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China's rapid economic development has attracted worldwide attention, but the resulting environmental problems also cannot be ignored. Whether environmental regulations can achieve a win–win situation between "green" and "economic growth" has become the focus of academic circles. While related studies have examined environmental regulation through the "Cost-following theory" and "Porter hypothesis", they have mostly focused on a particular region or province, thus neglecting the spatial effects. The spatial effects of environmental regulation are important to study because of the overall environmental correlation across regions and especially adjacent provinces. This paper extends the "cost-following theory" and the "Porter hypothesis" to the spatial perspective and proposes two hypotheses, respectively. Through the spatial expansion of environmental regulation theory, this paper not only analyses the direct effect of local environmental regulation on local economic growth, but also the spatial spillover effect of adjacent provinces' environmental regulation on local economic growth. The empirical results show that the relationship between environmental regulation and economic growth in China is consistent with the spatial perspective of "Cost-following theory", but not with the spatial perspective of "Porter hypothesis". Through the above analysis, this paper is able to address the issues of how to make environmental regulation policies in adjacent provinces or regions as a whole, and how to coordinate environmental regulation with economic growth in adjacent regions. The findings of this paper also suggest that spatial effects need to be sufficiently considered in future studies on environment-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of global urban development, there are urgent ecological security and environmental pollution problems, green development is the fundamental way for urban sustainable development, economic transformation and mitigation of ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 283 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyzes spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of urban green development efficiency (UGDE) and the peer effects of UGDE between cities of different grades. It is found that during the study period, in terms of temporal evolution, the average UGDE in China increased from 0.47 in 2003 to 0.61 in 2017, with a cumulative growth rate of 29.79%, showing a rising trend in general. In terms of spatial evolution, the number of low-efficiency cities and medium-efficiency cities continued to decrease. The eastern region has always been the main distribution area of higher-efficiency cities and high-efficiency cities; in the central region, UGDE in most cities improved significantly; in the western region, UGDE has always lagged behind that in the eastern and central regions. In addition, the center of gravity of UGDE presented a trend of northwest migration in general, with a total displacement of 100.07 km, and UGDE showed a spatial dispersion trend. The empirical results indicate that the improvement of UGDE in large cities has a driving effect on that in neighboring medium cities and small cities through the positive peer effect, and the growth of UGDE in medium cities has a promoting effect on that in neighboring small cities through the positive peer effect; the increase of UGDE in medium cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring large cities, and the growth of UGDE in small cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring medium cities; UGDE promotes each other between large cities through the positive peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing carbon emissions has become an urgent task in China. As the category with the largest economic and emissions contribution to the industry, the carbon emissions research of the manufacturing industry is particularly important. This paper uses the LMDI method to decompose manufacturing carbon emissions into seven influencing factors (i.e., population, urbanization, economic development, investment share, energy intensity, energy structure and emission intensity), in order to explore the factors driving manufacturing carbon emissions during 2003–2018. Then, the paper analyzes the decoupling relationship between manufacturing investment and carbon emissions in 30 provinces. Finally, three scenarios are developed to project future manufacturing emissions at the provincial level up to 2035, and whether manufacturing emissions in 30 provinces can realize peak is discussed. The paper results in three main findings. First, we find that energy intensity played the most important role in decreasing the manufacturing emissions during the whole study period, while the economic development and investment share were the main effect promoting manufacturing carbon emissions. Second, China experienced a process from weak decoupling to strong decoupling between manufacturing invest and emissions. Third, China's manufacturing carbon emissions can only achieve the carbon peaking target in 2030 under the High scenario, and 7 provinces cannot reach the peak before 2035 under the three scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraints and incentives of the ecological policy have an important impact on the coordinated development of ecological areas. Based on the panel data of 1613 counties in 23 provinces in China from 2002 to 2019, this paper analyzes the impact of this policy on economic development using the quasi-natural experiment of the transfer payment in national key ecological functional areas (TPNKEFA) and studies the impact of the transfer payment scale on economic development based on the panel threshold model. First, the results reveal that the TPNKEFA can significantly boost economic development, compared with the control group, TPNKEFA can increase gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita GDP by 6.14% and 10.72%, the results have been validated by some placebo tests, and the impact of this policy on economic development is sustained and effective. Second, heterogeneity results show that TPNKEFA has the greatest positive effect on the economic development in the eastern region, followed by the central region, and the least positive effect on the western region. Furthermore, the TPNKEFA facilitates local economic development primarily by increasing human capital in ecological functional areas. Third, the capital scale of TPNKEFA has the double-threshold effect on economic development, the larger the scale is, the stronger the effect is. The capital size of TPNKEFA has the greatest impact on regional economic growth in eastern region, whereas it has the weakest impact in western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Baidu migration data to obtain the intercity trips between cities in China. Taking intercity travel as a functional connection between cities, taking into account the internal and external intercity travel connections of urban agglomerations, an improved rank scale distribution method was used to quantitatively measure the form and function of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu-Chongqing, Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Harbin-Changchun urban agglomerations. It is found that, firstly, there are differences in the Functional Polycentricity presented by the internal and external connections of urban agglomerations, which are related to the economic development of urban agglomerations and central cities. Secondly, there are differences between Morphological Polycentricity and Functional Polycentricity of the eight urban agglomerations measured by the internal and external connections, indicating that the external connections have a significant impact. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections of urban agglomerations. The study of urban agglomerations should not ignore the internal or external connections, and the overall consideration can more comprehensively reflect the polycentric characteristics of urban agglomerations. