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• 2025 Volume 3 Issue 15
  Published: 14 October 2025

    

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  Research on the Impact of Technological Financial Development on Labor Employment:A Quasi Natural Experiment Based on the Pilot Program of Promoting the Integration of Technology and Finance#br#

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  YAN Shuo SHEN Yan LIU Xin REN Ting

  2025, 3(15): 1-51.

  Abstract ( ) Download PDF ( )   Knowledge map   Save

  Technology is a key factor driving productivity, while innovation is the core driving force leading development. To achieve technological self-reliance and self-improvement, China urgently needs to quickly build a technology finance service system that closely cooperates with high-quality economic development. In the Central Financial Work Conference to be held in October 2023, technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance were the five financial focus articles, with technology finance ranking first. The ultimate goal of developing technology finance is to effectively serve the real economy, and in the real economy, employment is the biggest livelihood project, popular project, and fundamental project, and the most basic support for economic development. Current research mainly focuses on the promoting effect of technology finance on technology innovation and capital markets, such as analyzing from the perspectives of innovation and high-quality development, technological progress, industrial development and structural upgrading, and financing environment. Although there has been extensive research on the promotion of capital markets and technological innovation by the development of technology finance, there is still a lack of systematic and comprehensive analysis on its specific impact on labor employment, as well as the role that the development of technology finance plays in creating and providing employment opportunities for enterprises. Based on the above analysis, this article aims to explore the impact and mechanism of the development of technology finance on labor employment in enterprises.
  Based on the above research background, this article uses a multi-time incremental double difference method to explore the impact of technology finance development on enterprise labor employment. Furthermore, this article explores the impact mechanism of the development of technology finance on the expansion of employment scale, and verifies the complementary effect of capital and skills. Finally, this article conducts a detailed analysis of the heterogeneity and the differences in this effect among different types of enterprises, industries, and regions. This study found that the development of technology finance has significantly expanded the employment scale of enterprises. The analysis of the mechanism shows that technology finance policies have expanded the employment scale by optimizing the innovation chain, capital chain, and information chain of enterprises. Further examination revealed that technology finance policies not only expanded employment scale, but also promoted the upgrading and transformation of human capital in employment structure, and this effect was mainly concentrated in private enterprises with higher financing costs, verifying the hypothesis of capital skill complementarity. Through heterogeneity analysis, it was found that technology finance policies have a more significant employment promotion effect on capital intensive enterprises, enterprises with high financing constraints, non high tech enterprises, manufacturing enterprises, and enterprises located in regions with higher levels of financial regulation and financial development.
  The contributions of this article to the existing research are as followed. Firstly, this study contributes to a micro level understanding of the impact of new forms of financial development on labor employment in enterprises. Existing research mainly explores the impact of different dimensions of economy and finance on total employment from a macro perspective, such as trade liberalization and the effects of fiscal policies, labor market flexibility, etc. on creating new jobs. There is relatively little research from a micro perspective, mainly focusing on evaluating the impact of financial frictions on employment decisions at the enterprise level, labor allocation among producers, and overall unemployment rates. This article enriches and expands the research on the impact of financial development on the real economy from a micro perspective. Secondly, this study contributes to understanding the relationship between new forms of financial development and employment. Existing research on the impact of financial development on employment in enterprises is mostly focused on developed countries, with less research on developing countries. This article is based on the reality of China and uses unique policies as exogenous shocks to supplement from the perspective of the development of technology finance. Thirdly, this article extends the relevant literature on the impact of financial frictions on the labor market. In the context of the development of technology finance and within the framework of unique technology and pilot policies, this article explores the impact of positive external credit availability shocks on enterprises. It proves that changes in external financing not only affect the overall employment scale, but also affect the adjustment of the employment structure of enterprise employees. Furthermore, it analyzes and verifies the complementary effect of capital and high-skilled labor, providing micro evidence for the causal effect of financial constraints on the impact and distribution of capital and labor.
  Based on the analysis in this article, the following policy recommendations are proposed. Firstly, further attention should be paid to the development of technology finance, promoting the high-quality integration of technology and capital, and strengthening policy support for the integration of financial services and technology. Secondly, optimize the regional allocation of technology and financial resources. The effectiveness of technology finance policies in promoting employment varies among different types of enterprises and regions. Thirdly, in the context of policies, enterprises should also make corresponding adjustments to promote high-quality employment. Enterprises should increase their investment in scientific research and innovation, increase their digitalization level. In the era of digitalization and financial innovation, the efforts of both policies and enterprises will empower high-quality and full employment, while helping to achieve a new positioning and mission of employment work in the new era and new journey.
  
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  Risk Effects of Green Finance in China: A Perspective of Investment-financing Maturity Mismatch in Heavily Polluting Enterprises

  YU Xulan FANG Ziyi ZHOU Ying

  2025, 3(15): 52-87.

