A dynamic panel threshold model analysis on heterogeneous environmental regulation, R&D investment, and enterprise green total factor productivity

Environmental regulations are important means to influence manufacturing enterprise green development. However, there are two completely different conclusions both in theoretical and in empirical research, namely the "Follow Cost" theory and the "Porter Hypothesis". The nonlinear mechanism needs to be considered. Therefore, this study aims to explain the threshold impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on enterprise green total factor productivity. Environmental regulations are divided into different sub-categories, then based on the panel data of 1220 Chinese manufacturing listed companies from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses threshold regression model to examine the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on Chinese manufacturing enterprise Green Total Factor Productivity. The empirical results show that: (1) Command-controlled, market-incentive and voluntary-agreement environmental regulation all have a significant nonlinear impact on enterprise Green Total Factor Productivity. (2) Enterprise R&D investment plays a threshold role in the impact. (3) There are industry and equity type differences in the impact process. This study focuses on the micro level of enterprises and tests the threshold mechanism, which make some theoretical complement to previous researches. The research results are not only beneficial for the government to propose appropriate environmental regulatory policies, but also for enterprises to achieve green growth through heterogeneous R&D investment.

Can environmental protection tax force enterprises to improve green technology innovation?

The introduction of an environmental protection tax enables a smooth shift from the sewerage charge system to the environmental protection tax scheme. This, in turn, promotes a more sustainable development of enterprise growth, emphasizing eco-friendliness. This is of immense importance in advancing environmentally aware practices and sustainability. Based on data collected from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2014 to 2021, this paper investigates the influence of environmental protection taxes on the advancement of green technology and the underlying mechanisms. Taking the execution of the Environmental Protection Tax Law in 2018 as a quasi-natural experiment, a double-difference model is employed to examine the causal relationship between environmental protection taxes and the adoption of green technology by companies. The findings indicate that the introduction of an environmental tax could markedly enhance the extent of green technological innovation within corporations. The evidence arising from the testing mechanism implies that such a tax can encourage firms to boost their investments in research and development, upgrade their innovative human capital, and mitigate financing limitations. The study found that there is heterogeneity in the promotion effect of the environmental protection tax on the green technological innovation of businesses in different regions and provinces with varying tax burdens and types of equity capital. Further research shows that the environmental protection tax has a greater impact on the promotion of utility model patent applications for green technology innovation. This paper presents empirical evidence to support further enhancement of the environmental protection tax system. It recommends designing the environmental protection tax policy with consideration for enterprises and local conditions and bolstering the system's capacity for guiding and stimulating enterprises' green development.

Does employee stock ownership plan have monitoring and incentive effects? --An analysis based on the perspective of corporate risk taking

This study uses sample data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2022 and employs methods such as propensity score matching (PSM), difference-in-differences (DID), and instrumental variables (IV) to study the supervisory incentive effect of ESOPs from the perspective of corporate risk-taking. The results indicate that ESOPs significantly increase corporate risk-taking. The specific mechanism is that ESOPs reduce the dual agency costs between shareholders and managers, as well as between managers and employees, thereby alleviating corporate financing constraints and enhancing the level of corporate risk-taking. The enhancement of corporate risk-taking through ESOPs was also found to be of high quality. This is because ESOPs promote R&D investment that benefits the growth of corporate value and also reduce overinvestment and excessive debt that are detrimental to corporate value, thus leading to a higher quality of corporate risk-taking and stronger value effects. In addition, the design differences of ESOPs have different effects on corporate risk-taking: leverage, high discount, longer lock-up and tenure periods, and plans managed by third-party institutions have a stronger promotion effect on corporate risk-taking; employee subscription is more effective than executive subscription in promoting corporate risk-taking; in China, ESOPs do not have a "free-rider" problem, and the larger the proportion of ESOP issuance, the more participants, and the larger the scale of funds, the better the implementation effect.

