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This paper investigates whether female chief executive officers (CEOs) perform different level of tax avoidance behavior compared with male CEOs in China. We further examine whether female CEOs with political background/connection can transform the relation between gender and tax avoidance behavior. Using the total book-tax differences and permanent book-tax differences to measure the level of tax avoidance behavior following prior studies, we find that Chinese female CEOs perform the same level of tax avoidance behavior relative to their male counterparts. In addition, we find significant evidence that female CEOs with political background tend to conduct more tax avoidance activities relative to those female CEOs without political relation. These results are in contrast to a traditional western viewpoint that female managers have a higher risk aversion attitude.

This study aims to explore the influence of fiscal transparency on foreign direct investment (FDI, hereafter) in China under the consideration of the spatial dependence of FDI. The study adopts panel data for 30 provinces from 2010 to 2014 to estimate a one-way fixed-effect spatial Durbin model. The primary finding of this study is that a higher level of fiscal transparency will attract more FDI, while keeping other factors constant and considering the spatial dependence of FDI. Other explanatory variables, such as gross regional product and the density of railways, also have statistically significant influences on FDI. Consequently, this study suggests that the Chinese local governments should improve their fiscal transparency in order to attract more foreign capital and further stimulate their economic development as well as China’s economic growth as a whole.

Population aging and the middle-income trap are serious problems felt worldwide, especially in terms of their powerful influence on economic growth. In order to explore the relationships among population aging, middle-income trap, and economic growth, this study uses a panel data of 27 economies in Asia from 1995 to 2016. The primary finding of this study is that lower-middle-income economies are facing the problem of middle-income trap, indicating that the economic growth rates of lower-middle-income economies are slowing down. In addition, population aging has a statistically significant and negative influence on the growth rate of GDP in the high-income economies, but it has a statistically significant and positive influence on the growth rate of GDP in the low-income and lower-middle-income economies. This study suggests that increasing women’s labor participation, technology innovation, and immigration could solve the problems of population aging and the middle-income trap.

Since the economic consequences of a low fertility rate, such as a change in consumption patterns, might affect the path of economic growth, this study investigates how the relationship between the low fertility rate and consumption behavior in Taiwan has changed over time. Using county-level panel data from 1995 to 2014 to examine the impact of the low fertility rate on the consumption behavior of households in Taiwan, the major finding of this study is that a low fertility rate will change the behavior and the composition of consumption. A low fertility rate will increase the share of the total consumption expenditure in a household’s disposable income, in particular, in relation to the consumption categories of food, health care, education, and transportation and communication, but will decrease the share of expenditure on clothing in the household’s disposable income.