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  As a responsible major power, China is dedicated to attaining the ambitious “30·60” vision and is actively promoting the comprehensive green transition of its economic and social development. Nevertheless, this process is not without hurdles and potential risks. A typical situation is that the green finance policies implemented by China to achieve its environmental objectives may, paradoxically, exacerbate risk aggregation, thereby influencing the transition process and even potentially resulting in its failure. In China’s industrial structure, traditional industries such as coal, steel, and chemical engineering still occupy a significant proportion. These industries often generate substantial pollution. The implementation of green finance policies is likely to impose a “penalty” effect on the financing of heavily polluting enterprises within traditional industries and an inhibitory effect on investment. This can lead to the distortion and mismatch of the investment-financing maturity structures of these enterprises. Once an enterprise’s capital chain breaks, various risks triggered by debt defaults and bankruptcy reorganizations will spread throughout the entire financial system, ultimately potentially giving rise to severe systemic financial risks. Therefore, the research questions of this study are as follows: Does China’s green finance policy exhibit a risk effect? How does this effect manifest? And how can it be addressed?
  To answer these questions, this study uses the implementation of the “Green Credit Guidelines” by the Chinese government in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment. By capturing the asymmetric impacts of this policy on different enterprises before and after its implementation, a difference-in-differences (DID) model is constructed. Based on a sample of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2023, this study conducts an in-depth analysis of the impact of the green credit policy (GCP) on the investment-financing maturity mismatch of heavily polluting enterprises. We find that after the implementation of the GCP, the problem of investment-financing maturity mismatch among heavily polluting enterprises has worsened. This phenomenon occurs mainly through two channels: on the supply side, after the implementation of the GCP, banks are less willing to provide credit to heavily polluting enterprises, reducing the availability of their long-term debt financing; on the demand side, after the policy’s implementation, enterprises actively increase environmental investments to meet more stringent environmental compliance requirements. This often necessitates longer-term financing support, thereby increasing the enterprises’ demand for long-term debt funds. The investment-financing maturity mismatch under policy constraints significantly elevates the debt default risk, operational risk, and bankruptcy risk of enterprises, posing severe challenges to their sustainable operation and long-term development. The study also reveals that a series of proactive measures, such as reducing information asymmetry among enterprises, enhancing the cash reserve levels and internal control quality of enterprises, can effectively mitigate the adverse effects of the GCP on the investment-financing maturity mismatch of heavily polluting enterprises. In summary, from the perspective of the investment-financing maturity mismatch of heavily polluting enterprises, this study identifies the unanticipated micro-risk effects of green finance and the mechanisms underlying risk formation. Additionally, it conducts a beneficial exploration of how to mitigate these risks.
  The contributions of this study are as follows: First, from the perspective of the investment-financing maturity mismatch of heavily polluting enterprises, this study conducts an in-depth examination of the micro-risk effects of green finance. Although existing research has made numerous valuable explorations in evaluating the policy effects of green finance, most of the literature has primarily focused on the emission reduction and economic effects of green finance, largely overlooking the distortion and mismatch of the investment-financing maturity structures of enterprises under the regulation of green finance policies (i.e., the “risk effect”). Moreover, there has been a scarcity of in-depth research on the debt risk transmission mechanisms and risk mitigation strategies of green finance. By leveraging the policy introduced by the Chinese government in 2012 to construct a quasi-natural experiment, this study examines the impact of the GCP on the investment-financing maturity mismatch of heavily polluting enterprises. The research findings will contribute to clarifying the unanticipated micro-risk impacts of the GCP and facilitating a rational understanding of the current institutional framework and actual effectiveness of China’s green finance. Second, from the perspective of the impact of green finance policies, this study offers a novel and viable explanation for the long-standing and prevalent phenomenon of the investment-financing maturity mismatch among Chinese enterprises. The issue of the investment-financing maturity mismatch has increasingly become the root cause of various systemic financial risks in China. Existing literature has predominantly analyzed the causes of this mismatch from the perspective of credit supply. This study emphasizes that green finance policies are a significant influencing factor and will lead to this problem through both the financing supply and demand channels. Therefore, the research findings of this study provide a valuable addition to this body of literature. Third, the research conclusions hold certain implications for the future revision and improvement of China’s green finance policies and for developing countries in formulating environmentally regulatory policies with economic inclusiveness. The current excessive “green” preference in China’s green finance policies may give rise to unanticipated risk impacts, yet existing literature has not given this sufficient attention, which is not conducive to the improvement and development of the green finance institutional framework. The conclusions of this study indicate that financial regulatory policies with distinct policy inclinations may lead to institutional frictions. These policies may exert substantial pressure on relevant restricted enterprises through supply and demand channels, thereby resulting in adverse consequences such as investment-financing maturity mismatch and risk accumulation. This serves as a reminder to global policy authorities, especially developing countries committed to environmental goals, that when formulating environmental regulatory policies, they should accurately anticipate the heterogeneous impacts of policies on different economic entities and prevent unanticipated resource allocation distortions and secondary risks arising from institutional frictions.
  
