Economic Theory and Business Management

HONG Yongmiao1, 2, 3, SHI Jiuling2, 3

2024, 44(8): 1-16.

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In the era of the digital economy，the explosive growth and large'scale application of data have made data elements a crucial factor of production and economic resource Just as traditional elements such as land，labor，capital，management，and technology correspond to land economics，labor economics，financial economics，managerial economics，and technical economics，the recognition of data as a vital economic resource and production factor necessitates the establishment of a similar disciplinary framework for data economics
Data possesses unique attributes such as virtuality，nonconsumption，noncompetition，timeliness，scarcity，and high liquidity It also exhibits economic characteristics like economies of scale，high complementarity，scenario dependence，value attenuation，ambiguity of rights confirmation，and economic externalities These characteristics present new opportunities and challenges to the mechanisms by which production factors promote productivity，alter production relations，and advance economic globalization
As key production factors，data elements extensively participate in social production，promote the development of new digital productivity，and unleash a “multiplier effect” on economic development The impact of data elements on productivity is mainly reflected in four aspects：direct involvement in the production process，improvement of resource allocation efficiency，promotion of industrial structure upgrading，and enhancement of government decisionmaking quality The impact on production relations is evident in labormanagement relations，exchange relations，consumption relations，and distribution relations Data elements not only profoundly affect human production and lifestyle but also play a key role in reorganizing global factor resources，reshaping the global economic structure，and altering the global competitive landscape
Therefore，it is essential to prioritize the research of data economics and strengthen theoretical exploration and empirical research This is fundamentally significant for constructing Chinas independent economic knowledge system and provides a solid theoretical and practical foundation for China to secure a favorable position and assert its voice in the global digital economy competition

Accelerating the Development of World-class Universities' Support Capabilities in Innovation Hub Cities

ZHENG Jianghuai1, 2, SUN Dongqing2, ZONG Xiaohua3

2024, 44(8): 17-26.

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The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed “Coordinating and advancing the integrated reform of the education，science and technology，and talent systems”，with the aim of further optimizing the higher education layout to provide strong support for accelerating the establishment of major global talent centers and innovation hubs From the historical development of developed countries，worldclass universities have become a decisive force in attracting top global talent and competing in national technological innovation
This paper finds that the number of innovation cities in China is significantly lower than expected based on the countrys economic scale，with considerable gaps in both quantity and quality compared to developed countries Over time，this could severely hinder Chinas efforts to build innovation hubs and sustain longterm economic growth A key reason for this is the insufficient support capacity of Chinas top universities for the construction of innovation hub cities Specifically，the issues include a limited number of worldclass universities，the spatial misalignment between university locations and innovation centers，inadequate innovation spillover effects from universities to enterprises，and a low emphasis on talent cultivation，all of which obstruct the development of Chinas innovation hubs
In response to these issues，this paper proposes the following policy recommendations: Firstly，increase investment in the construction of worldclass universities and support the development of more toptier institutions Secondly，in regions with limited higher education resources but strong industrial foundations，encourage and support joint programs between top universities and local institutions to build distributed innovation networks Thirdly，select certain regions for pilot programs to explore the joint establishment of new graduate schools by universities and enterprises Fourthly，actively create innovation consortia led by enterprises，coordinated by the government，integrating resources for R&D，innovation，and production Fifthly，align with the construction of national strategic technological forces，such as national manufacturing innovation centers，to form a comprehensive innovation system that leverages both economies of scale and scope

The Development of Local Commercial Banks and Urban Economic Resilience

PAN Min, QIN Lichen

2024, 44(8): 27-45.

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In recent years，Chinas urban economic development has faced external uncertainty shocks and internal multiple pressures，such as shrinking demand in the real estate market，worsening population aging，high local government debts，and slowing economic growth Promoting urban economic resilience is an important part of coordinating urban economic security and development This paper discusses how to enhance urban economic resilience from the perspective of the development of local commercial banks
Based on theoretically analyzing the countercyclical lending behavior and innovation support effect of local commercial banks，this paper uses matching data of branches of Chinese local commercial banks and urban economic status from 2008 to 2019 to examine the impact of the development of local commercial banks on urban economic resilience Furthermore，this paper uses the financial data of local commercial banks to examine the probable mechanisms
Our findings are summarized as follows First，cities with high branch density of local commercial banks have stronger economic resilience，and this positive impact exists in the periods of resisting shock and restoring the economy Second，mechanism analysis shows that the countercyclical lending behavior of local commercial banks is the main way to enhance the cities’ ability to resist adverse shocks and restore the economy，and its countercyclical lending behavior is driven by the equity ownership of local governments and soft information Third，local commercial banks also enhance the ability of urban economic recovery through improving urban innovation ability
The marginal contributions are as follows：First，it expands the research on the influencing factors of urban economic resilience，and provides new evidence for the research on Chinas urban economic resilience from the perspective of the development of local commercial banks Second，it enriches the research on the impact of local commercial banks on urban economic development This paper analyzes the mechanisms of local commercial banks affecting urban economic resilience in resisting shocks and restoring the economy Third，other possible factors affecting urban economic resilience are discussed，which will help policy decisionmaking and implementing agencies to respond to adverse shocks timely and formulate urban development policies

