Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-02-05DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109617
Peide Lai, Shuaiqi Xu
{"title":"Can commercial paper exchange promote corporate green innovation? Quasi-natural experimental evidence from China","authors":"Peide Lai, Shuaiqi Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109617","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109617","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Shanghai Commercial Paper Exchange (SHCPE) provides a platform for enterprises to utilize commercial papers in supporting green innovation. Using a sample of manufacturing companies listed on China’s A-share market, this study demonstrates that the establishment of SHCPE enhances corporate green innovation, whether segmented by patent type or knowledge dimension. The underlying mechanisms include mitigating financing constraints, enhancing environmental information transparency, and increasing R&D investment. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that SHCPE significantly affects firms that are state-owned, subject to high environmental and market pressure, and located in financially underdeveloped regions. This study provides empirical evidence and policy insights for developing countries seeking to enhance commercial paper market infrastructure and promote sustainable development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 109617"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146147326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-17DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109530
Ke Liu , Linjun Cao , Jian Zhou
{"title":"Front-end or end-of-pipe? the impact of the government focus on corporate environmental investment choices","authors":"Ke Liu , Linjun Cao , Jian Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109530","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109530","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drawing on neoinstitutional theory, this study examines how government environmental attention shapes firms’ heterogeneous environmental strategies using data on Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2022. The results show that such attention significantly encourages firms to adopt front-end prevention strategies while exerting no meaningful effect on end-of-pipe treatment strategies, underscoring its value for microlevel environmental governance. The facilitating effect is stronger among firms with limited cost-transfer capabilities and in regions with high public environmental demands. Resource compensation and regulatory constraints further operate as core mechanisms through which government environmental attention influences firms’ adoption of front-end prevention strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 109530"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145995223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-17DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.109394
Xiaochuan Guo , Pengcheng Li , Fengzheng Wang
{"title":"How do data assets enhance firm value in the digital economy: Evidence from listed tech firms","authors":"Xiaochuan Guo , Pengcheng Li , Fengzheng Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.109394","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.109394","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drawing on firm-level panel data from five digitally intensive industries in China, this study examines the contextual nature of the relationship between data asset intensity and firm value. While firms that emphasize data consistently exhibit superior performance, the magnitude of this relationship varies across industries. The effect is particularly pronounced in software and internet services, where digital capabilities are more deeply integrated into core value creation processes. These findings suggest that the economic returns to data assets are not uniform but shaped by the alignment between digital orientation and the structural logic of the industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 109394"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145785986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109540
Liping Xu, Lirong Zhang
{"title":"How digital capabilities affect tax planning: The internal information environment","authors":"Liping Xu, Lirong Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109540","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109540","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid development of the digital economy has profoundly reshaped firms’ operational decisions and financial behaviors, yet how corporate digital transformation affects tax planning remains insufficiently explored. Using a sample of Chinese A-share nonfinancial listed firms from 2009 to 2023, this study analyses digital transformation’s effect on corporate tax planning efficiency, focusing on the mediating role of the internal information environment. The results show that digital transformation significantly enhances tax planning efficiency, and this conclusion remains robust across robustness and endogeneity tests. Mechanism analyses indicate that digital transformation improves the internal information environment by increasing earnings forecast accuracy and accelerating financial information disclosure, strengthening firms’ tax planning capabilities. Heterogeneity analyses further reveal that this effect is greater in firms with stronger internal governance, greater external monitoring and more advanced regional digital economic development and industrial agglomeration. Furthermore, digital transformation promotes firms’ total factor productivity by improving tax planning efficiency. This study provides new empirical evidence on the financial governance effects of digital transformation with essential policy and managerial implications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 109540"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146014265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-30DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109591
Oguzhan Cepni , Ufuk Can , Ahmet Faruk Aysan
{"title":"Abnormal weather shocks and US state level municipal bond returns","authors":"Oguzhan Cepni , Ufuk Can , Ahmet Faruk Aysan","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109591","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109591","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates how abnormal weather shocks influence U.S. state-level municipal bond returns, offering evidence on the pricing of climate risk in local public debt markets. Using a composite index of standardized weather anomalies and a panel local projections framework, we find delayed but persistent negative effects of abnormal weather shocks on municipal bond returns. Returns remain stable initially but decline by about 35 basis points after four to six months and by 40 basis points after one year, indicating gradual repricing as fiscal and credit conditions adjust. Furthermore, we document partisan asymmetries: bonds issued by Republican-led states exhibit sharper short-term declines, reflecting weaker climate policies and adaptation efforts. Over the medium term, the effects converge across states, suggesting that abnormal weather shocks ultimately impose real and widespread fiscal costs on municipalities, regardless of political orientation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 109591"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146089527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109537
