IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v232y2023ics0165176523003506.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does broadband internet infrastructure mitigate firm-level economic policy uncertainty? Evidence from the Broadband China Pilot Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Bin
  • Wang, Liang
  • Gong, Bairong
  • Yan, Zhengwei
  • Hu, Pan

Abstract

We propose the firm-level economic policy uncertainty (FEPU) index to measure the economic policy uncertainty faced by individual firms. Then, we consider the “Broadband China Pilot Policy” as a quasi-experiment and examine the effect of broadband internet infrastructure on FEPU. We find that broadband internet infrastructure exerts negative impacts on FEPU.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Bin & Wang, Liang & Gong, Bairong & Yan, Zhengwei & Hu, Pan, 2023. "Does broadband internet infrastructure mitigate firm-level economic policy uncertainty? Evidence from the Broadband China Pilot Policy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:232:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523003506
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111325
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176523003506
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111325?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yu, Zhen & Xiao, Yao & Li, Jinpo, 2021. "Firm-level perception of uncertainty and innovation activity: Textual evidence from China's A-share market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Liu, Guanchun & Hu, May & Cheng, Chen, 2021. "The information transfer effects of political connections on mitigating policy uncertainty: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Lauren Cohen & Andrea Frazzini & Christopher Malloy, 2008. "The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(5), pages 951-979, October.
    4. Niu, Geng & Jin, XiaoShu & Wang, Qi & Zhou, Yang, 2022. "Broadband infrastructure and digital financial inclusion in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Kolko, Jed, 2012. "Broadband and local growth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 100-113.
    6. Yunqi Fan & Fangzhao Zhou & Yunbi An & Jun Yang, 2021. "Investor Sentiment and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 310-339, October.
    7. Benguria, Felipe & Choi, Jaerim & Swenson, Deborah L. & Xu, Mingzhi (Jimmy), 2022. "Anxiety or pain? The impact of tariffs and uncertainty on Chinese firms in the trade war," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    8. Aye, Goodness C. & Balcilar, Mehmet & Demirer, Riza & Gupta, Rangan, 2018. "Firm-level political risk and asymmetric volatility," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Tarek A Hassan & Stephan Hollander & Laurence van Lent & Ahmed Tahoun, 2019. "Firm-Level Political Risk: Measurement and Effects," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 2135-2202.
    10. Wang, Liang, 2023. "Mitigating firm-level political risk in China: The role of multiple large shareholders," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    11. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    12. Pu, Guifang & Xie, Yanxiang & Wang, Kai, 2023. "Board faultlines and risk-taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    13. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    14. Nina Czernich & Oliver Falck & Tobias Kretschmer & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(552), pages 505-532, May.
    15. Kong, Qunxi & Li, Rongrong & Wang, Ziqi & Peng, Dan, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and firm investment decisions: Dilemma or opportunity?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    16. Nagar, Venky & Schoenfeld, Jordan & Wellman, Laura, 2019. "The effect of economic policy uncertainty on investor information asymmetry and management disclosures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 36-57.
    17. Broadstock, David C. & Chan, Kalok & Cheng, Louis T.W. & Wang, Xiaowei, 2021. "The role of ESG performance during times of financial crisis: Evidence from COVID-19 in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    18. Jens, Candace E., 2017. "Political uncertainty and investment: Causal evidence from U.S. gubernatorial elections," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 563-579.
    19. Xu, Yongxin & Xuan, Yuhao & Zheng, Gaoping, 2021. "Internet searching and stock price crash risk: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 255-275.
    20. Wang, Liang & Wang, Qikai & Jiang, Fan, 2023. "Booster or stabilizer? Economic policy uncertainty: New firm-specific measurement and impacts on stock price crash risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    21. Dongmin Kong & Chen Lin & Lai Wei & Jian Zhang, 2022. "Information Accessibility and Corporate Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 7837-7860, November.