Does Anti-collusion Enforcement Facilitates M&As

WANG Baichuan1, DU Chuang1, 2

2024, 44(8): 46-65.

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Collusion and M&As （mergers and acquisitions） are two alternative strategies for enterprises to acquire market power Chinas antitrust enforcement adopts the delegated model，and horizontal collusion cases mainly rely on provincial law enforcement agencies to investigate and punish，while M&A activities relies on the Antimonopoly Law Enforcement Agency under the State Council to conduct prior review Utilizing the manually constructed horizontal monopoly agreement enforcement database alongside M&As data of Chinese enterprises，this paper analyzes the relationship between the breakdown of collusion and subsequent M&A activities，employing a panel twoway fixed effects model for analysis The results are as follows
Firstly，the suppression of collusion by provincial law enforcement agency has a notable deterrent effect，which significantly increases the number of M&As initiated by enterprises in the province The regression results show that，on average，the number of monthly M&As initiated by provincial enterprises increased by about 38% due to the investigation of collusion cases by provincial antimonopoly law enforcement agency In other words，M&As become a strategic response of enterprises to the crackdown on collusion by the provincial law enforcement agency
Secondly，the institutional arrangement in China，which mainly relies on provincial law enforcement agencies to combat collusion，reveals regional and industrial heterogeneity in strategic M&A activities The empirical analysis highlights several key insights：（1） The breakdown of collusion significantly boosts the number of M&As within the same province and within the same industry However，the impact on crossprovince and crossindustry M&As is not significant Further empirical analysis which distinguishes collusive industries from noncollusive industries found that，the crackdown on collusive industries by the provincial law enforcement agency significantly encouraged enterprises in collusive industries to initiate more M&As （2） The breakdown of collusion does not have a crossprovincial deterrent effect，and the breakdown of collusion in one province does not significantly promote more M&As initiated by enterprises in the same （collusion） industry in other provinces （3） Considering the cost of M&As，the strategic response to anticollusion enforcement shows firm heterogeneity The suppression of collusion by provincial law enforcement agency encourages firms with a high solvency ratio to initiate more M&As，while those with a low solvency ratio do not
The main innovation of this paper is to discover the substitution of merger and acquisition for collusion under Chinas antimonopoly law enforcement delegated model，especially the substitution effect has regional and industry heterogeneity，which is mainly significant within the province and industry The conclusion of this paper has some policy implications for Chinas antimonopoly law enforcement Antimonopoly law enforcement agency needs to pay attention to the strategic response of enterprises to anticollusion policy

Two-pillar Policy Framework，Interbank Connection and Bank Charter Value

GU Haifeng, TONG Xiaoli

2024, 44(8): 66-84.