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections, and the study of urban agglomerations should not ignore internal or external connections. Overall consideration can better reflect the polycentirccharacteristics of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the green belt and road is an inevitable choice to conform to and lead the green and low-carbon cycle development and an inherent requirement for sustainable development. Therefore, we establish an evaluation system of green development oriented to carbon neutrality, and calculate the green development level (GDL) of the provinces along the belt and road in China from 2003 to 2018 by using a three-dimensional evaluation model. In addition, this paper employs the Obstacle Degree Model to identify the main obstacle factors that affect GDL, and provides targeted and differentiated countermeasures and suggestions for improving the regional GDL. Our results suggested that the overall GDL has improved, but not obvious, with a low level. The GDL and coordination degree between different regions exist certain differences, and its spatial pattern is characterized by "high in southeast and northeast, low in southwest and northwest". From a regional perspective, innovation capacity is the key factor that affects the green development of the region in southeast, northeast, northwest and southwest China. Driving economic green transformation and promoting industrial energy conservation and emission reduction through technological innovation are the internal driving forces to achieve regional green sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on regional economic development theories, industrial development strategies implemented by governments can distort factor market allocations, change the viability of firms, and thus bring about structural changes in industries. How such policy changes will affect regional environmental performance has been relatively little discussed in the existing literature. This paper attempts to explain whether the implementation of an industrial catch-up development strategy can be a major influence on the level of regional environmental performance from the perspective of comparative advantage, and how this influence can be achieved by changing technological progress. As for the measurement of environmental performance, this paper innovatively adopts two improved measurements based on by-production technology theory to measure the regional environmental performance of Chinese provincial regions from 1997 to 2016. Moreover, the other main novelty is that it adopts Tobit regression models to explicitly explore the effective effects and impact mechanisms of government development strategies on regional environmental efficiency in China. The key findings are as follows (i) the implementation of an industrial catch-up development strategy that defies the comparative advantage of a region can lead to poor environmental performance. (ii). the comparative advantage defying strategy adopted by the eastern regions with higher level of economic development and the regions with priority protection of resources and environment has less inhibiting effect on environmental performance than the central and western regions. (iii). development strategy does impact environmental efficiency through technological progress; more precisely, through technology import and technological transformation rather than independent R&D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economy has developed rapidly since the implementation of its reform and opening-up policy. However, the long-term extensive development has also brought serious ecological problems to China. Ecological crises, such as air pollution, water pollution and land desertification occur frequently. Green finance has become a path to promote China's sustainable economic development as an economic activity to deal with climate change, improve the ecological environment and make rational use of resources. This paper will construct a spatial econometric model and coupling coordination degree model to carry out empirical research. Based on the data from 1999 to 2020, this paper constructs an evaluation index system of green finance and an economic ecology system. First, the spatial autocorrelation model is used to analyze the spatial relationship. Second, the coupling coordination degree model is used to measure the evolution of the coupling coordination relationship between green finance and economic ecology. The results show that green finance has a strong spatial agglomeration. Economic and ecological development has maintained a stable spatial positive correlation. The spatial difference of economic ecological development is more obvious than the development of green finance. The development of green finance has a significant positive role in promoting the economic and ecological development of its province. The degree of coupling and coordination of green finance and economic ecology shows an increasing trend, changing from transition type to coupling and coordination type. It shows that China's green finance can effectively promote the overall optimal development of economic ecology to a certain extent. However, no high-quality coordination was observed in the result of coupling coordination, and thus, there is still some room for progress in the development of the two. China needs to change the current mode of economic development comprehensively and take the road of harmonious development suited to the economy and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental resources play an extremely important role in economic development. In the context of China's economic development entering a new normal, attaching importance to environmental protection and strengthening environmental regulations will have an important impact on the original foreign direct investment (FDI) and China's economic development. Therefore, this paper combines the characteristics of the "new normal" of China's economic development, takes 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2017 as the research object, and uses the PVAR model and impulse response function to re-verify the interaction mechanism and path among environmental regulation, FDI and high-quality economic development. The study found that: (1) There is an obvious mutual promotion relationship between environmental regulations and the quality of China's economic development and economic development environment. Strengthening environmental regulation is conducive to the realization of China's economic "new normal" development goal. (2) Although the strengthening of environmental regulation will have a significant constraint effect on FDI and China's economic growth rate, but the effect is relatively small. (3) FDI and economic growth rate variables are mutually motivated and promote each other, but both of them have a significant inhibitory effect on regional environmental regulation. In general, under the background of the "new normal" of China's economic development, appropriately increasing the intensity of environmental regulation is not only conducive to environmental protection and promoting high-quality and sustainable economic development, but also can serve the purpose of guiding the structure of foreign investment and transforming the mode of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remarkable prediction of petroleum consumption is of significance for energy scheduling and economic development. Considering the uncertainty and volatility of petroleum system, this paper presents a nonlinear grey Bernoulli model with combined fractional accumulated generation operator to forecast China's petroleum consumption and terminal consumption. The newly designed model introduces a combined fractional accumulated generation operator by incorporating the traditional fractional accumulation and conformable fractional accumulation; compared to the old accumulation, the newly optimized accumulation can enhance flexible ability to excavate the development patterns of time-series. In addition, to further improve the prediction performance of the new model, marine predation algorithm is applied to determine the optimal emerging coefficients such as fractional accumulation order. Furthermore, the proposed model is verified by a numerical example of coal consumption; and this newly established model is applied to predict China's petroleum consumption and terminal consumption. Our tests suggest that the designed ONGBM(1,1,k,c) model outperforms the other benchmark models. Finally, we predict China's petroleum consumption in the following years with the aid of the optimized model. According to the forecasts of this paper, some suggestions are provided for policy-makers in the relevant sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resources are the source of life for people to survive, especially in agriculture. Water resources provide necessary support for agricultural economic development and irrigation management. Using the panel data from 2013 to 2019, this paper uses the coupled coordination model to explore the degree of synergy between agricultural water resources efficiency (AWRE) and agricultural economic development level (AEDL), and analyzes the spatial correlation of coupling coordination degree (CCD) between the AWRE and AEDL, and further predicts the relationship between the two. The results are as follows: (1) There are superb variations in the CCD among provinces, and the diploma of coordination is greater in the south than in the north; (2) In the spatial correlation pattern, high–high agglomeration areas exhibit an growing trend, and the variety of low–low agglomeration areas is small; and (3) Through the prediction, it is found that in the further, the CCD will show a trend of slow increase in future. For purpose of the coordinated perfection of the two systems, we need to completely discover the connotation of coordinated improvement and promote regional cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current period of rapid industrialization has not only brought about rapid economic growth but also caused serious energy shortages and environmental pollution, which have affected the sustainable development of the economy. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyse the changes in regional economic, energy, and environmental carrying capacity (3ECC); analyse the interaction among them; and propose corresponding optimization strategies for promoting regional sustainable development. In this study, a 3ECC simulation system is constructed from the pressure and support levels of load-bearing capacity. A system dynamics model is used to simulate the evolution path and action relationship of the 3ECC system, and an empirical test is completed in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region in China. A coupling coordination model and Bayesian vector autoregressive model are used to further explore the degree and action mode of the 3ECC system support and pressure indices. The results show that the model can truly reflect the characteristics of regional development and is suitable for prediction in this study. From 2015 to 2035, driven by technological progress, China's economic aggregate will grow by 223%, oil consumption by 33%, coal consumption by 23%, soil pollution by 197%, water pollution by 134%, and air pollution by 80.9%. Moreover, the coordination degree of the 3ECC supporting indicators gradually increases, while that of the pressure indicators gradually decreases, indicating that economic growth has a synergistic effect on environmental protection and energy conservation, thus further expanding the differences between environmental pollution and energy consumption. Finally, the supporting index of the economic carrying capacity and supporting index of the environmental carrying capacity have the widest influence range, and the optimization of economic and environmental development status is beneficial to the overall improvement of the 3ECC system. The influence range of the energy carrying capacity support index is small, indicating that coal and oil are being gradually replaced by other energy sources. Therefore, the research results of this paper can provide a reference for the sustainable development of other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega-urban agglomerations in developing countries have been main parts of economic development. But at the same time, they have become the most prominent and sensitive areas of resource and environment problems. It is important to clarify the mechanism and driving factors of green growth in mega-urban agglomerations. Based on the panel data of 28 major cities in China's Pan-Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration from 2006 to 2015, this paper evaluates the level of green development of urban agglomeration by green total factor productivity index (GTFP) based on Global Malmquist DEA model, and decomposes GTFP into technological progress, pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and technological scale change. On this basis, this paper constructs a panel econometric model to analyze the influencing factors of GTFP and its decomposition factors. The results show that GTFP of Pan-Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration is growing, and the scale effect caused by technological progress is the main driving factor. Green development in the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration takes into account efficiency and regional fairness, which causes differences in GTFP growth patterns of sub-urban agglomerations within mega-urban agglomerations. The technological progress and technical efficiency improvement are becoming the main driving force of GTFP growth in relatively backward areas. Furthermore, according to the influencing factors of GTFP and its decomposition factors, mega-urban agglomeration should eliminate internal administrative barriers to build an integrated market. It should also increase the proportion of technology industries in core cities, and give full play to the role of technology spillover effect on surrounding cities. In addition, improving the efficiency of resource and energy utilization is also helpful to promote the transformation of urban agglomeration development from factor-driven to efficiency-driven and innovation-driven. Our research results have implications for the coordinated development of economy and environment in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a comprehensive coordination and cross-efficiency evaluation model, aimed at tackling the problems evident in self-evaluation systems based on data envelopment assessment models, such as "developing strengths and avoiding weaknesses," "ranking strengths and weaknesses completely," extreme weights, and so on. Based on environmental sustainability, economic development sustainability, social well-being sustainability, and scientific and technological innovation sustainability these four dimensions, this paper proposed model contains 19 evaluation indicators, of which 11 are inputs and 8 are outputs. This model can overcome the problems of multiple solutions and the instabilities of the average cross-efficiency model by relaxing the average hypothesis of the general cross-efficiency model, thereby reducing the distance between the weighted input and the weighted output of the regional sustainable development system assessment. Taking the evaluation of the sustainable development efficiency of 31 provinces and regions in China as an example, the results showed that the evaluation function of the comprehensive coordination and cross-efficiency evaluation model constructed in this paper has potential in measuring regional sustainable development system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource-driven models and technology-driven models appear in different stages of economic development. In the early stage of industrialization, resource-driven economic development is usually the main development mode. Due to the impact of scientific progress and resource shortages, technology-driven economic growth has gradually become mainstream in the middle and late periods of industrialization. However, what are the differences between these two development models in driving economic growth? What is the asymptotic and iterative relationship between them? Understanding the interaction between the two is helpful to promote high-quality economic development. Therefore, by constructing a comprehensive evaluation framework of economic growth-resource consumption-technology progress and using the system dynamics model to simulate the evolution characteristics of the regional economic development driving force in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), the study finds that there is a long-term stable interaction between economic development and the resource- and technology-driven system in the YREB from 2015 to 2030. The energy of the simulation model is accurately reflects the regional development status, and the error of all simulation values is controlled within 5%. With the continuous improvement of economic aggregates, the contribution of technology input to economic growth gradually increases, while the driving force of resource input to economic growth shows a downward trend. Technological progress has become the most important driving force for sustainable economic development, especially the investment of technical personnel and technological capital. This study deepens the understanding of the driving mode of economic development and provides a reference for the development practice of other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summer precipitation prediction in China is important to society and economic development, but still a challenging issue in current meteorological studies, due to the uncertainty of the climate system. This paper developed a weighted integration method founded on dynamic-statistic prediction methods. The advantages and disadvantages of station-based and grid-based integration on summer precipitation prediction, along with the underlying reasons, are respectively analyzed by calculating the anomaly correlation coefficients (ACC), prediction score (PS), and root-mean-square errors (RMSE). The main manifestations indicated that 1) The weighted integration method can provide better skill of summer rainfall prediction in China than the single dynamic-statistic combined prediction method; 2) For the station-based integration, the 10-year ACC mean of summer precipitation prediction is 0.098–0.106, passing the 90% significance level, which is also obviously higher than that of the grid-based integration. The station-based integration has a higher symbol consistency ratio (SCR) than the grid-based integration, and the probability distribution of anomaly percentiles of station-based integration is closer to the observation, which causes the corresponding PS score to be 69.2–70.0 and higher than the grid-based integration. The independent sample validation of 2020 and 2021 further confirmed that station-based integration had a higher ACC than grid-based integration. It is indicated that station-based integration may have better performance in improving the accuracy of the summer precipitation prediction in China, which needs to be deeply considered in the scientific study and real prediction issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is essential to explore the optimal environmental regulation policy combination for high-quality economic development due to the mutual constraints and confrontation between environmental regulation policies. Based on provincial panel data of China from 2000 to 2019, this study uses the spatial Durbin model to examine the synergy effect of different environmental