The impact of perceived environmental uncertainty on green innovation: evidence from text recognition of Chinese listed companies' annual reports

China has implemented a series of environmental policies aimed at promoting green and innovative development by enterprises, to mitigate the adverse effects of environmental pollution. However, the frequent revision and introduction of environmental policies have also increased enterprises' perception of environmental uncertainty. This study, based on the upper echelon theory, uses data from listed companies in China from 2011 to 2021 to construct an index of perceived environmental uncertainty of firms through textual analysis and empirically examines its impact on green innovation and its potential mechanisms and boundary effects. The results show that, first, perceived environmental uncertainty of firms has a noteworthy inhibiting impact on green innovation. Second, mechanism analysis reveals that perceived environmental uncertainty of firms inhibits green innovation mainly in two ways: reducing the level of transparency in corporate information and reducing R&D investment. Third, the moderating effect finds that government subsidies can mitigate the inhibitory impact of perceived environmental uncertainty on green innovation among firms. In other words, higher government subsidies correspond to a reduced inhibitory effect of perceived environmental uncertainty on green innovation among firms. In addition, heterogeneity analysis shows that this inhibition is more obvious in non-state-owned enterprises, small enterprises, and enterprises in non-heavy pollution industries. This study holds immense practical significance for enterprises in harnessing the opportunities of green innovation amidst perceived environmental uncertainty, facilitating progressive green development, and ultimately fostering the harmonized growth of economic and environmental benefits for enterprises.

R&D investment and financial performance in EU countries: The role of shareholder protection and creditor rights in renewable energy firms

Renewable energy sources have become a priority for countries' energy agendas due to climate change. Accordingly, the financial performance of renewable energy firms should be enhanced through research and development (R&D) investment to achieve the energy transition. The positive effect of R&D investment on financial performance is well documented in the literature. However, it is not clear whether this positive effect varies or not depending on the institutional characteristics of countries, such as shareholder protection and creditor rights. This study examines whether shareholder protection, on the one hand, and creditor rights, on the other, have any moderating effect on the R&D-financial performance nexus by using firm-level data from 912 renewable energy firms in 21 European Union countries from 2011 to 2020. The results show that shareholder protection strengthens the positive effect of R&D investment on the financial performance of renewable energy firms, while creditor rights negatively moderate this relationship. Thus, firms operating in countries with strong shareholder protection (creditor rights) invest more (less) in R&D activities, which leads to an increase (decrease) in financial performance. Consequently, policymakers may consider policy changes that encourage shareholders and discourage creditors from maximizing their R&D investments, which increase financial performance.

Current Status of Korea's Industry-Academia Cooperation in Materials and Future Policy Directions

The current status and policy directions of Republic of Korea's industry-academia cooperation in materials research are introduced. Industry-academia cooperation has various forms, such as contract research, joint research, technology transfer, technology assistance, as well as talent development between universities and industry. The actual characteristics of industry-academia cooperation are differentiated, depending on research models such as curiosity-driven research, market-driven research, and scenario-driven research. In addition, there are diverse forms of cooperation, ranging from attaining one-off cooperation goals, to implementing a series of cooperation, to forging sustainable partnership through sharing of values. The efforts and tasks supporting industry-academia cooperation, and the diverse industry-academia cooperative activities, are considered herein from the perspective of the Korean government's policy. Policy recommendations for the industry-academia cooperation, based on the current state and tasks of materials field, are also suggested.

