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More recently, investors’ preference for green bonds is of particular interest for researchers. The possible non-pecuniary motive in sustainable finance can be identified by the green bond premium. But no consensus has been achieved owing to differences in samples and market settings. This paper specifically focuses on the estimation of the green bond premium in China. We introduced three issuance motivation theories to explain the drivers of green premium and convinced them through a set of empirical tests. The propensity score matching method was employed to claim that compared with matched conventional bonds, green bonds are priced at an average negative premium of 7.8bps, implying that green projects may be issued at a lower cost. Considering that a financial group has a higher negative premium than a corporate group, green financing for sustainable development is still led by indirect finance. Furthermore, empirical results convince that a negative premium is pronounced for state-owned enterprises and varies across the financial and corporate groups. Central SOEs have more advantage in raising funds than local SOEs. In addition, the effect of ownership on the green premium will significantly change if bond issues with a third-party verification. The role of verification is important in reducing information asymmetry and avoiding greenwashing behavior. We suggest that financial resources need to be properly allocated to the real enterprises through third-party verification or government supportive measures.

PurposeThe purpose of the present study is to examine the effect of organic food certification labels of different third-party verification institutions on consumers' choice of organic food in terms of willingness-to-pay (WTP) using cue utilization theory.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted an experiment in which organic rice and organic certification labels were presented to 360 valid participants.FindingsWith different organic rice labels issued by various third-party verification institutions, including (1) foundations, (2) associations, (3) university certification centers and (4) private businesses, results indicate that consumers had different preferences and WTP for certain labels. The institutions preferred organic food labels issued by non-profit organizations. In addition, consumers showed different WTP as a result of different purchase motivations (e.g. health vs environmental protection).Originality/valueThese results imply that consumers might not have confidence in the organic labels issued by associations and private institutions. Therefore, different types of certification institutions can have significantly different impacts on consumers' WTP. The study further proposes that the extrinsic attributes of food products (i.e. the cues used in making a purchase decision) must be incongruent with the image of third-party certification institutions in order to develop more efficient communication of product information and to encourage consumers to give positive comments regarding organic food.

Attackers try to forge or delete personal information access records to hide traces of their attacks. As personal information access records can be used to analyze infringement accidents or as legal evidence in the event of malicious attacks, maintaining their integrity is very important. This article presents measures to efficiently prove the integrity of distributed personal information access records. To construct a reliable log system, diversified security requirements are established, and mechanisms such as a hash chain, message authentication code, and Merkle tree are incorporated. Moreover, as integrity is proved through a third-party verification institution, attacks by external as well as internal attackers can be detected. During the validation process, existing log record protection methods fail to detect forgery or deletion of certain data or have difficulty identifying the time of attack, but such drawbacks are addressed by the proposed integrity verification process, with only a minor increase in computational load.

This study examines the governance of building carbon markets in the context of China’s “dual-carbon strategy”, focusing specifically on the integration of Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems. The study identifies critical challenges in China’s emissions-trading scheme (ETS), such as weak corporate compliance incentives, high regulatory costs, and concerns about third-party verification independence, which hinder the effectiveness of carbon pricing and technology adoption. Using a three-player evolutionary game model involving the government, carbon-emitting firms, and third-party verifiers, the study finds that moderate government supervision, performance-based incentives, and stronger penalties lead to long-term stability and optimal governance. Based on these findings, policy recommendations are made, including tiered penalties, targeted incentives for green technology adoption, and the strengthening of third-party verification mechanisms to enhance market governance and support China’s carbon-reduction goals in the building sector.

Rethinking Private Authorityexamines the role of non-state actors in global environmental politics, arguing that a fuller understanding of their role requires a new way of conceptualizing private authority. Jessica Green identifies two distinct forms of private authority--one in which states delegate authority to private actors, and another in which entrepreneurial actors generate their own rules, persuading others to adopt them. Drawing on a wealth of empirical evidence spanning a century of environmental rule making, Green shows how the delegation of authority to private actors has played a small but consistent role in multilateral environmental agreements over the past fifty years, largely in the area of treaty implementation. This contrasts with entrepreneurial authority, where most private environmental rules have been created in the past two decades. Green traces how this dynamic and fast-growing form of private authority is becoming increasingly common in areas ranging from organic food to green building practices to sustainable tourism. She persuasively argues that the configuration of state preferences and the existing institutional landscape are paramount to explaining why private authority emerges and assumes the form that it does. In-depth cases on climate change provide evidence for her arguments. Groundbreaking in scope,Rethinking Private Authoritydemonstrates that authority in world politics is diffused across multiple levels and diverse actors, and it offers a more complete picture of how private actors are helping to shape our response to today's most pressing environmental problems

