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• A closed-loop material flow analysis model is established for China's pulp and paper industry (CPPI), followed by a comprehensive quantitative analysis from both retrospective and prospective perspectives. • By implementing sound plans and stricter regulations and standards, China has improved recycling and material use efficiency, reduced the organic material with wastewater, and shifted towards recovered paper as a raw material over non-wood fiber. • Lowering the waste paper recycling rate to increase carbon storage is not suitable for China, due to the limited virgin fiber and growing demand. • The growing paper demand requires efforts from both ends of virgin fiber supply and waste paper management towards the sustainable development of CPPI. As the largest global producer and consumer of pulp and paper, China faces significant sustainability challenges in fiber supply and waste paper management. A comprehensive material flow analysis of China's pulp and paper industry (CPPI) is needed to understand the interaction between raw material supply and waste paper management. Here, we construct a closed-loop material flow analysis model for CPPI, examine the evolution patterns of material metabolism from 1990 to 2019, and explore the demand for paper production, waste paper recycling, and virgin fiber supply in 2030 and 2050 under multiple scenarios considering critical factors. Results show that the industry has undergone rapid expansion, increased material use efficiency, and a shift towards recycled pulp from 1990 to 2019. China's paper demand will grow to 186 Mt in the next 30 years, resulting in a significant increase in both demand for fibers (173 Mt) and the generation of waste paper (138 Mt). To ensure a sustainable fiber supply for CPPI, domestic waste paper recycling needs to be prioritized. However, attention should also be paid to the availability of virgin pulp supply and proper disposal of organic solid waste. Proper management of these factors is crucial for achieving a circular economy in the industry and reducing its environmental impact. The findings highlight the importance of addressing both raw material supply and waste paper management for CPPI's sustainable development. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s paper industry consumes a lot of energy and emits huge amounts of pollutions. The Chinese government over the past decades has done a lot to promote energy efficiency of the industry. This paper studies the impact of industrial polices to improve energy efficiency. The energy efficiency change is firstly studied under a framework of total factor efficiency. On this basis, different econometric models are built to discuss the detailed energy efficiency characteristics of the paper industry. The main results are as follow: (i) ownership structure did influence the energy efficiency, but the influence is different in different conditions; (ii) energy efficiency of the paper industry can be improved by economies of scale; (iii) market competition can to some extent overcome the motivation and supervision problem that often occur in state-owned companies; (iv) energy price cannot play the role of resource allocation well in China. Finally, based on our findings, some suggestions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's paper industry accounts for a larger proportion of the global paper industry and consumes large amounts of energy. Energy conservation and pollution reduction of the industry have become the focus of China's national development strategy. Energy efficiency is an important index which directly determines the amounts of energy consumption and pollution emissions. To understand the energy efficiency evolution of China's paper industry, this paper establishes an input-output data of the paper industry for 29 provinces in China and applies DEA method and econometric models to estimate and comprehensively discuss the energy efficiency issues based on the framework of total factor efficiency. Our results indicate that China's paper industry has a large energy saving potential even though its energy efficiency has improved during the period 1990–2013. The saving potential is about 65% under the meta-frontier and 44% under the group-frontier. Moreover, there are significant differences between different regions in production technology and energy efficiency. The performance of eastern China is better than other regions. But the technology gaps between the different regions are shrinking and converging over time. Finally, some policy recommendations are proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Dentification of the water intensive industry—pulp and paper industry (PPI) at the firm level. • The partial static equilibrium model was applied to explore the economic effects. • Environmental regulation shows positive impacts on multiple indicators. Whether environmental regulation has negative impact on the economic performances of manufacturers in the real world cannot be concluded without reliable policy evaluations. The regional policy experimentation on raising the wastewater discharge standard in the pulp and paper industry in Shandong Province, China in the early 2000′s has been considered a success and has provided lessons for the crafting and strengthening of water pollution regulation for the whole country at a later stage. There has been, however, long lack of rigorous study that comprehensively evaluates the environmental and economic consequences of the policy experiment. The question about whether cleaner water came at a substantial economic cost remained unanswered. This may hinder cumulative policy learning and development. In this article, we adopt plant-level economic and environmental statistics and a difference-in-differences design to examine the economic effect of the Shandong wastewater policy in the 2000′s. Our results revealed that on average the environmental regulation enhanced the economic performances of pulp and paper plants. The regulation had positive effects on total output, total assets, and total profit, and it did not cause a statistically significant decline in employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report on a review of papers written by teachers aimed at knowing more about teachers’ perceptions of the current situation of classroom assessment in primary mathematics education in China. The review is based on 266 papers included in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database. We found that the teacher-authors reflected various aspects of their classroom assessment practice, including the purpose of assessment, the content of it, the person who is the assessor, the assessment methods that are used, and the feedback that is provided. Most attention was paid to feedback; it seems many teacher-authors considered classroom assessment to be equivalent to feedback. In general, the conceived classroom assessment practice as described in the papers echoed well nearly all aspects that are advocated in the Chinese mathematics curriculum standards. The only aspect that was scarcely discussed in the papers was the use of assessment results to adapt and improve instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's ecological environmental problem becomes severe, corporate environmental behavior (CEB) has become the focus of a range of stakeholders, policy makers and the whole society since the operating activities of companies is the main source of environmental pollution. This study used a questionnaire survey and structural equation model (SEM) to examine the relative importance of external and internal pressures (EIP) on driving CEB. Data was obtained from 702 papermaking companies in China. The mechanism of EIP effects on CEB was tested employing SEM through path analysis, using AMOS 21.0. The results showed that government pressure, economic pressure and internal pressure played significant positive roles in environmental behavior of papermaking companies in China. Economic pressure was the most important factor on environmental behaviors (including defensive, accommodative and proactive behaviors) of papermaking companies. Furthermore, the role of internal pressure on CEB (defensive and proactive) was second only to economic pressure, while the role of government pressure on CEB was much weaker than our expectation. However, the role of social pressure, which was imposed by general public and environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), was not significant. Thus, policy makers should emphasize on the interactions of economic mechanism, government regulation and internal incentive mechanism to stimulate firms to adopt active environmental behavior. More concerns from the general public shall be addressed to enhance their driving effect on CEB in Chinese papermaking industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fisheries monitoring is instrumental to effective fisheries management. Stimulated by technology development and management objective evolution, fisheries monitoring faces a transition into a more timely and accurate data reporting scheme. This transition features the replacement of traditional paper logbooks with electronic logbooks (e-logbooks). In 2017, China launched its first total allowable catch (TAC) pilot in Zhejiang Province, with an aim to develop and implement an e-logbook scheme in fisheries monitoring and management. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of e-logbook-based monitoring system against traditional paper logbooks and summarized the important lessons learned from the pilot. We compared the data reported by paper and e-logbooks, examined the role of observers and transshipment vessels in fisheries monitoring, and interviewed stakeholders for their reflections. We found that e-logbooks could improve data quality and report timeliness. However, significant differences were observed between data reported from paper and e-logbooks. These findings matched with the mixed opinions from different users. Fishermen rated e-logbooks poorly due to difficulties in use and frequent malfunctions, while managers, observers and scientists preferred e-logbooks to paper logbooks. Based on quantitative and qualitative analysis, we identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for future implementation of e-logbooks. We also noted that inadequate legislations, fishermen's low literacy, high training and running cost, and unregulated transshipment could hinder the implementation of e-logbooks. The refined lessons fill the gaps of the evaluation of TAC pilots in China and can contribute to the future application of e-logbooks in China and elsewhere. • The efficacy of the e-logbooks was evaluated against traditional paper logbooks. • logbook outperformed paper logbook in data completeness and report timeliness. • Stakeholders held various opinions of e-logbook. • Observers improved e-logbook performance by providing training and at-sea assistance. • The unfledged legislation, fishermen's low literacy and unregulated transshipment hindered the implementation of e-logbook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current approaches to study the coupling mechanism between economy and environment seem to fall into self-circulation, failed to reveal "economy–environment interdependence". In this context, an exogenous variable is introduced into these models for better understanding the relationship. Benzo[a]pyrene (Bap) environment inventories in different cities in China were estimated by fugacity model based on Bap concentration data collected from previous studies. An extended model, stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology (STIRPAT), generated from original IPAT (a model that expresses the idea that environmental impact (I) is the product of three factors: population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T)) was used to study the relationship between Bap environment inventory and anthropogenic factors including population, vehicle amount, affluence and energy consumption. A ridge regression has been applied to optimize the model parameters. Overall, there exist good relationships between Bap inventories and economic factors. Specifically, population and affluence are the most significant factors that influence Bap inventory. Rise of the scale of population and vehicle amount increases the Bap inventory, as growth of GDP per capita and the efficiency of energy utilization have inhibitory effect on Bap inventory. Apparently, the influences of anthropogenic factors on Bap inventory are different between north and south China. Bap inventory in north China is more sensitive to the change of population and energy consumption, while is highly correlated to GDP per capita in south China. Further, according to social-economic development prediction, with assist of the result from STIRPAT model, we find out that Bap inventory drop 31% from 2001 to 2020 in China. Our estimates are comparable with the published data and confirmed that Bap can be regarded as a chemical indicator of social-economic development in China. Image 1 • An extended STIRPAT model derived from original IPAT was developed. • Population and affluence are the key factors that influence Bap inventory. • Advance of affluence and technology level curbs Bap environmental exposure. • We predict Bap environmental inventory drop 31% from 2001 to 2020 in China. • Bap can be used as an indicator of social-economic development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is now a growing interest in early-life influences on adult diseases in China. A number of birth cohorts have been established. This systematic review provided a better understanding of the development of mother–baby cohorts in China. Systematic review. We conducted a systematic review for research or profile papers in English/Chinese that reported data from mother–baby cohorts in mainland China, with ≥1y follow-up after birth. We identified 315 papers, corresponding to 31 cohorts from 19 provinces/megacities. All cohorts started in 1999–2017 (21 after 2010) and were set up with broad objectives or specific scientific focus. The baseline sample size varied, from <500 to >300,000 mothers. A majority of cohorts were initiated during pregnancy and followed children to <10y, only six to adolescence and none into adulthood. These cohorts mostly collected samples from mothers and babies, in addition to using interviews/questionnaires to collect information about pregnancy, birth and child health. Most cohorts were recruited from a single province/city. The large western region was understudied. Mother–baby cohorts have developed rapidly in China, but usually with a short follow-up duration. Extending the follow-up of children and developing cross-cohort collaboration will increase the diversity, size and coverage of the sample, allow studying early influences on life-course health and identify targets for early intervention in the Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a perspective on the potential of Chinese ecological agriculture to address sustainable human–environmental interactions. As Chinese agriculture is increasingly challenged by the constraints of population, resources and environment emerging from its modern development, it is imperative to explore a sustainable agricultural paradigm that could accommodate economic and socio-cultural needs within an already stressed natural resource base. The rise of ecological agriculture is suggested as a workable alternative that has the potential to mitigate negative impacts of modern conventional agriculture and at the same time, to overcome limitations of traditional agriculture in meeting the needs of China''s growing population. Ecological agriculture represents a site-specific manifestation of the application of ecological economics, among others, to agricultural practices. Some challenges being experienced in translating this rhetoric into practice are identified and discussed. Highlighted is the view that sustainable agricultural development is meaningful only when it is tailored to specific ecological, economic, political and socio-cultural settings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the context of climate change, innovative financing solutions and the rapid development of financial technology (fintech) offer great potential for the growth of renewable energy. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China, this paper explores the impact of fintech on renewable energy growth by employing the instrumental variable-generalized method of moments (IV-GMM). We also pay attention to the nexus between fintech and renewable energy growth at different quantiles. This paper also explores the moderating role of the digital economy and the mediating role of green technological innovation. The main results indicate that (1) fintech positively affects renewable energy growth in China; (2) the positive effect between fintech and renewable energy is stronger in provinces with lower levels of renewable energy growth; (3) the digital economy, on the one hand, can significantly accelerate renewable energy growth; on the other hand, under the help of the digital economy, fintech can play a more effective role in increasing renewable energy growth; and (4) fintech indirectly promotes renewable energy growth by increasing the level of green technology innovation. The findings provide meaningful references for governments and policymakers and encourage the accelerated adoption of fintech in the sustainable energy sectors. • The role of financial technologies "fintech" on renewable energy growth is explored. • Fintech successfully stimulates the development of renewable energy. • The impact of fintech on renewable energy growth is asymmetric. • Digital economy facilitates the positive role of fintech in increasing renewable energy growth. • Green technology innovation is the path through which fintech affects renewable energy growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intangible capital stock is an important variable of current concern for all sectors, which is a new driving force of innovation-driven economic growth. However, there is still room for improvement in the estimation method of China's intangible capital stock, and the analysis of the estimation results is not yet sufficient. For this purpose, this paper firstly re-estimates China's intangible capital stock using the CHS classification framework, especially in the estimation methods of software capital and scientific R&D capital, and makes a lot of improvements. Then, this paper uses not only the growth model but also the mediating effect model to classify the intangible capital in the CHS framework into explanatory and mediating variables of economic growth, and proposes that the explanatory variables are what drive new driving force of China's economic growth and the intangible capital stock estimated in this paper. Finally, this paper provides a detailed analysis of the changes, structure, and distribution of the explanatory variables. The results find that (1) software capital and scientific R&D capital are the new driving forces of China's economic growth; (2) China's national stock of current-valued intangible capital rose from 0.4 trillion yuan to 16.4 trillion yuan from 2001–2017, with software capital stock growing faster than scientific R&D capital stock; (3) Intangible capital stock is mainly distributed in a few regions such as Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai; (4) The structure of intangible capital in most regions is not reasonable, and there is a bias towards software capital or scientific R&D capital; (5) The rapid growth of intangible capital stock in Jiangsu and other regions is one of the reasons for their fast economic growth rate, while the slow growth of intangible capital stock in Heilongjiang and Liaoning has led to a decline in their economic growth rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of bilateral air connectivity on bilateral service trade flows. Our service trade data includes 'commercial', 'transport', 'travel', and 'government' services. We developed a reduced-form gravity-type model using the Chinese data. An instrument variable (IV) approach is adopted to address the endogeneity issue between bilateral air connectivity and the service trade variables. Our key results are: (a) increasing the number of direct routes can significantly promote bilateral service export and