Energy intensity, economic structure, and capital goods imports in upper-middle income countries: Insights from HDBSCAN clustering

In recent years, there have been substantial efforts to improve the efficiency of production resources, including energy use, to reduce the human footprint from economic activities. Increasing production capacity and incorporating new technologies that improve energy efficiency in the production process are two primary challenges faced by developing countries, where capital goods imports could play a key role in addressing both challenges. This paper contributes to the empirical literature by examining the relationship between energy intensity, economic structure, and capital goods imports in a set of 36 upper-middle income economies in the period 2000-2019. The empirical strategy recognizes the existing heterogeneity among the broad group of countries in the sample by implementing the Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise algorithm, a state-of-the-art unsupervised machine learning technique which allows identification of clusters of countries and years. The results show the existence of ten clusters, where energy intensity has the most relevant positive associations with industry share, trade openness, and merchandise imports. Improvements in regulatory quality are associated with lower energy intensity. The direction and strength of the relationship between energy intensity and capital goods imports depend on the cluster; nonetheless, it is usually a weak relationship. Policy implications are discussed.

How does green finance affect the innovation performance of enterprises? Evidence from China

"green" + "innovation" has become a new concept of development. The integration of the two can bring win-win for the environment and economy. This paper selects the annual data of 14309 A-share companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2020 as the research sample. And it uses the two-way fixed effect model to empirically test the impact of green finance on enterprise innovation performance. The study found that the development of green finance can promote the improvement of enterprise innovation performance. The analysis of influence mechanism shows that the development of green finance can reduce the financing constraints of enterprises, and then improve the innovation performance of enterprises; the development of green finance can increase the R&D investment of enterprises, and then improve the innovation performance of enterprises; green finance development can increase corporate investment in environmental protection, which in turn can improve corporate innovation performance. The results of heterogeneity test analysis show that compared with the western region, private enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, and high energy consumption and high pollution enterprises, the development of green finance in the central and eastern regions, state-owned enterprises, large enterprises, and non double high enterprises has more obvious role in promoting enterprise innovation performance. Therefore, the government should issue relevant policies and actively promote green finance policies that can help improve environmental and economic issues.

Do the academician independent directors promote green innovation in enterprises?

Using the manually collated data on the employment of academicians as independent directors by Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2020, the role and impact mechanism of academician independent directors on enterprise green innovation were empirically analyzed. The research shows that the academician independent directors promote green innovation of enterprises by alleviating corporate financing constraints, increasing corporate R&D investment, and alleviating managerial myopia, and their role in promoting green invention patents is greater than that of green utility model patents. The academician independent directors will improve the green innovation level of enterprises in non-heavy polluting industries and enterprises in the eastern region, and the nature of property rights and the degree of marketization will strengthen their role in promoting green innovation.

How does digital finance affect green technology innovation in the polluting industry? Based on the serial two-mediator model of financing constraints and research and development (R&D) investments

This paper evaluates the importance of combining digital finance with conventional finance and information technology (IT) to bring new opportunities for green technology innovation and transformation within polluting industries. This study builds a theoretical framework "digital finance → financing constraints → R&D investment → green technology innovation" to demonstrate the causal mechanism between digital finance and firms' green innovation by using the serial two-mediator model. The study shows that digital finance could reduce financial constraints and increase R&D investments, thereby improving enterprises' green technology innovation in the long run. Moreover, based on the moderating effect model, we find that digital transformation in a polluting firm tends to strengthen the linkage between digital finance and green technology innovation through supervising the use of loans, reviewing green technology innovation projects, and reducing managers' short-sighted behaviors to avoid agency problems. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the effects of digital finance on green innovation are more apparent in state-owned enterprises and the regions with lower financial development and with higher financial supervision.

Impact of R&D Investment and Network Penetration on Human Development: Evidence from China

This paper measures the human development indices of 31 inland provinces (municipalities) in China in a continuous time series during 2000-2017 according to the 2010 HDI compilation method. It uses a geographically and temporally weighted regression model for conducting an empirical study on the effects of R&D investment and network penetration on human development in each province (municipality) of China. There is significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the impact of R&D investment and network penetration on human development across provinces (municipalities) in China due to differences in resource endowments and economic and social development. For R&D investment, eastern provinces (municipalities) have mostly positive effects on human development, and central regions have mostly weak positive or negative effects. In contrast, western provinces (municipalities) show different development paths, with weak positive effects in the early stage and significant positive effects after 2010. Most provinces (municipalities) show a continuous and increasing positive effect for network penetration. The marginal contributions of this paper are mainly in improving the shortcomings in research perspectives, empirical methods, and research data in the study of human development influencing factors in China relative to the study of HDI itself in terms of measurement or application dimensions. This paper constructs a human development index for China, analyzes its spatial and temporal distribution, and explores the impact of R&D investment and network penetration on human development in China, with the hope of providing lessons for China and developing countries to promote the level of human development and cope with the pandemic.

