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• A system of indicators has been established for the high-quality economic development index developed by the Chinese government. • High-quality economic development is divided into five dimensions. • Reliance on the resource industry has significantly reduced the level of high-quality economic development. • The theoretical mechanisms of the impact of resource industry dependence on high-quality development are analyzed. • Government governance capacity weakens the impact of resource industry dependence on high-quality economic development. In resource-dependent regions, the meaning of high-quality economic development has yet to be clarified by published research, despite substantial scholarly interest in the topic. With the help of the economic development index developed by the Chinese government, this paper accurately measures high-quality economic development in 30 provinces in China and investigates how resource dependence and government governance capability affect regional high-quality economic development. Research has found that resource industry dependence has a significant inhibitory effect on high-quality economic development. Additionally, the analysis of the mechanisms revealed that resource industry dependence reduces high-quality economic development through a series of effects including crowding out innovation, weakening coordination, lagging green development, hindering global openness, and sharing in weakening. Further research has revealed that government governance capacity weakens the impact of resource industry dependence on high-quality economic development. A detailed analysis of three subsystem indicators of government governance capacity, namely policy planning, capability commitment, and performance assessment, indicates that they all have a weakening effect. To this end, the paper proposes policy recommendations, including increasing innovation inputs, advancing industrial restructuring, promoting green development, enhancing marketization levels, and constructing a diversified employment system. These measures aim to transform resource disadvantages into resource advantages and facilitate high-quality economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, a new pattern of world economic development is taking shape, and different development models featuring a green, low-carbon, and recycling economy have become the goals pursued by all countries. China is in a critical period of economic transformation. Establishing a sound financial system for green, low-carbon, and recycling economic development is an essential initiative for China to realize the dual-carbon goal, build a modern financial system for sustainable development, and promote the construction of a community of human destiny. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to dynamically monitor the development of China's green, low-carbon, and recycling economy and explore regional development differences to realize coordinated and sustainable regional development. This paper measures the level of green, low-carbon, and recycling economy development in 30 provinces and cities in China by constructing a dynamic evaluation system for green, low-carbon, and recycling economy development and utilizing a dual incentive model. The empirical results show that since 2014, the level of green, low-carbon, and recycling economy development in China's provinces and cities has been on an upward trend. Still, the level of action needs to be balanced. Therefore, it is imperative to create an institutional environment conducive to advancing green and low-carbon technologies, promoting structural adjustment and energy efficiency, and reducing regional differences in green, lowcarbon, and recycling development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial development has greatly promoted China's economic growth. Under the dual pressure of resources and the environment, high-quality economic development has become an inevitable requirement of China's new era. Under the new development pattern of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, which is 'to step up conservation of the Yangtze River and stop its over-development,' it is of great significance to explore the transmission mechanism of the impact of environmental regulations on the economic belt's high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2005 to 2019, this paper constructed an index system of high-quality economic development and verified the mediation effect of environmental regulations on its high-quality economic development by using the mediation effect model. Intermediate variables, including technological input and industrial structure, were used. In addition, the dynamic threshold model was used to verify the impact of environmental regulations on high-quality economic development under different threshold variable levels. The results found that: (1) The results of the mediation effect test showed that both technological input and industrial structure had a partial mediation effect in the impact of environmental regulations on high quality economic development. Environmental regulations helped to improve the level of technological input and optimize the adjustment of industrial structure, which in turn had a positive impact on the quality of economic development. (2) The results of the threshold model showed that when technological input and industrial structure were the threshold variables of environmental regulations, environmental regulations had a threshold effect on high quality economic development. In regions with high technology input and a backward industrial structure, environmental regulations could better promote high quality economic development. (3) The results of the heterogeneity of the threshold effects showed that a temporal heterogeneity existed in the threshold effects of technology input and industrial structure variables and that factors such as the policy orientation of technological inputs and the rigidity of industrial structure affected the implementation effect of environmental regulation policies. Based on the above conclusions, the following policy recommendations are put forward: (1) Formulate differentiated environmental regulation policies and promote the effective implementation of environmental regulation policies. (2) Improve the level of technological input and provide new impetus for high-quality economic development. (3) Optimize industrial structure, and accelerate the green development and transformation of industries. (4) Clarify the mechanism of environmental compensation and special governance, and promote the synergistic development of regional economy and environmental regulations. [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]

