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The Swedish Paradox is a well-known phenomenon related to high research and development (R&D) investment with supposedly low aggregate economic performance owing to economic saturation. The Korean economy has not yet become an advanced economy; however, its R&D performance is negligible. Recently, also the R&D share of the GNP has become much higher, and its contribution to the economic growth rate is rapidly decreasing, implying a negative relationship between R&D activities and economic performance. This study uses slacks-based data envelopment analysis to investigate investment performance at the local government level in Korea. Our findings reveal that the average score for R&D investment performance in Korea is 64%, indicating huge potential for an efficiency enhancement of 36%. Notably, among the 16 local governments examined, Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan areas showed the lowest R&D efficiency, while Gangwon and Gwangju exhibited superior performance. Since these two regions have promoted specific missions, such as the medical hub in Gangwon and the optical fiber strategic platform in Gwangju, precise and accurate differentiation appears necessary to avoid a lack of governance. To determine the workable mechanism of R&D support policies, we further divided R&D productivity into three categories by incorporating the Malmquist Index (MI). The paper productivity of R&D shows an increasing trend over the experimental period from 2016 to 2021. However, overall, the MI shows slightly deteriorating productivity with 0.978, owing to the aggravating effect of patents and commercialization of R&D. The success in the paper comes from the harmonized partnership between the strong push factor of the government and voluntary pull factor of the R&D support receiving universities. Thus, we suggest that the Korean government should not depend on the superficial effectiveness of R&D in the term but on public–private partnerships with stronger performance-oriented responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many countries, China's airports faced severe operational challenges after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this predicament has been better mitigated by the Chinese government's strong support for the aviation industry. However, whether this supportive policy can ensure the sustainable development of the industry needs to be further evaluated. In order to better understand the role of government promotional policies, this paper attempts to explore the driving mechanisms behind the sustainable development performance of Chinese airports. Using the bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology, this study evaluates the operational efficiency of 43 major airports over the period from 2015 to 2022. The efficiency scores are compared with the regional distributions of supply and demand factors, as well as the different sizes based on their annual passenger throughput. The overall operational efficiency showed a fluctuating trend of an initial increase followed by a decline due to COVID-19, with significant regional disparities in airport efficiency. Regional differences are evident, with the eastern region having the highest efficiency value of 0.719, while the central region has the lowest efficiency of 0.594. The findings show that airports in the eastern region perform the best due to the proactive market support with rapidly increasing logistics demand, while airports in the west and northeast regions supported by the strong promotional policies follow closely in terms of operational efficiency. In contrast, airports in the central region are much less efficient due to the lack of market or policy support. To analyze more precisely this conflict on the governance, further analyses show that airport size also has a significant impact on the operational efficiency. Larger airports are typically more efficient, while smaller airports are less efficient, implying the market demand is slightly better to promote the airport operational efficiency than the promotional policies. These findings help us to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism in the sustainable governance behind the operational efficiency of airports and suggest that more market-oriented appropriate policy direction is required to enhance the competitiveness of the aviation industry. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders of the developing countries as well, underlining the necessity not for supply-driven policies, but for the demand–pull efforts to optimize resource allocation and adapt to evolving market dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the nexus between digital financial inclusion and household participation in commercial insurance, utilizing data from the Peking University Digital Financial Inclusion Index and the 2018 CFPS database. Using Probit and Logit models, our research uncovers significant regional and risk -preference variations, emphasizing the influence of governance mechanisms. The study underscores the pivotal role of digital participation in a sustainable governance mechanism in shaping financial behavior, as well as the importance of advocating for regulatory interventions, enhanced financial literacy, and infrastructure development to foster equitable insurance access. Moreover, positive determinants, such as education level and social insurance participation, are identified, while discretionary spending emerges as a barrier. This study advocates for expedited digital financial inclusion initiatives to increase financial literacy with strengthened regulatory oversight and governance mechanisms which would ensure sustainable regional development and insurance market resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy and environmental studies (E&E) have faced a significant turning point due to the lack of reliability of the existing models, as well