Behavioural Phenomena of Family Firm Control Diversity and R&D Investment with Moderating Role CEO Compensation

Purpose

The novel study describes the behXavioural phenomena of family firm types and explores the relationship between the family firm types of control diversity and Research and Development (R&D) investments. Acquiring controlling rights is a psychological phenomenon for family firm owners. The moderating effect of CEO compensations on R&D investments is investigated.

Methodology

We collected data of listed A-share family firms in China from 2011 to 2020 in the China Stock Market and Accounting Research database. We used Tobit regression for data analysis.

Results/Finding

The study concludes that lone-controller family firms (LCFFs) are less willing to invest in R&D and multi-controller family firms (MCFFs) have positive behaviour towards R&D. The moderating role of CEO compensation deviates the willingness and behaviour to invest in R&D.

Conclusion/Originality

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to outline the paradoxical empirical evidence on family firms and R&D investments by analysing control diversity and how the moderating role of CEO compensation nexus can alter willingness towards R&D. The study is a novel attempt following De Massis et al's framework to test the willingness and ability of LCFFs and MCFFs. Previous studies based on agency theory have tacitly assumed that ability and willingness exist in family-controlled firms. However, this study challenges this implicit assumption.

The diminishing marginal contribution of R&D investment on green technological progress: a case study of China's manufacturing industry

One of the ways to fight against global warming is by means of green technological progress. This paper explores the nonlinear relationship between R&D investment and green technological progress based on panel threshold regression model using panel data of 26 manufacturing sub-sectors in China from 2004 to 2017. The results show that the double-threshold model can better explain the nonlinear relationship between the two, and the R&D investment in the three ranges of low, medium, and high levels can significantly promote green technological progress in China's manufacturing industry. However, with the improvement of R&D investment level, the promotion effect of R&D investment on the progress of manufacturing green technology is decreasing, which explains the low R&D intensity of China's manufacturing industry to a certain extent. When the level of R&D investment reaches a certain level, its promoting effect on manufacturing industry's green technological progress will be greatly reduced, and the motivation of enterprises to invest in R&D based on self-interest will decrease, so that the scale of R&D investment will be lower than the optimal scale of society. R&D investment can also improve green technical efficiency change. In addition, environmental regulation can promote green technological progress in manufacturing industry. However, due to the implementation of output-oriented environmental regulation policies, China's environmental regulation can inhibit the improvement of green technical efficiency change. Based on the conclusion, this paper argues that China should implement differentiated R&D subsidy policies for manufacturing enterprises, especially to increase R&D subsidies for enterprises with a medium level of R&D investment, and formulate appropriate environmental regulatory policies, to promote green and low-carbon transformation of China's manufacturing sector.

The influence mechanism of interlocking director network on corporate risk-taking from the perspective of network embeddedness: Evidence from China

The interlocking director network can not only help achieve low-cost information sharing and exchange learning among enterprises, but also provide essential resource support for corporate risk-taking behavior. This study aims to empirically analyze the impact, mechanism of action, and boundary of influence of interlocking director network (NET) on corporate risk-taking (RISK) using data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020.The results show: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between NET and RISK, and the above results are still established after a series of robustness tests. (2) Mechanistic tests show that the NET can promote RISK through two channels: alleviating financing constraints and increasing R&D investment. (3) Further analysis reveals the promotion of NET on RISK is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises with higher industry competition intensity. These findings have positive implications for the construction of an inter-enterprise interlocking director network and the enhancement the of the risk-taking level.