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  Dose Local Recruitment Stimulated Corporate Investment: Empirical Analysis Based on Urban Talent Policies

  2025, 3(15): 88-120.

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  In recent years, high-quality talent resources have also become a key element for various regions to promote economic and social development, develop new quality productive forces and transform the mode of economic growth. However, with the acceleration of aging and the disappearance of the demographic dividend in our country, the contradiction between the shortage of high-quality labor in various regions and the demand for high-quality economic development has become increasingly prominent. Against this backdrop, in order to attract high-quality talents to provide new impetus for regional economic development, local governments have gradually focused the core of competition among regions on high-quality talents and launched fierce talent competition. Investment is not only an important decision for the development of enterprises, but also a crucial foundation for promoting local economic growth and cultivating tax sources. Therefore, how to stimulate enterprise investment is an important issue currently faced by China’s economic development. Against this backdrop, it remains to be seen whether the introduction of talent introduction policies by cities to “recruit talents” for regional economic development will affect the development decisions of micro-enterprises. Based on the talent introduction policies at the city level in China, this paper uses data from listed companies to empirically examine how cities’ efforts to “recruit talents” to meet the demand for high-quality labor force in economic transformation and upgrading will affect enterprises’ investment decisions.
  This paper manually collects relevant documents on talent introduction policies issued by various prefecture-level cities, acquires the talent policy data at the municipal level from 2009 to 2020, and empirically examines the influence mechanism and specific path of a city’s “recruitment of talents” on the investment decisions of local enterprises by using the different-in-differences method. Research findings show that cities’ “recruitment of talents” can stimulate enterprises’ willingness to invest and boost the level of investment. Considering the possible endogeneity issue between talent introduction policies and enterprise investment expenditures, we further used the number of scholars in Ming and Qing Dynasties in each prefecture-level city as an instrumental variable for testing. The results showed that the above conclusion still existed. Mechanism tests show that cities’ “recruitment of talents” not only helps optimize the human capital structure of enterprises and promote enterprise investment; Moreover, the introduction of local talent policies can enhance enterprises’ ability to obtain market resources for commercial credit and bank credit, alleviate their financing constraints, and promote an increase in their investment expenditures. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that at the policy level, the higher the intensity of local talent policies, the more obvious this promoting effect will be. Moreover, the effect of development-oriented policies is the most obvious, followed by protection-oriented policies, and the effect of incentive-oriented policies is the weakest. The heterogeneity of enterprise and regional characteristics indicates that the policy stimulus effect is more significant for non-state-owned enterprises, high-tech enterprises, those with more abundant regional educational resources, and enterprises within non-first-tier city areas. Furthermore, the city’s “recruitment of talents” not only promotes enterprise investment but also enhances the labor productivity and total factor productivity of enterprises. In addition, the introduction of high-quality talents also helps promote the development of the real economy and curb enterprises’ tendency to “shift from the real economy to the virtual economy”. This also indicates that the role of talent policies in enhancing the development of enterprises is efficient.
  Based on the above analysis, the following policy suggestions are put forward. First of all, talent introduction policies can indeed have a significant positive impact on the investment of enterprises within the region. Local governments should make good use of talent policies as a policy tool and promote the local economic development level by enhancing the investment level of enterprises within the region. To achieve the goal of regional economic growth, local governments should place talent policies in an important position. Second, optimize the framework of the talent policy system and focus on deepening development-oriented talent policies. To avoid the singularity and fragmentation of policies, all regions should actively introduce a series of policy measures covering all aspects of talent introduction, cultivation, development and guarantee, and effectively ensure the effectiveness of talent policies. The government can focus on enriching and developing talent policies to attract talents willing to settle down locally to start businesses, inject cutting-edge technologies and innovative vitality into enterprises, and give rise to a large number of high value-added investment projects. At the same time, local governments should also continuously optimize policies for safeguarding talents such as housing and household registration, and constantly innovate policies for rewarding talents such as financial subsidies, to help enterprises attract and retain outstanding talents and promote the growth of enterprise investment. Thirdly, local governments should pay attention to the heterogeneous impacts of talent introduction policies on different enterprises. For non-state-owned enterprises within the region, the motivation to utilize talent policies to obtain external resources is stronger, and these resources are used for investment activities to promote the economic development of the enterprises. This research finding also indicates from the side the problem of the government’s inefficiency in resource allocation, which is also an issue that governments at all levels urgently need to consider when formulating policies. In addition, in terms of the applicable objects of enterprises, more attention should be paid to providing talent work support to enterprises in high-tech industries, and the intensity of policy support should be increased, so as to more effectively play the role of talent policies. Fourth, there is an imbalance in development among different regions in China, and regional differences are also factors that the government should take into account when implementing talent policies. Among them, educational resources are an important factor in determining whether high-quality talents will choose to enter. Regions with relatively rich educational resources are more likely to achieve the “attraction” and “retention” of talents, and the implementation of talent policies will also have a more obvious impact on the development of enterprises. Therefore, while implementing talent policies, local governments should also pay attention to the construction of related supporting facilities, such as increasing investment in education and improving the educational environment. Secondly, our research also found that compared with the first-tier cities that are inherently more attractive, the local talent introduction policies in non-first-tier cities are more effective. This is mainly due to the fact that non-first-tier cities, due to their relatively poor attractiveness, have led to a large number of high-quality labor forces leaving. In the current stage of advocating high-quality economic development, non-first-tier cities should pay more attention to the role of human capital in economic development. By introducing relevant policies to attract high-quality talents, a foundation for economic development can be provided, thereby maintaining competitiveness in regional competition.
  
