The effect of environmental regulations on innovation in heavy-polluting and resource-based enterprises : Quasi-natural experimental evidence from China

Correction: The affiliation for the third author is incorrect. The correct affiliation for Xiaohan Hu is: Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Finland. Volume 17 Issue 7 Article Numbere 0272098 DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0272098 Published JUL 21 2022Environmental protection regulations adopted by governments affect the microeconomic behavior of enterprises. The Chinese government began piloting the outgoing leading officials’ accountability audit of natural resources assets (OANRA) in some regions in 2014. Based on this quasi-natural experimental setting, this paper chose heavy-polluting and resource-based enterprises in pilot regions of China from 2011 to 2016 as examples for studying the impact of the OANRA on enterprise innovation and further examines the role of government subsidies in this process. The study finds that the OANRA has no significant impact on enterprise innovation. However, with support from government subsidies, the OANRA dramatically accelerates enterprise innovation investment. The results are still seen after applying propensity matching analysis (PSM), balancing panel data and deleting special provinces. Further analysis shows that this effect is more obvious among small-scale, state-owned enterprises that are located in areas with high degrees of marketization and high bank credit constraints. This study advances the research of the OANRA’s effects on the microeconomic behavior of enterprises. Moreover, the adjustment effect of government subsidies also provides great reference value to making rational use of policy to cooperate with the OANRA.Peer reviewe

Impact of the implementation of carbon emission trading on corporate financial performance : Evidence from listed companies in China

With the development of ecological paradigm coupled with the relentless implementation of myriad environmental policies in China, the rapid development of carbon emission trading and carbon trading market has had a vital impact on the financial performance of enterprises at the microlevel. This study has sampled the A-share listed companies in China, from 2009 to 2018, and adopted the difference-in-difference (DID) method to investigate the effect of the carbon emission trading on corporate financial performance from the microlevel. Evidence showed that the implementation of carbon emission trading effectively improved the total asset-liability ratio of enterprises, though it reduced the value of the current capital market. Moreover, in the regions under strict legal environment, the enhancement effect of the total asset-liability ratio was more obvious, whereas in the regions under loose legal environment, the reduction effect of the value of the capital market was more obvious. Further analysis showed that the implementation of carbon emission trading could not promote Chinese enterprises to increase R&D investment. Hence the implementation of carbon emission trading has improved the level of non-business income of enterprises incorporated into the trading system, but its impact on the investment income of enterprises was not significant.Peer reviewe

Comparison of Different LGM-Based Methods with MAR and MNAR Dropout Data

The missing not at random (MNAR) mechanism may bias parameter estimates and even distort study results. This study compared the maximum likelihood (ML) selection model based on missing at random (MAR) mechanism and the Diggle–Kenward selection model based on MNAR mechanism for handling missing data through a Monte Carlo simulation study. Four factors were considered, including the missingness mechanism, the dropout rate, the distribution shape (i.e., skewness and kurtosis), and the sample size. The results indicated that: (1) Under the MAR mechanism, the Diggle–Kenward selection model yielded similar estimation results with the ML approach; Under the MNAR mechanism, the results of ML approach were underestimated, especially for the intercept mean and intercept slope (μi and μs). (2) Under the MAR mechanism, the 95% CP of the Diggle–Kenward selection model was lower than that of the ML method; Under the MNAR mechanism, the 95% CP for the two methods were both under the desired level of 95%, but the Diggle–Kenward selection model yielded much higher coverage probabilities than the ML method. (3) The Diggle–Kenward selection model was easier to be influenced by the non-normal degree of target variable's distribution than the ML approach. The level of dropout rate was the major factor affecting the parameter estimation precision, and the dropout rate-induced difference of two methods can be ignored only when the dropout rate falls below 10%

A fully integrated RSSI and an ultra-low power SAR ADC for 5.8 GHz DSRC ETC transceiver

This study presents a monolithic received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and an ultra-low power SAR ADC for 5.8 GHz DSRC transceiver in China electronic toll collection systems. In order to meet the stringent requirement of wide input range for the transceiver, two RSSIs collaborate with auxiliary ADC circuits to provide the digitalized received signal strength to the digital baseband of a transceiver. The RSSI design achieves fast transient response and low power consumption with a small die area by using internal active low-pass filters instead of external passive ones. The proposed design has been fabricated using a 0.13 μm 2P6M CMOS technology. Measurement results show that the overall input dynamic range is 86 dB with an accuracy of ±1.72 dB and a transient response of less than 2 μs. Compared with the state-of-the-art designs in the literature, the overall input range and transient settling time are improved by at least 14.6%, and 300%, respectively

Is the biological assets measured by historical cost value-related?