Multi-peril pathogen risks to global wheat production: A probabilistic loss and investment assessment

Crop diseases cause significant food and economic losses. We examined the joint, probabilistic, long-term, bio-economic impact of five major fungal pathogens of wheat on global wheat production by combining spatialized estimates of their climate suitability with global wheat production and modeled distributions of potential crop losses. We determined that almost 90% of the global wheat area is at risk from at least one of these fungal diseases, and that the recurring losses attributable to this set of fungal diseases are upwards of 62 million tons of wheat production per year. Our high-loss regime translates to around 8.5% of the world's wheat production on average-representing calories sufficient to feed up to 173 million people each year. We estimate that a worldwide research expenditure of $350-$974 million (2018 prices) annually on these five fungal diseases of wheat, let alone other pathogens, can be economically justified, equivalent to 2 to 5 times more than the amount we estimate is currently spent on all wheat disease-related public R&D.

Digital Transformation on Enterprise Green Innovation: Effect and Transmission Mechanism

With the development of blockchain, big data, cloud computing and other new technologies, how to achieve innovative development and green sustainable development in digital transformation has become one of the key issues for enterprises to obtain and maintain core competitiveness. However, little of the literature has paid attention to the impact of digital transformation on enterprise green innovation. Using the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of enterprise digital transformation on green innovation and its transmission mechanism, by constructing double fixed-effect models. The results show that digital transformation has remarkably promoted the green innovation of enterprises. R&D investment, government subsidies, and income tax burden have played a conductive role between digital transformation and enterprise green innovation. Furthermore, digital transformation can significantly promote the high-quality green innovation of enterprises and also plays a more significant role in promoting the green innovation of high-tech enterprises and state-owned enterprises. A robustness test is carried out by using the lag data and changing the measurement methods of the dependent variable and independent variables, and the research conclusions are still valid. Based on resource-based theory and dynamic capability theory, this paper reveals the impact path of digital transformation on enterprise green innovation, further expanding the research field of digital transformation and enriching the research on the influencing factors of enterprise green innovation. This paper provides policy suggestions for the government to improve the enterprise green innovation level by increasing government subsidies and providing tax incentives and also provides reference for digital transformation enterprises to accelerate green innovation by increasing R&D investment, obtaining government subsidies, and acquiring tax policy support.

The Relationship Between Enterprise Financial Risk and R&D Investment Under the Influence of the COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a considerable blow to the development of Chinese enterprises. Therefore, exploring how to reduce the enterprise financial risk under the impact of the COVID-19 has become a current research hotspot. We select the data of 3,098 A-share companies in the quarters of 2019 and 2020, use the Z-score model to reasonably evaluate enterprise financial risk, and analyze the impact of Research and Development (R&D) investment on enterprise financial risk under the COVID-19.The results show that: ① The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the number of high-risk enterprises. ② R&D investment can effectively reduce the enterprise financial risk, and enterprises that attach importance to scientific research are relatively less affected by the COVID-19. ③ Compared with non-state-owned enterprises, R&D investment under state-owned enterprises can better help enterprises reduce financial risk. ④ When the enterprise financial risk is lower, the role of R&D investment in reducing financial risk is more significant. With the increase of financial risk, the effect of R&D investment on it is weakened. The research results are beneficial to help enterprises to correctly assess their financial risks during the COVID-19, so that enterprises can reasonably invest in research and development, and ultimately ensure the sustainable development of enterprises under the COVID-19.

