This paper studies an optimal consumption–portfolio problem for an agent with the recursive utility. Chapter 1 focuses on the setting of large numbers of factors and assets. We first characterize optimal consumption-portfolio strategies by forward-backward stochastic differential equations. We propose a new approach based on deep neural networks (DNN), which allows us to solve optimal strategies in a financial market that is comprised of multiple assets efficiently. The accuracy of the new approach is tested by comparing it to the analytical solution when a closed-form solution is available. The efficiency is tested by solving a large-scale problem consisting of dozens of assets. In Chapter 2, we impose a trading constraint on the total position of the portfolio and prove that the DNN based method can also converge to the optimal solution with trading constraints. Based on these results, we provide concrete results about consumption-portfolio plans when trading constraints exist.

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News are the direct channel through which most investors learn about fundamental changes, hence news publishing should have a large impact on asset pricing. However, current literature mostly focuses on the sentiment contained by news and how would it affect investors behavior. The objective of this dissertation, instead, is to study the fundamental information about links between assets that is disclosed in news. Moreover, in an equilibrium where investors delegate their information choices to news editors, the partial coverage decisions on such information can unveil the current economy condition and the co-movement between assets. Chapter 2 shows that the business news is a rich source of data on distressed firm links that drive firm-level and aggregate risks. The news tends to report about links in which a less popular firm is distressed and may contaminate a more popular firm. This constitutes a contagion channel that yields predictable returns and downgrades. Shocks to the degree of news-implied firm connectivity predict increases in aggregate volatilities, credit spreads, and default rates, and declines in output. Chapter 3 further shows that peer linkages instead can be found in news on cryptocurrencies. Such linkages induce significant price co-movement in crypto markets in excess of common risk factors and correlated demand shocks. When large abnormal return shocks hit one crypto, its peers experience unusually large abnormal returns of the opposite sign. These effects are primarily concentrated among smaller peers and revert after several weeks, resulting in predictable returns. Trading strategies can be developed to exploit this reversal, and they are significantly profitable even after accounting for trading frictions. Chapter 4 on the other hand suggests that news editors have state-dependent preferences for different types of firms. Moreover, firms with high editor preference earn higher returns than those with low preferences, on average. This is consistent with the theory positing that if investors delegate their information selection to news editors, the state-dependent coverage decisions signal risky features and hence covered firms require more risk compensation. The annualized excess return of around 12% due to coverage cannot be explained by standard risk factors. This excess is also present among non-covered firms but is more short-lived.

The rural revitalization strategy has always been China's fundamental national policy, and the development of the agricultural economy has always attracted much attention. At present, the industrialization and large-scale development of China's agriculture has accelerated the process of agricultural modernization. At the same time, it has also spawned diversified technical needs, financial needs, and talent needs. However, as far as the current development of China's agricultural economy is concerned, there are specific gaps in the relevant reserves of the above three. For the development of modern agriculture in China, it is necessary to reserve a force to realize a step-by-step transformation. So, at different stages of industrial development, it is essential to weigh the proportion of investment in various elements such as technology, finance, and talents to ensure that agriculture develops steadily and achieves structural transformation. This paper expounds on its impact on agricultural economic growth from the four perspectives of technology, finance, education, and labor. First, this paper expounds on the research motivation and questions, and intends to explain its impact on the agricultural economy from the four perspectives. It also cites domestic and foreign literature and analyzes relevant agriculture research by Chinese and American scholars. Moreover, based on the above analysis, select the relevant data from 1991 to 2020, and use the time series model to carry out empirical regression from the four dimensions of technology, finance, education, and labor force. Through the VEC model, impulse response, and variance decomposition to further analyze the contribution rate of agricultural economic growth and technology, finance, education, and labor to agricultural economic growth. The result show that financial support for agriculture and the growth rate of the rural labor force have a more significant role in promoting the stable growth of agriculture, and the improvement of education and technological progress also have a certain degree of positive impact on the development of the agricultural economy. Therefore, it is essential to coordinate multiple resources and jointly promote China's agricultural economy's rapid and stable development. Finally, based on the above empirical and theoretical analysis, this paper gives corresponding policy recommendations. Key words: Technology, Finance, Talent, VEC Model / Business Administration/Finance

As the most important practical form of "mass entrepreneurship" and "mass innovation" in China, small and medium-sized enterprises are also the most dynamic part of China's economic form. China's national economic development and social progress cannot be separated from the strong growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. The larger the number of small and medium-sized enterprises, the stronger the competitiveness will be, representing the greater the prosperity of China's market economy, which is of great significance to reducing unemployment, increasing social welfare and narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. With the rise of Internet finance and logistics industry, blockchain technology is also developing, and the supply chain finance business is also gradually advancing. As an innovative financing and financial measure, supply chain financing makes full use of the transactions between small and medium-sized enterprises and the core enterprise credit to make up for the financing difficulties and deficiencies of small and medium-sized enterprises, and solves the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises through accounts receivable financing, prepayment financing and chattel pledge financing business. Supply chain financing Through logistics enterprises, core enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises industrial chain and supply chain, and based on the real business transactions of small and medium-sized enterprises and core enterprises, commercial banks reach a guarantee agreement with core enterprises, rating the main credit of the whole supply chain, and provide financing services for small and medium-sized enterprises. According to the preliminary study, supply chain financing has a certain mitigation effect on the financing of smes, which is due to the reduction of information asymmetry between banks and enterprises, and this reduction is due to the guarantee of core enterprises. Taking supply chain finance as the starting point, this paper discusses the effectiveness of supply chain finance strategy in the Chinese market through qualitative and quantitative research methods, focuses on the effectiveness of supply chain financing for the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises, and puts forward some policy suggestions on how to better develop China's supply chain finance. Key words: small and medium-sized enterprises; supply chain finance; financing; bank / Business Administration/Finance