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The advancement of financial liberalization and the reduction of entry barriers in financial markets have gradually transformed the structure of the banking industry The competition among financial institutions has eroded the monopoly rent of commercial banks and affected the value of bank charter value The combination of macroprudential policies and monetary policies can carry out countercyclical regulation and reduce the correlation between financial institutions，thereby prevent systemic crises caused by pro cyclical effects and risk contagion effects
In order to investigate the impact of the twopillar policy framework on bank charter value，this paper constructs an expanded bank profit maximization model to analyze the impact and mechanism of the twopillar policy framework on the bank charter value and the moderating effect of interbank connection Furthermore，this paper conducts an empirical test based on the panel data of 283 commercial banks from 2011 to 2021 to provide empirical evidence
The result show that tight monetary policy can increase the charter value of banks，and contraction macroprudential policy can further enhance the promoting effect of tight monetary policy on bank charter value，thereby achieving the regulatory effect of twopillar policies This conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests in econometrics approaches and machine learning approaches The mechanism analysis indicates that the twopillar policy framework mainly enhance the promoting result of tight monetary policy on bank charter value through the dual constraint effect of contraction macroprudential policies on excessive lending and capital structure deviation of banks The transmission channels of “two pillar policyexcessive credit expansion/capital structure deviationbank chart value” are all effective The moderating effect analysis indicates that the impact of interbank connection on the twopillar policy regulation effect has asymmetric characteristics During the period of tightening macroeconomic prudential policies，interbank connection will strengthen the regulatory effect of twopillar policies on the bank charter value，while the impact of interbank connection during the period of loosening macroeconomic prudential policies will weaken
The research contributions include the following：Firstly，the research constructs an expanded model of bank profit maximization and analyzes the impact of the twopillar policy on bank charter value through empirical analysis using micropanel data from Chinese commercial banks Secondly，the research examines the effectiveness of the twopillar policy in influencing bank charter value through the dual perspectives of bank credit expansion and capital structure deviation，providing valuable insights to transmission mechanisms Thirdly，the research further investigates the asymmetric influence of interbank relationships，thus deepening the understanding of the mechanisms This paper will provide important theoretical guidance and decisionmaking references for improving the policy framework of twopillar regulation and addressing systemic risks in the banking industry from the perspective of bank charter value

Equity Structure and Enterprise Internal Common Prosperity

CHEN Lin1, WU Mengxuan2

2024, 44(8): 85-100.

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The report of the 20th Party Congress points out that Chinesestyle modernization is the modernization of common wealth for all people Common wealth is the essential requirement of socialism and an important content of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics，the realization of which cannot be achieved without the change of corporate behavior on the supply side and production side Whether the shareholding structure of stateowned listed enterprises，as largescale enterprises at the head of the industrial chain and the core of the supply chain，may play a certain role in the promotion of common wealth on the supply side of the market has become the question this paper wants to answer
Based on the research perspective of common prosperity，this paper takes Ashare stateowned listed enterprises as research samples during the period of 20112020，and attempts to empirically test the synergistic sharing effect of the diversity，depth and integration of equity entities by constructing a comprehensive index of common prosperity within the enterprise，as well as the moderating role of the internal resource effect and the external government intervention by constructing a comprehensive index of common prosperity within the enterprise，and further analyze the influence of the heterogeneity of different types of enterprises and further analyze the impact of heterogeneity of different types of enterprises
The results of the study indicate that equity diversification can significantly promote the degree of common wealth within enterprises，and that there is an “inverted Ushaped” relationship between the depth of equity，the degree of integration of equity and the common wealth within enterprises Through the inflection point of the “inverted Ushaped” curve，the article found that when the level of common wealth within the stateowned enterprises reaches the optimal level，the optimal proportion of nonstate shareholders among the top ten shareholders is 368% From the perspective of moderating effect，enterprises with strong availability of credit resources and low level of implicit government guarantee can achieve the optimal level of common wealth with relatively low proportion of nonstate equity or low heterogeneous equity integration In terms of heterogeneity analysis，on the whole，adjusting the equity structure has a more significant effect on the level of common wealth within local SOEs，monopolistic industries，and lowmarketization regions than that of central SOEs，competitive industries，and enterprises in highmarketization regions
In a sense，the existence of an optimal shareholding structure in SOEs that is conducive to internal common prosperity is an important theoretical foundation for more active participation in the strategy of “solidly promoting common prosperity” in the future The findings of this paper provide policy insights for China to further deepen the reform of stateowned enterprises and to promote the realization of the goal of common wealth

The Impact of “Shixue Philosophy” on the Treaty Port Economy in the Late Qing Dynasty

DONG Baomin1, 2, CHENG Bowen1 , LIU Shizhe1

2024, 44(8): 101-116.