regulation policy combinations on high-quality economic development from the dual perspective of local effects and spillover effect of environmental regulation, respectively. Furthermore, it explores the threshold effect of environmental regulation policy synergy on high-quality economic development through technological innovation at provincial level as well as in three major regions of China using the threshold regression model. The results indicate that environmental regulation policy synergy has a spatial spillover effect on high-quality economic development, and there is a positive U-shaped relationship with them no matter which policy combination. However, there are significant differences in the local effects and spillover effects of environmental regulation policy synergy under different policy combinations. Moreover, there is a double threshold for environmental regulation policy synergy effect on high-quality economic development except in central China, which policy combinations of 13 and 23 have a single threshold effect, while the other policy combinations have no threshold effect. Finally, the optimal environmental regulation policy combination for high-quality economic development is given through comparative analysis. In response to the above conclusions, this paper puts forward the targeted policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important production factor, land resources significantly impact green technology innovation. However, the misallocation of land resources caused by the government's "second-hand" land supply strategy has become increasingly prominent, which will adversely affect green technology innovation by affecting the allocation of innovative elements. Based on the research data of 252 cities in China from 2008 to 2017, this paper uses panel space measurement estimation and panel threshold estimation empirical methods to test the theoretical hypothesis of the impact of misallocation of land resources on green technology innovation. The study finds that local or neighboring land resources' misallocation has a hindering effect on local green technology innovation. Furthermore, the misallocation of land resources has a threshold effect on the impact of green technology innovation. The relatively high level of local economic development and environmental regulation reduces the restraining effect of the misallocation of land resources on green technology innovation, and vice versa. Therefore, local governments should optimize the allocation of innovative elements, accelerate the construction of an efficient and market-oriented green technology innovation system, reduce the excessive intervention in land resources, and enhance the vitality of innovation entities to improve the level of green technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic agglomeration has played a key function in China's economic transformation. Meanwhile, structural adjustment and external pressure to reduce carbon emission necessitate a deeper investigation into its relationship with carbon productivity. This paper measures economic agglomeration and carbon productivity of 281 cities in China in 2003–2017. With the purpose of exploring the spatial effect of economic agglomeration on carbon productivity, a spatial Durbin model is constructed. In addition, the mediation effect model is also adopted for examining the transmission mechanism of economic scale and technological progress on economic agglomeration as well as carbon productivity. A heterogeneity test is also carried out to uncover the varying effects of economic agglomeration on carbon productivity. The empirical results suggest that economic agglomeration raises carbon productivity not only in the local cities but also in the neighbouring ones. The impact of economic agglomeration on carbon productivity becomes more potent as the level of economic agglomeration increases. For cities with low level of economic agglomeration, the effect is mainly achieved through the expansion of economic scale, but for cities with high level of economic agglomeration, the effect is mainly achieved through technological progress. Therefore, we suggest encouraging carbon productivity improvement through technology effect in cities with high economic agglomeration level, while enhancing carbon productivity through scale effect in cities with low economic agglomeration level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuing decline in the birth rate has led to a series of problems, such as the disproportion of population structure and severe aging population, which have restricted the country's economic development. To have a deeper understanding of the geographical differences and influencing factors of the birth rate, this paper collects and organizes the birth population data of 31 provinces in mainland China from 2011 to 2019. The national region is divided into seven natural geographical regions to obtain the spatial hierarchy, and a hierarchical Bayesian Spatio-temporal model is established. The INLA algorithm estimates the model parameters. The results show significant spatial and temporal differences in birth rates in mainland China, which are reflected mainly in the combination of spatial, temporal, and Spatio-temporal interaction effects. In the spatial dimension, the northeast is low, the northwest and southwest are high, and the birth rate has an upward trend from east to west. These trends are caused by unbalanced economic development, different fertility attitudes and differences in fertility security, reflecting regional differences in spatial effects. From 2011 to 2019, China's birth rate showed an overall downward trend in the time dimension. However, all regions except the northeast saw a significant but temporary increase in birth rates in 2016 and 2017, reflecting the temporal effect difference in birth rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid urbanization of Ya'an has brought about a series of environmental issues. By referring to the physical coupling model and using the data from 2010 to 2019, this paper establishes a coupling coordination model of the urbanization and eco-environment in Ya'an. First, the entropy method was used to calculate the weight of each index of urbanization and eco-environment systems. Then, the comprehensive urbanization level of Ya'an was calculated using four indexes: economic, population, spatial and social urbanization. The eco-environment evaluation index system included three main indexes: eco-environment level, pressure and response. Finally, coupling coordination model was used to determine the degree of coupling and coordination between urbanization and the eco-environment, and the spatial correlation of the coordination degree between districts and counties in Ya'an was analyzed. The results show that: (1) economic urbanization (37.76%) and eco-environment pressure (40.50%) made the most significant contributions to the urbanization and eco-environment subsystems, respectively. This shows that economic factors are the most significant contributors in promoting the development of urbanization. As it is very important for Ya'an to reduce environmental pollution and the pressure on the eco-environment, these findings suggest that more attention should be paid to economic development and environmental protection when formulating and implementing policies. (2) The degree of coupling coordination between urbanization and the eco-environment has increased every year, from moderate imbalance to high coordination. The overall development of spatial autocorrelation from positive to negative suggests that Ya'an should strengthen the interregional cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, foreign direct investment (FDI) has not only promoted rapid economic growth in China, but also affected the country's environmental quality through technology spillover. This paper tests the variables that may affect the ability of green innovation by using the Granger causality test. It extracts the variables passed the test as input variables, selects the number of patents as output variable, and evaluates the efficiency of various provinces in mainland China by examining their yearly technological progress variables. At the same time, technological progress is defined and divided into capital and environmental factors, and then panel data using the variable coefficients model was used to fit influencing factors to obtain impact coefficients of capital and environment. On this basis, this paper makes the determination of membership to replace the general sense of 'threshold' value by using fuzzy theory and proposes the concept of the 'comprehensive threshold' of economic development and environmental protection. The results show that less than a quarter of China's provinces have crossed the comprehensive threshold. Finally, based on the conclusions of quantitative analysis, some suggestions are proposed that the Chinese government ought to enact different strategies for the introduction of FDI according to different development situations of different provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid economic development of China has intensified the country's many problems. Among them, energy shortage and environmental pollution are two main problems, which highly affects