as the lack of policy governance. Most papers in E&E have adapted data envelope analysis due to its popularity, which is a result of its structure of having multiple inputs and outputs. However, due to its crucial weakness in statistical reliability, diverse new methodologies to gain better reliability have been developed, such as difference-in-difference and computational general equilibrium models, but they are still do not popular because the world has not shown significant progress in the abatement of carbon emissions. This comes not only from the lack of appropriate, precise research models, but also from a worldwide lack of governance. Most countries advocate for the necessity of E&E policies, yet their policies alone are not enough for sustainable performance, due to the lack of reliability and/or weakness of public–private partnerships. This Special Issue shall examine all of these new challenges to the methodologies, as well as the implications and suggestions arising from their empirical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the shadow price (SP) of CO2 emissions is the key to achieving China's "double carbon" targets. Considering technology heterogeneity, this study applies stochastic frontier analysis combined with meta-frontier technology to estimate the environmental technical efficiency (ETE) and SP of CO2 emissions for China's fossil fuel power plants from 2005 to 2015. This approach overcomes the lack of statistical inference and consistency of traditional methods and improves the reliability of results. The main results are as follows: (a) the average ETE of China's power plants is 0.9444, indicating that inefficient production accounts for 5.66%. The difference in efficiency between the central and local groups is significant. (b) The national average SP of CO2 is 266.8 US dollars per ton, which is much higher than the carbon price in the emission trading system. This result implies the need to design a carbon trading price mechanism. (c) The distribution of SP shows obvious corporation and geographical characteristics that are closely related to the level of regional economic development. Finally, the findings provide policy implications for the improvement of the efficiency and abatement of costs of power plants and the determination of carbon prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many developing countries have been experiencing the problems of urbanization, particularly regarding carbon emission and polluted air emission mitigation. Is it possible to simultaneously achieve these two different clean and green economic strategies? This study analyzes this paradoxical issue of air pollution in terms of PM2.5 efficiency. To evaluate the performance of regulatory policies on air pollution and to find out the governance factors, this paper adopts the stepwise approach. In the first stage, we evaluate the cross-sectional PM2.5 efficiency of 16 Korean municipalities for the period between 2012 and 2017 and determine whether this performance is sustainable using the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). We concluded that most local governments lack sustainable governance on regulation policies for clean air. Using the Tobit model in the second stage, this study showed that regional economic development (GRDP) and an patent for clean air technology innovation are the most important strategic factors that promote sustainability in regulation policy performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam, as a new emerging market, especially in e-business, has been promoting its emerging e-commerce market in Southeast Asia using aggressive players such as Lazada. Nonetheless, Vietnam has strong cultural background of risk-averse attitudes, like other developing countries, thereby deferring sustainable transformation into the e-business revolution. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the factors leading to the sustainable performance of e-commerce businesses, because highly risk-avert attitudes still cause many problems due to low levels of trust. In this perspective of trust, this research may contribute to promoting Vietnamese online shopping trends and suggesting ways for sustainable business to achieve success in B2C e-commerce. The purpose of this research is to examine whether or not the characteristics of e-service quality (usefulness, convenience, security, responsiveness, and assurance) have a positive influence on customer loyalty, one of the sustainable success factors in this growing e-commerce industry in Asian markets. Using questionnaires and structural equation modelling, we concluded that it is crucial to promote e-trust as a vital element, because it lacks, in the short-run, an initial e-trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since South Korea has implemented its emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2015, several studies have explored the sustainable performance of ETS in terms of production efficiency. However, few studies focused on Korean company-level data in their model. Thus, this study focuses on data from firms in the steel industry, which is a representative greenhouse gas emitter. Based on the slack-based measure (SBM) approach, we find the following implications: First, this paper evaluates both environment energy efficiency (EEE) and traditional energy efficiency and discovers that the efficiency value, in general, is overestimated, when greenhouse gas emissions are ignored. EEE still shows a decreasing efficiency value over time, implying that strong regulation is needed to increase efficiency. Second, this paper provides the return to scale status of decision-making units in the steel industry, through decomposing EEE. Results show that many steel firms are in the state of increasing returns to scale, so they can enhance their efficiency by increasing their scale. Finally, this paper provides benchmark information with which an inefficient firm can enhance