import trades; (b) the average route-level traffic density has only marginal positive effects; (c) improving air connectivity would enlarge China's overall service trade deficit, because the transport and travel services imports are promoted more than their exports; (d) The 'commercial' service exports can be stimulated more than the imports, making China achieve larger commercial service trade surplus by improving bilateral air connectivity. •Increasing the number of direct air routes significantly promotes bilateral service trades in China. •Improving air connectivity enlarges China's overall service trade deficit. •Enhancing bilateral air connectivity stimulates China's commercial service exports more than imports. •China's growing international air transport, facilitated by the Belt-and-Road Initiative, has had a substantial impact on bilateral service trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst economic downturn pressures, major countries emphasized the manufacturing industry and increased research and development (R&D) investments to realize innovation in manufacturing. Manufacturing enterprises are the main performers of R&D investments, so it is imperative for policymakers to accurately evaluate the policy effect of different industrial tendency and policy intensity on growth. The impact of the overall R&D expenditure on macroeconomy or the effectiveness of enterprises' R&D investment on business profit has been reported in a great deal of literature, but so far, the impacts of enterprises' R&D have little been experimented at the macro level and industrial level. This paper improves the knowledge production function and structured a regional dynamic computable general equilibrium model to simulate the multi-dimensional macroeconomic impact of enterprises' R&D investment. The results show that enterprises' R&D investment has a significant role in promoting economic output, residents' welfare, price control, and international trade, and its impact is declining over time. The impacts of enterprises' R&D on different industries are heterogeneous; industries with lower knowledge capital are more sensitive to R&D investment. These findings contribute to the effectiveness of R&D policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government protected areas are the most dominant governance type in the global network of protected areas, but in recent years, a lack of research compared to indigenous and private nongovernment protected areas has become evident. Consequently, community-inclusive conservation strategies consistent with the advantages of government protected areas are unclarified. Focusing on 49 households living at the Mount Huangshan World Natural Heritage Site in eastern China, this paper uses qualitative research triangulation to explain the causality between community exclusion and local distrust of the protected area and builds an explanation concerning the political and economic context. The questionnaire data analysed from the configuration perspective were corroborated with interviews and archival data, presenting innovative and enlightening findings. Lack of participation alone does not elicit local protests against biohabitat conservation, and government performance determines the trustworthiness of the government protected area. When local households are unaware of the government's efforts, a "trust paradox" in which the households that receive economic gains distrust government PAs emerges. This is caused by the social expectations of the "responsible government" and the survivorship bias of the households who manage to succeed in profiting. Induced or mandatory community participation is needed to strengthen the indigenous perception of the link between local development and government performance. This paper proposes a new strategy for socioecological goals that is consistent with the advantages of government protected areas, the most globally dominant governance type for protected areas and the type employed by the largest number of countries. • Underparticipation alone does not elicit local protest against biohabitat conservation of government PA. • Good government performance is a sufficient condition for the trustworthiness of government PA. • The "trust paradox" in which the benefited households distrust PA is due to the social expectation and survivorship bias. • Induced or mandatory participation generates trust in PA if community is broadly consulted on economic and social areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Forest resource Metabolism Network model isdeveloped for ecological and economic analysis. • Exploitation index is developed to reveal the weaker sectors in the ecological relations. • A case study of Guangdong province, China isconducted to illustrate the potential benefits. • Scientific Basis are provided to allocate forestresources and stabilize industrial structure. Abstract Integrating forest resources into the socio-economic system correctly and reasonably is of vital importance to tackle the increasingly scarce forest resources. In this paper, forest resource input-output model and forest resource metabolism network model are established to provide new insights into the relationships among the systems, industries and sectors related to forest resources. A promising indicator named exploitation index is developed to reveal the weaker sectors in the ecological relations, which will further help to provide better corrective actions and integrated strategic measures. Guangdong is taken as an example to verify the availability of the model and solve the problem. The results show that the primary manufacturing consumes more direct timber, while advanced manufacturing and the service sector utilize timber indirectly. In addition, Guangdong forest metabolism system shows a negative correlation and the whole network does not achieve the mutualism state, leading to competition relationships between pairwise sectors that should not appear, such as Forestry sector and Papermaking and Paper Products sector. These results provide the corresponding reference for helping the decision makers to allocate forest resources and coordinate ecological and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has witnessed 556 million people migrating to urban areas over the past three decades with the process of urbanization, which has brought enormous pressure on electricity consumption and urban sustainable development. This paper establishes the generalized Divisia Index Decomposition Method (GDIM) model, and aims to reveal the electricity consumption mechanism of urban residents in China between 2000 and 2018. The results show that residential income, per capita electricity consumption and residential appliances are the main driving factors for the growth of urban residential electricity consumption, while the energy-saving willingness and expenditure structure have the inhibiting effect. With the expansion of urban residential income, the increase in income and air-conditioning numbers will continue to promote the growth of urban residential electricity consumption. Then, this paper puts forward relevant suggestions to alleviate the pressure of electricity demand and sustainable development from urban residents in China. [Display omitted] • The growth of power consumption in residential sector mainly comes from urban areas. • Establish GDIM model to decompose urban residential electricity consumption in China • Income has the greatest driving effect on urban residential electricity consumption. • Air-conditioning is the main source of the effect of household appliances. • Energy-saving willingness inhibits urban residential electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural China is experiencing rapid socioeconomic transformations, including suburbanisation and rural gentrification. In this paper, we argue that to understand these processes, we have to take into account the changes in rural land rights. Based on an analysis of a pilot case for China's rural collective commercial construction land (RCCCL) reform policy at the edge of Chengdu City, we demonstrate how state-led rural land reform paves the way for stealthy land dispossession and rural gentrification. Our argument in this paper is threefold. First, given the entrenched collective land use rights of rural villagers in China, state-led land commodification, is a necessary condition for rural gentrification in China. Secondly, the prospect of capital accumulation through rural gentrification motivates entrepreneurial public and private actors to promote such reforms in ways that dispossess rural peasants and peasant collectives of their land (use) rights. Thirdly, the particularities of dispossession through state-led land reform result in particular experiences of displacement and displacement pressure on the side of affected rural communities. Our findings contribute to the decentring of rural gentrification theory, in that they underline the necessity to include the particular histories of land commodification and dispossession in our understanding of rural gentrification in contexts where rural land is partly or wholly shielded from market influences. In the case of China, dynamics of rural gentrification are blurring the rural-urban boundary on three dimensions: political economy (land use governance), material infrastructure (landscape and residential architecture), and socio-cultural practices (rural livelihoods and identity). • Rural land regimes structure peri-urban development in China. • Land commodification is a precondition for rural gentrification in China. • Original villagers are dispossessed and displaced. • Rural gentrification blurs the rural-urban boundary in terms of land use (rights), landscape and social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the literature on rural gentrification by incorporating empirical evidence from amenity-poor rural areas in the developing world. While current literature on rural gentrification has largely focused on the gentrification process in amenity-rich rural areas, the present study examines rural gentrification process in a historically polluted county in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The gentrification process features a