the economic growth and sustainable development. To achieve more rapid green growth, the innovative technology by reusing the environmental wastes has been widely used since doing so not only decreases the environment pollution, but also further brings more natural resource. The present paper establishes a two-stage structure for evaluating the regional green growth and sustainable development in China by calculating the efficiency of "energy saving" and "pollution treatment" separately. Specifically, a set of models based on slack-based measure approach are constructed in which non-discretionary inputs can be calculated in both resource utilization stage and pollution treatment stage. Comparing with the traditional models, the new proposed models can measure the performance of resources saving and pollution treatment with considering the influence of non-discretionary inputs. An empirical application on Chinese 30 regions during 2011–2015 have been done to illustrate the use of our framework and the performance of regional green growth and sustainable development. Based on the efficiency results, we find that the efficiency scores of the provinces in central and northeast area are lower, which is mostly caused by their poor performance on "pollution treatment". Both the environmental efficiency scores and target values for performance improvement are obtained in this paper to enlighten the corresponding decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the difference from traditional commodity trade, copyright trade not only transmits economic value with real products as carriers, but also transmits cultural value with subject consciousness as form, which often occupies an important position in trade friction. This paper summarizes the position of copyright trade in Sino–US trade friction from the perspective of Sino–US trade history, and considers it is not only one of the key incentives for Sino–US trade friction in the current stage, a game chip between the two sides in the upgrading stage, but also one of the key points of China's reform in the calming stage. Based on this, this paper analyzes the reason why copyright trade occupies an important position in Sino–US trade friction, and regards that China should draw lessons from history and continuously deepen the reform of copyright trade in the legal system, market cultivation, internationalization of enterprises, so as to promote the sound development of copyright trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the direct and indirect drag effects of land and energy on urban economic growth in the Yangtze River Delta in China over the period of 2003–2012. Using the spatial Durbin panel data model (SDPDM), we found that such urban economic growth is spatially autocorrelated and that resource input has a positive impact on economic growth. The SDPDM results show that the direct drag effect of land and energy is, respectively, 0.75 and 2.38%, indicating that the constraints of land and energy will reduce the economic growth rate by 0.75 and 2.38%. Besides, the indirect drag effect is 0.40 and 4.86%, suggesting that the focal unit's economic growth would also be influenced by the behavior of its neighbors. Based on these results, this paper proposes some policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a theoretical basis for the concept of rebalancing and applies it to China, where it is currently a topical issue. Rebalancing here means the correction of economic and social imbalances built up during industrialization. This correction is accompanied by a structural transformation towards a more inward- and consumption-driven growth path, associated with growth slowdown. Attempts to mitigate this growth slowdown by either retarding this structural reform process or by using expansionary stimulus programmes as done over the past decade in China create new imbalances that have to be corrected (rebalanced) again. Managing these multiple rebalancing tasks together is a tremendous undertaking, as this paper shows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an urgent need to explore the current situation of China's water pollution incidents for policymaking, accident prevention, and risk mitigation. This study analyzed 1528 water pollution incidents in China from 2001 to 2020 and explored the spatiotemporal characteristics and causes of incidents and consequent damage. The frequency of water pollution accidents increased in 2004, peaked in 2006, and decreased thereafter with a significant decline in 2016. Due to the developed river networks, high population densities, and increasing environmental awareness, pollution incidents were mostly concentrated in China's relatively industrially developed eastern coastal regions. Illegal emission is the major cause, accounting for 51% of all incidents, but with pipeline construction gradually approaching a peak, pipeline leakage poses a noteworthy risk in the future. Although the severity of accidents has reduced recently, it is still necessary to strengthen the risk prevention strategies for general and major accidents. Furthermore, three key factors, including economic development, regulations and legal system, and public participation in pollution supervision and control, which affect the trends and characteristics of water pollution incidents in China, were discussed. This paper offers valuable insights and suggestions that may have useful implications for policymaking and the prevention of water pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the process of urbanization and industrialization, a growing attention has been paid to the energy–environmental efficiency in China's industrial sector. Such researches mainly focused on calculating the efficiency and exploring its driving factors at sectoral, provincial and regional perspectives. In this paper, we proposed to evaluate the energy–environmental efficiency of China' industrial sector and its driving factors at a dynamic change perspective. Combining super-slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model and Malmquist index, this paper calculated the energy–environmental efficiency of China's 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) from 2012 to 2016 and captured its dynamic change. Then we aggregated China's 30 provinces into three groups based on their relevant dynamic change values, namely high-growth, mid-growth and low-growth groups. Finally, we verified the impact of investment in pollution control on industrial energy–environmental efficiency in different groups. The results showed that: Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, Hunan, Tianjin and Shaanxi performed efficiently during the whole study period. Most provinces have improved their energy–environmental efficiency from 2012 to 2016. The decomposition results indicated that the technology change was responsible for the growth of energy–environmental efficiency. Economic development level positively and significantly influenced the energy–environmental efficiency of the industrial sector as a whole and three groups, while pollution control investment had a significantly negative effect on energy–environmental efficiency of high-growth and low-growth groups. This study concluded that all the provinces should pay attention to technology progress and sustainable pollution control investment for improving the energy–environmental efficiency in the long term. Additionally, differentiated strategies to improve energy–environmental efficiency for different provinces and groups should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid industrialization and economic development have caused a tremendous increase in municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in China. China began implementing a policy of MSW disposal fees for household waste management at the end of last century. Three charging methods were implemented throughout the country: a fixed disposal fee, a potable water-based disposal fee, and a plastic bag-based disposal fee. To date, there has been little qualitative or quantitative analysis on the effectiveness of this relatively new policy. This paper provides a general overview of MSW fee policy in China, attempts to verify whether the policy is successful in reducing general waste collected, and proposes an improved charging system to address current problems. The paper presents an empirical statistical analysis of policy effectiveness derived from an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) test on panel data of China. EKC tests on different kinds of MSW charge systems were then examined for individual provinces or cities. A comparison of existing charging systems was conducted using environmental and economic criteria. The results indicate the following: (1) the MSW policies implemented over the study period were effective in the reduction of waste generation, (2) the household waste discharge fee policy did not act as a strong driver in terms of waste prevention and reduction, and (3) the plastic bag-based disposal fee appeared to be performing well according to qualitative and quantitative analysis. Based on current situation of waste discharging management in China, a three-stage transitional charging scheme is proposed and both advantages and drawbacks discussed. Evidence suggests that a