For a long time, China 's extensive economic development model has produced a large amount of emissions, which has brought indelible damage to the environment. Green development is of vital importance for China to achieve high-quality development, and it is the core of alleviating environmental problems and promoting sustainable development. How to achieve China 's green development requires us to evaluate the level of green development in China 's provinces and analyze the reasons. In this study, an evaluation index system including undesired output of green development efficiency is constructed, and then the Supe-SBM model is used to assess the green development efficiency of 30 Chinese provinces. This paper also discusses the spatial and temporal differences as well as the factors affecting green development efficiency of green development efficiency among provinces. The findings demonstrate: (1) The green development efficiency in the eastern region is the highest, followed by the western region, while the central region has the lowest, but they all show a downward trend. (2) The spatial characteristics of green development efficiency are remarkable, according to the Global Moran's I index. However, the results of local spatial agglomeration demonstrate "small agglomeration and large dispersion," with the majority of provinces exhibiting L-L agglomeration. (3) Technological Progress, Opening Up, Urbanization Level are positively correlated with the green development efficiency. Industrial Structure, Financial Development, Energy Structure and green development efficiency are significantly negatively correlated, while Environmental Regulation shows no significant impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China has been exploring a sustainable development path that harmonizes economic growth and environmental protection, targeting to build a beautiful China. The role of green finance in adjusting the misallocation of financial resources and leading the green sustainable development of the real economy is receiving increasingly more attention. Currently, green credit accounts for more than 90% of the total green finance funding in China and constitutes the most significant component of the green finance matrix. Whether green credit effectively promotes the green and sustainable development of the regional economy largely determines the success of China's economic green transformation. Objective: Existing studies of green credit mainly focus on its influences on financing, investment, and emission reduction of environmental pollution industries or companies. Extending the literature by exploring whether green credit is effective in promoting green sustainable development and what impact green credit exerts on the upstream (energy inputs), midstream (technological innovation), and downstream (pollution outputs) stages of the green sustainable development value chain, is the leading research objective of this paper. Methods: This paper discusses the impact of green credit on green sustainable development based on city panel data from 2012 to 2019. The level of green sustainable development is calculated by the GML index based on SBM directional distance function. The city-level green credit scale is calculated from the green credit issued by banks, weighted by the density of bank branches in a city. Synthetic control methods are employed in the robustness analysis to reduce the impact of endogeneity issues. Results and conclusion: The results of this paper indicate that green credit can promote green sustainable development and the impact gradually strengthens over time as the incremental implementations of complementary policies with substantial constraints and incentives, through which pollution control and economic growth achieve a "win-win" situation. Furthermore, the results indicate that green credit reduces the overall amount of energy inputs while optimizing the energy input structure. However, green credit does not boost the green technological level and even crowds out high technical value green innovations. Besides, the pollution reduction effects of green credit are associated with the strength of green credit constraints and the importance of pollution industries in the local economy, which means green credit performs better pollution reduction effects in regions with relatively strong green credit binding effects or in regions where pollution industries are not local economic pillars. The empirical results are further validated through robustness tests, including changing scope and measurement variables and applying the synthetic control method. Limitations: Although this paper provides valuable contributions to the research area of green credit and green sustainable development, specific limitations exist in the current study. Firstly, as the official information disclosure of green credit in China is not sufficient, existing studies, including ours, could only use estimation methods through different perspectives to measure green credit, which is overall logical and reasonable but may lose some accuracy. Secondly, since there might be a certain degree of lag in the effect of green credit on the economy, the dynamic impact and long-term effects of green credit deserve further study. Thirdly, considering the characteristics of the Chinese administrative systems, introducing the behavior of local governments and local officials into the analysis of green credit and green sustainable development could be valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green credit is an important financial tool to promote the transformation of the low-carbon economy. On the basis of clarifying the theoretical mechanism of the impact of green credit on carbon emission reduction, this paper used the fixed effect stochastic frontier model containing unexpected output to measure the total factor carbon productivity of 156 cities in China from 2000 to 2019 and empirically tested the carbon emission reduction effect of green credit and its mechanism from the three dimensions of productivity, intensity, and total amount. The research found that: ① Green credit development significantly improved total factor carbon productivity and reduced carbon emission intensity, but the average impact on total carbon emissions was not significant. The above conclusions were still valid after a series of robustness tests and treatments of endogeneity problems. ② The carbon emission reduction effect of green credit was heterogeneous due to differences in regional location, resource endowment, and financial efficiency. In the central region, non-resource-based cities, and cities with higher financial efficiency, green credit had significant carbon reduction effects in both carbon productivity and carbon intensity dimensions, while green credit in the eastern region, resource-based cities, and cities with lower financial efficiency only reduced carbon intensity. ③ The stimulation of green innovation and the reduction of energy intensity were the most effective channels for green credit to reduce carbon emissions, whereas the mediating effect of the structural transformation channel was not yet significant. Green credit was more effective in promoting green innovation and generating positive spillovers in the green innovation channel. However, green credits were more effective in improving carbon emission efficiency in the energy intensity channel, but the role of supporting low-carbon technologies must be enhanced. ④ Environmental regulations had two moderating mechanisms, 'positive compensation' and 'negative offset,' for the carbon reduction effect of green credit. When the demand and supply of financial resources were low, strengthening environmental regulations would weaken the incentive effect of green credit on low-carbon economic transformation. The above conclusion not only provides a new research perspective and supplementary empirical