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  Informal Institution and Corporate Investment Efficiency: Evidence from the Merchant Guild Culture

  GONG Zhenlu LIU Siting

  2025, 3(15): 121-151.

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  Enhancing corporate investment efficiency constitutes a critical pillar for achieving high-quality macroeconomic development. The 2023 Central Economic Work Conference explicitly emphasized the necessity of expanding effective investments, and the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reforms and Advancing Chinese Modernization” adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee in July 2024 reiterated the strategic importance of capital market reforms. Nevertheless, despite continuous improvements in China’s legal system and business environment—core elements of formal institutions—inefficient corporate investments remain widespread, exerting adverse effects on corporate capital allocation, shareholder rights, and capital market stability. This highlights the limitations of relying exclusively on formal institutions “hard constraints” to address such inefficiencies. In recent years, scholars have paid more and more attention to the impact of culture as an important informal system on corporate behavior, such as exploring the interaction between Confucian culture, clan culture, etc. and corporate behavior. Corporate investment behavior decisions are inevitably affected by the cultural environment in which they are located, but the existing literature lacks systematic research on the relationship between merchant guild culture and corporate investment efficiency. Therefore, this study explores the role of informal institutions rooted in merchant guild culture in shaping corporate investment efficiency.
  This paper utilizes the data of A-share listed corporates from 2010 to 2020, and through constructing the proxy variables of merchant guild culture, it is the first time to empirically examine the relationship between merchant guild culture and enterprise investment efficiency based on the perspective of informal system. The study shows that merchant guild culture can effectively promote the enhancement of corporate investment efficiency, which is manifested in the reduction of corporate overinvestment and underinvestment behaviors. The mechanisms driving this effect primarily involve reductions in agency costs, enhancements in corporate reputation, and alleviations of financing constraints. Further analysis reveals that there is an implicit substitution relationship between merchant guild culture and formal institutions (market intermediary organizations and legal system), and other informal institutions (Confucianism, foreign modern culture) on corporate investment efficiency. The study also found that the enhancement of enterprise investment efficiency by merchant guild culture plays a more obvious role in enterprises with more decentralized equity and better revenue efficiency. In addition, based on the life cycle theory, the empirical results show that merchant guild culture is more effective in promoting the investment efficiency of growing enterprises compared with mature and declining enterprises. Finally, our results suggest that merchant guild culture reduces supplier/customer concentration without triggering “small-circle” exclusion effects. The research in this paper provides relevant informal institutional basis for the stable development of capital market and the construction of corporate governance system with Chinese characteristics.
  The contributions of this study are threefold. First, it pioneers an informal institutional perspective in the study of corporate investment efficiency. By empirically establishing the cultural determinants of investment efficiency and validating findings through rigorous robustness tests, this research enriches social identity theory through the lens of agency cost mechanisms. The exclusion of exclusivity effects advances micro-level analyses of merchant guild culture, while providing new empirical evidence for institutional economics and expanding the literature on the economic effects of merchant guild culture. This work also contributes to the broader discourse on the interplay between culture and economic behavior. Second, informal institutions, shaped through long-term historical evolution, exhibit relative stability and exert a persistent influence on corporate investment efficiency. However, as internal and external corporate environments evolve—particularly through the rise and decline of firms themselves—the impact of merchant guild culture manifests in stage-specific variations. By innovatively integrating lifecycle theory with institutional analysis, this study deepens the understanding of how informal institutional factors dynamically interact with corporate development trajectories. Third, on a practical level, the findings not only validate the contemporary relevance of traditional merchant guild culture in enhancing investment efficiency but also underscore its significance in fostering corporate cultural development. Importantly, the research elucidates the complementary governance roles of “soft constraints” (cultural norms) and “hard constraints” (formal institutions) within an evolving institutional landscape. This enriches the theoretical understanding of interactions between informal and formal institutions and provides empirical support for Acemoglu & Johnson’s (2005) hypothesis that informal institutions thrive in contexts where formal contractual frameworks are underdeveloped.
  
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  Simplification of Township Institutions and Development of County Agriculture:Based on the Empirical Evidence of the Reform of Merging Townships and Towns

  SHAN Depeng YAO Zhuang

  2025, 3(15): 152-178.

