Journal of Economics and Public Finance (JEPF) is an international open-access journal published by Scholink. The aim of JEPF is to provide a platform for academics and practitioners all over the world to share latest advancements in different areas of economics and finance. We would welcome scholars and researchers engaging in the related field to submit your manuscripts to JEPF. Both of online submission and E-mail submission (jepf@scholink.org) are acceptable. JEPF is dedicated to publishing high quality theoretical and empirical manuscripts studies in the field of economics and finance, which covers, but is not limited to the following areas: International Economics Economic Growth Public Finance Corporate Finance Economic Indicators Economic Policies Industrial Economics Financial Contracts Financial Engineering Financial Institutions Financial Management Financial Markets Index/List Academic Journal Articles Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) CiteFactor CNKI Scholar CrossRef Directory of Research Journals Indexing (DRJI) EconBid EconPapers Electronic Journals Library (EZB) Globethics.net IDEAS Journalseek JournalTOCs OCLC- WorldCat Open J-Gate Publons Refseek Academic Search Engine ResearchBib Scientific Indexing Service (SIS) The Scientific Literature Database (Scilit) Standard Periodical Directory WZB Library Open access: Journal of Economics and Public Finance is available online to the reader "without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself." Peer review: Journal of Economics and Public Finance takes peer review policy. Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to the producers of the work (peers).
Authors who publish with this journal must agree to the following terms: Copyrights for articles published in our are retained by the authors. Authors should promise that their works are entirely original, and all the references in their works should be appropriately cited or quoted. The works have not been published previously. The behavior of submitting the same work to other journals is unacceptable. The journal editor has the right to edit the format of works.
Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Stock Market Returns
Focusing on the prediction of CSI 300 Index returns, this empirical study employs a hybrid CNN-LSTM-Attention model. The model integrates the strengths of CNN for local feature extraction, LSTM for temporal dependency modelling, and the Attention mechanism for key information focus, effectively capturing the multi-scale characteristics of financial data. Comparative experimental results demonstrate that multivariate models achieve superior fitting performance compared to univariate models, with the hybrid model outperforming either single model. This research validates the application value of deep learning models in financial time series forecasting, providing a novel approach for stock return prediction and offering reference for quantitative analysis and decision-making in financial markets.
Copyright (c) 2026 Yuqian Zhou, Liang Wang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The editorial board announced this article has been retracted on March 3, 2026. If you have any further question, please contact us at: jepf@scholink.org
Copyright (c) 2026 Rachel Ding http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Identification of Peer Effect in ESG Information Disclosure of Tourism Enterprises and Its Impact on Enterprise Value
Under the guidance of the "dual carbon" strategy, promoting ESG information disclosure to achieve the green and low-carbon transformation of enterprises has become a hot topic. This paper takes A-share tourism listed companies from 2011 to 2021 as the research object, identifies the peer effect of ESG information disclosure in tourism enterprises, and empirically examines its impact on enterprise value. The research finds that there is a peer effect in ESG information disclosure of tourism enterprises, and this effect can significantly enhance enterprise value. Further research shows that information transparency is an important transmission channel. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive effect of ESG information disclosure peer effect on enterprise value is more obvious in tourism enterprises with a high level of inbound tourism development, high industry competition, high marketization degree, and non-state-owned enterprises. The research conclusion enriches the relevant results and provides empirical evidence for enhancing the value of tourism enterprises.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jiajun Xu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The policy sciences, enquiring into the making and implementation of public decisions, has made several stunning findings that are highly relevant to the COP21 Agreement or Treaty if you so wish. They constitute the so-called “implementation gap” or the “hiatus of policy implementation”, analysed by late American Aaron Wildavsky and also Paul Sabatier. The enormous enthusiasm for the COP21 framework must be dampened when confronted with the lessons from policy implementation, especially in such an extremely decentralised approach taking place over so many years. But the signatories have to decide now how to halt the increase in greenhouse gases (GHG), especially the CO2:s in order to start decreasing them, hopefully (naively) to zero in 80 years. As the emergence of economically viable renewable energy is slow, the only quick solution is to remove coal as an energy source. That would resolve the star economist Jeffrey Sachs dilemma that decarbonisation would result in negative economic growth.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jan-Erik Lane http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Bridging Cultural Differences through Established Cross-Border Economic Relations
Purpose: the paper aims to investigate if the countries that conduct cross border investments and trade are transferring their own culture to the host countries. Methodology: culture was represented by book collections’ data selected by the digital library LibraryThing. In total 2,569 book-titles that represent the 50 top books of 52 country-groups have been used as the study’s sample. Author’s Nationality was set as the country of influence. Statistical analysis was employed to measure if the book collections of LT users were of foreigner-driven or homoethnic-driven authorship. Findings: the most industrialized countries and the best exporting countries were the best performers in culture transferring. Statistical significance with the amount of the books traded abroad was found to (i) the outward FDIs in millions of $ (p=0.004), (ii) the stock of outward FDIs in millions of $ (p<0.001), (iii) the outward FDIs as GDP percentage (p=0.004), and (v) the export volume index (p=0.011). Regression analysis showed that outward FDIs in mil. $ (p=0.016) and outward FDIs stock in mil. $ (p<0.001) were significant predictors of a country’s success to transfer its own cultural product abroad. Originality/value: this research is addressed to a tangible cultural output, books, issuing the objectiveness in measurements.
