Search Results (77)

Contemporary enterprise IT operations are largely implemented on Shannon–Turing computing models in which programs execute read–compute–write cycles over data structures, while governance—fault handling, configuration control, auditability, continuity, and accounting—is applied externally through infrastructure platforms, observability stacks, and human operational processes. This separation scales analytical throughput but accumulates what we term coherence debt: locally expedient operational commitments whose provenance and revisability degrade over time until exposed by failures, security incidents, regulatory demands, or architectural transitions. This paper examines the evolution of operational computing models that integrate com-pupation with regulation at two distinct levels. First, Distributed Intelligent Managed Elements (DIME) extend the classical Turing cycle toward a supervised execution loop—read–check-with-oracle–compute–write—by incorporating signaling overlays and FCAPS (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security) supervision into computation in progress. Second, the Autopoietic Management and Orchestration System (AMOS), grounded in the General Theory of Information, the Burgin–Mikkilineni Thesis, and Deutsch’s epistemic framework, fully decouples process executors from governance by treating any Turing-equivalent engine as a replaceable execution substrate while elevating knowledge structures—encoded as local and global Digital Genomes—to first-class operational state within a governed knowledge network. Using a distributed microservice transaction testbed, we demonstrate how this approach operationalizes topology-as-data, a capability-oriented control plane, decoupled application-layer FCAPS independent of infrastructure management, and policy-selectable consistency/availability semantics. Our results show that the principal benefit of AMOS is not circumventing theoretical constraints such as the Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance (CAP) theorem, but governing their trade-offs as explicit, auditable commitments with defined convergence pathways and controlled return to a coherent system state, thereby reducing coherence debt and improving operational reliability in distributed AI-enabled enterprise systems. Full article

Policy instability and regulatory barriers remain key obstacles to the long-term viability of agriphotovoltaics (APV) deployment. The Penthéréaz case in Switzerland provides empirical evidence of how cooperative governance and collective self-consumption can restore project feasibility after subsidy withdrawal. Using a single-case study and process-tracing approach based on cooperative documentation and regulatory records, the analysis explains how Penthéréaz Énergie Photovoltaïque S.A. cooperative (PEP)., initially structured as a subsidy-dependent venture, transitioned into a resilient collective self-consumption network supported by a private micro-grid. Following the withdrawal of federal feed-in tariffs, the project faced major economic risk and responded through decentralized financial restructuring, including community-funded debt at a 2% interest rate. The installation comprises 1180 photovoltaic panels with an installed capacity of 283 kWp, producing approximately 290,000 kWh per year while providing water-tightness and light permeability for agricultural infrastructure. The findings further indicate that operational success contributed to Swiss regulatory adjustments, enabling private distribution networks to cross public roads and secure geographic continuity for local energy sharing. With a reported self-consumption rate of 40% across a diversified user base including agri-food and residential consumers, the case demonstrates the operational value of local load-matching. The findings propose six context-dependent lessons derived from a single case, emphasizing governance capacity, tariff risk management, regulatory adaptability, and demand-oriented system design. Full article

Fiscal capacity is a core dimension of state capacity. Effective oversight of public expenditure is therefore essential for fiscal sustainability, a foundational element of sustainable development. As local government debt has steadily increased in China, participatory budgeting has emerged as an innovative mechanism for citizens to exercise such oversight and influence fiscal decisions. Our paper examines the effect of participatory budgeting on local government debt in China. Using a panel dataset covering 242 Chinese cities from 2013 to 2022, we examine the effect of participatory budgeting adoption on the scale of explicit government debt. Our results show that adopting participatory budgeting moderately reduces local government debt levels. Further mechanism analysis indicates that participatory budgeting operates through two channels. First, by enhancing budgetary transparency, it strengthens public scrutiny, which in turn disciplines government borrowing. Second, it redirects public spending toward welfare sectors like education and health, thereby crowding out large, debt-financed investment projects. Our findings contribute to the literature on participatory budgeting, fiscal democracy, and bottom-up accountability in public finance. The results suggest that participatory budgeting can be an effective policy tool for improving fiscal discipline and curbing government debt risks, ultimately fostering more sustainable and equitable local governance. Full article