holistic transformation of farmland into an artificial landscape, thereby segregating gentrifiers from both polluted rural space and unwelcoming urban space. The paper attributes the rise of holistic gentrification to state-initiated farmland concentration, and to the gentrifier developers' practices of redefining rurality as immersive resort experiences. The paper concludes that the holistic gentrification was conducive to job losses in both the recreation and agricultural sectors, consequently reducing peasant households to a state of passivity and dependency, while collective actions against gentrifier developers were ineffective owing to highly skewed power dynamics. • Holistic gentrification transforms large-scale farmland into scenic rural resorts in amenity-poor rural areas in China. • Holistic gentrification is caused by national peasant relocation programs. • Gentrifier developers redefine rurality as immersive resort experience. • Holistic gentrification is conducive to local job losses in recreation and agricultural sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The slowdown in China's economic growth in the past decade has forced many migrant workers to return or plan to return to their rural hometowns temporarily. Extant studies on intergenerational mobility pay less attention to temporary migrant households. This paper investigates how migrant father's return intention influences children's educational outcomes and permanent incomes using a high-quality nationwide dataset of China (CLDS2012-2018). It finds that though there is no significant correlation between fathers' and children's educational attainments, the higher the return probability of the father, the less educational investment he would make in his child. This paper contributes to the literature in two ways: theoretically, it provides a new perspective to observe the intergenerational mobility of migrant workers; and methodologically, it corrects life cycle bias by controlling for the ages of fathers and children and using multi-year mean incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although energy poverty has obtained wide focus in recent years, there is no consensus on the measurement of energy poverty. Given that China is experiencing socio-economic transformation as well as energy transition, this paper employed a total of 28 indicators, which representing three categories (energy service availability, energy consumption and generation cleanliness, and residential energy affordability and efficiency) that capture China's features as well as consider policy factors, to develop a new multi-dimensional energy poverty index by using entropy weight method. The result reveals that the energy poverty level has been improved nationwide for the period 2014–2019; three sub-indices also show downward trends while household energy affordability and efficiency suggests the fastest improvement; however, significant differences exist in energy poverty not only between urban and rural areas but also across provinces in China. Policy recommendations are as follows: continue to promote rural power grid renovation and upgrading and the construction of natural gas pipelines, increase clean energy support; encourage diversified development of rural energy supply methods, and provide more innovative and diversified green energy and financial products. • An integrated energy poverty index system for China was established. • A total of 28 indicators used in this paper are applicable to China's features as well as considering policy factors in China. • The energy poverty level has been improved nationwide from 2014-2019, and all three sub-indices show downward trends, but varies greatly between urban and rural areas and across geographic regions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper studies the interplay between labor agency and socio-spatial formations. • Chinese state-owned enterprise reform led to workers' employment (im)mobilities. • Individual motile subjectivities are integral to workers' disparate (im)mobilities. • Driven by motile subjectivities, workers further act on socio-spatial formations. This paper explores the interplay between labor agency and the socio-spatial structure of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the context of globalization. Drawing on Coe & Jordhus-Lier's theorization of constrained labor agency with insights from new mobilities paradigm, we develop the concept of motile subjectivity to explain the multiplicity of constrained agency and workers' different employment practices intervened in SOE socio-spatial formations. Based on field research conducted in SOEs in the Northeastern provinces of China, our analysis unfolds that workers' motile subjectivities mainly drive three threads of employment practices, namely demission, positional promotion, and part-time work, which involve workers' variegated mobile and immobile experiences. These (im)mobilities affect workers' ongoing social and spatial practices and further conjoin with the reproduction of SOE socio-spaces with both manifestations of stable danwei and multi-scalar modern enterprises. Our study contributes to labor geography scholarship by theorizing the actualization of workers' motile subjectivities in SOE socio-spatial formations. It also provides insights for future SOE studies to seriously consider workers' motile subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from Chinese commercial banks from 2008 to 2018, this paper explores the effects of bank FinTech on stability (i.e., bank stability). We first construct and measure a bank Fintech index and then examine the relation between bank FinTech and stability. We argue that bank FinTech affects stability from two aspects: bright effects and dark effects. The results show that the dark effects prevail over bright effects, that is, bank FinTech decreases bank stability. Specifically, a one-standard-deviation increase in bank FinTech is associated with a 14.2 % reduction in bank stability. Our results also show that bank FinTech increases stability by improving risk control and increasing net interest margin (i.e., bright effects), whereas bank FinTech increases non-interest activities, and thus reduces stability (i.e., dark effects). Second, the negative impacts of bank Fintech on stability are weaker in state-owned banks. Third, as time progresses, the negative effects of bank Fintech become weaker. Finally, when we examine five subareas of bank FinTech, we find that artificial intelligence technology and big data technology increase bank stability, but internet technology reduces bank stability. Our main results pass a series of robustness tests and endogeneity issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of tax enforcement on innovation is examined in this research. This paper employs the merger of Local Tax Bureaus (LTBs) and State Tax Bureau (STB) in 2018 as an exogenous shock to stricter tax enforcement. We find that stricter tax enforcement can foster innovation within firms. A mechanism analysis shows that the enhancement in a firm's innovation is motivated by the increased governance level, that is constraining the bribery and violation behavior of managers, motivated by stricter tax enforcement. According to heterogeneity research, this effect is more significant in SOEs and firms with weaker internal governance (i.e., firms with weak internal control and less independent directors) and firms with poor external governance environment (i.e., firms with lower media attention). Overall, this study empirically examines how tax enforcement affects innovation, which is crucial for boosting productivity and promoting economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions and climate change risk have become constraints on global economic sustainable development. Environmental regulation (ER) is a key method for achieving synergy in CO 2 and pollution reduction in China. This paper is the first study to explore the effects of ER on CO 2 emissions by exploiting the National Environmental Protection 11th Five-Year Plan (NEP11-FYP). The implementation of the NEP11-FYP significantly decreases CO 2 emissions by 19.73% in key environmental cities relative to other cities. Heterogeneity analyses suggest that this negative impact is larger in western cities and cities with more pressure to reduce CO 2 emissions. Scale effects, structural effects, and technical effects might be three potential influencing channels through which ER contributes to the CO 2 reduction effect. In addition, the results of the spatial externality of the NEP11-FYP demonstrate a positive spillover effect in neighboring cities within a distance of 300 km and a negative spillover effect in cities more than 500 km away. Our empirical findings provide policy implications for implementing low-carbon transition strategies and reducing CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of policy uncertainty on air pollution, using the turnover of local officials in China as a quasi-natural experiment. The results from the two-way fixed effects model show that policy uncertainty caused by the turnover of different officials produces contrasting effects on air pollution. While the turnover of the mayor has no effect on air pollution, the turnover of the municipal party committee secretary deteriorates it. Two-Stage Least Square estimation confirms these results where the age and tenure of officials were used as instrumental variables of policy uncertainty. The results are robust after endogenous treatments and robustness tests. The mechanism analysis further indicates that policy uncertainty worsens air quality by weakening environmental regulation and crowding out green innovation. Moreover, the impact is more pronounced in smaller and less developed cities. The conclusions provide policy implications for environmental governance in the period of policy uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China's fertility rate shows a declining trend with rapid urbanization and increasing housing prices. Based on the China General Social Survey (CGSS) data, for the first time, this paper investigates the effect of housing status on the two-child fertility willingness of China's floating population using a Probit model