The amount of debt financing used by the company for operating and investing purposes will have an impact on financing costs and business risk, etc., and may also change investors' expectations and stock market prices. Fifty randomly selected listed companies from the S&P 500 index in 2025 will be used as the research sample in this paper, and descriptive statistics and linear regression methods will be employed to examine the relationship between debt ratio and stock return according to industry characteristics. Based on the above data, it can be seen that the debt ratios and stock returns of these companies vary among different industries. The overall leverage ratios of the technology, finance and energy industries are relatively low, and those of the industrial and public utilities industries are relatively high. At the same time, regression analysis shows that there is a negative correlation between debt ratio and overall stock return, and highly indebted enterprises do not have higher stock returns. Excessive financial leverage may reduce the stock performance of the enterprise. Based on the above results, it can be concluded that the company's debt level and financial risk are relatively low. It can serve as a model for other enterprises to optimize their capital structure, formulate financing plans, and distribute funds to investors.

This study focuses on the effect of Chinese young people's perception of the private information regulation environment on their willingness to continue using the digital services provided by businesses. The model is inspired by the APCO model, and the study also uses the ABC model to explain the inconsistency. According to a questionnaire survey with 100 valid responses from Chinese young people aged 18 to 28, ordinary least squares regression analysis and bootstrap mediation analysis were conducted. The analysis shows that environmental perception has a significant positive effect on individuals' willingness to disclose private information. With a perceived privacy environment as secure and well-regulated, the respondents are encouraged to provide their private information. However, the result shows that the environmental perception does not significantly affect continued usage intention. Moreover, the willingness to disclose their information is unable to mediate the relationship between environmental perception and the young people's willingness to continue using the digital services. These findings indicate that although the relationship between consumers' perceptions of the privacy environment and their disclosure behavior is positive, it may not be sufficient to increase continued usage of digital services. Continued usage intention may also depend on other factors, such as perceived usefulness, convenience, and habit. This paper contributes to the privacy issues by introducing environmental perception as an important antecedent variable, and examining its influence on consumers' privacy-related behavior in digital environments.

The full-island customs clearance policy implemented in Hainan in 2025 marks a milestone in building a free trade port with Chinese characteristics. Public discussions have arisen over whether Hainan can evolve into an international trade hub comparable to Singapore. This paper conducts comparative research on the geographical endowments, policy frameworks, development models, and functional positioning of Hainan and Singapore. This paper employs literature review and comparative analysis to examine policy documents, official reports, and relevant research on the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port and Singapore. The study finds that Hainan is not a substitute for Singapore, but an innovative onshore trade hub relying on China's massive domestic market demand. The two economies form complementary interdependence within the global trading system. Singapore retains core competitive edges in offshore trade sectors, while Hainan focuses on industrial agglomeration, transit trade, cross-border financial services, and serves as a core node for the national dual-circulation strategy to realize integration with the domestic market, thus embarking on a differentiated development path. The findings provide a useful reference for understanding the future development of Hainan and the transformation of regional free trade hubs in the Asia-Pacific region.

This study models a sequential game among a government, a focal firm, and a supplier that may underinvest in compliant emission reduction. It compares a direct subsidy to the supplier with an indirect subsidy to the focal firm for supplier support. Direct subsidies correct supplier underinvestment; focal firms also support suppliers when demand is positive, but choose less support than is socially optimal. The choice of subsidy recipient depends on the focal firm's support cost. When the support cost is low, the indirect subsidy dominates in both compliance level and social welfare. When the support cost is high, the direct subsidy dominates in both dimensions. At an intermediate support cost, the direct subsidy generates a higher compliance level, whereas the indirect subsidy yields greater social welfare. Therefore, the government should select the subsidy recipient according to its policy objective and the focal firm's actual support efficiency.

Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, the rapid using of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has led a profound impact on the global labor market, with significance effects on occupations requiring high skill levels and advanced capabilities. Existing literature, however, has left a notable gap in analyzing the financial sector, a quintessentially high-skill-intensive industry. Focusing on high-skilled workers in the financial industry and basing on labor economics theories and prior research, this paper examines the mechanisms through which GenAI shapes the wage premium of high-skilled financial practitioners across three dimensions: short-term substitution effects, long-term enhanced effects, and heterogeneous impacts at the individual level. The results demonstrate that GenAI exhibits a reverse skill-biased pattern: in the short term, it displaces standardized routine cognitive tasks at entry levels, eroding the wage premium of junior positions; in the long term, it drives task restructuring through interpersonal collaboration, fueling a U-shaped rebound in compensation for senior talent while narrowing the salary gap between novice and seasoned practitioners. This study provides theoretical support for talent transformation in the financial sector, higher education optimization, and the formulation of employment security policies.

