{"title":"Trade protectionism suppresses Chinese firms’ cross-border M&A","authors":"Xiaohua Bao, Jianpeng Deng, Yaning Wei","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.04.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.04.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The tariff-jumping theory posits that, when confronted with rising tariff barriers, firms increase their investment in the tariff-imposing country in order to circumvent the tariffs. We integrate data on Chinese firms' cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), export, and monthly product-level tariff data from 2018 to 2019. By constructing a shift-share instrumental variable (SSIV), we find that trade protectionism suppresses Chinese firms' cross-border M&A—a finding that contradicts the traditional tariff-jumping hypothesis. This research identifies three potential mechanisms: (1) the Trump tariffs directly reduce firms’ operating performance; (2) the U.S. foreign investment security review process generates a demonstration effect; and (3) uncertainty arising from U.S.-China trade tensions weakens the bargaining power of Chinese firms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 2","pages":"Pages 67-77"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148661093","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effects of older workers’ employment on youth employment and occupational structure","authors":"Guangjun Shen, Weishan Tan","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.08.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.08.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines how older workers' employment affects youth employment and occupational structure, using microdata from China's 2000 and 2010 population censuses and the 2005 and 2015 1% national population sample surveys. We find that higher older-worker employment reduces youth unemployment. Substitution elasticities between older and young workers are below one in technical, clerical, and service occupations, indicating limited substitutability. Older workers' non-agricultural employment is also associated with higher youth employment in managerial, technical, and service occupations. In addition, older workers' non-agricultural labor force participation reallocates young workers across occupations, raising employment in both abstract and manual jobs and producing a shift in the youth occupational distribution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 2","pages":"Pages 111-130"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148952609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How does OFDI help enterprises resolve the “bottleneck” problem: evidence from the US entity list","authors":"Weiyi Cai, Xiaoqi Meng, Sijia Qin, Jiamin Wu, Shuying Zhong","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.09.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.09.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using data from Chinese listed firms (2014-2022) and U.S. entity lists, this article employs difference-in-differences (DID) and triple-difference (DDD) models to explore the impact of OFDI on the innovation of Chinese enterprises under the enactment of the ECRA, and finds that OFDI can promote the innovation of restricted enterprises by expanding overseas revenue scale, overseas technology layout and enhancing the external financing capacity, where the impact of the timing of investment differs. The innovation promotion effect of OFDI helps to alleviate the “backward effect” of export control, and it is more obvious in technology-intensive industries and technology-seeking OFDI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 2","pages":"Pages 131-151"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149044025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TongLong Zhang, Liang Zhao, Linxiu Zhang, Biliang Luo
{"title":"Property right strengthening and modern market transformation: Evidence from rural land rent in China under the “Greif Hypothesis”","authors":"TongLong Zhang, Liang Zhao, Linxiu Zhang, Biliang Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.08.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.08.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Avner Greif proposes in The Great Divergence that the historical divergence in the Western world originated from the breakthrough of personalized transactions in medieval trade to achieve-large-scale market expansion, with the key lying in universal property right protection. We refer to this as the “Greif Hypothesis” but it lacks micro-level empirical testing. Taking the development of rural land rental markets in China as an example, we examine the impact of the land right confirmation policy on market structure transformation and find that land right confirmation increases the probability of formal rent by 4%, reduces the probability of informal rent by 1.3%, and promotes the expansion of the rental market. Moreover, formal and informal markets are not interconnected or progressive but rather show a reciprocal relationship of growth and decline.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 2","pages":"Pages 98-110"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148744220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A review of contest theory: Equilibrium strategies and incentive design","authors":"Xin Feng, Qian Jiao, Jingfeng Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.07.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.07.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Contest theory studies strategic competition among individuals or groups for rewards such as positions, market share, or rents. Owing to its wide applicability in settings such as rent-seeking, promotion, litigation, political competition, and research and development (R&D), the theory has become a core area of microeconomics. Taking classical models as its point of departure, this paper reviews the literature on equilibrium analysis and contest design. The two halves of the review are organized around three primitives of a contestant's payoff: the prize structure, the contest success function, and the information set. These primitives are also the three instruments available to a contest designer. Within this framework, it examines several central issues, including prize allocation, contestant heterogeneity, budget constraints, contest technologies, and information disclosure. Finally, it discusses major applications and identifies promising directions for future theoretical research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 2","pages":"Pages 78-97"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148744221","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Internal and external uncertainties and macroeconomic downside risk in China","authors":"Yongdong Shi , Xiaofeng Xu , Hongxian Zhen","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.03.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.03.