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  • Maintaining a Reasonable Macro Tax Burden: Internal Logic and Path Optimization
    LI Zhigang, ZHU Qing
    2026, 0(10): 5-21.
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    The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee called for maintaining a reasonable macro tax burden, which represents a major adjustment to, and deepening of, the policy orientation of stabilizing and lowering the macro tax burden that has been in place since 2013.By tracing the evolution of China's macro tax burden over this period, this paper argues that, while the strategy invigorated market vitality at certain junctures, it has also given rise to a range of practical challenges, including an intensifying imbalance between fiscal revenue and expenditure, a rising debt-interest burden, and a tight fiscal balance at the local level.China's macro tax burden is now markedly below the average of OECD member countries, thereby weighing on fiscal sustainability at the current stage.This paper contends that the path to optimizing the macro tax burden should follow a phased strategy attuned to the different stages of economic development.In the short run, adjustments should center on deepening consumption tax reform, stabilizing the tax base, and enhancing the efficiency of tax collection and administration.In the long run, it recommends moderately raising the value-added tax (VAT) rate or seizing the legislative opportunity to establish a local surtax, so as to steer the macro tax burden back to a reasonable range commensurate with the country's governance capacity.
  • Patient Capital, Strategic Transformation, and Firm Supply Chain Resilience
    WANG Qian, SUN Xudong, HUI Yuhang
    2026, 0(10): 22-38.
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    Against the backdrop of heightened risks of decoupling and supply chain disruptions, leveraging patient capital to foster corporate strategic transformation and thereby enhance supply chain resilience is a crucial measure for ensuring economic security and high-quality development.Based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2023, this paper investigates the mechanisms through which patient capital promotes corporate strategic transformation and improves supply chain resilience.The results show that patient capital significantly enhances corporate supply chain resilience, which stems from its ability to guide firms in achieving two major strategic transformations: first, innovation strategy transformation,manifested in eased financing constraints, increased long-term R&D investment, deepened technological cultivation, and breakthroughs in key core technologies; second, operational strategy transformation, manifested in weakened managerial myopia, increased excess cash holdings, improved total asset turnover, and reduced administrative expense ratios.Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive effect of patient capital on supply chain resilience is stronger in firms with greater market power, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), firms with higher exposure to overseas operations, and those located in regions with a better business environment.Further analysis finds that the supply chain resilience improvement induced by patient capital significantly enhances firm value and performance. Moreover, the“capable government”forces represented by government-guided funds and state-owned capital participation can complement patient capital and strengthen its enabling effect on supply chain resilience.This paper answers the question of how firms can rely on patient capital to enhance supply chain resilience, thereby providing theoretical support and policy implications for cultivating and expanding patient capital and optimizing national supply chain security governance.
  • Does Industry-University-Research Collaboration Promote the Development of Firms' New Quality Productive Forces?
    ZHANG Huili, LIU Wenxin, HUANG Yibo
    2026, 0(10): 39-53.
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    Whether industry-university-research collaboration can translate the advantages of universities and research institutes in knowledge, technology, and talent into higher levels of firms' new quality productive forces is central to achieving the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation.Using data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2011 to 2022, this study examines the effect of industry-university-research collaboration on firms' new quality productive forces.The results show that industry-university-research collaboration significantly enhances firms' new quality productive forces, primarily by optimizing human capital allocation and improving access to finance.The heterogeneity analysis indicates that strong intellectual property protection and greater basic research capacity among regional universities strengthen this positive effect.Further analysis shows that, compared with equity-based industry-university-research collaboration, contract-based industry-university-research collaboration has a stronger effect on firms' new quality productive forces because of its greater efficiency and flexibility. In terms of economic consequences, the improvement in new quality productive forces associated with industry-university-research collaboration significantly enhances firms' overall profitability.These findings provide useful insights and references for relevant authorities in implementing the major initiative of developing new quality productive forces in light of local conditions, as set forth at the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee.
  • Government Digital Procurement and Supply Chain Configuration: Centralization or Diversification
    DONG Xiaohong, WANG Le
    2026, 0(10): 54-70.
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    Optimizing supply chain configuration is crucial for enhancing enterprise competitiveness and ensuring industrial security.This paper constructs government digital procurement indicators based on the contract order information disclosed on the government procurement website and examines the impact of government digital procurement on enterprise supply chain configuration.The research finds that government digital procurement can significantly reduce concentration levels among customers, suppliers, and the entire supply chain, thereby promoting the diversification of supply chain configuration. Mechanism tests reveal that government digital procurement can promote the diversification of supply chain configuration by enhancing the coordination capacity of enterprise supply chains and reducing supply chain integration costs.Heterogeneity analysis shows that when government digital procurement is conducted through centralized purchasing and public bidding, the promoting effect of government digital procurement on the diversification of supply chain configuration is more significant.Economic consequence tests indicate that government digital procurement can enhance the sustainable development capacity of enterprises by promoting the diversification of supply chain configuration.This study provides references and inspirations for the improvement of government digital procurement in China and the optimization of enterprise supply chain configuration, and also offers certain enlightenment and evidence for enhancing the resilience and security of industrial and supply chains.
  • Industrial Robot Adoption and Firms' Labor Market Power
    HU Cui, LIU Bowen, XIAN Yushi
    2026, 0(10): 71-90.