combined with the propensity score matching method and the instrumental variable method. The results show that the floating population with self-owned housing has a significantly lower two-child fertility willingness than those living in rented housing. This finding remains robust after addressing the potential endogeneity problem. Moreover, the effect of housing status on the two-child fertility willingness of floating population varies with demographic characteristics. Furthermore, the heterogeneous analysis indicates that the floating population with two or more self-owned housings have higher two-child fertility willingness than those who have only one self-owned housing or who live in rented housing. The married without children and living in self-owned housing have lower two-child fertility willingness than the married with one or more children and living in self-owned housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of extreme precipitation on Chinese industrial output and its total factor productivity (TFP) using data from the annual survey of industrial firms (ASIF) and daily weather data. The findings demonstrate a significant reduction in industrial firm output as a result of precipitation, with extreme daily precipitation decreasing output by approximately 1.22%. We provide an explanation for this precipitation-industrial output relationship from four perspectives: per capita wages, labor productivity, inventory, and depreciation. The effects of extreme precipitation are more pronounced in high-income and high-precipitation regions, as well as among foreign firms and low-technology firms. Our research suggests that extreme daily precipitation poses a serious obstacle to the development of the manufacturing industry. These results are crucial for understanding the economic impact and concealed costs of climate change, highlighting that extreme precipitation should be recognized as one of the primary sources of damage associated with climate change in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is an important way to achieve carbon emission reduction in China's commercial vehicle field. The development of the hydrogen automobile industry needs policy guidance. To determine the characteristics and effects of China's hydrogen automobile industrial policy, this paper first uses a text mining method to analyze policy characteristics from three aspects: potency rank, policy subject and policy objectives. Then, from the perspective of policy tools, a policy quantitative system and standards are constructed to quantify the policy. Then, the sales data of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from August 2018 to December 2022 were collected to empirically analyze the effect of the policy. The results showed that policy comprehensiveness significantly promoted the use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but the effects of the different policy tools differed. Finally, some policy suggestions are proposed for the development of the hydrogen automobile industry. • China's hydrogen vehicle industry policy focuses on technology upgrading and application demonstration. • The use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is the most concerned industrial chain link in the policy. • Policy comprehensiveness has a significant positive effect on the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China. • Different policy tools play different roles, with supply-based policy tools and demand-based playing a more prominent role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schizophrenia occurs worldwide, and the health, and economic burden is substantial. As one of the common proxies of socioeconomic status (SES), education was reported to be associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia. However, there is no causal evidence about the relationship. This paper explores the health benefits of college education for schizophrenia. Based on exogenous variation in college enrollment across regions and cohorts induced by college enrollment expansion policy, we use instrument variable (IV) estimate strategy to estimate impacts of college education on the risk of schizophrenia with the data from Second National Sample Survey on Disability. We find that college education reduces the risk of developing schizophrenia by 4.2 percentage points. Some further analyses suggest the causal protective effect is only found among men, rural, and low-income individuals. These findings provide new evidence for the causal relationship between college education and schizophrenia, and add to the literature on the health benefits of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how China's long tradition of wetland rice farming affects contemporary cooperative behavior. We exploit a discontinuity in rice farming generated by a natural geographic boundary in China and find a significant positive impact on cooperative behavior today. An increase in the percentage of farmland devoted to rice farming significantly increases the frequency of mutual help in terms of borrowing and lending money, caring for each other's family members, and helping each other with job seeking and house construction. We identify cultural transmission, labor exchange and irrigation networks as the likely driving forces behind this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As a key indicator to measure the mental health status, psychological security level of Chinese college students and its changes over time are of great value to examine.Methods: A cross-temporal meta-analysis was performed using papers that measured the psychological security level of Chinese college students using the Security Questionnaire between 2006 and 2019. In addition, a time lag analysis was conducted to define whether the selected macro social indicators can explain the changes in the psychological security level.Results: A total of 58 papers involving 28,352 Chinese college students were included in the final sample. The results revealed that scores of psychological security and its two factors were significantly negatively correlated with the year. Scores of psychological security and its two factors were significantly associated with five social indicators of economic condition (residents' consumption level), social connectedness (divorce rate, urbanization level) and overall threat (college enrollment rate, crime rate), suggesting that social change may account for the decline in psychological security level of Chinese college students.Limitations: The underlying mechanism is only discussed at a theoretical level. Thus, future studies can collect the relating empirical evidence to test the proposed theoretical model.Conclusions: Our study revealed a decreasing trend of Chinese college students' psychological security level across time, which was associated with macro-social changes in diverse areas. In addition, combined with the corresponding macro-social indicators, a three-dimensional theoretical framework is proposed to explain the psychological security for college students as a group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the complex network of industry space, this paper investigates the industry structure optimization in Jiangxi Province in China. For the prefecture-level cities in Jiangxi Province, the location quotient is applied to obtain the specialized sub-industries. The conditional probability is used to analyze the interdependencies between industries. The complex network of industry space is presented to illustrate the relatedness among industries and analyze the space and structure of the regional overall industry. The index of transitional potential is proposed to measure the potential of a non-specialized industry which will become a specialized one in the future. The transformation difficulty index of industry is obtained to analyze the difficulty level of the transformation of the original specialized industry set to a new specialized one of a city. The results show that more industries have positive than negative interdependencies with one another in Jiangxi Province; rare industries specialize in cities at higher-level GDP, and common industries dominate the cities at lower-level GDP; it is more difficult for rarer non-specialized industries to become specialized ones, more common non-specialized industries can become specialized ones more easily, and the cities with higher GDP can transform industries more easily. By discussing the industries that have positive interdependencies with existing specialized industries, the detailed direction of industry structure optimization is analyzed. Finally, the policy implications are proposed, and these can be applied to other developing countries. • The conditional probability is used to analyze the interdependencies between industries. • The complex network of industry space is presented to illustrate the relatedness among industries. • The index of transitional potential is used to measure the potential of a non-specialized industry becoming specialized. • The transformation difficulty index is the difficulty level of the transformation of the originally specialized industry. • The industry structure can be optimized by developing the industries that have positive interdependencies with existing specialized industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the globe, the ongoing development of transportation and communication technologies has produced growing possibilities for the mobility of people, ideas, objects, and knowledge. In China, government policies, including economic reforms and targeted migration strategies, have resulted in the relocation of millions of people within and between urban and rural areas. Recently, however, there has been an important 'mobility shift' from the production-focused migration of peasants and factory workers to more diverse forms of consumption-focused mobility. This appears to be something different from traditional forms of tourism, but more research is needed. In particular, it is important to consider who these individuals are, what motivates them, and whether they are leaving the urban for the rural or constructing hybrid spaces, mobilities, and lifestyles. This paper examines the nature of urban-rural