Intergovernmental transfers play a crucial role in shaping the fiscal position of local governments, especially in countries where municipalities, such as those in Poland, exhibit a high dependence on central funding. Recent reforms and the increasing reliance on discretionary revenues transferred from the central budget have motivated a closer examination of how these instruments influence local fiscal sustainability. This article analyses how different types of transfers—general subsidies and targeted grants—affect the fiscal sustainability of Polish municipalities across several dimensions, including autonomy, solvency, efficiency and economic resilience. Using panel data, five sets of models test the crowding-out effect, developmental impact, pro-cyclicality, fiscal discipline, and fiscal replacement mechanisms. Results show that general subsidies crowd out local tax revenues, particularly in less developed municipalities, while targeted grants strengthen the tax base in rural areas. Transfers have mixed effects: targeted grants strongly stimulate investment and support local development but tend to increase debt; general subsidies weaken local tax capacity and reduce fiscal autonomy, although they improve short-term fiscal discipline. In municipalities with limited fiscal independence, transfers act as short-term compensatory tools, fostering dependence on state aid rather than self-reliance. A macroeconomic crowding-out effect also appears, as higher transfers reduce private sector resources. Regarding fiscal discipline, equalization and compensatory subsidies decrease debt levels, whereas targeted grants can raise debt in urban municipalities with co-financing obligations. General subsidies show fiscal replacement effects, substituting local revenue sources. The findings provide insights for designing transfer systems that balance financial support with incentives for local autonomy and sustainable development. Full article

Physical climate risks significantly raise financing costs for China’s local government debt, with compound extremes posing a particularly severe threat. Analyzing 19,761 Local Government Financing Vehicle (LGFV) bonds from 2014 to 2023, this study uses extreme temperature and precipitation days to proxy for climate risk. Results show that the individual risks and the compound risk comprised of the two significantly increase bond issuance spreads. Crucially, the economic impact is dramatically amplified when risks compound, as with “heavy rainfall accompanied by extreme heat”, reflecting investor pricing of non-linear climate impacts. For a typical bond, a 1% increase in extreme temperature days raises interest costs by approximately CNY 6840. These conclusions withstand a series of robustness checks, including the reconstruction of climate threats using a regional exposure index. Mechanism tests confirm that heightened local fiscal risks and deteriorating debt sustainability are key transmission channels. The study underscores the urgent need to integrate physical climate risk into public financial management to safeguard sustainable development. Full article

This study explores the comparative employment laws related to migrant worker protection in Indonesia and Malaysia, with a focus on the socioeconomic inequalities faced by migrant workers in both countries. The study identifies key challenges in law enforcement, including migrant workers’ vulnerability to exploitation, poor recruitment procedures, and limited access to adequate legal education and information. A qualitative–interpretive methodology is used to explore in-depth issues related to employment laws and the socio-economic conditions of migrant workers. The study shows that Indonesia’s decentralized system results in fragmented and inconsistent law enforcement across regions, exacerbated by weak institutional capacity, legal gaps, and bureaucratic inefficiencies. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s centralized but pro-employer governance prioritizes economic growth over labor rights, leaving migrant workers—especially in the domestic and informal sectors—exposed to exploitation, wage discrimination, debt bondage, and limited access to social protection. To address these inequalities, bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and Malaysia is needed, including stronger law enforcement and equal protection for local and migrant workers. The study’s key finding is that these institutional weaknesses not only perpetuate migrant workers’ vulnerability, but also deepen structural socioeconomic inequalities between workers, agents, and employers. The study underscores the need for stronger law enforcement, formalization of the informal sector, harmonization with international labor conventions, and stronger bilateral cooperation. This study contributes to labor law studies and policy debates by offering insights into the institutional reforms necessary for more equitable and sustainable migrant worker governance in Southeast Asia. Full article

The growing importance of local governments, alongside the swift development of their bond markets, provides a novel framework for examining the coordination of monetary and local government fiscal policies in China. This investigation contributes a new viewpoint on local fiscal sustainability by emphasizing the role of policy coordination. Empirical evidence derived from regression models and proxy structural vector autoregression (Proxy SVAR) analyses conducted in this study substantiates the presence of coordination between monetary and local government fiscal policies in China; nevertheless, such coordination may pose risks to long-term local fiscal sustainability. Drawing on empirical data, this study utilizes a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model that integrates key features characteristic of the Chinese economy to investigate the coordination of monetary and local government fiscal policies, as well as the effects of this coordination on local fiscal sustainability. The results derived from the baseline model indicate that although monetary and local fiscal policies in China are coordinated, such coordination facilitates the accumulation of local government debt, which ultimately compromises long-term local fiscal sustainability. Furthermore, the baseline model is extended and examined through multiple analytical approaches. When local government competition is introduced, monetary policy and local government fiscal policy become disconnected, which undermines local fiscal sustainability. Conversely, when local government cooperation is introduced, monetary policy and local government fiscal policy become more coordinated, which in turn improves local fiscal sustainability. Moreover, a higher steady-state debt level among local governments promotes greater coordination between monetary and fiscal policies, resulting in stronger fiscal sustainability. However, the imposition of debt constraints on local governments diminishes this coordination and adversely affects local fiscal sustainability. Additionally, in the absence of local financial friction, monetary and local fiscal policies exhibit increased coordination; however, this may potentially undermine long-term local fiscal sustainability. It is therefore imperative for the central government of China to prioritize the harmonization of monetary and local fiscal policies and to consider their implications for local fiscal sustainability, while simultaneously encouraging intergovernmental cooperation and the establishment of an integrated large-scale market. Full article