its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of urban-rural integration has led to severe ecological environmental pollution in rural areas of China, particularly in the economically-developed areas. This is an urgent issue to be solved. We select Jiangsu Province as a case study. From the perspective of the population, economic scale, energy consumption and financial support, we perform an empirical study of rural non-point source pollution problems in the process of urbanization based on the improved STIRPAT model. We apply the ridge regression method to avoid the multicollinearity of the variables in the STIRPAT model. The results show that the technological level, the size of the population and financial support are important factors affecting rural non-point source pollution. Therefore, we believe that technical progress, transformation of the mode of production and increasing the scale of financial support in rural areas are effective measures to solve the current rural nonpoint source pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet consumer finance platforms (ICFPs), as a new Internet financial model, have emerged and been widely adopted by Chinese as well as global online shoppers following the rapid growth of e-commerce. This emerging financial tool is, however, luring younger generations deep into debt. It jeopardizes the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1—No poverty, bringing the sustainability of this consumer financial model into question. To aid the sustainable development of ICFP industry, this paper distinguishes two antecedents of continuous use intention for ICFP users: (1) satisfaction, as a sustainable determinant; and (2) impulsive buying, as a non-sustainable determinant. We found satisfaction (b = 0.452) has a larger positive effect on continuous use intention compared to impulsive buying (b = 0.229). Therefore, ICFPs should weigh heavier on technology innovation instead of seducing consumers' impulsive buying behavior. We also found that credit limit misconception poses the largest impact (b = 0.483) on impulsive buying. In the near term, governments and ICFPs may initiate public programs to improve ICFP users' financial literacy in order to restrain their unsustainable impulsive buying behavior and cultivate their sustainable satisfaction on ICFP technology and service. Market regulators may build up institutional frameworks to tighten the abuse of financial platforms on credit issuing power and better foster sustainable entrepreneurship in this new financial platform business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emission convergence is a fundamental ground for cooperative CO2 emission mitigation. We investigate the emission convergence in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries using a modified dynamic β-convergence model. From 2000 to 2017, the per capita emissions of the RCEP countries and its subgroups show a statistically significant diverging pattern. Nonetheless, upon accounting for multiple inputs and outputs using data envelopment analysis, we find that two out of the three emission performance indicators show statistically significant absolute convergence. The carbon emission efficiency (CEE) of the 15 RCEP countries grew from 0.5719 in 2000 to 0.6725 in 2017 and will converge at a value of 0.8187, while the carbon–population performance (CPP) increases from 0.4534 to 0.5690 and will converge at 0.7831. Furthermore, using a conditional β-convergence model, we find that trade volume has no significant effect on the growth rates of CEE and CPP, but can accelerate their speed of convergence, which indicates that the establishment of the RCEP may facilitate the convergence of its 15 member countries on CEE and CPP. Our findings suggest that emission mitigation agreement in the RCEP countries is feasible. CEE- or CPP-based indicators can be used for emission budget allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though there are numerous arguments about the feasibility of the Paris Agreement against climate change, the Paris regime should overcome all of the possible challenges and create a new, optimal path for all humankind, at least in terms of the global consensus on "Energy Efficiency and Urban Climate Adaptation". When the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) was held in Madrid, Spain from 2 to 13 December, 2019, there was a great expectation for the Paris Agreement to be implemented smoothly in a very transparent, predictable way. More seriously, especially in the short term, almost all developing countries have experienced air pollution with toxic smog. In most developing countries, government-led political regulation of energy efficiency and urban climate adaptation could be much more effective, at least in the short term and in the initial stages, but without much stronger support from the private sector, it cannot be sustainable [[4]]. [Extracted from the article]

Medical tourism is a growing niche market with huge potential as the 6th industry of medical services, including an unforgettable trip. Due to these advantages, Uzbekistan hopes to be a leader in central Asia concerning medical tourism. Contrary to this ambitious goal, Uzbekistan patients still prefer going abroad for medical services. Therefore, in order for Uzbekistan to be a hub for medical tourism, the sustainable governance factors of medical tourism need to be found for local patients going overseas. Under this research motivation, this study evaluates how the medical, tourism, and information sharing factors influence behavioral intention based on the structural equation model (SEM) with a random sample of 498 residents in Uzbekistan. Perceived value and behavioral intention are used as a mediating variable and a dependent variable, respectively. The main findings are summarized as follows. First, the medical factor and information sharing are very important factors for behavioral intention, with high