Li Haifeng

This paper empirically examines the impacts of household debt and　leverage ratio, measured by the ratio of aggregate household debt to GDP, on consumption using provincial-level macro-data in China. Results show that household indebtedness has a positive and significant effect on consumption expenditure and this remains true for both household debt and leverage ratio, as well as long-term and short-term debts and leverage ratios, and the encouraging effects are heterogeneous across regions. When the debt-to-GDP ratio is below 100%, the consumption experiences faster growth than that when the debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds 100%. In addition, residents’ saving, per capita disposal income and the public expenditure on education, social security, as well as medical and health services are found to have significant positive effects on consumption, while CPI and child dependency ratio have depressive effects.

As income levels increase, numerous households will consider investing in risky assets. Credit availability, especially for high-income households, is playing an increasingly important role in enhancing households holdings of risky assets (HHRA). The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of credit availability on HHRA. In this study, the data from the China Household Finance Survey in 2017 is utilized, and the approach of logit regression is employed to produce more accurate estimates. Meanwhile, this study also explores the heterogeneous roles of household income. The results show that the impact of credit availability on HHRA varies by household income. As household income increases from low to high, the effect of credit availability on HHRA transfers from negative to positive. Besides, the results also suggest that for high-income households, credit availability moderated with the attention to financial and economic information positively contributes to HHRA. Thus, it implies that policymakers and financial institutions are encouraged to expand access for households to invest in risky assets, enhance households’ availability of credit, and build more financing channels.

The establishment of the environmental protection law reflects the Chinese government's determination to achieve ecological civilization. Since January 1, 2015, when the revised Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China came into effect, environmental public interest litigation in China has been rapidly growing. In the implementation of environmental law, environmental public interest litigation plays an irreplaceable role. The mechanism of environmental public interest litigation will ideally enhance the effectiveness and prevention of environmental protection and become a major contributor to public awareness of environmental protection. Despite the fact that environmental public interest litigation in China has made great progress, there are still many shortcomings and defects. One of the major difficulties facing environmental public interest litigation in China is the lack of standing of plaintiffs in environmental public interest litigation. This paper will explore the necessity of plaintiff status for environmental public interest litigation in China's grassroots self-governance organizations based on the situation of environmental pollution in rural China, using village committees as an example.