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  China’s pursuit of integrated urban-rural development necessitates efficient grassroots governance reforms. Township mergers, aimed at streamlining administration and optimizing resource allocation, represent a significant policy instrument in this endeavor. However, their impact on agricultural development—a cornerstone of rural revitalization—remains empirically ambiguous and theoretically contested. Utilizing the large-scale “Two Reforms” implemented in Sichuan Province a quasi-natural experiment, this study employs a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) model on panel data from 184 counties to rigorously evaluate the causal effects of township mergers on county-level agricultural outcomes. Our analysis reveals critical nuances often overlooked in the literature, particularly the pivotal role of policy implementation fidelity and local contextual factors.
  The core findings demonstrate a complex and heterogeneous impact. While township mergers significantly stimulated short-term industrialization—evidenced by increased real estate investment, growth in the number of scale-above enterprises, and rising industrial value-added—they failed, on average, to enhance agricultural output. This aggregate null effect masks substantial underlying variation. Mechanism analysis identifies fiscal decentralization as a key driver of local government behavior, fostering a pronounced “prioritizing industry over agriculture” tendency. This manifested in resource misallocation: industrialization failed to effectively drive agricultural labor transfer, land scale operation, or technological adoption. Instead, distorted factor allocation suppressed agricultural labor productivity. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals significant geographical variation: the negative effect on agriculture was most pronounced in plains and hilly regions, while statistically insignificant in mountainous and plateau areas.
  Crucially, the study dissects policy failure by distinguishing design intent from implementation reality. The theoretical design of township mergers—leveraging industrialization and urbanization to foster agricultural modernization—is sound. However, the empirical evidence points to implementation deviation, not design flaw, as the primary cause of adverse outcomes. This deviation is captured by the novel concept of “compliance counties” versus “non-compliance counties”. Compliance counties strictly met the merger criteria defined by Sichuan Province. In stark contrast, non-compliance counties implemented the policy without meeting these foundational requirements.
  Results show a dramatic divergence in outcomes based on compliance status. Compliance counties successfully harnessed the merger to achieve significant growth in agricultural value-added, alongside increases in agricultural labor input, labor efficiency, and forestry, animal husbandry, sideline, and fishery output. This success stemmed from their established industrial and urban foundations, enabling them to balance non-agricultural development with agricultural reinvestment, thus activating the hypothesized “industry nurturing agriculture” pathway. Conversely, non-compliance counties experienced a substantial decline in agricultural value-added. Trapped by weak industrial bases and single economic structures, they intensified their “de-agrarianization tendency”, sacrificing agricultural resources to chase non-agricultural growth, particularly in real estate and fixed asset investment. This strategy led to “industrial hollowing-out”, failed labor absorption, reduced agricultural inputs, and ultimately, suppressed agricultural productivity without achieving industrial upgrading. Consequently, these counties exacerbated the very problems the policy aimed to solve.
  This research makes significant contributions. First, it shifts the policy failure discourse from design critique to implementation analysis, empirically demonstrating that deviation from scientifically set standards is a critical failure mechanism. Second, it enriches grassroots governance literature by focusing on the understudied township level and introducing/validating “compliance status” as a key moderator. Third, it deepens the understanding of the “industry-agriculture” linkage within the township merger context, revealing why the intended spillover often fails and how local conditions and government behavior under fiscal decentralization shape outcomes. Fourth, it provides robust empirical evidence using rigorous econometric methods, including extensive robustness checks and mechanism tests.
  This study underscores that the success of township mergers hinges not merely on the policy design but critically on faithful implementation tailored to local economic and industrial foundations. Mandating mergers in unprepared contexts risks harming agriculture through resource diversion and distorted incentives. Future reforms must prioritize strict adherence to suitability criteria and implement robust monitoring and incentive realignment mechanisms.
  
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  Lawyer Services, Intellectual Property Protection and Corporate Innovation： Evidence from the Geographic Network of Law Firm in China

  CHEN Xuanjuan HU Tao YANG Gang DONG Ying

  2025, 3(15): 179-203.