transition from a fixed disposal fee to a plastic bag-based disposal fee involving various stakeholders should be the next objective of waste reduction efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of our economy, the demand for reverse logistics is becoming increasingly urgent. This paper proposes a multi-period and dynamic joint construction model to build the reverse logistics network and verifies the feasibility of the rendered model by adopting particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and genetic algorithm (GA) with a case study of the apparel E-commerce enterprises of Shanghai. The calculation indicates that, compared with traditional single-period reverse logistics system, dynamic joint construction model is more accordant with the practical situation, the capacity of multi-period model node is easier to optimize and the total operation cost of multi-period model reduces a lot. Furthermore, this research provides reference for reducing the operation costs as well as the building of regional reverse logistics network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon data from the Forbes 2015 China Rich List this perspective paper describes the changing nature of entrepreneurial opportunity and capital accumulation in China's transitional economy. The Forbes list identifies some 400 billionaires in 2015, and based upon their year of birth, we break down this list into three age cohorts, which reflect the shifting institutional environments and the set of opportunities they encountered in early adulthood. We identify the origins of their wealth and point to the growing number of wealthy heirs to the enterprises founded by their forebears and the implications for succession and the management of these enterprises. We compare and contrast China's billionaires with comparable lists of billionaires in the United States. We provide insights into the fields of entrepreneurial opportunity, entrepreneurial finance, and the role of self-made versus inherited billionaires, as well as the implications for China's industrial restructuring as the economy moves toward service and innovation-based industries. The paper concludes with a discussion of research opportunities afforded by the study of rich lists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid urbanization in China has been associated with a growing hunger for energy consumption and steadily-increasing CO2 emissions. In this paper, an integrated system dynamics model composed of four sub-models is developed to simulate the urbanization and energy consumption in China from 1998 to 2050. Three scenarios are provided: accelerated economic development, emission reduction constraint, and low-carbon oriented. The result reveals that rapid economic growth and sufficient energy supply will foster China's urbanization in all three scenarios. Under the low carbon transition scenario, China's urbanization rate is expected to reach 76.41% in 2050, both reducing carbon emissions and promoting eco-friendly development. All three scenarios witness a dramatic growth of residential energy consumption and a steady increase of industrial energy consumption. China still has a long way to achieve the low-carbon transition goal. China should promote renewable resources and energy, pursue a low-carbon lifestyle, and reduce energy intensity over the next few decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Economic ties and trade blocs increase the flow of trade between participating countries and lead to different levels of economic and structural changes. Case description: This paper focuses on the structure of industrial value-added between China and Pakistan, as the two countries recently launched the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) project. Discussion and evaluation: This study utilizes panel data from 1995 to 2015 to test certain factor effects on regional value-added through econometric analyses. The results show that each country has its own economic growth rate and market size that respond differently to industrial value-added production. Conclusion: Aggregate factor productivity at China is higher than in Pakistan but growth in factor productivity in the latter is higher than the former; similarly, the share of bilateral trade is higher in the case of Pakistan. Although each country responds differently to the new economic ties, the macroeconomic results support bilateral economic ties between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a new measurement for regional/national sustainable social economic development based on data envelopment analysis. This new measurement can reveal the impact of energy over-consumption and pollutant over-emission on economic development, giving regional/national sustainable development a more proper measure. This new measurement is applied into an empirical study for 10 year (2004–2013) sustainable development analysis of 30 regions in mainland China. The empirical results show that: (1) China has a quite unsustainable development in 2004–2013, and the level of unsustainability increased over time. The primary driver of these two phenomenon is pollutant over-emission and resource over-consumption respectively. (2) Area-wide sustainable development in China is quite unbalanced. Eastern China has a much better sustainable development as compared to other areas, and the variation of Eastern China's sustainable level is very little in 2004–2013. (3) Resource over-consumption and pollutant over-emission in western China are serious, even the absolute values are quite low. This makes western China develop unsustainably in 2004–2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon development has always been an important focus of China's economic transformation. In order to promote the development of low-carbon economy, this study used SBM-DEA model to evaluate China's provincial LCEE from 2005 to 2019, studied its temporal and spatial evolution law, used spatial autocorrelation to explore the correlation of China's provincial LCEE, and explored the key influencing factors of LCEE with Tobit model. The empirical results show that the LCEE of most provinces in China is declining, and there are significant differences among different regions in China. Because the eastern region of China can rely on its own human resources, capital environment, and economic foundation, the overall LCEE level is relatively high, while the central and western regions still have obvious deficiencies due to industrial conditions, geographical location, and other factors. LCEE has significant spatial correlation, and neighboring provinces have spillover effects on local LCEE. On this basis, the key factors that affect LCEE are determined. Urbanization level, traffic level, economic development level, financial development, investment in fixed assets, and energy consumption are the important factors that affect LCEE in China, but these influences vary from province to region. It is more reasonable for local governments to develop low-carbon economy according to their own conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence shows that global warming has exerted important influence on the economies of societies in the past and will continue to have effects in the future. The provinces of China differ substantially in terms of their temperatures and their degrees of economic development. Therefore, discussion of the positive and negative effects of global warming on economic development at the provincial level is beneficial for determining the effects of global warming on economic development in different provinces, and this discussion also helps to answer the question of how to increase the resilience of economies to global warming. This paper studies the effects of annual average temperature changes on economic growth in the 31 provinces of China from 1978 to 2013 (here referred to as the historical period) and in the 5 typical provinces from 2010 to 2100 (here referred to as the future) under the RCP8.5 scenario. The results indicate that (a) from 1978 to 2013, economic growth exhibits a quadratic nonlinear response to local temperature in all provinces of China and that temperature has both positive and negative effects on the economic growth rates of different provinces. In addition, taking 23.37 °C as a threshold value, over 96% of the provinces display positive effects. (b) Under the RCP8.5 scenario, from 2010 to 2100, although the 5 typical provinces maintain trends reflecting economic growth, the average rate of growth is 80% lower than the value during the historical period. The purpose of this study is to draw the attention of the government to the implications of future global warming for the economic development of different provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine government influence on the acquisition behavior of Chinese firms. Drawing from the state capitalism literature, we test hypotheses regarding the effect of provincial government ownership and managerial ties respectively on industry relatedness of firm acquisitions. We furthermore test hypotheses concerning the moderating effect of institutional development and governor age and tenure. We test our hypotheses based on analysis of 346 majority acquisition deals completed by first-time acquirers in China