This study investigated the response of currency outside the banking system to the rise in the use of the e-payment outlets in Nigeria. The study is motivated by the recent rise in the use of e-payment systems and their likely tendency to reduce the currency outside the banking system. Using monthly series over the period from 2012M12 to 2022M12, the study applied the VAR model. The study found that currency outside the banking system responded negatively to shocks in the three e-payment channels included in the study, even though such responses were short-lived. The study equally revealed that while bank reserves responded positively to shocks in e-bills payment only in period one, its response to shocks in both NIP and POS was positive up to periods six and eight, respectively. These outcomes found support in the results of the variance decomposition. On grounds of the findings, the study concludes that the e-payment system led to a reduction in the currency outside the banking system with the likely implication of causing much liquidity in the banking system. It is the view of the study that the monetary authorities should encourage the use of the e-payment systems in order to reduce the currency outside the banking system, but should monitor the various e-payment channels to avoid financial instability.

Financial development and industrial structure optimization are two-wheeled engines for promoting high-quality development, but the causal identification of the two is still poorly understood. This paper addresses this research gap by comprehensively analyzing the relationship between them. Regional economic growth is a necessary condition for achieving high-quality development. Taking China as an example, this study empirically examines the role of financial development and industrial structure optimization in high-quality development using the entropy method, fixed effects, mediation effects and instrumental variable regression. The study results show that (i) financial development has actively promoted regional economic growth. (ii) The driving effect on the central and western regions is greater than that on the eastern region. (iii) There are differences in the mediating effect of industrial structure optimization and rationalization between different levels of financial development and economic growth. (iv) In addition, the mediating effect of industrial structure optimization is larger in the eastern region than in the central and western regions. (v) The mediating effect of industrial structure rationalization is not obvious in the eastern region, but has a masking effect in the central and western regions. Our findings provide new strategies for financial development and industrial structure optimization in developing countries.

The No.1 document of the Central Government of China has been on the theme of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" for nearly ten years, placing the solution of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" at the forefront of the Chinese government's work. Located in the Central Plains, Henan Province in China is one of the major agricultural provinces in China and plays an extremely important role in the field of agricultural production in China. This paper uses an empirical approach and the DEA-Malquist model to study the efficiency of rural public financial inputs to rural revitalisation in Henan Province. The results show that due to different levels of regional economic development, the efficiency of rural public finance investment in Henan Province in promoting rural revitalisation varies, and there is a phenomenon of unreasonable allocation of funds. At the same time, the region's agricultural base also has a greater impact on the efficiency of financial investment. Therefore, Henan Province should adjust measures according to the different regional economic levels and agricultural bases to improve the efficiency of the use of fiscal funds.

In this paper, we study the impact of digital finance on technological innovation in China's national high-tech development zones. We find that digital finance improves technological innovation in high-tech zones. Regarding digital financial coverage, usage, and support, the results still exist. Additional analysis suggests that when a high-tech zone faces severe financing constraints (in terms of higher local governmental debt and better development of credit markets), the impact of digital finance on technological innovation is more salient.

Based on the behavioral theory of the firm, we investigate the impact of performance negative feedback on R&D efficiency. The results show that when performance falls below aspirations, firms pay more attention to R&D projects with high R&D efficiency to get rid of the operating pressure, reputation pressure and resource constraints caused by the decline in performance. This effect may be influenced by institutional differences. In the case of negative feedback, a good regional institutional environment is conducive to the improvement of R&D efficiency, while a weak regional institutional environment weakens this effect. Specifically, the higher the degree of IPR enforcement and financial market development, as well as the lower the degree of local government intervention, the more inclined firms are to increase R&D efficiency. The findings provide insights into understanding R&D efficiency improvement in the context of emerging markets.

Risk management strategies protect the company as a whole as well as employees from unexpected financial impacts. As is the case in personal finance, preparing for certain scenarios helps confront any difficulties the company may face and allows it to get out of this predicament. For any project to be successful, it must be determined how the agency implementing the project will deal with potential risks so that it can identify, mitigate or avoid problems when it needs to do so. Successful project managers realize the importance of risk management, because achieving project objectives depends on planning, preparation, results and evaluation that contribute to achieving strategic objectives, especially sustainable development of communities. To ensure the success of your project, determine how you will handle potential risks so that you can identify, mitigate, or avoid problems when you need to do so.

Influenced by traditional notions of solidarity, when a province’s planning can be highly aligned with that of the central government, the province is perceived to be more collective and thus able to receive financial or resource favors from the central government. This consistency, as is often the case, reflected in doing the same thing as the central government. This situation may lead governors to ignore local economic performance and thus reduce regional innovation efficiency, as in the case of China’s Great Leap Forward. Likewise, it is possible to get better resources (energy or capital) by demonstrating managerial submissiveness, thus improving the regional innovation efficiency. Therefore, to verify the relationship between imitative governance and regional innovation efficiency, we collected relevant data from 31 major provincial administrative units in China, calculated the degree of imitative governance between provincial government work reports and central government work reports through text similarity, as well as utilized the SBM-DEA model to evaluate regional innovation efficiency. Meanwhile, we provide a new explanation of the phenomenon from the perspective of resource inclination. Finally, the empirical results show that imitative governance promotes local innovation efficiency and is moderated by resource inclination.

The integration of digital technology and traditional finance has further achieved the goal of low-cost and sustainable financial services and contributed to high-quality economic development. Based on the data from 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of digital finance on the urban-rural income gap. The results show that digital finance can significantly narrow the income gap between urban and rural residents. The quantile test shows that the greater the urban-rural income gap, the stronger the role of digital finance in narrowing the urban-rural income gap. The threshold effect test shows that the narrowing effect of digital finance on the urban-rural income gap will first increase and then weaken with the continuous improvement of the development level. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the secondary indicators of digital finance can significantly narrow the urban-rural income gap, and the effect of depth of usage is the most obvious. Moreover, digital finance has a significantly stronger effect on narrowing the urban-rural income gap in the eastern region than in other regions. Therefore, we should vigorously promote the development of digital finance and give full play to its effectiveness in narrowing the urban-rural income gap.