Will green finance promote green development: based on the threshold effect of R&D investment

Deeply understanding the driving effect of green finance on green development is of great significance to promote economic transformation and realize the long-term green development. This paper uses the entropy method and undesirable-SE-SBM model to measure provincial green finance and green development efficiency respectively from 2008 to 2018. And based on the above, the panel threshold model is constructed to discuss the nonlinear relationship between green finance and green development efficiency from the first empirical verification. The results show that ① the impact of green finance on green development has a significant single threshold effect, only when R&D investment crosses 2.810 can green finance significantly promote green development efficiency, and before that, it will suppress green development efficiency. ②At present, a few provinces in China have crossed the threshold value of R&D investment, only including Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, while the R&D investment of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Guangdong gradually approaches the threshold value. Therefore, improving the construction of the green financial system, correctly guiding the direction of green capital investment, and strengthening the supervision of environmental information disclosure are important.

The S-shaped relationship between R&D investment and green innovation after cross-border merge and acquisition: evidence from China

In the economic transition process, emerging markets are recognizing the importance of accessing sophisticated technologies to green innovation. After cross-border merge and acquisition (M&A), research and development (R&D) investment has become the basic condition for acquiring mature market technologies. Many studies suggest that R&D can promote green innovation. However, in the context of cross-border M&A, the relationship between R&D and green innovation is more complicated. Based on the knowledge-based view and stakeholder theory, this paper takes 230 cross-border M&A events at Chinese enterprises as samples. The conclusions show that instead of a linear relation, the influence of R&D input on green innovation performance after cross-border M&A is in an "S-shape"; the political connection and institutional distance of enterprises play a negative role in promoting the relationship between R&D input and green innovation performance after cross-border M&A.

Behavioural Psychology of Unique Family Firms Toward R&D Investment in the Digital Era: The Role of Ownership Discrepancy

This study examines the R&D investment behaviour of different types of family-controlled firms with the moderating role of ownership discrepancy between cash-flow rights and excess voting rights by using the sufficiency conditions' theoretical framework of ability and willingness developed by De Massis. It uses data from family firms that have issued A-shares from 2008 to 2018. They used pooled OLS regression for data analysis and Tobit regression for robustness checks. This study classifies family firm types into two categories, namely, the lone-controller family firms (LCFFs) and the multi-controller family firms (MCFFs), with each being further classified as "excess" or "no excess" voting rights. Both LCFFs without excess voting rights and MCFFs with excess voting rights have the "ability" and "willingness" toward R&D investment. LCFFs with excess voting rights and MCFFs without excess voting rights only have the ability but low willingness to invest in R&D. The study also establishes that Chinese family-controlled firms are heterogeneous toward risky investment. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to differentiate Chinese family firms by their unique ownership structure characteristics in investigating the effect of the family firm structure on R&D investment. The study is a novel attempt to test the willingness and ability framework of LCFFs and MCFFs. Previous studies based on agency theory have tacitly assumed that ability and willingness exist in family-controlled firms. However, this study challenges this implicit assumption.

The nexuses between carbon emissions, agriculture production efficiency, research and development, and government effectiveness: evidence from major agriculture-producing countries

Agriculture production efficiency and carbon emissions have become the challenge for the sustainable world. Therefore, this study explores the relationships between agriculture production and carbon emissions in major (seventeen) agriculture-producing countries over the time period of 1996-2018. Data envelopment analysis is applied to estimate the efficiency of agriculture sector production. The results suggested that the USA, Russia, Korea, Japan, and Italy were efficient agriculture production. Among BRICS countries, China (0.183), India (0.378), and Brazil (0.382) are far off to Russia in Agriculture production efficiency. Growth of research and development investment by 1% increases agriculture production efficiency by 0.0773 (full panel), 0.119 (developing), and 0.0245(developed), respectively. Carbon emissions are also significantly decreased by research and development investment. However, the effectiveness of the government on carbon emissions can be both positive and negative in developed and developing countries' cases. Nevertheless, both developed and developing governments are concerned about increasing agriculture production efficiency. The shape validity of the environmental Kuznets curve is also varied between the developed and developing groups. From the policy perspective, it is suggested that the government should reform its policies to avoid carbon activities and enhance the agricultural sector on a priority basis to increase the efficiency of current raw resources, generate jobs, and reap a variety of other advantages.