Yue Zhu , Yuyang Wu
{"title":"Climate risk and corporate cross-boundary digital innovation: An analysis based on the threshold effect of green digital finance","authors":"Yue Zhu , Yuyang Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109537","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109537","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study employs data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2012 to 2023 to investigate the direct impact and underlying mechanisms by which climate risk (<em>CR</em>) on cross-boundary digital innovation (<em>DI</em>) of traditional firms. The findings indicate that <em>CR</em> significantly enhances <em>DI</em>, which is supported by robustness tests and endogeneity estimates using El Niño index and air ventilation as instrumental variables. Identify three key mechanisms for driving <em>DI</em>: increasing patient capital, analyst attention, and industrial robot application level. In addition, <em>DI</em> in firms with lower financing constraints, non-state-owned, high-polluting industries, and eastern regions are particularly driven by <em>CR</em>. This indicates that <em>DI</em> may be a conscious selection for firms to adapt to climate change, implying that there are business opportunities behind climate change to promote digital-real integration. Finally, the impact of <em>CR</em> on <em>DI</em> is influenced by the threshold effect of green digital finance (<em>GDF</em>). Research provides new insights for policy makers to guide firms to adjust innovation strategies to adapt to climate change from the perspective of coordinated development of green finance and digital finance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 109537"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146014288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-02-04DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109605
Sidra Zia , Lin Song , Radwan Alkebsee , Adeeb Alhebri
{"title":"Facilitating or crowding out? The role of local government debt in green bond issuance","authors":"Sidra Zia , Lin Song , Radwan Alkebsee , Adeeb Alhebri","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109605","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109605","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using a sample of 35,790 year-firm observations from China from 2015 to 2023, we examine the dual impact of local government debt (LGD) on the issuance of corporate green bonds. The literature documents that LGD crowds out private financial credit, negating both impacts. Drawing on signaling and crowding-out theory, our analyses of panel data reveal that LGD promotes green financing in the short run by signaling policy support and improving credit conditions, but excessive LGD over time crowds out private green investment in the long run. We also identify capital expenditure as a key transmission channel for LGD’s dual roles. The main results remain consistent in several endogeneity tests. These findings highlight the importance of aligning debt management with sustainability goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 109605"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-02-09DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109625
Yunpeng Cai , Yang Yu , Yue Ma , Hong Chen
{"title":"Can ESG construction enable enterprises to move from virtual to real?","authors":"Yunpeng Cai , Yang Yu , Yue Ma , Hong Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109625","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109625","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines whether ESG performance restrains corporate financialization in China. Using a panel of Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2022, we find that ESG performance reduces firms’ financial asset holdings. The results are robust to alternative measures, firm and time fixed effects, and a battery of endogeneity tests. Channel evidence suggests that ESG operates by dampening peer-driven investment, improving internal governance, and disciplining product-market competition. The effect is stronger among mature firms, firms with greater growth opportunities, and those facing higher environmental uncertainty. These findings clarify the governance role of ESG in emerging markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 109625"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146187310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-02-10DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109634
Haiyan Dong, Yu Shen
{"title":"The monitoring effect of CSI 300 inclusion: Evidence from enterprise risk management adoption","authors":"Haiyan Dong, Yu Shen","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109634","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109634","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While recent evidence finds negative consequences of the public scrutiny following index inclusion, we investigate its potential benefits for corporate governance. Utilizing the cutoff rules between the CSI 300 and CSI 500 indices, this paper employs a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to identify the causal effect of CSI 300 inclusion on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) adoption. We find that CSI 300 inclusion significantly promotes ERM adoption, primarily through a “monitoring effect” manifested in increased analyst coverage, media attention, and investor attention. Furthermore, this effect is significantly stronger for firms that attract more stock forum discussions and had received regulatory penalties prior to their initial index inclusion. Our findings suggest that public scrutiny following CSI 300 inclusion can serve as an important catalyst for improving fundamental governance structures, thereby highlighting a significant but previously overlooked determinant of corporate risk governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 109634"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Finance Research LettersPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-02-11DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109641
Tongtong Sun , Qiang Fu
{"title":"Digital trade, financial accessibility, and cross-border capital flows","authors":"Tongtong Sun , Qiang Fu","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109641","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2026.109641","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the relationship between digital trade (DT), financial accessibility, and cross-border capital flows based on data from China's A-share listed companies between 2010 and 2023. The conclusions of this paper are as follows: DT has a positive impact on cross-border capital flows; the positive influence of DT on cross-border capital flows exhibits heterogeneity across firms at different stages of their life cycle; and financial accessibility plays a mediating role between DT and <em>cross-border capital flows. This study not only enriches the theoretical research on DT and cross-border capital flows but also provides useful references for relevant policy formulation and optimizing corporate operational strategies.</em></div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 109641"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146160147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}