The paper presents the results of a study that attempts to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental performance (EP) by constructing a panel quantile regression model. Based on panel data from 1990 to 2014, this study contributes to evaluate the EP of each of the 40 countries using a directional slack-based model considering undesirable output. Our findings reveal several key conclusions: first, FDI has an insignificant influence on EP for the full sample. Second, the impact of FDI on EP between developed and developing countries exists heterogeneity. Furthermore, there is heterogeneity regarding the effect of FDI on EP at different quantiles of EP in developed countries. Specifically, in the developed countries, the effect is statistically insignificant at the lower quantile of EP, then it turns significantly positive at the middle and high quantile, and the positive effect rises with the increase of quantiles of EP. Finally, based on the conclusions of quantitative analysis, some important policy recommendations are proposed: different governments ought to enact different strategies for the introduction of FDI, according to different development situations of different countries.

This paper aims to explore the dynamic relationships between the crude oil price (shocks) and investor sentiment. Specifically, this paper utilizes web crawler to construct Chinese investor sentiment index. The structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model is then used to decompose the crude oil price shocks into three types of oil price shocks. Finally, the wavelet coherence analysis (WTC) is employed to study the dynamic correlation between crude oil price (shocks) and investor sentiment in the time and frequency domain, and their asymmetric dynamic correlation under different trends of crude oil price. Using data from February 2013 to June 2021, our empirical results suggest the heterogeneous dynamic correlations and lead-lag relationships exist between crude oil price (shocks) and investor sentiment over different time and frequency domains. In addition, there are asymmetric dynamic correlations and lead–lag relationships between crude oil price (shocks) and investor sentiment under different trends of crude oil price.

How to promote renewable energy investment is central to energy transformation and green development. To take China’s “green credit guidelines” policy as a quasi-natural experiment, we investigate the impacts of green credit policy on renewable energy investment. Using the samples of 1021 Chinese listed enterprises during 2007–2017, we find that: Firstly, the introduction of the green credit guidelines has promoted renewable energy investment. Secondly, short-term debts play a mediating role in the impacts of green credit guidelines on renewable energy investment, while long-term debts play a masking role, and financing constraints do not play a significant role. Thirdly, the heterogeneous impacts on renewable energy investment are reflected in different ownerships and enterprise scales, with significant impacts on the state-owned enterprises and small ones.

The paper presents the results of a study that attempts to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on energy intensity by constructing panel regression model and panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model. Based on panel data from 1990 to 2014, this study contributes to conduct the impact of FDI on energy intensity from the perspective of emerging country, including BRICS and non-BRICS countries, and investigates the channels of influence of FDI on energy intensity. Besides that, we intend to employ the PSTR model to reveal the nonlinear mechanism of FDI on energy intensity. Our findings reveal several key conclusions: first, FDI exerts insignificant impact on energy intensity in the emerging countries. Second, the impact of FDI on energy intensity is heterogeneous between BRICS and non-BRICS countries. Third, innovation capacity plays various moderating effects on the relationship of FDI and energy intensity among different types of emerging countries. Furthermore, the nonlinear mechanism of FDI on energy intensity is realized with industrial structure as the transition variable, which plays a different effect on the impact of FDI on energy intensity between different samples.

This paper explores the effects and mechanisms of corporate financialization on corporate environmental responsibility (CER), using panel regression and the panel quantile regression model. The data is from 484 Chinese A-share non-financial listed companies, over the period 2008–2015. Some valuable results were achieved, as follows. Firstly, corporate financialization has a significantly negative impact on CER. We attribute this fact to the hard constraint of shareholder value maximization and the soft constraint of CER by taking an extrinsic analysis. Moreover, this negative impact shows heterogeneity. As the CER level increases, the remarkable restraint taken by the corporate financialization on CER is gradually weakened. This results in the corporation aiming not only at the shareholder value maximization, but also at the social effect, rather than only the former. In addition, the effect of the moderating role played by corporate leverage and ownership concentration in the influence of corporate financialization on the CER is captured in different kinds of corporations, while different performances are shown.

Understanding heterogeneous impact and mechanisms between national income and mental health are crucial to develop prevention and intervention strategies. Based on panel data from 2007 to 2017, this study explores the heterogeneous impact of national income on different types of mental health. Then, it analyzes the heterogeneous impact among countries with different income levels. Furthermore, the heterogeneous moderating effects of national income on mental health mechanisms are elaborated and the findings reveal several key conclusions: firstly, national income exerts a heterogeneous impact on different types of mental health. Rising national income is conducive to increase people’s happiness and reduce their prevalence of anxiety disorders, but it increases the prevalence of depression disorders. Secondly, national income has a heterogeneous impact on different types of mental health among countries with different income levels. Furthermore, the heterogeneous influence mechanism of national income on mental health is mainly reflected in different types of mental health. Unemployment, social support and freedom can moderate the relationship between national income and depression, while social support, positive affect and negative affect can moderate the relationship between national income and anxiety. Finally, based on the conclusions of quantitative analysis, some important policy recommendations are proposed for policy makers.