The impact of banking competition on firm total factor productivity

The benefits of financial development to economic growth are conspicuous, but due to the heterogeneity across regions and firms, the effects of financial competition have not been fully proved. There is a puzzling phenomenon in many developing countries, that is, banking monopoly coexists with economic growth. This study uses industrial enterprise data to analyse how banking competition affects firm total factor productivity (T.F.P.) and the influence of firm size and ownership in this process. The results show that the competition in banking promotes firms to improve their T.F.P., which is realised by alleviating financing constraints of firms through increasing banking competition and aligns with the market power hypothesis. Moreover, banking competition enables small firms to improve their T.F.P. in regions with fewer state-owned banks branches and more small banks branches. Intensified competition in banking leads to an increase in the T.F.P. of private firms, but it has no effect on the T.F.P. of state-owned enterprises (S.O.E.s) and foreign firms. The expansion of bank branches and the cross region operation of city commercial banks are helpful to improve firm T.F.P. This study confirms the impact of competition caused by changes in bank branches on firms and the determinants of productivit

The impact of corruption on firms’ access to bank loans: evidence from China

Current theories cannot explain the coexistence of China’s 40 years of rapid economic growth and its imperfect financial system, insufficient investor protection, and government intervention. This study empirically tests hypotheses regarding the effects of corruption on firms’ access to bank loans using econometric models based on survey data of 2,848 enterprises in China collected by the World Bank. The results show an inverted U-shaped relationship between corruption and firms’ access to bank loans: a low level of corruption increases firms’ access to bank loans, whereas a high level of corruption hinders firms from obtaining bank loans. Mild corruption may be a suboptimal choice for firms seeking bank loans, and bank funds allocation based on corruption can achieve Pareto optimality among firms. Moreover, government guarantees are conducive to firms’ access to financing and the link between corruption and firms’ access to bank loans can be explained by the role of government guarantees. The improvement of institutional quality is positively associated with firms’ access to bank loans and weakens the effects of corruption on firms’ external financing. This study thus sheds light on the real effects of corruption and the determinants of firms’ access to bank loans in developing countries

Higher minimum wage, better labour market returns for rural migrants? Evidence from China

Using data from the 2013 China Household Income Project (CHIP), this study investigates the effects of minimum wages on labour market returns for rural migrants in China and sheds light on the potential underlying mechanisms of these effects. An instrumental variable estimation is used to address the endogeneity problem of minimum wages on labour market returns. Our empirical findings indicate that minimum wages have positive effects on migrants’ wages. Specifically, we observe higher effects for women and migrants who have higher education levels. Regarding the possible mechanisms through which minimum wages influence migrants’ labour market returns, we find that minimum wages tend to increase rural migrants’ working time but have no significant effects on allowances related to work. We could not obtain conclusive results for social insurance due to its potential endogeneity

The Impact of Cooperative Membership on Rural Households’ Farm Income: The Case of Aquaculture Farmers in the Eastern Region of Ghana

Purpose: This study examined the effect of farmers’ involvement in aquaculture cooperatives on rural households’ farm income in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Approach/Methodology/Design: The data were gathered through questionnaires administered to four hundred (400) rural fish farming households. The endogenous switching regression (ESR) technique was used to resolve the self-bias of variables selection. For robustness of the results, Heckman selection model was later used to assess the treatment impact while accounting for endogeneity bias resulting from selection on unobservable variables. The heterogeneous analysis was performed to examine the impacts of cooperative involvement on rural fish farming households’ farm income. Findings: Based on the ESR outcomes, the study found that households’ credit access, extension services accessed by household heads, educational attainment by household heads, and household size significantly influence cooperative members’ farm income. However, farm (pond) size, household heads’ age, and households’ farming experience had no significant impact on cooperative members’ farm income. Using the problem confrontation index, the cooperative aquaculture farmers claimed that the deployment of primitive tools, high post-harvest losses, unavailability of improved feeds, high costs of chemicals, and low yield were the most severe obstructions in fish production. In contrast, the study established that the topmost pressing constraints confronting the non-cooperative member farmers were the inaccessibility to credit facilities, low productivity, high post-harvest losses, unavailability of improved feeds, and high costs of chemicals. Originality/value: This study highlighted that technical training, credit access, market outlets, bargaining power, input supplies, and increased prices of their products were the benefits the members derived from their involvement in aquaculture cooperatives in the study area

Does a higher minimum wage accelerate labour division in agricultural production? Evidence from the main riceplanting area in China

Agricultural production outsourcing, a new means of agricultural production, can optimise the allocation of resources, reduce agricultural production costs, and improve agricultural productivity. However, farmers’ outsourcing behaviours are strongly interfered with by many factors such as economics, technology and institutions. Using a farmer-level data set from 2014 to 2018 in China, we examine the effects of the minimum wage increase on rice farmers’ production outsourcing behaviours. Our study relies on a Logit regression framework and uses the control function (C.F.) approach to address potential endogeneity concerns. Results show that the minimum wage increase significantly reduces the probability of farmers conducting production outsourcing. We also examine the heterogeneous effects of the minimum wage increase, and find that compared with other outsourcing services, the adverse effects on harvesting outsourcing are the strongest; the negative effects on production outsourcing are stronger for rice farmers with higher education. Our results provide new insights into understanding how labour regulation affects labour division in agricultural production

Optimal real-time power dispatch of power grid with wind energy forecasting under extreme weather