between 2002 and 2014. Our results show that provincial government-owned firms and firms with ties to the same are more likely to conduct unrelated acquisitions within their home province compared to acquisitions across provincial boundaries. Similar patterns do not exist for privately owned firms or for firms with no managerial ties to provincial governments. Institutional development and governor age and tenure are found to have no moderating effects. We relate our findings to the main theoretical views of state capitalism and suggest that our results reflect government attempts to promote economic growth and social development. Our study contributes to the understanding of Chinese state capitalism and the cross-province barriers for business in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using firm level data, this paper examines the link between unionisation and firm performance in China's manufacturing industries. The empirical results suggest that unionisation has not greatly benefitted workers in China's textile industry but it has contributed to much larger increase in average wages in both domestic and foreign invested firms in communication equipment, computer and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry. In the case of the general equipment manufacturing industry, unionised domestic firms pay higher average wages but there is no link between unionisation and average wage in foreign invested firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a significant reduction in the number of desperately poor people in the world in recent years. A great deal of that reduction in poverty can be attributed in China. There is great potential for new insights for scholars, in looking more deeply into the Chinese experience in terms of entrepreneurship and poverty reduction. This paper employs an in-depth case study of how poverty was reduced through entrepreneurship and innovation in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu. This study is a response to some scholars' call for more direct examination of businesses' involvement with the poor to shed new light on the emerging topic of the roles of business in poverty reduction. Moreover, this study reports on key factors, new insights, and experiences which have led to success in poverty reduction and contributes to theory and practice in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development in China is under increasing pressure from rapid population growth and economic activities in recent decades. Despite the growing awareness and invested efforts, there is a lack of understanding of the progress, trade-offs, and spatiotemporal variations of sustainability across China. This paper investigates the spatial and temporal variations of sustainability in Mainland China from 2004 to 2014. An evaluation framework involving 21 indicators, which are grouped under the three categories of economic, social, and environmental performance, is proposed for evaluating the Sustainability Index (SI) for 31 provincial-level divisions in China. Balancing the ‘triple bottom line’ performance to achieve sustainability is an ideal goal, which is analyzed for each geographical region in China. The ideas of the analytic hierarchy process have been used under four different scenarios to investigate trade-offs among the three performance areas and reveal the impacts of indicator weights on the assessment results. Results obtained show marginal improvement in sustainability across China when social and environmental factors are considered to be more important than economic ones, while a significant improvement is observed when economy is considered to be more important. The indicator weights have a clear impact on the assessment of SI, but the influence is reduced when the results for 2004 and 2014 are compared. This study provides an enhanced understanding of spatial and temporal variations in regional sustainability in China, providing more evidence for informed decisions on regional economic, social and environmental development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a number of noteworthy innovations that can be used to test the hedge and safe haven properties of Chinese stocks against stocks from four East Asian countries commonly referred to as the Asian Tigers. First and foremost, the hedge property of Chinese stocks was tested at different frequencies. Secondly, based on assertions of the Fractal Market Hypothesis, for the first time (to the best of our knowledge), turbulent periods in stock markets were identified by estimating the wavelet power spectra of stock returns. Thirdly, the safe haven property of stocks was analysed by estimating their coherence and phase angle during the identified turbulent periods. It is inferred that Chinese stocks can be used as both a weak hedge as well as weak safe haven against stocks of the Asian Tigers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the pressing issues of environmental deterioration and energy shortage that have accumulated in the extensive economic growth model, the Chinese government aims to enhance total factor productivity (TFP) by strengthening environmental regulations. The empirical findings on the impact of environmental regulation on TFP are relatively mixed. The literature exploring economic performance of different environmental regulations on TFP is scant; our study filled this gap and explored the microeffect of four categories of environmental policies on total factor productivity without considering natural factors and green total factor productivity (GTFP) considering natural factors based on China's provincial data from 2007 to 2017. The results illustrate that environmental regulation imposes a more significant positive impact on GTFP and different regulation policies can affect regional TFP through various paths. The administrative monitoring policies and public engagement policies exert more remarkable active effects on GTFP than other policies. Meanwhile, the existing environmental regulation promoted the sustainable development in the eastern and central areas, while failed to accelerate economic transformation in western area. Therefore, to better exert the incentive impact of green regulation on TFP, this study suggests that the government should enhance the eco-objective responsibility system, promote the marketization reform in resource areas, train more professional eco-friendly talent, foster public appreciation for nature conservation, and accelerate the industrial innovation of the midwestern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of China's economy, the problem of environmental pollution has become increasingly serious. Given that China's current environmental quality threatens its long-term sustainable economic development, certain attention must be paid to curb environmental pollution in China. As a developed country with a high level of environmental quality in the world, Germany has experienced "Treatment after Pollution". To promote China's environmental quality, this study considers the historical lessons offered by Germany and examines the relationship between environmental pollution and economic development as well as the effective environmental governance mode in Germany and China. Based on the panel data of 30 provincial administrative regions in China and 16 states in Germany from 2000 to 2017, this study quantitatively investigates the nexus of economic growth and environmental pollution in the two countries. Empirical results demonstrate that, during the sample period of 2000–2017, the emissions of four pollutants in both countries increase initially and then decrease as the economy grows. The levels of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) that correspond to the emission peaks of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides are comparable in the two countries. Some economic and industrial policies may help to accelerate the occurrence of the turning point, including the following: decreasing the importance of a secondary industry; taking full advantage of the structural and technical effects brought about by foreign trade; reducing the reliance on non-clean energy; and carrying out more effective energy policies. In this regard, coordinating environmental policies with economic growth, formulating strict environmental policies, improving industrial structure, optimizing energy structure, and improving the quality of foreign trade are pivotal for China's sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China's economy has experienced a high-rate growth since the reform and opening up in 1978. However, some macro-statistics indicated that China's economy grows with a low efficiency. In fact, these conclusions based on macro-statistics and the performance of the economy as a whole cannot reflect the multi-level, dynamic and, therefore, complicated situation of China. By using firm-level data, and the stochastic frontier production model, this paper makes an investigation on the changing trends of TFP of China's LMIE between 1995 and 2002, and the decomposition of factors of growth. Results: Main findings include: (1) the weighted average of the annual growth of TFP in China's large and medium sized industrial enterprises was as high as 6.8 % with a rising trend during 1996-2002; (2) the