evidence for understanding the environmental effects of green credit, but also provides a useful reference for further improving green credit policies and promoting the development of a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saving energy resources and reducing energy intensity are crucial to promoting China' s major strategic goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, and are hence key to the promotion of green transformation and development in the new development stage. As an important practice, the policy of establishing pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations in China aims to promote green finance reform in depth, construct ecological civilization, and realize green economic transformation. Can the policy reduce energy intensity and contribute to energy conservation? What is its impact mechanism? There is a shortage of systematic analysis in academia on these issues. With panel data from Chinese cities from 2007 to 2020 and a generalized synthetic control method, this paper evaluated how the establishment of pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations affected energy intensity and analyzed its impact mechanisms. The results showed that: ① The implementation of the policy significantly reduced the energy intensity of the pilot zones, and the energy-saving effect exhibited 'policy first' and timeliness characteristics. ② The policy-induced energysaving effect was achieved by improving green innovation, easing financing constraints, optimizing industrial structure, and strengthening environmental governance. ③ The policy' s energy-saving effect was more remarkable in areas with better marketization and a higher education level. The findings suggest that the government should fully consider the differences in aspects such as institutional environment and resource endowment among varying regions, design distinct measures to attract more market players to participate in the green finance system oriented by energy efficiency improvement, energy structure transformation, and environmental governance, and create a much better market-oriented environment for green innovation and corporate financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing multipolarity in international affairs together with the rise of non-state actors do require us to re-think what constitutes sustainable development, in general, but also how economic growth can be respectful of the environment and individual rights. The People's Republic of China (China) does constitute an important part of that story. This paper aims to analyse China's discourse, laws, and policies on sustainable development at both national and international levels. It situates sustainable development in the broader context of China's current development policy; addresses the ways in which China engages with multilateral and bilateral institutions (i.e. legal instruments) in the area of sustainable development; as well as assesses the scope and limitations of China's focus on sustainable development in the context of Outward Foreign Direct Investment in the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading have become two strategic initiatives to realize a green economic development in the new development model of China. Exploring the relationship between green economic efficiency and the coupling degree of technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading is essential to achieve the visionary goal of green economic development and socialist modernization. This paper measures the coupling degree of technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, classifies the coupling types based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2012-2019, and measures the green economic efficiency of 30 provinces in China using the super-efficient model (SBM), based on a spatial econometric model to study the relationship between green economic efficiency and the coupling degree of technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading. The research results show that there is a significant positive effect on green economic efficiency among regions; the coupling degree of technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading has a significant direct effect and a spatial spillover effect on green economic efficiency, the spatial spillover effect plays a major role. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that in the regions with higher development and coordination degrees of technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, the coupling degree of technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading has a significant effect on the green economic efficiency of the region, and in the regions with lower development and coordination degrees of technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, the coupling degree of technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading has a significant positive effect on the green economic efficiency of the region and neighboring areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yangtze Economic Belt (hereafter, the Belt) is one of the most dynamic regions in China in terms of population growth, economic progress, industrialization, and urbanization. It faces many resource constraints (land, food, energy) and environmental challenges (pollution, biodiversity loss) under rapid population growth and economic development. Interactions between human and natural systems are at the heart of the challenges facing the sustainable development of the Belt. By adopting systematic thinking and the methodology of system dynamics simulation, an integrated system-dynamics-based simulation model for the Belt, named ANEMI_Yangtze, has been developed based on the third version of ANEMI3. The nine sectors of population, economy, land, food, energy, water, carbon, nutrients, and fish are currently included in ANEMI_Yangtze. This paper presents the ANEMI_Yangtze model description, which includes (i) the identification of the cross-sectoral interactions and feedbacks involved in shaping the Belt's system behavior over time; (ii) the identification of the feedbacks within each sector that drive the state variables in that sector; and (iii) the description of a new fish sector and modifications to the population, food, energy, and water sectors, including the underlying theoretical basis for model equations. The validation and robustness tests confirm that the ANEMI_Yangtze model can be used to support scenario development, policy assessment, and decision-making. This study aims to improve the understanding of the complex interactions among coupled human–natural systems in the Belt to provide the foundation for science-based policies for the sustainable development of the Belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the green economy efficiency (GEE) is crucial for building a sustainable economy. How can the rapidly advancing digital transformation contribute to this process? The paper empirically examines the direct and spatial spillover effects of digital transformation on cities' GEE in China. This study utilizes the National E-commerce Pilot City (NEPC) policy as a quasi-natural experiment of regional digital transformation and employs the staggered difference-in-differences (DID) method with heterogeneous effects. The findings reveal that (i) implementing the