Conservatism is comprised of the personal views of certain individuals and, in aggregate, of collective communities. In both cases, conservatism can have a substantial influence over a range of important behavior including household financial choices, corporate decisions, and economic policies. This dissertation will empirically examine the relationship between personal conservatism and stock market participation as well as community conservatism, board gender diversity, and innovation. In the first chapter, I investigate the impact of personal conservatism and stock market participation across three distinct measures: religious conservatism, fiscal conservatism, and political conservatism. We examine this relationship utilizing extensive IRS tax return data to gauge stock market participation along with publicly available religious, personal consumption expenditures, and voting data for our conservatism measures. Our results consistently show that personal conservatism has a highly statistically significant and positive impact on stock market participation across each of our unique conservatism variables or measures. Furthermore, the results presented are robust to various model specifications. The second chapter examines the relationship between board gender diversity and community conservatism. The focus of this analysis will be to assess the impact a firm’s surrounding community conservatism has on its board gender diversity. Results indicate that both types of conservatism, religious and political, in the community surrounding a firm’s headquarters have no influence on the gender diversity of firms’ corporate boards. These results are robust to using numerous alternative measures to capture board gender diversity. Our analysis also demonstrates how significant results for this relationship are potentially misleading as they are highly sensitive to sample selection and choice of fixed effects. In the third chapter, we examine how board gender diversity as well as community conservatism impact aspects of firm innovation through R&D intensity and patent activity. We find that both types of conservatism do not influence R&D intensity while higher levels of religious conservatism are generally associated with less patent activity. Additionally, our analysis consistently demonstrates that board gender diversity has no significant impact on levels of R&D intensity within a firm. However, results also show that higher levels of board gender diversity are associated with fewer patents. The robustness of these results is established by utilizing the exogenous shock from California’s board gender diversity law in addition to various alternative measures of board gender diversity. / Business Administration/Finance

This study analyzes the impact of digital currency on China’s monetary cost, money demand and supply, efficiency of tax collection and tax revenue growth rate. This study reveals that the evolution of the digital currency will reduce the demand for cash; can increase the money multiplier, which helps increase the money supply; and has a positive effect on the efficiency of tax collection and helps increase the tax revenue growth rate. Particularly, by dividing digital currency into card- and network-based, this study suggests that when the rate of digital monetization produces a positive impact, cash holding demand M0/M1 can respond negatively in the short term, and the impact is maximized within 1–3 periods (within one year), which lasts for a long term. The development of digital currency can increase the money multiplier, and the rates of both card- and network-based digital monetization are the Granger causes of the generalized money multiplier. When the change in digital monetization rate [D(EM1) and D(EM2)] generates a positive impact of standard deviation, the month-on-month growth rate of tax revenue in a given quarter can produce a positive reaction in the short term and improve the overall efficiency of tax collection. Key words: Digital Currency, Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, Money Multiplier, Cash, Tax / Business Administration/Finance

This dissertation has two chapters. Each empirically examines one finance topic. The first chapter focuses on behavioral finance. The second chapter focuses on corporate finance. The first chapter is motivated by inconclusive theoretical prediction and lack of empirical evidence on the effect of mood on trading volume. This chapter exploits repeated natural experiments from the occurrence of severe smog in Beijing to test the inertia hypothesis (Bad moods cause inactivity and inertia and thus decrease in trading volume) against the mood regulation hypothesis (Bad moods increase trading volume because investors use trading as a way to combat bad moods). Intra-day analysis in this chapter shows that smog in Beijing causes trading volume of stocks headquartered in Beijing to increase, which contradicts the inertia hypothesis. The effect is more pronounced among large stocks, which rules out the possibility that investors seek gambling thrill during smog. Additionally, the effect is more pronounced among low risk stocks, which reflects the risk aversion associated with depression among investors and supports the mood regulation theory. The second chapter is motivated by the fact that initial public offerings (IPOs) transform private firms into publicly traded ones, thereby improving liquidity of their shares. Better liquidity increases firm value, which I call “liquidity value”. I develop a model and hypothesize that issuers and IPO investors bargain over the liquidity value, resulting in a discounted offer price, i.e., IPO underpricing. Consistent with the model, I find that underpricing is positively related to the expected post-IPO liquidity of the issuer. The relation is stronger when firms are financed by venture capital investors, when the underwriter has more bargaining power, or when a smaller fraction of the firm is sold. I also explore two regulation changes as exogenous shocks to issuers’ liquidity before and after IPO, respectively. With a difference-in-difference approach, I find that underpricing is more pronounced with better expected post-IPO liquidity or lower pre-IPO liquidity. / Business Administration/Finance