contribution to TFP growth by the factor of Frontier Technology Progress reached as much as 14 percentage points per annum on average; (3) the decline in Technical Efficiency (Relative to the Frontier) reduced the TFP growth by 7.1 percentage points per annum on average; (4) Allocative Efficiency contributed on average only 0.02 percentage points per annum to the TFP growth and Scale Dis-Economy slowed the growth of TFP by 0.33 percentage points per annum. Conclusions: The results show that at the turn of the century, the most important part of China's industry was in the middle of an industrial productivity revolution driven by both Frontier Technological Progress and the great potential of technical efficiency of lagging enterprises. The revolution is driven by increased competition, privatization, foreign investment, and business expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this modern era of commercialized higher education, learning and qualifications have become the essential commodities that drive nations' economic progress. Free market principles related to consumerism appear to dictate and shape the operational framework of higher education. While a market-driven strategy may yield benefits in promoting the internationalization of higher education, it could potentially come at the expense of sustainable development of universities and proper learning. Employing a qualitative method, this study explores whether the commercialized nature and marketing of internationalized higher education contributes to or hinders its viability. It does this by comparing the practices between a Double First-Class university and a non-Double First-Class university. Findings underscore the need for more attention to be paid to creating a sustainable higher education system. Colleges and universities should strategically rebrand themselves by innovating their management and teaching systems to foster more competent international human resources, leading to sustainable universities and better prepared international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urban agglomeration is not only crucial to tackle with the more and more contradiction between population, resources and environment, but also an important spatial actor to increase the global competitiveness and promote the transformation of China's economic development mode. In the national "14th Five-Year Plan" in 2021, it is proposed to "promote the coordinated and development of large, medium-sized and small cities and towns based on urban agglomeration and metropolitan area". Generally, 19 urban agglomerations designated in this Plan are heterogeneous in development level and national functions. To this end, from the nature of urban agglomerations, especially on agglomeration economy and functional urban region hypothesis, the research focuses on the spatial pattern and changes of these 19 areas mainly based on the 6th and 7th national census. The findings show that, China's UAs are unique in driving forces, and spatial patterns as well. China's UAs are more state-led, though now the marketing forces more and more crucial. The UAs have been evolved from the early planned economy period to the reform and opening up period, and then to the further development of the Socialist market economy until now. Unlike other typical UAs abroad, most of the developed UAs are more specialized in manufacture, not in producer services, though these regions show a remarkable high-end services oriented shift in 2010–2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, struggling to balance environmental protection and economic growth is fundamental for the transformation of economic growth model in future. This research uses the dynamic DEA model and incorporates it into non-radial DDF. Then, the research estimates the provincial environmental performance in China during the observation period. Taking into account technological heterogeneity, in this study, the evaluated provinces are divided into two groups (temperate region and tropical and subtropical regions). The empirical findings reveal the following. (1) Most of the provinces have considerable room for enhancement in environmental performance. (2) The environmental performance of provinces in temperate regions is obviously worse than that of those in the tropical and subtropical regions. (3) Provinces in temperate region should improve environmental efficiency by reducing both their technology gap and managerial inefficiency compared to those in the tropical and subtropical regions. Considering in future that China's population will continue to shift from inland areas to coastal areas, especially large coastal cities, each province should take targeted policies to improve environmental performance according to their own situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is one of the main prerequisites for a country making economic progress. A well-informed and well-functioning education system should be able to address most kinds of discrimination or privilege, ensuring that all people have equitable access to high quality education, regardless of their socioeconomic status (SES). It is noted that it cannot prevent every discrimination-related issue that arises. Residential colleges (RCs) have evolved over time in higher education. In this era of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is crucial to assess whether RCs genuinely promote equal access and good quality education. Focusing on China, this study investigates whether RCs contribute to education equality or simply serve individuals from privileged socioeconomic contexts. Primarily, employing the quantitative research methods, including descriptive and grouped regression analysis, this study analyzes data from 397 RC students nationwide. The results reveal that RCs are accessible to students from different SES backgrounds, but enrollment disparities persist based on SES. Furthermore, SES does not dictate the role of RCs in academic performance among different social groups; RCs help to narrow the performance discrepancy between students from various socioeconomic backgrounds. These findings underscore the constructive role of RCs in advancing sustainable education and provide valuable insights for decision-makers aiming to get RCs to reduce education disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the spatial distribution of China's intangible cultural heritage resources and its influencing factors is an important foundation for their protection and development and a key step toward the integration of culture and tourism. To analyse the geographical distribution patterns of China's 3610 intangible cultural heritage resources and their influencing factors, we comprehensively applied methods such as spatial analysis and geodetectors. The main findings are as follows: (1) In terms of spatial distribution, China's intangible cultural heritage resources are unevenly distributed, with an overall agglomeration-type distribution. The distribution in the north‒south direction is more significant, with more resources in the east than in the west and more resources in the south than in the north. (2) In terms of the spatial distribution of various types of intangible cultural heritage sites, North and East China have always been areas with a high kernel density. (3) In terms of spatial trends, there is a clear correlation between the distribution of intangible cultural heritage resources and the state of economic development and historical and cultural heritage, i.e., the more economically developed and culturally rich a region is, the more resources of intangible cultural heritage there are. (4) The causes of the distribution of China's intangible cultural heritage resources are complicated, the influence of social factors is much greater than that of natural factors, and multidimensional interactions have a relatively significant impact. This study is conducive to the planning and protection of China's intangible cultural heritage resources at the national and regional levels and provides a reference for the sustainable development of China's intangible cultural heritage resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bank industry plays a critical role in the economic development of China. In this paper, we develop a new two-stage data envelopment analysis approach for measuring the slacks-based efficiency of Chinese commercial banks during years 2008-2012, where the banking operation process of each bank is divided into a deposit-generation stage (division) and a deposit-utilization stage (division). In the approach, the increase of desirable outputs and the decrease of undesirable outputs are simultaneously considered in order to identify the inefficiency of a bank. Three efficiency statuses are first defined for such a system to investigate its input-output performance and divisional performances, and a full efficiency status is then defined based on these statuses. The empirical results show that the improvement of the banks' performances during this period was mainly contributed by the improvement of deposit-utilization stage. Besides, the results also show that our approach can provide a benchmark for the intermediate measures of the two stages of an inefficient bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]