NEPC policy significantly increases urban GEE by 2.6%, corresponding to a 16% increase in the mean of GEE. This effect is particularly pronounced in non-resource-based cities and cities with high Internet penetration. (ii) The mechanism test shows that the pilot policy positively affects GEE by promoting green structural transformation, enhancing green innovation, and strengthening public environmental concerns. (iii) The study highlights a positive spatial spillover effect of the NEPC policy on the GEE of nonpilot cities. (iv) The adoption of the NEPC plays a pivotal role in advancing energy use and carbon emission efficiency. This paper expands the existing knowledge on the green development effects of the digital economy while offering valuable policy insights for building an "Inclusive Green Economy". [Display omitted] • The staggered differences-in-differences method is employed to examine the direct and spatial spillover effects of NEPC on cities' GEE in China. • This paper uses NEPC as a quasi-experiment for digital transformation. • NEPC significantly improves green economic efficiency by 2.6%. • Green structural transformation, innovation, and environmental concerns are main channels. • Positive spillover effect of NEPC on green economy efficiency in non-pilot cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China now faces an increasingly aging society which may exert economic pressure in the long run. This study illustrates the spatial pattern and evolution of population aging and economic development in China. The coupling coordination degree of population aging and economic development at the national and provincial levels are calculated and demonstrated, and the spatial patterns and characteristics are investigated. Methods: This paper presents a coupling analysis of the elderly population rate (EPR) and per capita Gross Regional Product (GRPpc) in China by using the coupling and coordination model. Further, the spatial pattern and evolution of population aging and economic development are investigated based on the standard deviational ellipse. The collected data is at the level of provincial administrative units in mainland China covering the period 2002 to 2020. Results: The results reveal the spatial difference in the coupling and coordination degree between EPR and GRPpc across provinces. The eastern coastal areas are higher than the central and western regions of China. The orientation and directions of EPR are more than GRPpc, indicating that the polarization in population aging is more severe than economic development. Significant positive correlations between coupling coordination degree and sustainable competitiveness are detected. Conclusions: Policymakers should fully consider regional differences and sustainable development in policy formulation of China. The western and northeastern provinces should be given priority in the regional sustainable development plan. At the same time, the coordination between population aging and economic development also requires to be examined especially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While promoting the economic growth, energy has also brought pollution problems to the world environment, which has gradually become a bottleneck impeding sustainable economic development. In view of the rapid evolution of urbanization and industrialization, economic growth is increasingly dependent on the energy consumption, the development of the two is difficult to coordinate, and the internal contradictions are becoming increasingly serious, which hinders the sustainable development of economic growth. This study establishes the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth according to the energy Kuznets curve and studies the future trend of China's sustainable development through the comparative analysis of the energy Kuznets curve of the United States and Germany. The results show that, at the turning point of energy consumption, China's energy economic rate is higher than that of Germany and the United States. In addition, in terms of urbanization rate and industrial structure, although China's tertiary industry has made a breakthrough, it is still lower than that of the United States and Germany, but the level of urbanization rate has made significant progress. In short, China has obvious advantages in future economic development and has a late developing advantage compared with the United States and Germany. This paper makes an empirical analysis of the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in OECD countries and finds out the turning point of energy consumption, so as to provide a theoretical basis for coordinating China's energy consumption and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs the system of urban high-quality development index from the six dimensions of economy, innovation, coordination, green, open and sharing. It measures the high-quality development level of cities in 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) of China from 2004 to 2019 by entropy method, analyzes the spatial distribution and spatial correlation of high-quality development level of Chinese cities by using global spatial auto-correlation and hot-spot analysis and analyzes its driving factors by geographical detector model. The results show that: (1) the overall change of high quality development level of cities during the period of investigation is stable and slightly increased. The regional level is high in the eastern coastal areas and low in the western remote areas. Overall level of development: the eastern part>overall>middle part>the west area. (2) The high-quality development level of the city has significant spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the overall spatial distribution characteristics is "East hot west cold", hot spot range from "striped" gradually evolved into "clump", while the cold point range gradually transferred to the northwest region; hot spots have radiation-driven effect on the surrounding areas, and hot spot district have a "eviction weakening" effect on cold spot areas. (3) Innovation has the strongest effect on the high-quality development of cities, followed by open development, coordinated development and economic development, while the impact of green development and shared development is weaker; and the interaction between driving factors is greater than the independent effect of single factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following rapid growth, China's economy is entering a period of high-quality economic growth. High-quality economic development has a profound impact on China's current economic development. It can be said that the improvement of economic quality is an inevitable choice for China's new stage of economic development. From this point of view, promoting high-quality economic development has become an important practical issue in my country's current economic and social development. As the integration and innovation of digital technology and taxation, the blessing of digital technology maximizes integration and precision, which can effectively meet the needs of higher stages of economic development. Perfect and inclusive development has become an important support for sustainable and healthy economic development. At present, behind the rapid economic growth, human economic activities have led to