mobilities in China through the case of China's Rural Tourism Makers (RTMs). Drawing on fieldwork in four RTMs' Model Bases, including 131 interviews and participant observation, it demonstrates how mobilities are being practiced 'on the ground'. The paper argues that the binaries between production and consumption and between urban and rural break down as RTMs are both middle-class consumers and creative-class producers who continually move between urban and rural for personal and professional reasons. In so doing, the paper nuances our understanding of mobilities within China, the practices and locational choices of creatives, and post-productivist theorizations of rurality. • This paper addresses urban-rural mobility in China by studying Rural Tourism Makers (RTMs) as newcomers to rural China. • RTMs are both middle-class consumers and creative-class producers. • Creativity for RTMs is both a means of generating income and a means of consuming the rural. • RTMs represent a new form of urban-rural mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores opportunities for effective policy intervention for residential energy savings in southern China, by analyzing achievable potential of residential energy savings in the city of Xiamen as a case study. In contrast to static technical and economic potential analyses, the achievable potential analysis is based on dynamic energy consumption projections, which consider two real-world factors: (1) gradual ramping-up adoption process of advanced technical measures; and (2) consumers’ adoption of these measures. A bottom-up type Residential Energy Consumption (REC) projection model specifically tailored for southern China was developed in this paper, based on the general logic and calculation principles utilized in the U.S. EIA’s “National Energy Modeling System (NEMS),” and the adoption theory of advanced technical measures proposed by Kastovich. This REC projection model was then used as a policy analysis tool to quantitatively evaluate the impact of various policies on residential energy savings in the case study city of Xiamen. The analysis of the Xiamen case shows that although there is a significant technical potential for residential energy savings in the city (about 20.9–24.9%), the maximum achievable potential (MAP) in 2020 is only about 8.3–8.4% of that year’s business-as-usual baseline consumption. Moreover, with existing policies only about one-fourth to half of the calculated MAP is likely to be achieved by 2020. These findings indicate that in order to realize a larger share of achievable potential for residential energy savings in China, additional and more effective polices are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• HSR affects air traffic directly and indirectly via airfare adjustment. • Airfare plays different roles in competition, feeding and long-term effects. • HSR quality and pre-entry airline market structure affect airfare adjustment. • Feeding effect dominates competition effect, causing more airline CO2 emissions. • Airfare adjustment mitigates HSR-induced air traffic and airline CO2 emissions. Airfare reduction is proposed by a theoretical paper to be a possible source of observed air traffic increase in some markets where high-speed rail (HSR) enters and competes with airlines. This paper aims to empirically test whether and to what extent the air traffic impact is channeled by the adjustment in airfares. To understand the varying empirical results found in the literature, we examine heterogeneous airline responses in traffic and airfare in relation to HSR qualities measured by HSR-air travel time difference and pre-entry market structure of airline as well as decompose HSR impacts into competition, feeding and long-term effects. Using a panel dataset of Chinese air routes, we find that airfare adjustment plays crucial roles in channeling HSR's air traffic impact. Our estimation suggests that HSR introduced over 16.5 million additional passengers to the sampled air routes in our study period, generating 2.17 million tons of extra CO2 emissions from air flights. However, these numbers would increase to 32.2 million additional passengers and 3.4 million tons of extra CO2 emissions after removing the price adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a major psychiatric disorder with increasing research intensity. However, papers written in languages other than English are less accessible to international readers. This study examined the bibliometric features of English and Chinese language research papers about major depressive disorder in China.Methods: The Web of Science (WoS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were searched for eligible studies. Authorship collaboration networks and keyword co-occurrences were estimated and visualized.Results: There were 2,220 and 63,306 publications on MDD in the WoS and CNKI between 1990 and 2021, respectively. The number of papers increased annually during the period. For papers written in English, the Journal of Affective Disorders (201; 9.05 %) had the highest activity and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University had the most publications (232; 10.45 %). For papers in Chinese, the highest activity was with the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (1,025; 1.62 %) and the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (1,098; 1.73 %). Xiang YT (68; 3.06 %) and Yuan YG (179; 0.28 %) were the most productive authors in the English and Chinese languages, respectively. Keyword analysis showed that English and Chinese publications differed in emphasis (English: related psychiatric conditions, study design, clinical aspects, and assessment instruments; Chinese: somatic comorbidities, antidepressants, related psychiatric conditions, treatment of depression, and electrophysiological).Conclusions: The number of scientific papers on MDD increased yearly, and Chinese authors writing in English have an increasing influence. Except for a few authors, productivity and influence were dominated by national universities and specialized medical universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • China's MI field has undergone significant development. • Few authors have high-quality articles and high output. • The collaboration intent of authors is growing stronger. • The field of research is relatively stable. • Current advanced technologies continue to emerge in MI research. Abstract Background As the world's second largest economy, China makes unique contributions to the world in many fields, including sociology, the economy, technology and defense. Medical informatics (MI) is an important cross-disciplinary field that, along with its applications, has received massive funding from the Chinese government. However, the question of how to evaluate China's input and output in MI remains important and complex issue of great significance for China and the rest of the world. Objective This paper analyzed, for the first time, the quality and quantity of research by Chinese academics in MI based on their articles published in international specialty journals in recent years and examined MI research hotspots in China. Our purpose is to summarize the experiences and lessons learned by China and the rest of the world as they develop MI. Method We targeted 18 MI journals listed in the JCR 2016 report and searched for papers published by Chinese academics in these 18 journals in the WOS and PUBMED databases and on journal sites. We also performed data cleansing and categorized the obtained information. We used Excel, SPSS, Ucinet and NetDraw to conduct quantitative analyses on the research papers. Results A total of 1340 articles satisfied the inclusion criteria of this study. We observed a significant upward trend in the number of articles published over time, particularly after 2011. Lei Jianbo, Huang Zhengxing and Li Jin-song are active Chinese authors in the MI discipline who have written many high-quality publications. Meanwhile, universities remain the primary breeding grounds for scientific research: 93.36% of the articles came from universities. Zhejiang University published the most first-author articles, whereas Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tsinghua University produced 17.76% of the total articles. According to the lists of authors, 24% of the papers were co-authored with foreign researchers. This rate of cooperation is increasing each year, from 5.88% to the current rate of 39.04%. An analysis of keywords showed that “EMR”, “SVM”, “Authentication”, “Telecare medical information system”, “EEG”, “ECG” and “RFID” were the most frequently searched terms in popular technological fields, including artificial intelligence and image processing. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of high-frequency keywords and a broadening range of research fields, which has led to the emergence of several research hotspots, including MI systems, mobile health care, telecare, data mining and machine learning. Conclusions Through the quantitative analysis of publications, we discovered the emergence of three stages – infancy, slow growth and rapid growth – in China's MI research in recent years as academics make achievements in their research works. The global influence of Chinese academics is growing, and they are making increasingly conscious efforts to enter into research collaborations with foreign researchers. The findings of Chinese academics’ publications are gaining international recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to contribute to debates on the relationship between place, home, and sense of belonging by exploring the context of domicide, which is the intentional destruction of home. In contrast to voluntary migration, which has been intensively studied, those displaced by domicide rarely have the resources or power to rebuild their home, and are often resettled in peripheral regions. The paper argues that locality, which has been largely underplayed in migration and home research, shapes domicide victims' homes and sense of belonging. Drawing on qualitative research with migrants displaced by the Three Gorges Project, one of the largest instances of domicide in China, the paper presents insights into the ways rural locality and migrants' translocal practices are interwoven with the home experiences of those who are displaced. It also explores how their identity and belonging are negotiated, constructed and contested. The analysis contributes to critical geographies of home and could help to devise future involuntary resettlement policy and practice to increase migrants' sense of home in resettlement. • Migrants' identity is grounded in their ancestral home after domicide. • A sense of non-belonging to resettlement place is experienced. • Rural locality shapes domicide victims' homes and sense of belonging. • Migrants living in separate resettlement sites are unified and create a home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of China's hollowed village reconstruction (HVR) program tend to divide initiatives into community-based model (CBM, led by local actors which is also called bottom-up model) and government-led model (GLM, driven by policy makers which is also called top-down model). In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework, which goes beyond these two models. Then, we take three typical villages which experienced different models of HVR in recent years as case studies, exploring the intersection of the process of decision-making, the structure of governance and the performance of projects. Both theoretical analysis and case studies show that a hybrid governance structure (HGS), with limited range of reconstruction in the distribution and functions of rural land, is most in line with China's background for HVR and rural vitalization. The participatory process is very important for these three modes, with villages and communities as the important carriers for participation and interaction. Not only villagers can truly participate in the planning and decision-making process in the HGS's approach, which enables villagers to have more autonomy, but also enhanced the project's performance by integrating villagers' interests and willingness with government proposals, matching the subjective and the objective conditions. This research indicates that we can integrate diverse driving forces of village revitalization, pay more attention to the governance's structure and operating models of reconstructing. More importantly, this study responds to Elinor Ostrom's common-pool resource theory and suggests a way forward in the public governance of rural vitalization in contemporary China. • Most rural China are experiencing rapid depopulation and hollowing. • Hollowed village reconstruction (HVR) can help to revitalize hollowed villages. • This paper compares the top-down, bottom-up and combined models of HVR. • Hybrid top-down/bottom-up model could help to revitalize hollowed villages better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A world with large disparities in development between rural and urban areas could never achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). Issues related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers are fundamental to the stability and people's welfare of China as well as other developing countries. Despite the growing demand and national initiative for rural revitalization, rural innovation has received little attention in the innovation literature. Drawing from the new growth theory, institutional theory and innovation system theory, this paper proposes the rural innovation system, which is a complex socioeconomic network that aims to revitalize the countryside and achieve balanced and sustainable development. This paper compares the rural and urban innovation system, introduces a theoretical structural model of the rural innovation system, including a) technology innovation, b) institutional and management innovation, and c) community-based network and intermediary platform innovation. Then it outlines the future challenges in fostering a strong rural innovation system. The rural innovation system proposed makes direct contributions to the literature of rural studies, innovation system, and public policy, and offers both China and the world a new perspective for realizing rural revitalization, anti-poverty and global sustainable development. • Despite the growing demand and initiatives for rural revitalization, rural innovation has received little attention in the literature. • This is a pioneering study on the rural innovation system, providing a new perspective on rural revitalization and sustainable development. • Similarities and differences between rural and urban innovation systems are compared. • A theoretical structural model of the rural innovation system is proposed based on cases from China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural China faces many challenges, including outmigration, brain drains, and the hollowing out and decline of villages. This paper offers a response by drawing attention to the phenomenon of "community connection" among migrants in urban areas who try to keep their identity and attachment to home communities in the countryside. From the perspective of bridging social capital, we argue that community connection is a potential resource for rural revitalisation. The value and conditions of using community connection are revealed through a survey conducted with over 1200 university students in China, coming from a rural family background. This paper contributes to the literature in the following aspects: First, community connection provides a foundation upon which bridging social capital can be linked with and used for the development of home community, an important condition for successful rural revitalisation. Second, the potential of community connection requests in recognising a sense of community among migrants who are attaching to, and willing to bring external resources into, home communities. Third, a sense of community varies greatly with geographic location and the social group with which migrants belong to. A greater sense of community and place attachment is more likely found amongst those coming from remote villages and rural poor, whose livelihoods are heavily dependent upon traditional agriculture. Furthermore, differences in a sense of community may lead to different approaches or attitudes to ongoing land transfer in the countryside. Policy implications, research limitations and directions of further research are discussed. • Community connection as potential resource for rural revitalisation in China. • Interconnection between community connection and bridging social capital. • Sense of community and placement attachment among university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change is aggravating the occurrence of pests and diseases, however, pesticide residue caused by the abuse of chemical pesticides is emerging as a worldwide issue with a great threat to the ecological environment, human health, and food security. Biopesticide application, a component of climate-smart agricultural practices, is viewed as a vital alternative for agricultural sustainable development. Due to the additional cost attached to externalities and information insufficiency, the adoption rates of biopesticide are still quite low in most developing countries. By using panel data of 3143 rural households from 2020 to 2021 in Jiangsu Province, this paper builds a theoretical framework of whether and how specialized agricultural service (SAS) for specialized pest control affects farmers' biopesticide application, and then employs an Endogenous Switching Probit model to verify this effect and its channels empirically. The empirical results show that the SAS purchase can increase significantly the probability of smallholders' biopesticide adoption by 30.8%. Without consideration of the self-selection bias, this probability would drop to 16.2%. The potential channels of the SAS influencing farmers' biopesticide application are technology popularization (training) and machinery substitution resulting from SAS. Moreover, our findings also indicate that the effects of SAS on biopesticide adoption are heterogeneous, and vary with farmers' education level, cooperative members, and land size. This paper provides the first empirical evidence for the effect of SAS on biopesticide promotion, which is expected to contribute to agricultural sustainable development and food safety in most developing countries. [Display omitted] • Climate-smart agricultural practices play a vital role in global adaptation to climate change. • We examine the effects of specialized agricultural services on biopesticide application in China. • Theoretical framework and endogenous switching probit model are employed to identify these effects. • Specialized agricultural service affects biopesticide adoption mainly through two channels. • These effects are heterogeneous and vary with farmers' different characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China plays a significant role in the global product supply chain through its exports. To remain competitive, Chinese firms need to manufacture products cost-effectively. Revamping innovative cities can contribute to this goal, but empirical evidence in this area is limited. Therefore, this paper scrutinizes the innovative city pilot policy's consequences on firms' export performance and product quality. We employ the time-varying Difference in Difference (DID) model and harness a comprehensive firm-by-product level database to estimate the co-movement between the pilot intervention and the performance of the export product. Based on the findings, we unveil that a smart intervened city can significantly boost firms' export product quality, which still holds after multiple robustness checks. Furthermore, innovative cities heighten the quality of the manufactured products when we consider firm-level (i.e., private, foreign, and ordinary trade enterprises), industry-level (i.e., low-polluting, capital-intensive, and technology-intensive industries), and regional (i.e., Middle, and Western regions) heterogeneities. In addition, the intervened smart city strategy impacts the efficacy of export product quality through policy and innovation-driven effects. Over and above, policymakers and experts should support state-of-the-art ideas while considering local conditions, providing guidance for decision-making in China's innovative development strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inpatient medical expenditure data of the elderly typically have semicontinuous characteristics. The main reason is that a fraction of the old people has no hospitalization costs, while the other incurs substantial hospitalization expenses. Therefore, it is difficult to effectively predict the hospitalization expenses of the elderly using the classical linear regression model by ordinary least squares (OLS). To solve the shortcomings of classical linear regression model, this paper attempts to use the logarithmic regression, Tobit, two-part (i.e., binomial-gamma, binomial-inverse Gaussian), and Tweedie models to predict and model the hospitalization medical expenditure of the elderly in China. Based on the Akaike information criterion (AIC), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) statistical criteria and the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) data of 2018, we found that the Tweedie model accurately predicts the rate of no hospitalization expenses. Additionally, we found that age, family income, whether there is insurance, whether there is limited movement, the number of chronic diseases, health status, and residence factors significantly affect the hospitalization expenses of the population of elderly Chinese, which provides a decision-making basis for policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This review gives panorama of heritage digitization in China and categorizes digital twin techniques into six levels to address three specific tasks. • Terrestrial LiDAR and VR are the most prevalent digital twin technologies for decades, while sensor-based monitoring is recently prompted by policy incentives and legislations. • Most digital twin projects are dominated by public sectors, i.e., cultural management authorities, universities, and research institutes. • Efficient data utilization and the seamless integration of diverse data sources within cross-disciplinary collaborations are still challenging. Recent decades have witnessed digital twin as a toolkit to collect, process, and utilize graphical, spatial and other attribute data of cultural heritage. It has been widely applied on cultural world heritage sites in China, which have significant differences in ages, types, materials, and history of maintenance and conservation. Although specific cases are reported previously, a comprehensive overview is still lacking. This paper explores the association between digital twin and heritage conservation, classifying digital twin techniques into six levels to tackle three tasks: data acquisition, visualization and application. It systematically reviews Chinese heritage digitization practices, considering variations in complexity and purposes, and demonstrates typological and chronological characteristics as well as the composition of stakeholders. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thorough understanding of carbon lock-in is an essential precondition for the effective design and continuous improvement of climate policy. Based on a balanced panel dataset of 30 provinces in China during the period 2002–2021, we explore the nexus between smart transportation and carbon lock-in using the System-Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM) model. We also investigate the heterogeneous, asymmetric, and threshold effects among the above two issues, and examine three internal impact mechanisms. We thus arrive at the following four main conclusions: (1) Smart transportation significantly reduces carbon lock-in, highlighting its importance in eradicating carbon lock-in. (2) Smart transportation has the most pronounced impact on carbon lock-in in the central region, and can effectively mitigate all aspects of carbon lock-in, especially industry lock-in and institution lock-in. (3) Smart transportation is more effective in alleviating carbon lock-in in provinces with a higher level of carbon lock-in. Moreover, a threshold of environmental regulation exists between smart transportation and carbon lock-in, with stricter environmental regulation leading to a stronger carbon lock-in reduction effect of smart transportation. (4) Smart transportation indirectly influences carbon lock-in through three channels of economic scale, industrial structure upgrading, and technological innovation. Based on these findings, we propose some policy recommendations for smart transportation development and carbon lock-in mitigation. • This paper examines the carbon unlocking effect of smart transportation. • Smart transportation significantly alleviates carbon lock-in in China. • Smart transportation exerts heterogeneous and asymmetric effects on carbon lock-in. • The nexus between smart transportation and carbon lock-in has an environmental regulation threshold effect. • Scale, structure, and technology effects are three influence channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The price of photovoltaics (PV) has been steadily decreasing over the last decade, and many reports suggest that PV has become considerably cheaper than conventional electricity sources. In this paper, we critically evaluate the PV grid parity and use China as a case study. China is an interesting case study due to the wealth of data combined with the recent decrease in financial subsidies. Electricity costs are commonly compared in the literature using levelized costs of electricity (LCOE). However traditional LCOE analyses neglect important cost factors that are specific to PV, in particular the cost of grid integration. Here, we demonstrate that system LCOE calculation more accurately estimates the grid parity of PV. We find that the integration costs account for 15% of the total system costs, which cannot be neglected with the higher penetration of PV in the electricity system. Further, provincial grid parity indexes are greater than 1, indicating that the grid parity from a system LCOE perspective has not yet been achieved. The learning rate of Chinese PV is still relatively small, and we estimate that grid parity for PV in China will be achieved between 2020 and 2032, depending on the region. These findings shed new light on assessing grid parity of PV systems by considering relevant local parameters and thereby offer an assessment method framework and prediction modeling for assessing grid parity of PV installations. • This paper assesses PV's commercial feasibility in the current electricity market. • Grid parity is estimated using a new approach of system LCOE and learning curve. • The impacts of system LCOE and electricity price on grid parity are investigated. • The additional grid integration costs amount for 15% of total PV system costs. • Grid parity from a system LCOE perspective will be achieved between 2020 and 2032. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) is a mandatory institutional change to promote low-carbon energy transformation and renewable energy development. Its successful implementation requires the scientific design of relevant incentive mechanisms and rules. To make up for the defects in the current RPS mechanism design and the problems exposed in the Tradable Green Certificate (TGC) market, this paper takes China as an example and uses the system dynamics method to study the supply side incentives. The results show that: (1) Scientific setting the relevant system parameters of RPS (such as quota, benchmark price and penalty) and promoting the electricity market reform will effectively stimulate the power generation and investment on the supply side, and improve manufacturers' profit. (2) Higher quotas and lower benchmark prices can increase the manufacturers' power generation, profit and investment, and stimulate the supply side to conduct TGC transactions. However, when the penalty is set at different multiples of the benchmark price, the incentive effect on supply side power generation, investment and profit differ. (3) Marketed on-grid prices can significantly stimulate the supply side and promote renewable energy development. This paper can provide reference for the design of RPS incentive mechanism and institutional parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural development pressure and the problem of "three-stay" in the process of rapid urbanization are important issues that are currently concerned by the development of countries and regions in the world. This paper builds an evaluation model of rural development pressure and left-behind to analyze the spatial differences and characteristics of rural development pressure and the "three-stay" problem in Jinchang City, Hexi Corridor, China, in 2019. Then, we explored the relationship between them. The conclusions are: (1) Jinchang City has the lowest pressure on infrastructure and the largest pressure on industrial development, with significant spatial differences in comprehensive pressure. (2) Jinchang City is dominated by double pressure villages (40.60%) and comprehensive pressure villages (38.35%). Single-pressure villages (19.55%) and non-pressure villages (1.50%) account for relatively small proportions. (3) The population of "three-stay" in Jinchang City is 1,642, accounting for 1.19% of the total rural population. The middle and low-level left-behind areas have the largest number, accounting for 76.69% of the total administrative villages. The types of left-behind villages are mainly dominated by left-behind children and left-behind elderly people, accounting for 71.72% of the total number of left-behind villages. (4) Homestead per household, the rate of network coverage, per capita cultivated land area, and the number of specialized farmer cooperatives owned are the main factors affecting different types of left-behind villages, and each factor has different effects on different types of left-behind villages. This paper can provide a theoretical basis for implementing the rural revitalization strategy and scientifically solving the rural "three-stay" problems. • This paper explores the spatial differences and characteristics of ""three-stay ". • Reveals the formation mechanism of rural left-behind. • It provides a theoretical basis for solving the problem of "three-stay" in rural areas scientifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]