With breakthroughs in the power electronics industry, the stability and rapid power regulation of wind power generation have been improved. Its power generation technology is becoming more and more mature. However, there are still weaknesses in the operation and control of power systems under the influence of extreme weather events, especially in real-time power dispatch. To optimally distribute the power of the regulation resources in a more stable manner, a wind energy forecasting-based power dispatch model with time-control intervals optimization is proposed. In this model, the outage of the wind energy under extreme weather is analyzed by an autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMA). Additionally, the other regulation resources are used to balance the corresponding wind power drop and power mismatch. Meanwhile, an algorithm names weighted mean of vectors (INFO) is employed to solve the real-time power dispatch and minimize the power deviation between the power command and real output. Lastly, the performance of the proposed optimal real-time power dispatch is executed in a simulation model with ten regulation resources. The simulation tests show that the combination of ARIMA and INFO can effectively improve the power control performance of the PD-WEF system

Impact of Population Aging and Renewable Energy Consumption on Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity in Rural China: Evidence from Panel VAR Approach

China is moving toward the important goal of being a green and low-carbon country, and the current severity level of population aging is of particular concern to the government. Aging, renewable energy consumption, and technological progress are closely linked. In this research, a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model is employed to investigate the long-run equilibrium relationship between population aging, renewable energy consumption and agricultural green total factor productivity using panel data for 30 Chinese provinces (cities) from 2000 to 2019. The findings reveal that, in the long run, both population aging and renewable energy use have considerable positive impacts on agricultural green total factor productivity. In addition, in order to more intuitively understand the impact of population aging and renewable energy consumption on agricultural green total factor productivity, the analysis adopts the impulse response function and variance decomposition. The contributions of population aging and renewable energy consumption to agricultural green total factor productivity are 2.23% and 0.56%, respectively, when the lag period is chosen to be 15, which implies that population aging and renewable energy use will continuously contribute to agricultural green total factor productivity. The study results have significant theoretical implications for understanding China’s aging population structure and current renewable energy use. Given the above results, this study puts forward countermeasures and suggestions from four aspects: improving agricultural infrastructure, increasing agricultural technology investment, increasing the stock of agricultural human capital and strengthening international cooperation

New friction factor and heat transfer coefficient equations for laminar forced convection of liquid with variable properties in straight tubes

When there are large temperature differences between the wall and the fluid, the friction factors and heat transfer coefficients of forced laminar convection with variable fluid properties are different from the theoretical results deduced with constant property assumptions. However, most existing equations for variable properties are obtained by regression analysis of experimental data with a specific kind of fluid, and cannot reflect the property-temperature sensitivities at different fluid temperatures and for different kinds of liquid. In this paper, the governing equations of forced laminar convection of ethanol and water are numerically solved using CFD method and the results are used to verify the deduced equations. Compared with dynamic viscosity, the variations of density, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity in the cross section can be neglected. A new explicit equation of friction factor and a new explicit equation of heat transfer coefficient for forced liquid laminar convection with variable properties heated in straight tubes are obtained. The deduced equations show good predictions of friction factors and Nusselt numbers for different kinds of liquid. Based on the equations, a dimensionless parameter is derived to predict the heat flux effects and viscosity-temperature sensitivities on friction factors and heat transfer coefficients.Papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Portoroz, Slovenia on 17-19 July 2017 .International centre for heat and mass transfer.American society of thermal and fluids engineers

The Impacts of COVID-19 on Distance Education with the Application of Traditional and Digital Appliances: Evidence from 60 Developing Countries

Educational disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic during school closures have become a remarkable social issue, particularly among the developing countries. Ample literature has verified the adverse effects of the long-lasing epidemic on school education. However, rare studies seek to understand the association between the severity of COVID-19 and distance learning, an alternative education pattern, and foster policy designs to promote educational transition, particularly targeting the post-crisis phase of the COVID-19. By combining four data surveys, this article empirically examines the impacts of COVID-19 on children’s distance education with the application of various appliances across 60 developing countries. The results suggest that, after controlling socio-economic, geographic, and demographic variables, a higher level of mortality rate of COVID-19 contributes to more households participating in distance education. In particular, this positive term is larger for distance education by using TVs and radios compared with the usage of digital appliances. To explore the potential channel of the above linkage, this article argues that the positive association between mortality rate and the use of traditional appliances is weakened through higher levels of stringency in lockdown measures. Timely policies are, therefore, recommended to guide towards distance learning with economic and technological supports to guarantee a wave of inclusive educational recovery in the ongoing post-COVID-19 era

Heterogeneous Driving Factors of Carbon Emissions Embedded in China’s Export: An Application of the LASSO Model

With the steady growth of CO2 emissions embedded in trade, the driving forces of emissions have attracted extensive attention. Most of the literature has verified a bundle of the influential factors; however, further analyses are necessary to understand the predominant and heterogeneous driving factors in different economies and/or industries. Accordingly, by applying the multiregional input–output (MRIO) model, this article firstly evaluates the embodied carbon emissions of China’s export from 1992 to 2020 in total volumes and by 14 industries. Then, the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) estimations allow us to discover that urbanization, technology update and gross domestic product (GDP) are the leading three prioritizing factors in generating China’s export emissions. Interestingly, this paper discovers that raising the proportion of female parliamentarians contributes to an abatement of emissions. Furthermore, the empirical results suggest that the heterogeneities of those factors do exist among industries. For example, the percentage of females in parliaments turns out to have a larger effect among labor-intensive industries only. In facing with rapid globalization and economic development of China, this paper provides important policy implications towards specific industries in terms of mitigating trade emissions. It guides policy-makers to achieve “carbon neutrality” by avoiding carbon leakage in net-export countries such as China