Copyright (c) 2026 Christina Laspa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Research on the Impact of Capital Market Opening on Idiosyncratic Stock Price Volatility
Based on data from the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Connect programs spanning 2016 to 2024, this paper takes the inclusion of A-shares in the MSCI index as an exogenous policy shock and employs a Difference-in-Differences approach to examine the impact of capital market opening on idiosyncratic stock price volatility. The results show that MSCI inclusion significantly reduces the idiosyncratic volatility of constituent stocks, with this effect being more pronounced in state-owned enterprises and exhibiting a distinct regional gradient of "central > eastern > western" China. Mechanism tests indicate that improved information transparency serves as the core transmission channel. This study provides new empirical evidence for understanding the micro-level stabilizing effects of emerging market liberalization.
Copyright (c) 2026 Qian Liu, Qizhen Luan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
How Financial Capability Protects Financial Well-Being during COVID-19: A Pre- and Post-Pandemic Analysis
Financial well-being represents both the material foundation and an essential component of overall household well-being. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019 significantly impacted a wide range of small and large business owners as well as wage earners across the United States, subsequently affecting the financial well-being of many households. In order to mitigate such adverse effects, this study aims to explore whether higher financial capability positively influences financial well-being. Consistent with findings from prior research on financial behavior, which suggest that stronger financial capability leads to improved financial well-being, this study further investigates the mediating effect of financial behavior. The analysis reveals that financial capability affects financial well-being indirectly through its influence on financial behavior. Moreover, a heterogeneity analysis shows that individuals with higher levels of education tend to possess stronger financial capability, which in turn leads to differences in financial well-being. Additional analyses suggest that financial capability serves as a necessary condition for achieving financial well-being.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ziang Wang, Mingyang Song http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Impact of Digital Economy Development in Belt and Road Countries on China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment
This paper selects 43 countries along the Belt and Road from 2003 to 2022 as the research sample, incorporates the level of digital economy development into an investment gravity model, and empirically examines its impact on China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). The results show that, first, the level of digital economy development in host countries significantly promotes the growth of China’s OFDI, indicating that the digital economy has become an important locational factor affecting the cross-border flow of Chinese capital. Second, from the perspective of sub-dimensions, digital infrastructure development, digital economy competitiveness, and the digital innovation environment all have positive effects on China’s OFDI, among which digital infrastructure plays the most prominent role. Third, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that the promoting effect of the digital economy on China’s OFDI varies significantly across regions, being more pronounced in West Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, while remaining relatively limited in Central Asia and Mongolia as well as ASEAN countries. Fourth, the mechanism analysis shows that digital economy development can significantly improve host countries’ human capital levels and enhance cross-border trade facilitation, thereby providing possible transmission channels for the growth of China’s OFDI. Therefore, China should strengthen cooperation with Belt and Road countries in digital infrastructure construction to unleash the potential of digital economy development; accelerate the internationalization of enterprises and provide high-quality digital technology products to host countries; adopt differentiated investment strategies and establish a digital risk assessment framework for host countries; and seize policy opportunities to cultivate talent with high levels of digital literacy.
Copyright (c) 2026 Xuezhi Wang, Lijiang Sun http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Research on Pricing Decisions for Shared Manufacturing Services in a Digital Service Context
With the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, digital service transformation has become a key pathway for driving the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing. As a typical manifestation of this trend, shared manufacturing is reshaping the traditional allocation model of production resources. However, in the digital service-oriented context, manufacturing services exhibit new characteristics such as high heterogeneity, demand uncertainty, and data-enabled value enhancement. These features make it difficult for traditional pricing mechanisms to effectively balance the interests among platforms, service providers, and demand parties, thereby constraining the sustainable development of the shared manufacturing ecosystem. Addressing this issue, this paper focuses on the pricing decision-making mechanism for shared manufacturing services in the digital service-oriented context.
Copyright (c) 2026 Xixi Wei http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Digital Finance Drives High-Quality Economic Development
It can be defined as the use of digital technologies by traditional financial institutions as well as web-based enterprises to facilitate financing, payments, investment, and other innovative financial business models. High-quality economic development aims at facilitating the shift of economy towards quality-driven growth through comprehensive reforms and innovations with the focus on sustainable development, social inclusion, innovation-based growth and environmental conservation. With constant developments in information technology moving rapidly, digital finance has become increasingly important to the world economy, and has become one of the most significant drivers of innovation in financial systems. Not only it helps to popularize financial services but also makes an important contribution to enhancing economic efficiency, optimizing the allocation of resources and promoting high-quality economic development. In this paper, it will discuss the present situation and tendencies of the development of digital finance, its position in ensuring the high-quality economic development, and will provide policy suggestions to make it more effective in this aim.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ruitong Liu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Digital Rural Governance and Its Impact on County-Level Farmer Income
This study uses panel data from 275 counties in China between 2018 and 2020 and applies a two-way fixed effects model to examine how digital rural governance affects farmers’ income. The results show that digital rural development significantly increases farmers’ income, and this finding remains consistent after replacing the dependent variable. Based on these results, the paper suggests a phased policy rollout, strengthening support systems, encouraging industrial integration, developing evaluation frameworks, and enhancing digital inclusion to promote high-quality digital rural governance in support of rural revitalization and shared prosperity.
Copyright (c) 2026 Meiling Li, Dehua Zhang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0