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The purpose of this paper studies the transformation effect of research and development (R&D) subsidies on firm performance in emerging economies from the perspective of capital and product markets. It also studies the mechanisms behind R&D subsidies’ transformation effect.

This study mainly explores the transformation effect of government R&D subsidies on corporate performance and its non-linear characteristics using Chinese A-share listed companies’ data from 2008 to 2016. The authors use the instrumental variable method to reduce endogenous problems and conduct a series of robustness tests to support the conclusions. The mechanisms of the transformation effect are explored via mediation effect models. The impact of firm heterogeneities on the transformation effect is also addressed.

Results indicate that R&D subsidies promote firm performance and experience obvious transformation effects only within a “moderate interval.” R&D subsidies play a vital role in enhancing firm performance mainly via two mechanisms, namely, signal financing and innovation incentives. Further, the transformation effect is much greater in non-state-owned, young and large enterprises.

This paper contributes to understanding how R&D subsidies affect corporate performance from the perspective of capital and product markets by applying the linear and non-linear techniques that can clarify the relationship between the selected variables under study. The findings of this study might be helpful to identify the right directions for the government to implement and promote the R&D subsidy policies more effectively.

Over a decade ago, Bretschneider and Gorr proposed two directions for future research in government forecasting: one was to extend the research on developing and evaluating alternative forecasting methods and the other, to look at forecasting as a human activity and examine how organizational factors affect forecasting. What has happened since then? To see partially what has been done and what remains to be done, this paper provides a review of the literature on government revenue forecasting with a primary focus on the state level and identifies areas for future research in government revenue forecasting.

The past few years have witnessed the rise of local ballot measures in California to limit public employee retirement benefits. What has happened to pension plans in California? Why is there such an attitude change towards public pensions? This paper, based on a survey of California cities, intends to investigate if public pensions have become unsustainable particularly in the face of the recent recession. The research shows city governments in California are facing both financial and social issues concerning their pension plans. To deal with the problems, cities have adopted strategies to reduce pension benefits, increase employee contributions, cut costs in other areas, and take other measures. Cities also have seen the use of the initiative process to control pension costs, balance their budgets and maintain fiscal sustainability.

This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end of year financial reports for thirty midsized US cities. The analysis focuses on whether and how quickly and how extensively revenue and spending directions from past years are altered by recessions. A seven year series of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) data serves to explore whether citiesʼ revenues and spending, especially the traditional property tax and core functions such as public safety and infrastructure withstood the brief 2001 and the persistent 2007 recessions? The findings point to consumption (spending) over stability (revenue minus expense) for the recession of 2007, particularly in 2008 and 2009.

Central to this paper, Western international political economy cannot well explain China’s peaceful development and its political and economic ties with the outside world, and it is even more difficult to reflect the characteristics of the times that the great changes unseen in a century and socialism with Chinese characteristics have entered into a new era, which are synchronously intertwined and mutually agitated. Constructing China’s international political economy not only emphasizes the Chinese perspective, Chinese discourse and Chinese narrative but also examines the development trend and major problems facing the world from the height of world history and applies the position, viewpoints and methods of Marxist historical materialism to observe the times, interpret the times and lead the times.

Looking back at the development of China’s international political economy, from introducing Western international political economy to increasingly emphasizing the Chinese perspective, Chinese discourse and Chinese narrative, we analyze the distinctive features of China’s international political economy from Western international political economy.

The thought of community with a shared future for mankind is the latest development and concentrated embodiment of Marxist thought on world history in the 21st century, which gives China’s international political economy a distinctive epochal, scientific and practical character, stipulates the research stance and fundamental purpose, establishes the research theme and main line and expands the research space for the construction of Chinese international political economy.

The construction of China’s international political economy is not only to create a “Chinese school” of international relations but more importantly to construct a discourse and academic system of China’s international political economy that can understand and grasp the changes in the world, the times and history, providing academic support for in-depth thinking and answering the question of “What is wrong with the world? What should we do?” and contributing Chinese wisdom.

This paper examines the different features of China's economic development in different stages of economic globalization. The study finds that the investment- and export-based growth model drove China's high-speed economic growth between 2000 and 2007, which came into existence around 2000 when China plugged into the global production network.

This paper also finds that China slowed down to the New Normal because of the disruption to the socio-economic underpinnings of this growth model. As China adapts to and steers the New Normal, supply-side structural reforms can channel excess capacity to the construction of underground pipe networks in rural areas of central China and fix capital while advance rural revitalization.

At the same time, enterprises must strive to build a key component development platform for key component innovation and the standard-setting power in global manufacturing.

The establishment of a domestic production network integrating the integrated innovation-driven core enterprises and modular producers at different levels can satisfy the dynamic demand structure of China in which standardized demands and personalized demands coexist.

This study investigates the impact of Chinese senior leaders’ diplomatic visits on outward and inward foreign direct investment (OFDI and IFDI, respectively). Additionally, it aims to discern the differential impacts of diplomatic visits on FDI across different Chinese administrations.

We utilize data about the diplomatic visits of Chinese senior leaders to 146 host countries. The dataset was divided into two leadership eras: the tenure of President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao from 2003 to 2012 and the period from 2013 to 2021 under President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang. We employ generalized least squares, lagged effect, and two-stage least squares methods to estimate the econometric model. This analytical framework assesses the influence of high-level diplomatic visits on FDI flows, addressing potential time-serial and endogeneity concerns.

The findings reveal that senior leaders’ diplomatic visits significantly boost Chinese OFDI. The effect on IFDI in China is not statistically significant. The administrations of Hu and Xi played positive roles in promoting OFDI. However, only Hu’s administration showed a statistically significant positive relationship with IFDI. The result suggests a potential increase in IFDI between China and host countries within two to three years following diplomatic visits.

This study contributes to the understanding of how Chinese senior leaders’ diplomatic activities affect foreign direct investment. It provides a deeper understanding of Chinese senior leaders’ diplomatic efforts to compensate for investment across two administration periods. It offers insights into the potential influence of diplomatic efforts on FDI, enriching the understanding of diplomacy’s role in international business contexts.