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers' trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory and a stratified random sample of more than 1200 consumers, we assess how third-party certification relates to consumers' use of ecolabels across different program sponsors. We find that consumers' trust of government and environmental NGOs to provide credible environmental information encourages consumers' use of ecolabels sponsored by these entities, and consumers do not differentiate between certified versus uncertified ecolabels in the presence of trust. By contrast, consumers' distrust of private business to provide credible environmental information discourages their use of business associationsponsored ecolabels. However, these ecolabels may be able to overcome consumer distrust if their sponsors certify the ecolabels using third-party auditors. These findings are important to sponsors who wish develop ecolabels that are more credible to consumers, and thus encourage more widespread ecolabel use.

In this article we explore how multinational corporations (MNCs) adopt assurance practices to develop and sustain organizational accountability for sustainability. Using a panel of Fortune Global 250 firms over a period of 10 years, we document the diffusion patterns of third-party assurance of sustainability reports. We specifically investigate how evolving auditing practices, namely diversity of assurance standards and type of assurance providers, shape the quality of sustainability assurance statements. The results illustrate great variability in the adoption of assurance practices in the formative stages of this novel market. Our descriptive analysis indicates the relevance of external institutional pressure as well as internal resources and capabilities as underlying factors driving the adoption of assurance. Our evidence also suggests that several MNCs project a decoupled or symbolic image of accountability through assurance, thereby undermining the credibility of these verification practices. The paper contributes to the emerging literature on international accountability standards and emphasizes the need to enhance theory-based, cross-disciplinary knowledge related to auditing and accountability processes for sustainability.

Verification and validation of simulation models are discussed in this paper. Three approaches to deciding model validity are described, two paradigms that relate verification and validation to the model development process are presented, and various validation techniques are defined. Conceptual model validity, model verification, operational validity, and data validity are discussed. A way to document results is given, and a recommended procedure for model validation is presented.

A time-lock puzzle encapsulates a secret message such that the receiver needs to perform a sequential computation, which takes a specified amount of time, to recover the message. Time-lock puzzles can be used in various scenarios, such as sealed-bid auctions, fair contract signing, and so on. The time required to generate a time-lock puzzle and the time needed to solve it are asymmetric, making the verification of a time-lock puzzle crucial. Before solving the puzzle, the solver needs to verify the validity of the puzzle to avoid computing invalid time-lock puzzles. After the puzzle has been solved, it is essential for a third party to confirm the correctness of the solution. This paper proposes a framework for time-lock puzzles, providing both pre-verification and post-verification functionalities, and outlines the security requirements of this framework. Furthermore, we present a practical construction based on iterated squaring in the RSA group and analyze the security of the specific construction. Finally, we implement this construction in Python and demonstrate its efficiency in different settings when implemented in practice.

As an innovative technology for enhancing authenticity, security, and risk management, blockchain is being widely adopted in trade and finance systems. The unique capabilities of blockchain, such as immutability and transparency, enable new business models of distributed data storage, point‐to‐point transactions, and decentralized autonomous organizations. Here, the authors focus on blockchain‐based securities trading, in which blockchain technology plays a vital role in financial services as it ultimately lifts trust and frees the need for third‐party verification by using consensus‐based verification. The 12 most popular blockchain platforms are investigated and 6 platforms that are related to finance are elaborated on, seeking to provide a panorama of securities trading practices. Meanwhile, this survey provides a comprehensive summary of blockchain‐based securities trading applications. Numerous practical applications of blockchain‐based securities trading are gathered and they are categorized into four distinct categories. For each category, a typical example is introduced and how blockchain contributes to solving the key problems faced by FinTech companies and researchers explained. Finally, interesting observations are provided ranging from mainstream blockchain‐based financial institutions to security issues of decentralized finance applications, aiming to picture the current blockchain ecosystem in finance. This paper pictures the current blockchain ecosystem in finance. It summarizes the challenges of the current blockchain applications in the global financial sector and provides an implementation proposal about a new blockchain‐based financial infrastructure tailored for the Chinese financial market.