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  Innovation is the important driving force for enterprise development and economic growth, and the protection of intellectual property rights is the protection of innovation. China’s intellectual property law and reform and opening up march side by side. From the 1980s to the early 1990s, the Trademark Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law, Anti-Unfair Competition Law and other laws and regulations have been promulgated, establishing the basic framework of intellectual property laws. After entering the 21st century, several rounds of revisions were made to the above laws, making it possible for China to complete the course of intellectual property law development in western countries over the past hundred years in only forty years, and the achievements in the construction of the rule of law have been remarkable.
  Although China has achieved remarkable results in IPR legislation, it still has a long way to go in IPR judicial protection. According to “The Status of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Chinese Courts”, there were over 540,000 new intellectual property cases in the year 2023, while during the same period, according to the U.S. Patent and Goodwill Office, the number of new intellectual property cases in the U.S. was just over 3,000 cases nationwide. In practice, the United States and other developed countries from the 1980s, the requirements of a certain size of enterprises must be established above the Chief Legal Officer (CLO) position, as the company’s executives and members of the board of directors is a core member of corporate governance. The CLO is the best strategic partner of the CEO and CFO, and the three are jointly involved in the planning and decision-making of the company’s strategy. Chinese companies are lagging behind in their efforts to “govern by law”. It was not until October 2022 that the Measures for Compliance Management of Centralized Enterprises came into force, requiring that centralized enterprises should, in light of the actual situation, set up a chief compliance officer, who is concurrently appointed by the general counsel and is accountable to the main person in charge of the enterprise. Another typical fact is that, according to the statistics of China’s Ministry of Justice, as of the end of 2022, there were more than 651,600 practicing lawyers nationwide, of which more than 504,700, or 77.46%, were full-time lawyers, while more than 29,900, or 4.6%, were corporate lawyers, and the percentage of corporate lawyers was much lower than that of full-time lawyers. This shows that in the internal governance of Chinese enterprises, the construction of the legal system is at a low level.
  The paper attempts to analyze, from a micro perspective, the impact of external lawyers’ services on firms’ innovation and its mechanism of action in the context of Chinese firms’ low level of in-house legal construction. Specifically, we will answer three research questions. First, do lawyer services have an impact on corporate innovation? We use the number of law firms within a certain range around listed companies to measure the level of lawyer service supply in the region based on the data on the geographic location of listed companies’ headquarters and law firms, and use the number of corporate patent applications as an indicator of innovation output to analyze the impact of lawyer service supply on corporate innovation. The results show that the higher the level of lawyer service supply, the higher the level of innovation output of enterprises; the impact of lawyer service supply on enterprise innovation not only stays at the level of quantity, but also has a significant enhancement effect on high-quality invention patents, and this effect is stronger in the enterprises whose CEOs have the background of production and research and development, the enterprises of hi-tech industry, and the enterprises which are supported by the industrial policy. Secondly, how do attorney services affect enterprise innovation? On the one hand, lawyers’ services can help enterprises to protect their own interests by applying for patents, and on the other hand, they can help enterprises to minimize their losses when they face lawsuits. This allows the economic benefits of innovation to be preserved, which in turn promotes innovation output. We introduce two variables of infringement risk and judicial protection intensity to test these two influence mechanisms, and the results show that both influence mechanisms exist. Finally, do lawyers’ services have an impact on firm value while promoting firm innovation? We find that the market valuation of firms is higher under the joint effect of lawyer services and firm innovation.
  Relative to the existing literature, the possible innovations and marginal contributions of the paper are mainly in the following three aspects: first, the paper expands the research perspective of law and firm innovation. Most of the existing literature analyzes the impact of intellectual property protection on corporate innovation based on the perspective of the firm’s external judicial system. Different from that, based on the basic fact that lawyers’ legal services are embedded in the enterprise legal system, the paper examines the effect and mechanism of the influence of the internal legal force on the enterprise’s innovative behavior through the construction of a theoretical framework and a systematic empirical study, which enriches the existing literature. Secondly, the paper deepens the theoretical knowledge of lawyers’ service to the real economy. Most of the related literature in the legal field on lawyers’ influence on economic development adopts the normative analysis paradigm, lacking systematic and complete empirical evidence. The paper, however, is based on the geographical distribution of law firms as a way to analyze the impact of lawyers’ legal service supply on corporate innovation, which can provide empirical evidence for related studies in the legal field and deepen the theoretical knowledge of lawyers’ service to the real economy. Thirdly, the paper has inspirational significance for enterprises to promote the rule of law and improve the construction of legal system. Given that the development of enterprise legal affairs in China stays in the primary stage, characterized by uneven development and insufficient cognition. The empirical analysis of the paper reveals the importance and value of enterprise legal work, and provides a policy basis for enterprises to promote the rule of law and improve the construction of legal system.
  
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  Can Intellectual Property Right Protection Correct Labor Price Distortions

  LI Yan

  2025, 3(15): 204-229.