Government debt can potentially enhance high-quality economic development, yet its effects and risks diverge substantially under the interplay of scale economies and diseconomies. Against the backdrop of the 20th CPC Central Committee’s Third Plenary Session, which emphasized coordinated development-security integration and local debt risk resolution, this study investigates the debt-development nexus through the lens of dual-scale economies in explicit/implicit local government debt. We innovatively incorporate resource allocation efficiency and investment levels as mediating factors. Empirical results demonstrate the following: (1) An inverted U-shaped relationship between local debt scale and economic development quality during two debt rectification periods, with implicit debt exhibiting a more pronounced curvilinear pattern; (2) Both resource allocation efficiency and investment levels significantly moderate the scale economies of explicit/implicit debt, yet paradoxically constrain development quality. Key obstacles include short-term adjustment costs, income disparity, and innovation suppression. Notably, while government debt currently operates within scale economies, implicit debt possesses greater borrowing capacity than explicit debt. Debt-driven economies of scale exhibit significant regional heterogeneity. In coastal areas, these effects are more sustainable, whereas in inland areas it is relatively weak. Policy implications suggest the following: (1) Recognizing debt’s nonlinear developmental impacts; (2) Optimizing resource allocation to improve investment quality; (3) Clarifying central-local fiscal responsibility demarcation; (4) A regionally differentiated collaborative strategy is needed for coordinating debt, investment, and resource allocation. Full article

As China pursues sustainable development goals, the rapid accumulation of local government debt raises questions about its impact on economic inequality. Inequality represents a key dimension of sustainability and a core challenge for developing economies. Our paper examines how city-level local government debt influences economic inequality in China. Using a dataset of 1680 city-year observations from 2015 to 2020, we analyze the relationship between local government debt ratios and the Gini coefficient derived from nighttime light intensity data. Our results show that as local government debt rises, urban economic inequality falls. Further mechanism analysis suggests that debt-financed investment reduces inequality through the development of infrastructure, industrial parks and logistics facilities. Our findings contribute to the literature on local government debt, economic inequality, and the political economy of local government behavior in China. Our results suggest that debt-financed investments may serve as a tool for fostering more equitable and sustainable development. Full article

Housing prices have recently risen sharply in many countries, primarily linked to the global credit cycle. Although various factors play a role, the ability of developing countries to navigate this cycle and maintain autonomous monetary policies is crucial. This paper introduces a dynamic macroeconomic model featuring a housing production sector within an imperfect banking framework. It captures key housing and economic dynamics in advanced and emerging economies. The analysis shows domestic liquidity policies, such as bank capital requirements, reserve ratios, and currency devaluation, can stabilize investment and production. However, their effectiveness depends on foreign interest rates and liquidity. Stabilizing housing prices and risk-free bonds is more effective in high-interest environments, while foreign liquidity shocks have asymmetric impacts. They can boost or lower the effectiveness of domestic policy, depending on the country’s level of financial development. These findings have several policy implications. For example, foreign capital controls would be adequate in the short term but not in the long term. Instead, governments would try to promote the development of local financial markets. Controlling debt should be a target for macroprudential policy as well as promoting saving instruments other than real estate, especially during low interest rates. Full article

To promote the deepening of reform and the effective implementation of policies, the State Council launched the special supervision of the liquidation of local governments’ arrears in project funds in 2016, which supports the optimization of the government debt structure. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the special supervision action, in this study, we use the difference-in-difference (DID) method to investigate the effect and mechanism of the optimization of the government debt structure on the financing constraints of private enterprises. This research is particularly relevant for private enterprises, which face acute financing challenges and are critical for promoting inclusive economic growth, employment, and innovation—key pillars of sustainable development. The results are as follows. Firstly, the special supervision significantly reduces the financing constraints of private enterprises. Secondly, it has heterogeneous effects on the financing constraints of different types of enterprises, and the alleviating effect is particularly significant for enterprises that rely on the funding support of local governments. This highlights the importance of institutional reforms in fostering equitable access to financial resources for vulnerable enterprise groups such as private enterprises. Thirdly, the optimization of the government debt structure eases enterprises’ financing constraints by improving their capital turnover and trade credit. By enhancing liquidity and creditworthiness, these changes create a more resilient financial environment for private enterprises, supporting their long-term development and contribution to sustainable economic systems. Full article

