Publisher：Journal of Economics and Business  

Despite nearly twenty years of privatization, mixed-ownership reform has recently been China's mainstay of SOE reform. This raises the question of whether the financial performance of mixed-ownership firms (Mixed firms) is better than that of private-owned enterprises (POEs). Although Mixed firms suffer more from government intervention, unclear property rights, and interest conflicts between state and private shareholders, they can also benefit from the external resources controlled by the state. Therefore, the performance of Mixed firms is still unclear. Collecting data from the Chinese A-share listed market, we divide the firms into POEs, Mixed firms controlled by the state (MixedSOEs), and Mixed firms controlled by the private sectors (MixedPOEs). Measuring profitability using ROA and ROE, we find that POEs perform better than Mixed firms, and MixedPOEs have a higher profitability than MixedSOEs. Better corporate governance is the primary channel that can explain our results. We address the endogeneity challenge in several ways and get similar results. Overall, our analysis provides new evidence on the financial performance of mixed-ownership firms.

DOI： 10.1016/j.jeconbus.2025.106257

Scopus

Publisher：China Economic Review  

This paper aims to examine whether property rights protection can enhance firm innovation. To address the endogeneity problem and establish a causal relationship, we adopt the establishment of Intellectual Property Tribunals (IP Tribunals) in China as a natural experiment and employ the Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach for estimation. By measuring firm innovation via patents and invention patent applications, we find that establishing IP Tribunals can significantly boost firm innovation. Furthermore, we investigate the heterogeneity of our baseline results and discover that privately-owned firms, smaller-sized firms, non-high-tech firms, and firms located in less marketized areas experience a larger improvement in innovation. This finding suggests that this institutional improvement provides greater protection to disadvantaged firms. Breaking regional protectionism and relaxing firm financing constraints are two possible mechanisms through which IP Tribunals can enhance firm innovation. Our results provide new evidence on how institutional change affects economic growth in China.

DOI： 10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102240

Web of Science

Scopus