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    Imperfectly competitive labor markets give firms scope to influence labor allocation and wage bargaining, making labor market power an important micro-level channel shaping income distribution.In the context of rapid technological change, labor-saving automation has reshaped firms' demand for production factors and raised an urgent need to systematically investigate its implications for firms' labor market power.This paper develops a theoretical model incorporating industrial robots into an imperfectly competitive labor market to examine the mechanisms through which robot adoption affects firms' labor market power.Guided by the model, we conduct an empirical analysis using matched data from the National Tax Survey database and China Customs database for the period 2008-2016.The results show that industrial robot adoption significantly increases firms' labor markdowns, thereby strengthening their labor market power.This finding is robust to a battery of sensitivity checks.Mechanism tests suggest that industrial robot adoption strengthens firms' labor market power through a scale-expansion effect and a capital-substitution threat effect, while the labor-saving effect partially offsets these impacts.Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the positive effect of robot adoption is stronger in low-technology industries, in industries with higher marginal returns to capital, and among exporting and foreign-invested firms. Overall, this paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how automation shapes income distribution and offers policy implications for promoting common prosperity in the age of intelligent manufacturing.
  • Can Banking Competition Reduce Pollution Emission of Industrial Enterprises? Empirical Research Based on Spatial Distribution of Bank Branches
    ZHANG Chaolin, LIU Shengmin
    2026, 0(10): 91-107.
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    Based on the micro data of Chinese industrial enterprises and the financial license information of commercial banks disclosed by China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, this paper uses the number of bank outlets around enterprises to measure the degree of banking competition faced by enterprises, and empirically tests how banking competition affects enterprise pollution emission.The research shows that the more bank branches around the enterprise, the more helpful it is to reduce the enterprise pollution emission.If the number of bank branches within 10 kilometers around the enterprise increases by 100, the average SO2 emission of the enterprise decreases by 6.77%.By replacing core indicators, controlling missing variables and using the quasi-natural experiment of the establishment of urban commercial banks and the deregulation of joint-stock banks to construct causal inference, the results are still robust.Compared with large state-owned commercial banks, the expansion of joint-stock banks, urban commercial banks and rural commercial banks has more obvious effect on pollution reduction.Compared with areas with low environmental regulations, the pollution reduction effect of banking competition is more significant in areas with high environmental regulations.Mechanism analysis shows that banking competition can effectively alleviate the financing constraints of enterprises, and reduce SO2 emissions by strengthening the front-end pollution treatment rather than the end-pollution treatment.It can also strengthen the environmental supervision mechanism of bank loans and strengthen the emission reduction effect of the implementation of green credit policy on heavy polluting enterprises.In addition, banking competition is conducive to improving the efficiency of resource allocation, which has a positive effect on enterprises' pollution reduction.The research of this paper shows that banking competition is an important factor promoting Chinese enterprises to reduce pollution and has important practical significance for Chinese ecological environment management and green development.
  • “De-familization” Behavior and Family Firms' ESG Performance
    ZHANG Guangli, QI Fen, WANG Ruihua, GAO Hao
    2026, 0(10): 108-123.
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    Against the backdrop of intergenerational succession and governance restructuring in family firms, achieving sustainable development has become an increasingly important issue.This study examines how de-familization, defined as a reduction in family members' involvement in corporate management, affects the ESG performance of family firms.The results show that a higher degree of de-familization significantly weakens family firms' ESG performance, with the adverse effects mainly concentrated in the environmental and governance dimensions.Mechanism tests indicate that de-familization impairs ESG performance by reducing environmental investment and increasing agency costs.Further analyses show that this negative effect is more pronounced among firms in non-heavily polluting industries.It is also stronger when family members have lower educational attainment, ownership concentration is lower, and firms are in the decline stage of the corporate life cycle.From the perspective of external conditions, the inhibiting effect of de-familization on ESG performance is more salient when firms face greater market competition or operate in regions with weaker environmental regulation or enforcement.Overall, this study provides empirical evidence for understanding the sustainability challenges faced by family firms during intergenerational succession.
  • Effective Implementation of Local Government Budget Performance Management Reform: An Empirical Analysis Based on Organizational Readiness and Work Motivation
    HE Wensheng, YANG Li
    2026, 0(10): 124-142.
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    Budget performance management reform constitutes an important institutional arrangement for enhancing local government governance capacity and improving the efficiency of public resource allocation.Its success, however, depends largely on the effectiveness of policy implementation.This study develops an integrated analytical framework linking external context, intrinsic motivation, and implementation outcomes.Drawing on survey data collected from local governments, the study conducts an empirical analysis of the factors influencing effective policy implementation.The findings indicate that both organizational readiness and work motivation significantly enhance the effective implementation of budget performance management reform.In addition, work motivation partially mediates the relationship between organizational readiness and policy implementation, revealing the mechanism through which favorable organizational conditions improve implementation outcomes by fostering implementers' willingness to act.Further analysis shows that the institutional environment and managerial characteristics, as dimensions of organizational readiness, exert significant effects on effective policy implementation through work motivation.In contrast, the mediating effect of technical conditions is not supported, suggesting that the provision of technical resources alone is insufficient to strengthen implementers' work motivation.By examining budget performance management reform from a policy implementation perspective, this study deepens the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the reform process and provides practical implications for further advancing and optimizing budget performance management reform.
  • Postponed Retirement, Social Security and Income Inequality
    YAN Chengliang, NIU Huan
    2026, 0(10): 143-160.
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    This paper presents an overlapping generations model with heterogeneous agents, and there are two types of agent, the rich and the poor.We assume the rich agent and the poor agent have different discount rates, and the rich is more patient than the poor.We also assume the rich agent has higher skill level than the poor agent.We find that postponed retirement lowers income inequality, whereas raising the contribution rate of social security increases the income inequality.The transmission mechanism is that postponed retirement has larger effect on the rise of poor agent's labor supply, whereas the contribution rate of social security has larger effect on the decrease of poor agent's labor supply.Sensitive analysis shows that our basic result is robust.Both postponed retirement and increase of the contribution rate are two options to make the social security sustainable under the circumstance of population aging.The policy implication of this paper is that, from the perspective of reducing income inequality, postponed retirement may be a better option for social security sustainability.