Executive agencies play a pivotal role in shaping the regulatory environment by crafting rules, enforcing regulations, and overseeing government contracts—all of which can have a profound impact on businesses. For firms, this potential impact creates a clear incentive for firms to influence these agencies, particularly during the critical stages of rulemaking and enforcement. In this context, lobbying emerges as a key tool that companies use to mold the regulatory landscape to their advantage. Unlike politicians, whose decisions are often swayed by electoral cycles and campaign contributions, agency officials are not elected, serve longer terms, and are less susceptible to direct

Prof. Shipeng Yan and Ms. Runjia Zhang used Tencent’s “AI Corpus for good” and Ant Group’s “Blue Vest social good campaign” as case studies for top digital companies’ practices in helping the elderly. They advocate for digital companies to understand the needs of the elderly through social cooperation and emphasize the importance of understanding their psychological characteristics to design products with emotional connection. At the same time, through education and social services, improve their digital literacy and awareness of fraud prevention. Let our seniors enjoy the convenience brought by technology safely and confidently!

The structure of global supply chains has been undergoing continuous transformation, driven by nations’ economic development, evolving economic policies, technological advancements, and, more recently, domestic and global geopolitical dynamics. Managing these supply chains is inherently complex, encompassing upstream activities like product design, research and development, midstream manufacturing and production, and downstream processes such as sales and post-sales services for consumers.

The Mandatory Provident Fund has served Hong Kong citizens for nearly 25 years. Soon, Hong Kong will launch the e-MPF, integrating disparate savings schemes into a single digital system. This presents a well-timed opportunity to drastically improve Hong Kong’s primary retirement savings system. This paper provides empirical examination of the MPF’s performance and fee structure, […]

Climate change presents huge challenges for financial markets. How should firm-level exposure to climate change be measured? Does a risk premium for climate change exposure exist? If so, how does it evolve over time? Which underlying climate-related economic variables drive this risk premium? In light of these challenging questions, significant resources have been allocated to develop the area of climate finance to better grasp how the transition to a low-carbon economy affects financial markets. This paper provides additional evidence to understand more fully how climate-related risks and opportunities affect stock returns.

Hong Kong’s economy is facing a series of significant challenges, including an ongoing fiscal deficit, not being able to fully leverage the composite advantages of the Greater Bay Area, a shrinking middle class, and a drain of international talent.

In recent years, fiscal deficits have emerged as a significant new challenge for the Hong Kong government. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the slowdown in global economic growth, and heightened uncertainties have led to a substantial decline in Hong Kong’s fiscal revenues.

This paper explores green activist investing, whereby environmentally driven activists launch campaigns to promote green shareholder proposals aimed at reducing firms’ environmental impacts. Before 2017, such proposals were rare and seldom supported by large institutional investors. However, since 2020, their number has surged, averaging 55 per year, ranging from 30 in 2020 to 96 in 2023, with a variable success rate averaging 17%. The success of green proposals hinges on proxy votes by pivotal voters, mainly large institutional shareholders, who hold significant stakes across many firms. Together, BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard alone own the largest shares in 75% of