the emergence of an ecological and environmental crisis. The growth mode characterized by high input, high consumption support, and high emissions has resulted in insufficient supply of regional ecological and environmental resources, pollution, and damage to the ecological environment and also intensified. Therefore, this paper first examines the concept of digital finance and its enlightenment to economic development, and believes that digital finance has a good role in promoting economic development. Second, an evaluation model for the relationship between environmental environment and economic development is established, and an evaluation index system is obtained. Finally, through the comprehensive evaluation and analysis of economic development and ecological environment, it is concluded that in the era of digital finance, the level of regional economic development has been greatly improved, and my country's regional economic development has been greatly improved, which is significantly faster than my country's ecological environment improvement level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is mounting theoretical and empirical research that explains the reasons for the rapid expansion of China's export trade, but they mostly ignore the effects of cultural differences. To fill this gap, this paper provides an empirical investigation of how cultural diversity affects the sustainable development of trade, which is defined as the goal of maintaining certain volume of trade and making trade growth sustainable. The findings are as follows. (1) Cultural diversity can significantly promote the sustainable development of trade. (2) Entrepreneurship is the possible channel wherein cultural diversity affects the sustainable development of trade, including innovation entrepreneurship and business entrepreneurship. (3) Further studies demonstrate that economic openness has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between cultural diversity and the sustainable development of trade. That is, the higher the level of openness of a city, the stronger the promotion of cultural diversity to the sustainable development of trade. This study not only deepens understanding on the relationship between culture and trade but also provides important policy implications for many countries that have high migration rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coordination of green economy, education development, and technological innovation is of great significance for reversing the trend of ecological environmental deterioration and promoting high-quality economic development. This study first designs the indicator system of green economy, education development, and technological innovation, then uses the entropy method to calculate the comprehensive level of green economy, education development, and technological innovation of 30 provinces and cities in China, and finally uses the coupling coordination model to measure the coordination level among them. The research shows that, first, the comprehensive level of green economy, education development, and technological innovation in 30 provinces and cities in China showed a rising trend from 2005 to 2016, but there were some regional differences in their levels. Second, the coordination level of green economy, education development, and technological innovation in different regions of China was in a rising trend from 2005 to 2016, but in 2005, they were extremely uncoordinated. Also, the coordination level of green economy, education development, and technological innovation in most regions of China grew very slowly from 2005 to 2010 but showed a rapid increase from 2011 to 2016. The coordination level of green economy, education development, and technological innovation in eastern China was visibly higher than that of the central region. The coordination level of the central region was higher than that of the northeast region, and the coordination level of the northeast region was higher than that of the western region. Finally, the limitations of this paper are summarized and proposed the direction of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been proved to be an important engine of green economic development, yet how it will affect the internal structure of green economy is unknown. The aim of this study is to examine the impact and its mechanism of AI on green total factor productivity (GTFP) from the internal-structure perspective, by using provincial panel data of China from 2009 to 2021 and global Malmquist index. The main research results show that: (1) the development of AI contributes to China's GTFP growth. And this effect is more significant in undeveloped areas; (2) AI promotes China's GTFP growth mainly by improving resource allocation efficiency, while it exerts little impact through the paths of technological progress and scale efficiency; (3) the transmission mechanism of AI on GTFP varies greatly among China's three main regions. In the eastern region, AI improves GTFP mainly by both advancing technological progress and improving resource allocation efficiency, while in central region AI contributes to GTFP growth mainly through technological progress. Compared with the eastern and central regions, AI in the western region plays a stronger impact on GTFP through the channel of improving scale efficiency. This study helps to understand the pathways of artificial intelligence affecting the transformation of green economic growth and formulate differentiated regional policies in light of local conditions. • This paper studies the effects of AI on China's GTFP from internal-structural perspective. • GTFP is decomposed into three internal factors by the global Malmquist index. • AI has positive effect on GTFP through different impacts on internal factors. • Improving resource allocation efficiency is the most critical channel of AI on GTFP. • AI plays a more significant role in promoting GTFP in less developed areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-quality economic development focuses on achieving effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth in the economy, which is the essential way for China to achieve sustainable development. This paper aims to investigate the role of financial development in the impact of foreign direct investment on high-quality economic development. GDP and green total factor productivity are used to measure the quantity and quality of economic development, respectively. We construct benchmark panel regression models, nonlinear interaction term models, and panel threshold models to examine the threshold effect of FDI on high-quality economic development based on the scale, structure, and efficiency of financial development. A series of tests are conducted to check the robustness of the estimates. Our results show that green total factor productivity in China is primarily driven by green technology progress. Additionally, foreign direct investment has a positive impact on China's high-quality economic development, with a threshold effect and nonlinear characteristics. Specifically, the scale of financial development affects the influence of foreign direct investment on the quantity of economic development, while the efficiency of financial development affects its influence on the quality of economic development. Furthermore, the structure of