Does green credit policy promote the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries?-empirical evidence from China's industries

Whether green credit policy is conducive to improving the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries is of great significance for China's sustainable economic development and the construction of ecological civilization. This paper uses China's Green Credit Guidelines to conduct a quasi-natural experiment based on relevant panel data of industries from 2007 to 2018. Specifically, it employs the Super-SBM model including non-expected output to measure the green innovation efficiency of 35 industries in China, and constructs the propensity score matching difference-in-difference model to explore how green credit policy impact on the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries. The results show that the coefficient of difference-in-difference ([Formula: see text]) was 0.262, which was significant at the 1% level; the coefficient of [Formula: see text] was not significant; the coefficient of [Formula: see text] was 0.490, which was significant at the 1% level; and the coefficient of [Formula: see text] was 0.173, which was significant at the 1% level, indicating that green credit policy significantly contributes to the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries, though with a lag effect. Further study finds that green credit policy pushes heavy polluting industries to improve green innovation efficiency by increasing financing cost and R&D investment; meanwhile, the heterogeneity test shows that the higher the state-owned share of the industry, the greater the positive effect of green credit policy on its green innovation efficiency. Finally, in order to accelerate the implementation of green credit policy and promote the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries, banks can guide heavy polluting industrial enterprises through credit to carry out green technological transformation, heavy polluting industries should raise awareness of green innovation, and government should encourage heavy polluting industrial enterprises to carry out green innovation, and guide and supervise the state-owned enterprises in particular, so that they can improve cleanliness and achieve green economic development.

Will China's R&D investment improve green innovation performance? An empirical study

In 2020, China's R&D investment reached 2442.6 billion RMB, and it ranks second in the world, but the performance of green innovation has not proportionately improved. The question of how to promote the improvement of green innovation performance is particularly important in order to mitigate future environmental problems and issues due to rapid development of China's economy. While past research has examined the relationship between R&D investment and green innovation, they have not explicitly considered the effect of regional technological innovation level on this relationship. Hence, we fill this gap by exploring the relationship between R&D investment and green innovation performance using data from various regions in China from 2015 to 2019, under the effect of a threshold variable, namely, technological innovation. We explore the impact of economic development level, environmental regulation level, foreign direct investment, and science and technology in fiscal expenditures on green innovation performance. The empirical results show that when the regional technological innovation level is used as the threshold variable, the R&D investment has a significant double-threshold effect with the lagging three-phase green innovation performance. When the technological innovation level is low (< 0.1082), R&D investment has a negative impact on green innovation performance. Moreover, when the technological innovation level is high (>0.5837), the impact of regional R&D investment on green innovation performance is sub-optimal. Consequently, the range of [0.1082 to 0.5837] is the best range for the positive impact of R&D investment on green innovation performance. Furthermore, among China's 30 provinces and cities, 24% (mostly areas located in the southwest and northeast of China) have the technological innovation level in the optimal range. Our results help explain the current status of China's R&D investment and green innovation development, and provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of government innovation investment policies.

Can digital finance promote corporate green innovation?

Green innovation is essential for improving the environment and realizing sustainable economic development. In this research, we use a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2018 to examine whether and how digital finance affects corporate green innovation. The proof we provided shows that digital finance has a positive effect on green innovation. The result is consistent with a series of robustness tests. Further analyses show that digital finance promotes green innovation by alleviating financial constraints and increasing R&D investment. And the effect is more pronounced in economically backward regions and high-polluting industries. This research provides practical guidance for promoting finance development and improving the ecological environment.