For listed agriculture companies,resource allocation decisions based on biological asset information of investors is related to the sustainable development. We examine the impact of the implementation of China Accounting Standards No.5 - Biological Assets (CASS) on the value relevance of biological assets, which is essential convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), by analyzing the data from 2002 to 2016 of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange. We find that, under historical cost-measurement model, the value relevance of the biological asset information of Chinese listed companies increased significantly after the implementation of CASS. Further analysis shows that the value relevance of biological assets for groups under analyst following was higher than the others, which suggests that analyst following plays an alternative governance function. The results indicate that the biological asset information measured under historical costs model has value relevance and provide empirical evidence from emerging market for the revision of IAS41 in 2014. It shows that the development of capital market information intermediary can enhance the value relevance of biological assets information, and facilitates the sustainability of agricultural enterprises in emerging market under the absence of strict external regulations and other infrastructures.Peer reviewe

A 5.8 GHz DSRC Digitally Controlled CMOS RF-SoC Transceiver for China ETC

This paper presents a 5.8 GHz dedicated short range communication (DSRC) CMOS RF-SoC transceiver with digitally controlled RF architecture for China electronic toll collection (ETC) system. The operation of key RF blocks, such as ASK modulator, power amplifier, LNA, and mixer, are directly controlled by digital baseband. Compared with state-of-the-art designs in literature, this work demonstrates remarkable advantages in design simplicity, Tx output peak power, adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR), dynamic range, occupied bandwidth (OBW), bit error rate (BER), and so on

Properties and Microstructure of Roller Compacted Concrete With High Volume Low Quality Fly Ash

The properties of roller compacted concrete (RCC) with high dosage low quality fly ash are investigated, including strength, elastic modulus, ultimate tensile strain, drying shrinkage, autogenous deformation and durability, meanwhile the microstructure of the same paste containing low quality fly ash and ground low quality fly ash are studied, too. The properties of RCC containing 60% or more ground fly ash meet the design requirement. The microstructure is also tested by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP). The results indicate that ground fly ash plays the role of active component besides the physical filling effect at early age, while after 90 days, the surface of the glass beads is erroded and a lot of calcium silicate hydrate and calcium hydroxide staggered as storied dense structure. Low quality fly ash can accelerate the formation of hydration products, resulting in higher degree of cement hydration and denser microstructure, while the hydration heat in total is reduced. At the age of 90 days, fly ash has significant chemical activity and the properties of RCC will be improved at the later stage.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.23.3.16318</p

Exploring the Relationships Between Yield and Yield-Related Traits for Rice Varieties Released in China From 1978 to 2017

Despite evidence from previous case studies showing that agronomic traits partially determine the resulting yield of different rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties, it remains unclear whether this is true at the ecotype level. Here, an extensive dataset of the traits of 7686 rice varieties, released in China from 1978 to 2017, was used to study the relationship between yield and other agronomic traits. We assessed the association between yield and other agronomic traits for four different rice ecotypes, i.e., indica inbred, indica hybrid, japonica inbred, and japonica hybrid. We found that associations between agronomic traits and yield were ecotype-dependent. For both the indica inbred and indica hybrid ecotypes, we found that greater values of certain traits, including the filled grain number per panicle, 1000-grain-weight, plant height, panicle length, grains per panicle, seed setting rate, long growth period, low panicle number per unit area, and low seed length/width ratio, have accounted for high grain yield. In the japonica inbred and japonica hybrid ecotypes, we found that only high panicle number per unit area and long growth period led to high grain yield. Indirectly, growth period consistently had a positive effect on yield in all ecotypes, and plant height had a positive effect on yield for the indicas and japonica inbred only. Plant height had a negative effect for the japonica hybrid. Altogether, our findings potentially have valuable implications for improving the breeds of rice ecotypes