    22. Ferrell, A. & Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc, 2016. "Socially responsible firms," Other publications TiSEM 07e115ac-fdcb-4c4b-a0b8-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    23. Li, Pei & Lu, Yi & Wang, Jin, 2016. "Does flattening government improve economic performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-37.
    24. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    25. Amin, Abu & Chourou, Lamia & Kamal, Syed & Malik, Mahfuja & Zhao, Yang, 2020. "It’s who you know that counts: Board connectedness and CSR performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    26. He, Chao & Li, Yanxi & Zhu, Jiawei, 2022. "The effect of firm-level perception of uncertainty on innovation: Evidence from China’s listed firms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    27. Laura A. Wellman, 2017. "Mitigating political uncertainty," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 217-250, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peng, Daoju & Colak, Gonul & Shen, Jianfu, 2023. "Lean against the wind: The effect of policy uncertainty on a firm's corporate social responsibility strategy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Al-Thaqeb, Saud Asaad & Algharabali, Barrak Ghanim, 2019. "Economic policy uncertainty: A literature review," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    3. Wang, Liang, 2023. "Mitigating firm-level political risk in China: The role of multiple large shareholders," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    4. Wang, Liang & Wang, Qikai & Jiang, Fan, 2023. "Booster or stabilizer? Economic policy uncertainty: New firm-specific measurement and impacts on stock price crash risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    5. Yu, Zhen & Xiao, Yao & Li, Jinpo, 2021. "Firm-level perception of uncertainty and innovation activity: Textual evidence from China's A-share market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Mansi, Sattar & Wang, He (Helen), 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty, institutional environments, and corporate cash holdings," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Shehub Bin Hasan & Md Samsul Alam & Sudharshan Reddy Paramati & Md Shahidul Islam, 2022. "Does firm-level political risk affect cash holdings?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 311-337, July.
    8. Wang, Fengrong & Mbanyele, William & Muchenje, Linda, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and stock liquidity: The mitigating effect of information disclosure," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    9. Shang, Longfei & Lin, Ji-Chai & Saffar, Walid, 2021. "Does economic policy uncertainty drive the initiation of corporate lobbying?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Dane M. Christensen & Arthur Morris & Beverly R. Walther & Laura A. Wellman, 2023. "Political information flow and management guidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1466-1499, September.
    11. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Jiang, Haiyan, 2023. "Political sentiment and corporate social responsibility," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    12. Karavitis, Panagiotis & Kazakis, Pantelis, 2022. "Political sentiment and syndicated loan borrowing costs of multinational enterprises," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Li, Xiang & Su, Dan, 2020. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect corporate debt maturity?," IWH Discussion Papers 6/2020, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    14. Suyi Zheng & Jiandong Wen, 2023. "How Does Firm-Level Economic Policy Uncertainty Affect Corporate Innovation? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, April.
    15. Lukas Timbate & Dongil Kim & Dereje Asrat & Hwang Sungjun, 2024. "Firm-level political uncertainty, corporate lobbying and risk-taking," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Çiğdem Vural‐Yavaş, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty, stakeholder engagement, and environmental, social, and governance practices: The moderating effect of competition," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 82-102, January.
    17. Christensen, Dane M. & Jin, Hengda & Lee, Joshua A. & Sridharan, Suhas A. & Wellman, Laura A., 2023. "Corporate political activism and information transfers," Working Papers 334, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    18. Liu, Yi & Jin, Justin & Zhang, Zehua & Zhao, Ran, 2022. "Firm-level political sentiment and corporate tax avoidance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    19. Cheng, Sirui & Hua, Xiuping & Wang, Qingfeng, 2023. "Corporate culture and firm resilience in China: Evidence from the Sino-US trade war," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Chris Florakis & Christodoulos Louca & Roni Michaely & Michael Weber, 2020. "Cybersecurity Risk," Working Papers 2020-178, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firm-level economic policy uncertainty; Broadband China Pilot Policy; Broadband internet infrastructure; Textual analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:232:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523003506. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.