We employ a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to investigate the causal effect of China's Energy Conservation Law (ECL) on the energy efficiency of Chinese firms. Using data from the 2018 China Employer-Employee Survey (CEES), we find that the energy regulation has a positive impact on...

We use the short-lived, but high-profile, China Top Brand Award to examine the causal effects of nonmonetary awards on firm innovation. To do so, we create a panel dataset by matching official China Top Brand Award recipients to the innovation outputs of listed companies. Results from...

Policy-makers world-wide have proposed a new contract – the “social impact bond” (SIB) – which they claim can allay the underperformance and underfunding afflicting not-for-profit sectors, by tying the private returns of (social) investors to the success of social programs (Bolton 2010;...

On a global basis, cash cropping is usually identified as an important enterprise undertaken by farmers to increase incomes. However, the responses of farmers to these new enterprises vary greatly. Through a case study of a Dai village in Xishuangbanna, China, this paper examines how farmers...

In the finance industry, risk compliance has become an important issue after numerous policy violations resulting in significant costs for financial institutions and society as a whole. Little evidence currently exists on the drivers of non-compliant behavior. We run a lab-in-the-field...

To understand the mechanisms through which political connections impact firm value and performance, we study how political connections affect connected firms and their peers. Following the announcement of anti-corruption investigations in China, we show that the industry peers of firms connected...

The success of a business project often relies on the accuracy of its schedule. Inaccurate and overoptimistic schedules can lead to significant project failures. In this paper, we explore whether the presence of anchors, such as relatively uninformed suggestions or expectations of the duration...

We study how government control affects the roles of the media as an information intermediary and a corporate monitor. Comparing a large sample of news articles written by state-controlled and market-oriented Chinese media, we find that articles by the market-oriented media are more critical,...

Using a large sample of block acquisitions, this paper examines the governance role of customers that acquire block ownership in supplier shares. We find that compared to targets acquired by noncustomers, those acquired by customers experience higher abnormal announcement returns, larger...