financial development affects both the quantity and quality of economic development. This study presents novel findings that contribute to understanding the role of financial development in the impact of foreign direct investment on high-quality economic development. Likewise, our research has implications for achieving high-quality development. The introduction of foreign direct investment under the high-quality development of the economy should comprehensively consider financial development. • The impacts on high-quality economic development of financial development and FDI were discussed. • The scale, structure and efficiency of financial development were considered. • Both quantity and quality of economic development were focus on. • The green total factor productivity in China was measured. • Policy implications of introducing FDI in China were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting for the ecosystem service values (ESVs) and discussing the relationship between the ESVs and economic development can help achieve sustainable ecological development. Therefore, this paper evaluates the county-level ESVs of various land types in China, and depicts the distribution of ESVs in various urban agglomerations. In addition, the nonlinear relationship between ESVs and economic development is revealed. The main findings are as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2018, the ESVs in China decreased, and the decline rate of ESVs in urban agglomerations is much higher than that of China as a whole. (2) The decline rate of ESVs in core cities is much higher than in urban agglomerations, and the decline rate of ESVs is higher in areas close to core cities and lower in areas far from core cities. (3) The ecological Kuznets curve of China has a positive "U" shape, and the ecological Kuznets curve of urban agglomerations has an "N" shape; the ecological Kuznets curve of core cities has a positive "U" shape, while the ESVs of other cities decreases monotonically with the increase of the economic level. • This paper fills the data gap of ESVs at the county level in China. • The reduction rate of ESV in urban agglomeration is larger than the national level. • The reduction rates of ESV in core cities are larger than the urban agglomerations. • The ecological Kuznets curve is "U"-shaped in China. • Non-urban agglomeration cities are still left to the inflection point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of the gradual scarcity of terrestrial resources and the increasingly fierce competition for global marine resources, the task of green development of marine economy and green transformation of marine industry is imminent. Carbon finance is a product of low-carbon economic development and a derivative of green finance. It is an effective way to alleviate the global climate crisis and promote the transformation of the global economy to a low-carbon economy to achieve sustainable development. Studying the mechanism of carbon finance on the development of marine economy will help to grasp the influencing factors of the green transformation of the marine industry in an all-round way, better promote the sustainable development of China's marine economy, and realize the strategy of marine power at an early date. Based on this, this paper selects China's data from 2006 to 2020, and uses the AHP-entropy method to select 26 indicators from five levels: economic growth, energy conservation and emission reduction, marine ecology, structural adjustment and scientific and technological innovation to construct a comprehensive evaluation index system for the green transformation of China's marine industry. Based on the PLSR model, the impact of carbon finance on the green transformation of China's marine industry is empirically analyzed, and the results show that: (1) The comprehensive score of China's marine industry green transformation from 2006 to 2020 fluctuates and rises: from 2006 to 2009, the comprehensive score of China's marine industry green transformation is low, and the transformation effect is not obvious. From 2009 to 2012, the comprehensive score of green transformation of the marine industry improved significantly. From 2012 to 2018, the comprehensive score of China's marine industry green transformation fluctuated little and showed a slow growth trend, while China's marine economic transformation grew steadily at a low speed. In 2019–2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the speed of transformation has decreased again. (2) The carbon ratio and the green credit balance of commercial banks have a role in promoting the green transformation of China's marine industry, while the carbon trading volume and carbon intensity have a restraining effect on the green transformation of China's marine industry. From the perspective of effect, carbon intensity has the strongest effect, followed by carbon ratio, carbon trading volume is slightly weaker, and the role of green credit balance of commercial banks is the weakest. Based on the research conclusions, relevant policy recommendations were put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The score function is proposed for hesitant Fermatean fuzzy set. • Unify the framework of Regional Green Development Level Evaluation. • Improve MULTIMOORA method is proposed with hesitant Fermatean fuzzy information. • Level Difference Maximization Method to combine subjective and objective weights. • Case study of RGDL is presented to show the potentiality of the developed method. Economic green development has received increase attention. However, the uncertainty decision processes in the development of green economic growth has brought challenges to the evaluation, which leads to the evaluation index system has not yet reached a consensus. In order to solve the above problems, this paper, based on the established and developed regional green development level evaluation (RGDLE) system in existing literature, employed improved MULTIMOORA group decision model under the hesitant fuzzy Fermatean environment (HFFS-MULTIMOORA) and an innovative weighting method to develop the RGDLE process. This evaluation framework describes the complexity of the RGDLE process. The Level Difference Maximization Method to combine the average-based subjective weight-determining method and the Shannon-entropy-based objective weight-determining method is developed to fit RGDLE problems with cognitive complex information. This innovative index system and HFFS-MULTIMOORA method based group decision-making framework is further applied to evaluate the green development level of five provinces and municipalities along the Yangtze River Economic Zone, China. Results showed the optimal green development levels ranking of the five alternative provinces and municipalities of the Yangtze River Economic Zone, China. Moreover, the effectiveness and feasibility of the model framework was verified by robustness and comparative analysis between the existing method. This paper contributes not only to the literature on RGDLE but also to giving decision-makers and researchers inside and outside China valuable inspiration and references for improving the evaluation efficiency and giving policy suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The composition structure of the disaster economic resilience theory has been further developed and