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  Exploring the impact of intellectual property right protection on labor price distortion expands the research on the factors affecting labor price distortion and helps to think about the reform of labor market allocation from the perspective of the business environment, providing ideas for reducing labor price distortion and releasing the vitality of the labor market. This paper constructs the mechanism by which intellectual property right protection affects labor price distortion through channels of human capital accumulation and innovation activities. Based on Chinese city-level data, the production function method is used to measure labor price distortion. Combined with the two-way fixed effects model, empirically analyzing the impact of intellectual property right protection on labor price distortions and its heterogeneity, and test the mechanism effect of human capital accumulation and innovation activities. In order to test the generalizability of the conclusions obtained, this paper further complements the empirical analysis at the micro level of enterprises, taking into account both macro and micro levels of analysis.
  The findings reveal that an increase in intellectual property right protection intensity significantly reduces labor price distortion, and the inhibitory effect passes robustness tests in several ways. The results of the mechanistic analysis show that the above inhibitory effect is mainly realized through the channels of accelerating human capital accumulation and stimulating innovative activities. The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that there is heterogeneity in the impact of increased intensity of intellectual property right protection on labor price distortion, i.e., it has a greater inhibitory effect on labor price distortion in cities in the southern region, in cities of lower administrative rank and in cities with higher labor price distortion. Further analysis reveals that an increase intensity of intellectual property right protection reduces corporate labor price distortions, and that the above disincentives are also realized through the channels of accelerating corporate human capital accumulation and stimulating corporate innovative activities. Based on the conclusions of the above empirical analysis, this paper puts forward the following three suggestions: first, paying attention to the impact of intellectual property right protection on the labor market. Second, formulate differentiated intellectual property right protection policies according to the actual local development. Third, take into account the policies related to the introduction of talents and the stimulation of innovative activities.
  Compared with existing studies, the marginal contributions of this paper are: Firstly, examining the problem of labor price distortion from the perspective of intellectual property right protection. With the advancement of factor market allocation reform, reducing labor price distortion has become one of the key issues of reform. Current research focuses on its economic effects and less on the influencing factors, while this paper discusses labor price distortion from the perspective of intellectual property right protection, expanding the research perspective of influencing factors. Secondly, the mechanism of intellectual property right protection on labor price distortion is constructed from the perspective of human capital accumulation and innovation activities. The protection of intellectual property rights can incentivize the R&D activities of enterprises, which in turn affects the human capital accumulation and innovation activities in the region. High-skilled labor has a stronger bargaining power in negotiations with enterprises, and the imbalance of bargaining power is one of the causes of labor price distortion. Thus, intellectual property right protection affects labor price distortions by promoting human capital accumulation. Innovation activities provide more matching opportunities for labor and help optimize matching in the labor market, so intellectual property right protection also affects labor price distortion through innovation activities. This paper analyzes the mechanism of intellectual property right protection on labor price distortion through the above two channels, and provides reference for future research.
  
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  Study on the Influential Effects of Technological Finance Policies on the Integration of Technological Innovation and Industrial Innovation

  LI Chao HE Wanling ZHAN Yong

  2025, 3(15): 230-256.

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  Technology finance, serving as a bridge linking technology and finance, holds significant importance in accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, cultivating the development of strategic emerging industries, and facilitating the integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation. The study takes the “Pilot Project of Promoting the Integration of Science and Technology with Finance” as a quasi-natural experiment, adopts the provincial panel data from 2007 to 2022, and based on the connotation of the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, constructs the indicator system of the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation through the five secondary indexes of the level of development of technological turnover, cooperation between industry, academia, and research, the sales of new products, the added value of the high-tech industry, and the development of future industries. The index system of the integration of science and technology innovation and industrial innovation is constructed, and principal component analysis is used to measure the level of integration of science and technology innovation and industrial innovation in each province in the past years, and the multi-period double-difference model, propensity score matching method and double machine learning are further used to empirically analyze the effect and mechanism of the influence of science and technology finance on the integration of science and technology innovation and industrial innovation development. 
  The following conclusions are obtained: First, the policy of “Pilot Program for Promoting the Integration of Science and Technology and Finance” significantly promotes the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and this conclusion is confirmed after replacing the explanatory variables, eliminating the special years, excluding the outliers, lagging the explanatory variables by one period, adopting the PSM-DID method, employing the dual machine learning method, placebo test, and other series of stability tests. method, placebo test and a series of robustness tests as well as instrumental variables estimation still hold. Second, S&T financial policy promotes the integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation by cultivating S&T enterprises and enhancing the transformation rate of S&T achievements. Third, the impact of S&T financial policies on the integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation is heterogeneous, with greater promotion effects on the integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation in regions with higher levels of informatization, higher concentrations of scientific and technological talents, and lower intensity of financial regulation. At the same time, compared with the regions in the second pilot batch of S&T and financial integration policies, the S&T and financial policies in the first pilot batch of regions have a stronger role in promoting the integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation. Fourth, further research shows that S&T financial policies not only have a direct impact on local S&T innovation and industrial innovation integration, but also have significant spatial spillover effects on neighboring provinces. 
  Based on the above findings, this study puts forward the following policy insights: first, increase the financial support for the integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation, and shape a more synergistic, efficient and dynamic innovation ecosystem. The second is to emphasize the multi-dimensional ways of science and technology finance to empower the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and to play a good and solid “combination punch” to promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation. Thirdly, the dividends of science and technology financial policies should be fully released through localized and precise measures. The research conclusions offer policy inspirations for the government to formulate and optimize technology finance policies, guide more financial resources towards technological innovation, and promote the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation.
  