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Focusing on the macroeconomic downside risk under uncertainty shocks, we begin by refining the measurement of China's internal and external economic uncertainties, and the adjustment for extreme outliers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is effective in enhancing the accuracy of uncertainty measurements. We then employ a quantile vector autoregression model to investigate the relationship between internal and external economic uncertainties and China's macroeconomic downside risk. The results indicate that when the economy is experiencing slow growth, the negative effects of internal uncertainty shocks become more pronounced. A high-intensity internal uncertainty shock may significantly increase the downside risk of China's economic growth. External uncertainty shocks can not only exert a direct impact on the downside risk of China's economy but also induce indirect disturbances by amplifying the internal uncertainty.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 1","pages":"Pages 29-39"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147601870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The policy of tax credit bank loan promotes employment in small and micro enterprises","authors":"Chen Feng , Shuning Liang , Cong Li , Xiaofang Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.03.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.03.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using the policy of tax credit bank loan (TCBL) as a case study, this paper examines how the reduction in asymmetry in the information of “Banks, Tax Authorities, and Enterprises” affects the level of employment of small and micro enterprises. This paper finds that the implementation of the TCBL can significantly increase the employment level and employment growth rate of SMEs. This effect primarily stems from the increase in the financing level of micro and small enterprises and the expansion of the sector. Moreover, the policy is associated with positive gains in firm productivity and production capacity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 1","pages":"Pages 40-51"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147601871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shifting the safety net: Does social health insurance reshape intergenerational support?","authors":"Si Shi , Bingxin Hu , Yawen Jiang","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.02.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.02.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the impact of China's Urban-Rural Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URRBMI) integration on intergenerational economic transfers within rural families. Exploiting its staggered rollout as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ a difference-in-differences design with the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Results show that the integration policy significantly increases downward transfers from parents to children, particularly among married, healthier parents with fewer children and no grandchild-care responsibilities in eastern and central regions. Conversely, we find no significant effect on upward transfers from children to parents. Mechanism analyses suggest that the policy enhances parents' willingness and capacity to support children by alleviating medical expenses and uncertainty about future health costs, rather than increasing labor participation. Overall, URRBMI integration shifts private family risk-sharing toward children without reducing upward transfers. The concentration of benefits among relatively advantaged parents indicates uneven distributional effects and limited protection for more vulnerable rural elders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 1","pages":"Pages 1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147419724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From algorithm to alliance: The role of AI in shaping corporate collaborative innovation","authors":"Sijin He, Pengfei Li","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.03.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.03.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Based on data from Chinese manufacturing listed companies between 2010 and 2024, this study empirically examines the impact of corporate artificial intelligence (AI) adoption on collaborative innovation performance and its underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that AI application not only directly enhances collaborative innovation but also exerts an indirect effect through two mediating channels: reducing knowledge acquisition costs and strengthening knowledge integration capability. Further analysis of moderating effects reveals that this positive impact is more pronounced in contexts characterized by a strong collaborative culture and a lower regional litigation risk. By adopting a dual-mechanism perspective of “cost and capability” in knowledge management, this research systematically uncovers the intrinsic pathways through which AI enables collaborative innovation, providing valuable theoretical insights and practical implications for understanding how AI technology reshapes inter-organizational knowledge collaboration and innovation models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 1","pages":"Pages 16-28"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147546967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Environmental and ecological taxation in the People's Republic of China and the case for the introduction of a carbon tax","authors":"Anwar Shah","doi":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.04.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ceqi.2026.04.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the evolution of environmental and ecological taxation in the People's Republic of China (PRC), tracing the transition from a \"command-and-control\" regulatory model to a sophisticated, market-based legal framework centered on the 2018 Environmental Protection Tax (EPT) Law. While the current regime successfully targets air, water, solid waste, and noise pollution, significant gaps remain regarding carbon emissions, plastics, and road congestion. Drawing on international comparisons from the European Union's centralized price signals and the United States' incentive-based model, the study argues for the introduction of a revenue-neutral carbon tax to complement China's National Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Such a tax is projected to yield \"quadruple dividends\" by combating climate change, reducing local pollution, improving public health, and enhancing economic efficiency through the replacement of distortionary enterprise taxes. Ultimately, the paper outlines an integrated policy architecture aligned with the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), emphasizing the strategic use of carbon taxation to ensure international competitiveness—particularly as a defense against the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)—while facilitating China's transition to a sustainable, green economy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100238,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Quarterly International","volume":"6 1","pages":"Pages 52-65"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147951447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}