quantitatively verified. • The correction effect of the resilience on the economic fluctuations (secondary shock) that occurred during the recovery process has been quantitatively evaluated. • The sustainable improvement of the economic system's performance by the resilience at the end of the post-disaster recovery process has been quantitatively evaluated. • Results can provide a multi-dimensional optimization plan for improving the efficiency of post-disaster recovery and reconstruction management. Quantitative measuring disaster resilience especially dynamic economic resilience (DER) belongs to a frontier research in the past decades, which can effectively improve post-disaster economic recovery effects, reducing post-disaster loss. However, DER focuses more on the overall shape changes of recovery path, two features that commonly appear in the dynamic change process of recovery curve are also worth evaluating separately: the "secondary shock" caused by adverse factors during the recovery process and sustainable improvement of economic output at the end of recovery. Therefore, we adopt a dynamic input–output model that integrates capital damage and affected people and apply it to an extreme flood in 2016, Wuhan City, China, building the relationship between 7 recovery actions (rescue funds) and changes of two features, analyzing the impact of resilience on the dynamic recovery path features through 6 characteristic variables constructed in this paper. Results show that (1) economic resilience increases from no to actual action, the dropping rate caused by "secondary shock" decreases 30.4%, and Wuhan's economic output has achieved an improvement in sustainability of 0.088% compared to the pre-disaster level, which contributes permanently to reducing vulnerability to future disasters. (2) only 21.81% (compared to the actual scenario) of the rescue funds is needed to support 30% reduction action plus 0.02% sustainable improvement. But to support the 50% recovery action, 78.92% of the rescue funds is needed. This paper aims to provide a new perspective for the refined dynamic assessment of resilience and to prove the role of resilience in promoting short-term post-disaster recovery and long-term sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation activities of enterprises often fall into the dilemma of financing constraints. Hence, it is urgent that the financial system develops and becomes innovative, especially for a developing country like China. Existing literature mainly explores the influencing factors of green innovation from the environmental regulation, economic growth and government subsidies perspective. However, few papers critically study how digital finance influences green innovations. To explore the internal influencing mechanism of digital finance on the quantity and quality of green technology innovation, panel data of 271 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2019 in China is used. Based on theoretical analysis and empirical research, we get the following conclusions. First, digital finance can improve the quantity and quality of green technological innovation, which has become a significant driving force for green innovations in China. The results are still robust after the endogeneity tests. Second, the results of heterogeneous analysis indicate that the different dimensions of digital finance can improve green innovations. They include breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digitization. The positive effect of digital finance is most substantial in eastern cities, followed by central cities, and weakest in western cities. Third, digital finance indirectly improves green innovation mainly by alleviating financing constraints. Our empirical results provide policy enlightenment for realizing the coordination of China's urban digital transformation and green economic development. • The effect of digital finance on the quantity and quality of green innovation is explored based on the actual background in China. • Digital finance has become a significant driving force for green innovation in China. • The different dimensions of digital finance can improve green innovations. • Digital finance plays a positive role in green technology innovation mainly by alleviating financing constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The island development of functional polycentricity was lagging than that of the morphological dimension. • Spatial regression model performs well in fitting the association between polycentric urban variables and island landscape changes. • The effects of dual polycentric urban indicators on island landscape changes varied spatially and temporally. • Polycentric urban development generally contributed to fragmented and complex island landscape patterns on the periphery areas of subcenters and reclamation. Polycentric urban development has become popular worldwide as expected to generate greater agglomeration externality and facilitate socioeconomic achievements. Despite much insightful work on urban polycentricity in coastal agglomerations or megacities, few studies have focused on how polycentric urban development affects landscape sustainability in vulnerable island cities. This paper characterized the urban polycentricity from the perspective of morphological and functional dimensions during 1990–2020 in Yuhuan island city, China, and quantified the association between polycentric urban variables and island landscape changes by spatial regression. The results showed that there was a mismatch in development between the morphological and functional polycentricity, in which the functional dimension was lagging. In response, island landscape patterns became fragmented and scattered. With the application of GWR models, the effects of two polycentric factors on island landscape changes varied spatially and temporally. The stronger relationships between them were identified in regions where more heterogeneous patterns were presented, such as the subcenters and their surroundings and reclamation areas. These trends were mainly attributed to industrial suburbanization and the development of new economic zone and Damaiyu port. Our findings call for a more balanced functional urban polycentricity; and local-specific landscape effects should be scheduled in island planning practice and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green economic growth and sustainable development complement each other, promoting green economic growth has important practical significance. However, the existing research focuses on qualitative analysis and less on quantitative analysis of the green economic growth. This study constructs a comprehensive index system of green economy, and uses entropy weighted TOPSIS method to evaluate the green economic growth from 2000 to 2017 in China. This study shows that:(1) Since the 21st century, China's green economy has been constantly improved. Ecological civilization and social progress are the main support for green economic growth. Economic development is secondary, and innovation-driven is lagging behind. (2) There are obvious regional differences in green economic growth. The eastern region is obviously better than the central and western regions, but the overall regional differences are shrinking. At the same time, the green economic growth shows obvious spatial agglomeration