In contemporary modern cities, transportation tracks not only serve the purpose of transporting passengers but also act as the leader of economic development along the routes. In recent years, Beijing's subway has achieved large-scale networked operation, with an average daily passenger volume exceeding 10 million. The average passenger stay time within the system is approximately 43 minutes, and the average travel journey length is 13 stations. With such a huge passenger flow, the commercial development potential of Beijing's subway is considerable. However, compared with the subway stations of developed cities in Asia such as Tokyo and Hong Kong, the commercial utilization degree of Beijing's subway is relatively low. The variety of goods sold is limited, and the consumption rate of passengers is also relatively low. The development of underground commercial activities is influenced by many factors. From the perspective of policies, the implementation of recent new policies has encouraged the integration of urban and transportation and the introduction of diversified commercial models. From the perspective of merchants, they need to simultaneously face regulatory restrictions and passenger demands. From the perspective of passengers, age, gender, and travel frequency will affect each person's consumption preferences. Therefore, this study conducts research from three angles to understand the relationship between these factors and find solutions that can promote the good development of Beijing's subway commercial activities.

This study examines whether monetary tightening amplifies the negative effect of VIX shocks on U.S. bank stock returns. Using daily public data from January 2010 to March 2026, the analysis constructs a panel of returns for four exchange-traded funds: KBE, KRE, XLF and SPY. Large increases in the CBOE Volatility Index are treated as episodes of market fear and risk repricing. A tightening regime is defined as a trading day on which the effective federal funds rate has increased by at least 25 basis points over the previous 90 trading days. The baseline factor-adjusted regressions show that the interaction between VIX shocks and tightening regimes is significantly negative. In the preferred KBE specification, a VIX shock during a tightening regime is associated with an additional daily excess return of approximately -0.278 percentage points. Heterogeneity tests indicate that this effect is concentrated in bank ETFs, especially the regional-bank ETF KRE, and is not significant for the broader financial-sector ETF XLF or the market ETF SPY. Event-window evidence shows lower five-day cumulative excess returns for KBE and KRE after VIX shocks in tightening regimes. The findings provide conditional asset-pricing evidence on bank equity risk under monetary tightening.

As the third major economic system after agriculture and industry, the digital economy has begun to drive the world's economic development and is now attracting much attention from around the world. With the rapid spread of big data, artificial intelligence and the Internet, the digital economy has also gradually shown strong growth and is now one of the main drivers of high-quality development in China's economy. Therefore, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will face some opportunities and problems in the transformation and upgrading process. Typical problems are that the company has insufficient funds, lacks professional staff, and is risk-averse. SMEs do not need to be fully digitally transformed at all stages, according to this paper. Instead, they should adopt a phased approach according to the scale and foundation of their own company, focus on the most urgent problems first, and follow the lead of chain-leading enterprises to build a joint transformation plan for the entire group. This paper will provide some practical ideas for small and medium-sized enterprises and serve as a reference for the government.

As Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices become increasingly important in evaluating corporate sustainability, differences in disclosure approaches have led to significant variations in ESG reporting quality and comparability. This study examines the ESG disclosure quality of BYD and Tesla between 2022 and 2024. A unified evaluation framework covering content completeness, data continuity, and visualization effectiveness is developed to compare the two companies. The findings show that BYD follows a standards-oriented disclosure approach characterized by increasing alignment with international ESG frameworks and stronger institutionalization. In contrast, Tesla adopts a strategy-oriented approach that emphasizes product impact and technological innovation. The study concludes that companies should balance standardized disclosure with strategic communication to improve transparency and reporting quality.

In a rapidly digital era, this article investigate the effect of discount intensity and digital scarcity cues in consumer purchasing behavior in the Chinese coffee market focusing on Luckin Coffee. Using survey and behavioral analysis, this article study digital promotional strategies that influence consumer decision making in competitive online retail environments. This article find that discount intensity is a pothis articlerful economic incentive that reduces perceived risk and reduces psychological barriers for buying and will be more likely to promote short-term buying intention and conversion rates. In addition, digital scarcity cues (such as limited-time offers and stock reminders) have a psychological impact on the sense of urgency and quicker reaction during the purchasing process. Without scarcity mechanisms, consumers are not as quick to make decisions and the promotional impact is less effective. Moreover, the research shows promotion fatigue is a growing problem in the digital marketing industry, and that overvaluing it will gradually reduce consumer engagement and brand loyalty. Thus the research suggests that sustainable digital marketing strategies should include both economic and psychological incentives to keep consumers engaged in the digital space (especially when the market is saturated).