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  The Impact of Progressive Delayed Retirement Scheme on Gender Gap in Pension Insurance Benefits：Research on Basic Pension Insurance for Employees Industrial Innovation

  Feng Yao

  2025, 3(15): 257-284.

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  Regarding the research on the relationship between progressive delayed retirement policies and pension insurance, the focus is mostly on the impact of delayed retirement policies on the sustainability of pension insurance funds. In terms of gender based exploration, research is relatively scattered and usually limited to one aspect of delayed retirement or pension insurance. Although many scholars believe that the implementation of delayed retirement policies can help narrow the gender gap in pension benefits, the relevant discussions are still not in-depth enough, mostly mentioned in the conclusion section of the article, or only analyzed from the perspective of changes in the absolute value of pension benefits for male and female employees. Therefore, this article constructs an actuarial model that is in line with China’s institutional reality, selects two measurement indicators: monthly pension benefits and gender comparison coefficient of pension, and explores the gender inequality of pension insurance before and after the implementation of the progressive delayed retirement policy.
  At the same time, academic research on the relationship between progressive delayed retirement policies and pension insurance relies heavily on successful foreign experiences in constructing theoretical frameworks and designing retirement plans, with less consideration given to China’s local conditions and social needs. On September 13, 2024, China officially introduced the policy of delayed retirement and stipulated that it would be implemented from January 1, 2025. This article is based on the current framework of delayed retirement policies and the speed of delaying retirement age. Eight delayed retirement schemes are designed, and it is set that these schemes will be implemented after the full implementation of the current retirement policies. This to some extent ensures the applicability and feasibility of the scheme design in China, and provides important theoretical basis and empirical support for the optimization and improvement of relevant policies. In addition, studying the potential impact of progressive delayed retirement policies on the gender gap in pension insurance benefits can help the government predict and address potential social issues, thereby better promoting the gender equality agenda and ensuring the gender equality of the pension insurance system.
  This paper first describes the current situation and characteristics of China’s aging population. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2023, China’s population aged 65 and above will be 216.76 million, accounting for 15.4% of the national population. This is in line with the United Nations’ classification criteria for deep aging, indicating that China has entered a stage of deep aging development. At the same time, China’s aging population shows two significant characteristics. One is the aging population. The second is the feminization of the elderly population.
  With the increase in life expectancy and the decrease in the gender ratio of the population, the demand for economic support from the elderly and elderly women is gradually increasing. Due to their physiological conditions and social roles, women are in a relatively disadvantaged position in the labor market. Therefore, the pension insurance system based on income and working hours is inevitably disadvantageous to women. Faced with longer life expectancy and poorer pension benefits, elderly women are at a higher risk of poverty and are more likely to face retirement difficulties. Therefore, improving the welfare of women’s pension insurance is crucial and should attract widespread attention from the academic and policy communities.
  The policy of delaying retirement has been widely discussed by various sectors of society in recent years, and its implementation may have potential effects in alleviating the gender gap in pension income. According to the delayed retirement policy implemented from January 1, 2025, the retirement age for male, female cadres, and female workers in China will gradually be adjusted to 63, 58, and 55 years old. By comparison, as of 2022, the average statutory retirement age for males and females in OECD member countries is 64.4 years and 63.6 years, respectively. Therefore, compared with other major countries in the world, there is still room for China to further postpone the retirement age. In addition, in recent years, the government’s support for the pension insurance system has been continuously increasing, which also reflects the increasing financial pressure faced by the system. In order to ensure the long-term stable operation of the pension insurance system and effectively address the challenges brought by demographic changes, the retirement age should be further delayed.
  This article examines the impact of progressive delayed retirement on the gender gap in China’s pension insurance benefits through actuarial model construction and data simulation, and uses econometric regression analysis to assist in verification. The results indicate that spontaneous delayed retirement cannot help narrow the gender gap in China’s pension insurance benefits, and to narrow the gender gap in pension insurance benefits, human policy intervention is needed. The current gradual delayed retirement policy, while helping to gradually reduce the pension gap between male and female workers, has widened the gap between male and female cadres.
  Based on existing academic discussions and practical experience, this article designs eight progressive delayed retirement plans. It is recommended to gradually promote the new plan after the full implementation of the delayed retirement policy on January 1, 2025. Among them, the retirement age for women will be extended to 60 years old at a rate of 1 year every 4 years. The plan of delaying the retirement age for both men and women to 65 years old at a rate of 1 year every 6 years has a more significant effect on narrowing the gender gap. Further analysis reveals that the gender gap in China’s pension insurance benefits is also influenced by the income level and wage growth rate of employees. To narrow the gender gap in China’s pension insurance benefits, it is necessary to implement a delayed retirement plan that is not synchronized between men and women, delaying the retirement age for women first and then for men, and delaying the retirement age for both men and women to 65 years old. At the same time, it is also necessary to improve the unequal treatment of women in the labor market and create a fair employment environment for women.