R&D Investments, Debt Capital, and Ownership Concentration: A Three-Way Interaction and Lag Effects on Firm Performance in China's Pharmaceutical Industry

The existing literature has yet to provide consistent evidence on the relationship between R&D investments and firm performance. The current study attempted to fill this gap in the literature by examining the effect of lag structure and the moderating role of financial governance, in terms of debt capital and ownership concentration, on the returns of R&D. Analyzing a sample of China's pharmaceutical firms from 2009 to 2018, we found that the effect of R&D upon growth begins in the second year after R&D spending and increases thereafter. There exists a vigorous debate about the choice between debt and ownership structure. To fill this gap, we proposed a three-way interactive effect. The results suggest that firms that invest heavily in R&D may achieve their highest performance when the use of debt capital and the extent of ownership concentration are both low. This study contributes to the R&D investments and financial governance literature by reconciling previous mixed evidence about the returns of R&D and the debt-equity choices on R&D investment decisions.

A Probabilistic Bio-Economic Assessment of the Global Consequences of Wheat Leaf Rust

This study provides a bio-economic assessment of the global climate suitability and probabilistic crop-loss estimates attributable to wheat leaf rust. We draw on a purpose-built, spatially explicit, ecoclimatic suitability model for wheat leaf rust to estimate that 94.4% of global wheat production is vulnerable to the disease. To reflect the spatiotemporal variation in leaf rust losses, we used a probabilistic approach to estimate a representative rust loss distribution based on long-term, state-level annual U.S. loss estimates. Applying variants of this representative loss distribution to selected wheat production areas in 15 epidemiological zones throughout the world, we project global annual average losses of 8.6 million metric tons of grain for the period 2000 to 2050 based on a conservative, baseline scenario, and 18.3 million metric tons based on a high-loss scenario; equivalent to economic losses ranging from $1.5 to $3.3 billion per year (2016 U.S. prices). Even the more conservative baseline estimate implies that a sustained, worldwide investment of $50.5 million per year in leaf rust research is economically justified.

Pension and state funds dominating biomedical R&D investment: fiduciary duty and public health

BACKGROUND

Who benefits from the commercial biomedical research and development (R&D)? Patients-consumers and investors-shareholders have traditionally been viewed as two distinct groups with conflicting interests: shareholders seek maximum profits, patients - maximum clinical benefit. However, what happens when patients are the shareholders? With billions of dollars of public risk capital channeled into the drug development industry, analysing the complex financial architecture and the market for corporate control is essential for understanding industry's characteristics, such as pricing strategies or R&D priorities.

RESULTS

Adding investments by governmentally-mandated retirement schemes, central and promotional banks, and sovereign wealth funds to tax-derived governmental financing shows that the majority of biomedical R&D funding is public in origin. Despite this, even in the high-income countries patients can be denied access to effective treatments due to their high cost. Since these costs are set by the drug development firms that are owned in substantial part by the retirement accounts of said patients, the complex financial architecture of biomedical R&D may be inconsistent with the objectives of the ultimate beneficiaries.

CONCLUSIONS

The divergence in economic and public health performance of the drug development industry is resultant from its financial underwriting by enormously expanded pension schemes, governmentally mandated to represent the interests of "captive" beneficiaries, as well as similar policymaker-designed funding flows, whose standards of transparency, accountability and representation are substantially lower than that of governments themselves. Strengthening those elements of institutional design and thus ensuring active responsible shareholding in the interest of the patients-savers is an under-utilised, but potentially high-impact opportunity for advancing public health.

Drug innovation, price controls, and parallel trade

We study the long-run welfare effects of parallel trade (PT) in pharmaceuticals. We develop a two-country model of PT with endogenous quality, where the pharmaceutical firm negotiates the price of the drug with the government in the foreign country. We show that, even though the foreign government does not consider global R&D costs, (the threat of) PT improves the quality of the drug as long as the foreign consumers' valuation of quality is high enough. We find that the firm's short-run profit may be higher when PT is allowed. Nonetheless, this is neither necessary nor sufficient for improving drug quality in the long run. We also show that improving drug quality is a sufficient condition for PT to increase global welfare. Finally, we show that, when PT is allowed, drug quality may be higher with than without price controls.