Promoting structural deleveraging is a key strategy for China to reduce high debt levels and mitigate systemic financial risks. In this context, the deleveraging of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has become a national strategic priority. This study explores whether enhancing the quality of internal control as an internal governance mechanism can facilitate the deleveraging process of SOEs. Using a sample of A-share state-owned listed companies from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges (2009–2023) and based on resource-based theory and signaling theory, we examine the impact and mechanisms through which internal control quality influences SOE leverage reduction. Our results demonstrate that higher internal control quality significantly promotes deleveraging in SOEs, and these findings remain robust after conducting endogeneity tests and employing alternative model specifications. Improved internal control mitigates resource misallocation and encourages firms to adopt two primary strategies: debt reduction (through short-term liability repayment and retained earnings) and equity expansion. However, the positive effect diminishes as Research and Development (R&D) intensity increases, reflecting the trade-off between innovation-driven growth and financial stability. Further heterogeneity analyses reveal that the deleveraging effect is more pronounced in local SOEs and over-indebted SOEs, as enhanced internal control helps eliminate non-performing liabilities. This study contributes to the literature on the economic consequences of internal control and provides empirical insights for policymakers seeking to optimize the capital structures of SOEs. Full article

This study investigates the impact of local government debt levels on the behavior of individual firms, which is crucial for understanding the systemic risks associated with local government debt and fostering economic vitality. Using data from publicly listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges between 2013 and 2022, this study empirically examines the effect of local government debt on corporate innovation quality. The findings demonstrate that local government debt expansion has a significant negative impact on corporate innovation quality. The negative impact remains robust across endogeneity tests and multiple robustness checks. Channel analysis indicates that as local government debt increases, innovation subsidies and procurement funding led toward firms’ decline, while both tax and non-tax revenue demands indicated firm increases. This resource reallocation contributes to the observed decline in corporate innovation quality. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that regions with lower levels of government intervention and fiscal pressure exhibit a smaller negative effect of local government debt on innovation quality. Finally, examining the economic outcomes reveals that the decline in innovation quality, resulting from current local debt expansion, significantly reduces total factor productivity and firm value in the subsequent year, posing challenges for sustainable corporate development. Full article

In the process of government management, officials may engage in rent-creation and rent-seeking within finance and debt management for personal gain, leading to corruption and jeopardizing government debt sustainability. Can anti-corruption effectively ameliorate this predicament? Based on the growing severity of global debt sustainability, 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China are used as research samples to explore the influence of China’s anti-corruption campaign targeting officials on local government debt sustainability and the moderating role of fiscal transparency. The results indicate that enhancing anti-corruption efforts will improve the sustainability of local government debt, while fiscal transparency will magnify this positive impact. Furthermore, regional heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that, in developed regions, the impact of anti-corruption on debt sustainability and the moderating impact of fiscal transparency have been bolstered by effective policy implementation. Our research findings not only unveil the influence of anti-corruption on local government debt sustainability and the crucial role of fiscal transparency, but also offer fresh insights to enable local government authorities to manage debt sustainably. Full article

Studies have argued that water risk affects corporate sustainability, but few of them have fully explored whether or not and how water resources have a direct impact on corporate finance and strategy. This study takes the listed companies in the Chinese A-share market from 2019 to 2023 as a sample to understand the threat of water vulnerability to corporate sustainability from the perspective of capital cost. This study argues that water vulnerability positively relates to corporate capital cost by increasing corporate financing constraints. Meanwhile, this study also examines the role of water regulation and water investment in the relationship between water vulnerability and corporate capital cost. Water regulation brings legitimate pressure to corporations and increases the transformation risks faced by them, so it has a positive moderating effect. Water investment can alleviate the vulnerability of local water resources and reduce the physical water risk faced by corporations, so it has a negative moderating effect. The study finds that the two measures mainly play a significant moderating effect on the cost of debt. In addition, the study finds that the positive relationship between water vulnerability and capital cost has industrial and firm-level heterogeneity, while the moderating effect of government water governance has only industrial heterogeneity. Full article