To investigate whether increasing trade openness results in more severe environmental problems, this study investigates the impact of trade openness on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using panel data from 64 countries along the Belt and Road from 2001–2019. Fully considering the potential heterogeneity, the panel quantile regression approach is utilized. Moreover, this study explores the three major mediating effects of the process, namely the energy-substitution effect, economic effect, and technology effect. The empirical results indicate that the improvement in trade openness has a significantly positive effect on CO2 emissions, and it also shows that the impact varies with different levels of CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the indirect effect of trade openness on CO2 emissions via the economic effect is positive, while the indirect effect via the energy-substitution and the technology effect is negative. Therefore, it is necessary to improve renewable energy consumption, decrease energy intensity, and formulate related policies to reduce carbon emissions policies in terms of local conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between household savings and subjective wellbeing (SWB) using data from the China Household Finance Survey conducted in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. The results indicate that the association between household savings and SWB is nonlinear, showing an inverted U-shape, which implies that there may be an optimal amount of household savings to maximize SWB. Furthermore, this study explores the heterogeneity of different groups and finds that the optimal amounts of household savings vary among subsamples in terms of region, income, age, and risk attitude. These findings have implications for consumer educators and policymakers when they help consumers to make rational saving decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between FinTech payments and consumer financial satisfaction with cashless payments using data from the 2017 China Household Finance Survey. This study defines computer payment and mobile terminal payment using a cell phone or pad as payments with FinTech. The results indicate that payments with FinTech are positively associated with financial satisfaction with cashless payments. Furthermore, this result holds in the eastern and central groups of China, but not in the western group, where payments with FinTech are not associated with financial satisfaction with cashless payments. Similarly, the positive association does not hold for consumers with low financial literacy. Moreover, analyses on the mediating effects imply that payments with FinTech play roles through three perceived mediators. Specifically, payments with FinTech help increase consumers’ perceived convenience and perceived popularity as well as reduce perceived risk, which eventually improves financial satisfaction with cashless payments. These findings have implications for consumer policymakers, such as improving the development of FinTech, noticing the heterogeneity in terms of location, and guiding consumers to correctly understand the risks associated with FinTech. Surrounding this issue, future studies may also explore other mediators related to psychology and expand the connotation of Fintech from payments with FinTech to lending and portfolio investments with FinTech.

Purpose Improvements in the facilitation of foreign direct investment (FDI) through institutional quality play a significant role in the establishment of an open economy. However, the impact of institutional quality on the facilitation of FDI along the Belt and Road countries is not well explored. This study aims to empirically investigate the influence of institutional quality on the degree of FDI facilitation and explore the impact mechanism using national-level panel data from countries along the Belt and Road. Design/methodology/approach For the data set, all variables have been normalized, and principal component analysis has been used. For the empirical models, robust standard errors and dynamic GMM method have been used to alleviate heteroscedasticity and endogeneity. Findings The empirical results indicate that institutional quality has a significantly positive effect on the degree of FDI facilitation. Furthermore, the impact mechanism involves the mediating mechanism. In other words, the effect of institutional quality that promotes FDI facilitation is influenced by factors such as laws and regulations. In addition, the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has significantly enhanced the promotional effect of institutional quality on the facilitation of FDI. Practical implications Policymakers should focus on improving the institutional quality and the influence of mediating mechanisms, such as policies and regulations, in the institutional environment. Originality/value This study contributes to extant literature on the impact of institutional quality on FDI facilitation of significance to China, the BRI countries, and other countries to facilitate openness in international investment. This study also contributes to the extant literature on the influence of the BRI on the development of BRI countries. This will inform policy makers, investment institutions and enterprises about the development of effective policies to aid the development of BRI countries and improve the efficiency and the returns on FDI.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of institutional quality on foreign direct investment (FDI) using panel data of 117 countries around the world from the period of 2001 to 2018. To enhance the accuracy of the estimation results, this study includes various statistical tests to select the estimation method that best fits the sampling data used in this study. Furthermore, while the robust standard error is applied to correct the problem of heteroscedasticity, this study addresses the potential endogeneity problem by system GMM estimation. The results indicate that the improvement in institutional quality significantly and positively contributes to FDI. More importantly, the results also reveal that economic integration has improved the role of institutional quality, indicating that the promotional effects of institutional quality on FDI are greater in economic integration areas. The results also suggest that the launch of China’s Belt and Road Initiative has greatly enhanced the promotional effects of institutional quality on FDI. The findings of this study offer policy implications for policymakers to take measures to improve institutional quality and thereby to enhance FDI and further accelerate the formation of economic integration in a more sustainable way.