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Government as Venture Capitalists in AI

Martin Beraja, Wenwei Peng, David Yang, Noam Yuchtman, Nov 06, 2024

This article discusses that government venture capital funds in China are more geographically dispersed than private venture capital, particularly in inland and less developed areas, and they are more inclined to invest in AI companies with weaker ex-ante productivity signals.

The Externalities of ESG Disclosure

Yi Jiang, Ya Kang, Hao Liang, Jul 24, 2024

This article discusses that China's mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure policies have led firms to increase their donations for poverty alleviation, yet paradoxically have also resulted in higher pollution levels, thereby highlighting the potential environmental negative externalities that can arise from the government's mild steering of corporate behavior through disclosure mandates.

Destination-Specific Export Expansions and Their Impact on Education and Long-Term Outcomes in China

Junsen Zhang, Kang Zhou, Jul 17, 2024

This article discusses that export expansions to wealthy countries significantly increased high school enrollment rates in specific regions and among certain groups in China, but this impact did not translate into an increased prevalence of higher education. Instead, it had long-term effects on employment and fertility outcomes for the affected cohorts.

Pricing the Priceless: The Financing Cost of Biodiversity Conservation

Fukang Chen, Minhao Chen, Lin William Cong, Haoyu Gao, Jacopo Ponticelli, Feb 26, 2025

This study investigates the pricing of financial risks associated with biodiversity conservation, with a particular focus on the Green Shield Action, a major regulatory initiative launched in China in 2017 to enforce biodiversity preservation rules in national nature reserves. While the initiative improved biodiversity, it also significantly increased bond yields for municipalities that are home to these reserves, effectively raising the general cost of public capital. These effects were primarily driven by heightened default risks plausibly caused by transition costs from shutting down illegal economic activities within the reserves and additional public spending on biodiversity conservation, even when local governments raise the same amount of money. Furthermore, the study reveals that the biological benefits of these conservation policies were not adequately recognized or impounded into the prices by the capital markets.

Environmental Externalities, Product Attributes, and Market Power: Implications for Government Subsidies

Panle Jia Barwick, Hyuk-soo Kwon, Shanjun Li, Sep 18, 2024

The article discusses how attribute-based subsidy (ABS) designs lead to higher product quality and more effectively mitigate market power than uniform subsidies, albeit with a modest environmental cost.