effect. (3) Population size, economic development level, technological innovation, industrial structure, urbanization, environmental regulation and FDI have impacts on the green economic growth, but the spatial effect of each influencing factor is different. In the process of developing the green economy, policy-makers should fully combine the spatiotemporal evolution of the green economy and its influencing factors, and make targeted policies. • This paper measures China's green economic growth. • Entropy weighted TOPSIS framework is employed. • China has made great progress in green economic growth. • China's green economic growth has obvious regional heterogeneity. • China's green economic growth has a spatial effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019 are analyzed by the spatial measure model and the threshold regression model. The results show that the air quality level is positively correlated with green finance, but there is no spatial effect. The spatial effect of the three influencing factors, including the degree of openness, the level of infrastructure, and the level of education, is the crowding-out effect. At the same time, variables such as human resource level, air quality, and infrastructure construction level all have threshold effects in the relationship between green finance and economic development. The research conclusions suggested that local governments at all levels should formulate policies according to the actual situation to promote the development of provinces' intensive, intelligent, and green development, and build a regionally-linked green finance development model, thereby promoting the improvement of green finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development stipulates 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The implementation of this agenda will mobilize countries worldwide to incorporate the SDGs into their national development strategies. The agenda does not specify how these goals are interconnected, thus limiting their implementation. In addition, air quality affects human life and plays a vital role in achieving these SDGs. Clarifying the interconnections between SDGs related to air pollution and other SDGs will accelerate the implementation of air protection and SDGs while simultaneously promoting policy coherence. In this paper, we use the latest calculation of the SDGs in China to construct national and provincial panel data to investigate the trade-offs and synergies among Chinese air pollution-related SDGs. The findings are as follows. First, most air pollution-related SDGs have synergetic relationships, except for SDG12, which has a trade-off relationship with other air pollution-related SDGs. Second, the synergies between air pollution-related SDGs and other SDGs far outweigh the trade-offs. Third, rapidly developing areas are more likely to experience a trade-off between economic development and air pollution problems. Fourth, geographic advantages in reducing air pollution, such as being adjacent to the sea, may weaken the synergies among air pollution-related SDGs and their synergies with other SDGs. These findings indicate that most air-pollution-related SDGs and interactions between air-pollution-related SDGs and other SDGs have substantial synergy; that is, measures aimed at one goal are conducive to the advancement of other goals. However, SDG12 reflects a trade-off relationship between economic development, environmental protection, and resource utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid economic growth and social development in China have led to serious water pollution problems and water resource shortages, limiting the sustainable and coordinated development that could support both the socio-economy and water environment (WE). However, the spatial heterogeneity and evolutionary characteristics of the coordination between economic development (ED) and WE have not been adequately explored in China's provinces. In this study, we use the spatial global (local) autocorrelation and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to explore the relationship between ED and WE subsystems and its influencing factors in China's provinces from 2010 to 2019. The main results are as follows, (a) The coupling coordination degree (CCD) between the two subsystems in southern China is higher than that of northern China. Transitional development areas have gradually spread to the middle of China, and there has been an increase trend in the number of moderate and high coordination provinces. (b) The ED-led (WE lags behind ED) type is mainly concentrated in central and eastern China, and the WE-led (ED lags behind WE) type is concentrated in the northeastern and western regions. The areas with synchronous development are relatively small in number and are mainly concentrated in east coastal China. (c) There is an obvious spatial dependence of the coordination between ED and WE from the perspective of global correlation, but this dependence is weakened with increasing geographical distance. The local mode of agglomeration shows a trend towards the evolution of high-high clustering in the eastern region. (d) The GWR analysis indicates that the factors of population density, energy consumption, fixed investment, and research and development (R&D) expenditure significantly influence the coordination between ED and WE. Fixed investment and R&D expenditure are mainly positive driving factors, while the impacts of population density and energy consumption vary among different regions as time evolves. Changes in driving force in a region can extend spatial effects to adjacent regions through the spatial transmission mechanism. Finally, we close the paper by recommending the different policy implications according to the GWR results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yu, S. and Yuizono, T., 2019. Improving innovation capability of marine industries: A perspective of consumption structure change. In: Gong, D.; Zhu, H., and Liu, R. (eds.), Selected Topics in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 94, pp. 846–850. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The development of the marine industry plays a decisive role in future economic development. At present, the marine industry still has problems, such as the over-dominance of the primary industry and the slow development of the secondary industry in China. The purpose of this research uses the extended linear expenditure system to analyze the consumption structure and the relationship with marine industries, then find a path for improving innovation capability to promote the development of marine industries. This paper takes Liaoning Province in China as research object. The results show that this consumption structure has entered a stage of development consumption. In this context, the industrial structure coefficient and the industrial influence coefficient are used to explore the impact of the consumption structure changes on the marine industry and conduct industrial structure testing. The study found that the consumption structure has a greater impact on the marine industrial structure, especially in the secondary industry. Based on this analysis, this research builds a double helix innovative development path driven by technology and market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]