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The existing scholarly literature suggests that Chinas early modernization began during the late Qing dynasty，with many studies pointing to Western influence as the main driving force behind this trend While some existing studies recognize that the treaty port economy，established through unequal treaties with the West，was not designed to benefit China，few have thoroughly explored the historical origins of Chinas internal impetus Moreover，most existing studies use the treaty port as the deep root of contemporary economic development，ignoring the fact that if a locality was influenced by the Confucian Jingshi thought and/or already had prosperous commercial trade development or convenient transportation conditions prior to the establishment of the treaty port，it would be more likely to be chosen as a treaty port In this paper，we explore the role of the rise of “Shixue philosophy” in the Ming Dynasty on the choices of treaty ports in the late Qing Dynasty
Specifically，we empirically examine the impact of the “Shixue philosophy” during the Ming period on the choices of treaty ports in the late Qing period，based on handcollected statistics about “Shixue philosophers” of the Ming era from the Records of Ming Scholarship （Ming Ru Xuean） and the Collected Essays on Statecraft of Ming Dynasty （Huang Ming Jingshi Wenbian） The results show that the emergence and propagation of the “Shixue philosophy” during the middle and late Ming periods was a significant internal factor that promoted the opening of treaty ports in the late Qing Dynasty，which was attributed to the positive role played by the “Shixue philosophy” in promoting the development of the commerce，education，and acceptance of Western learning This conclusion remains robust after controlling for a range of economic and geographical variables，as well as various robustness tests，including the placebo test，excluding the influence of local economic potential，excluding the interference of Buddhism and Taoism，substituting explanatory variables，and accounting for the issue of model setting bias In addition，we find that the more prosperous the “Shixue philosophy”，the earlier the establishment of treaty ports in the late Qing Dynasty，and the greater the probability of the Qing government taking the initiative to open commercial ports To address the potential endogenous issue，we exploit the utilitarianism scholars of the Song Dynasty as an instrumental variable of the “Shixue philosophy” during the Ming era for IVProbit regression，and the results are consistent with those in the baseline regression
The marginal contribution of this paper is mainly reflected in that，on the one hand，our cliometric analysis reveals the internal dynamics of Chinas early modernization and responds to the Fairbankian “impulseresponse” paradigm On the other hand，given that the existing literature views Confucian culture as an immutable whole and its inadequacy in explaining the longterm impact of Confucian tradition on contemporary outcomes，the focus on the emergence of “Shixue philosophy” in the Ming Dynasty sheds light on the growing literature on the persistence of Confucianism

Addressing Incentive Gaps in the Personal Pension System：Optimizing Tax Incentive Policy from an Inclusive Perspective

LAN Haoge, ZHAO Guiqin

2024, 44(8): 117-132.

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The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China explicitly emphasized the need to accelerate the development of a multitiered and multipillar pension insurance system，alongside the active promotion of personal pension schemes However，the current demand for personal pensions is much lower than expected，especially among lowincome and middleincome groups The personal pension system exhibits some significant shortcomings in coverage and inclusiveness
In this context，this paper first constructs a tax incentive model for the current personal pension policy，and then proposes the policy optimization scheme of graded tax rates in the collection phase and subsidies for lowincome groups in the contribution phase from an inclusive perspective Then，using numerical simulation methods，the paper estimates the tax incentive disparities across different income groups under the current personal pension policy，and compares the changes in tax incentives and the scope of beneficiary groups between the current policy and the proposed optimized policies Finally，using data from the China Household Finance Survey （CHFS），the paper examines the impact of the current and optimized tax incentive policies on urban employees，and further explores the effectiveness of the optimized policies under the background of delayed retirement
The results show that the current tax incentive policy for personal pensions offers limited motivation for middleincome and lowincome groups，and may even increase their tax burden In contrast，the proposed graded tax rate scheme significantly expands the scope of beneficiaries receiving tax incentives，and enhances the tax benefits for middleincome and lowincome participants Specifically，the graded tax rate design redistributes income by linking the collection phase tax rates to an individuals lifetime average tax savings rate，so that lowincome groups benefit from lower tax rates or tax exemptions when receiving pensions，while highincome groups bear higher tax rates Additionally，the subsidy policy for lowincome groups during the contribution phase compensates for their inability to fully benefit from tax incentives，while also improving the overall level of retirement security provided by personal pensions Further analysis show that the current personal pension policy fails to cover more than 409% of urban employees，with over 85% of participants receiving pension returns lower than the return on oneyear savings deposits The proposed policy optimization not only achieves greater inclusiveness in personal pensions，but also significantly reduces the tax incentive disparity across different income groups In the context of gradually delaying retirement，the tax incentive effect of personal pensions becomes more pronounced，making them more attractive than regular savings，and reducing the inequality in personal pensions
This paper uncovers the reasons behind the insufficient incentives for middleincome and lowincome groups to participate The proposed graded tax rate and contribution subsidy policies offer both theoretical foundations and practical pathways for the inclusive development in personal pensions，which is of great significance for improving chinas personal pension system

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