts are better for nonpollution intensive firms,non-exporters and SOEs.Finally,we find that R&D input and exiting firms among industry are the driving forces for enhancing TFP and increasing wage and unemployment.

The Belt and Road Initiative and Financing Constraint for Chinese Enterprises

In the context of China’s proactive implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI),unraveling the BRI’s effect on corporate behavior is of vital importance to China’s policymaking on overseas investment.With the BRI’s enactment as a quasi-natural experiment,this paper employs the difference in differences(DID)method to investigate the BRI’s effect on the financing constraint for Chinese enterprises.Our study finds that the BRI’s implementation has significantly reduced financing constraints for BRI enterprises,and the effect is more significant for emerging advantageous industries and export-oriented node cities.

Short-sale refinancing and price adjustment speed to bad news: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Short selling may accelerate stock price adjustment to negative news.However,the literature provides mixed evidence for this prediction.Using short-sale refinancing and a staggered difference-in-differences(DID)model,this paper explores the effect of short selling on stock price adjustment.Our results show that(1)short-sale refinancing improves the speed of stock price adjustment to negative news.This result holds after we control for endogeneity.(2)The positive relationship between short-sale refinancing and stock price adjustment speed is significant in subsamples of stocks with higher earnings management or lower accuracy of analyst forecasts,indicating that firms with more opaque information are more likely to be targeted by short sellers.In subsamples of stocks with a higher ownership concentration or lower ownership by institutional investors,short selling is more likely to increase the speed of stock price adjustment,indicating that ownership structure may influence negative news mining.(3)As short-sale refinancing exacerbates the absorption of bad news by stock prices,it increases crash risk.This study enriches the research on the economic consequences of short selling and provides empirical evidence supporting regulations on short selling in China.

Rural E-commerce and County Economic Development in China

With the proliferation of information and communication technology in rural areas,rural e-commerce has gradually become a new economic phenomenon in China. Usingthe national rural e-commerce comprehensive demonstration policy as a quasi-naturalexperiment, this study examines the causal linkage between rural e-commerce andcounty-level economic development in China. Its findings, which draw on county-levelpanel data from 2011 to 2018, indicate that the policy had a positive effect on the countyleveleconomy in China, resulting in an overall increase in county GDP by 3.5 percent(0.7 percent annually). Our analysis further shows that the impact of the policy diferedalong the region and human capital dimensions. Further analysis reveals that industrialstructure and nonagricultural employment were the main channels for the policy toexert a county-level economic impact. Infrastructure improvement in China also playsan important role. The findings emphasize the importance of advancing e-commerce inrural areas to stimulate county-level economic development.

Fault Tolerance for Corporate Innovation:Evidence from the Reform of State-owned Enterprises

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-tolerancesystem 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.