coefficient values of 0.399 and 0.516, respectively, while the tourism factor is not influential on the behavioral intention statistically. This implies that Uzbekistani patients do not consider tourism factors as a core condition, instead focusing on the service quality of the medical operation and convenience for foreign patients. Second, in the indirect model, we found that perceived value takes a fully mediating role between medical factors and behavioral intention, while it takes a partially mediating role between information sharing and behavioral intention, implying that strong promotion policies are required for the advantages of tourism and enhanced access to information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In terms of economic development and feeding the world's populations, the importance of the agricultural sector is well known. However, agriculture and its related sectors are also known for contributing more than one-quarter of the world's GHG emissions. To address this issue, we evaluate the performance of agriculture and its related firms in India from 2013 to 2019 with its environmental efficiency under the paradigm shift promoted by the National Agroforestry Policy in 2014. To evaluate the feasibility of this paradigm shift in agricultural policy, the non-radial slack-based measure (SBM) is utilized in the first stage, and Tobit regressions are used to assess the determinants of efficiency (or sources of inefficiency) measures at the second stage. The results from non-radial SBM show that Indian agricultural firms (foreign direct investment, private, and public) show huge potential with 32.2% on average to enhance their performance if they move toward the frontier of the production possibility curve. This suggests that Indian policymakers should regulate much stronger regulations for firms, especially for the use of agricultural inputs such as energy (fertilizers), with performance-oriented financial measures for sustainable agriculture. To determine the strategic variables for these firms to enhance their performance, Tobit regressions showed that fertilizers use (−3.350%) appears to have the highest negative impact on environmental efficiency. On the other hand, credit access (2.710%) has the highest positive impact on environmental efficiency, implying that policymakers should provide subsidies to firms in the form of soft loans (or credit access) for the purchase of high-quality fertilizers and to adopt energy-saving equipment/technology to minimize the use of chemical fertilizers in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation industry is one of the major sectors for air pollution. In particular, the freight transportation sector possesses the biggest share of air pollution in South Korea. Therefore, it is required to evaluate current environmental performance of this sector and predict regulation impact on the local economy for a sustainable future. Based on the sustainable governance, each local government should take actions or change the paradigm of the regulatory policies. Thus, this study examines the environmental performance of the freight transportation industry with air pollution of PM2.5 and NOx in 16 Korean local governments, based on the non-radial directional distance function (NDDF). On average, the freight transportation sector shows very low performance with a high potential value of 0.649. Furthermore, no significant uptrend was witnessed during the sample period (2012 to 2017), implying a lack of sustainable governance. Some local governments such as Seoul (0.9301) and Busan (0.9709) show high efficiency, and Gwangju shows a slow but increasing trend, while most of other cities are very low in their environmental performance of freight transportation industries. Even Seoul and Busan may not maintain their sustainable performance, because outperforming high sales revenue in these cities could lead to high efficiency even with high levels of aggravating air pollution. Therefore, it is meaningful to empirically test the sustainable feasibility in terms of regulatory costs, reflecting the opportunity costs to select increased regulation toward a sustainable, higher environment-friendly efficiency. Environmental regulation causes very low, negligible costs in most of the local governments, except Seoul, implying that a more regulatory regime will bring in the sustainable governance of the environmental efficiency (Porter hypothesis) for the freight transportation sector for these local governments. However, Seoul will endure a heavy economic burden if heavier environmental regulations are posed on its freight transport sector. Stepwise and fine tuning of regulations is required for Seoul. In contrast to Seoul, Incheon needs drastic reformation since it shows low efficiency with low regulatory cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed our daily life, especially in the food industry. This study aims to examine the sustainable factors that influence the reuse intention in China's online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery industry, using "Meituan Waimai" app users as the objects of investigation. Meituan had great success in the initial stage of business due to the rapid urbanization of the major Chinese cities, and thus it is planning to enter the second and third level of cities in China. However, this may not be sustainable because beginner's luck does not hold unless it is supported by sustainable governance. To evaluate the online and offline governance of O2O business, we used five service quality factors (convenience, safety, economy, accuracy, and speed) in a structural equation model. Customer satisfaction and reuse intention are used as mediating and dependent variables, respectively. The main findings are as follows. First, among the service characteristics, economy and speed factors did not perfectly mediate satisfaction, implying that the initial stage of success may not be sustainable. O2O service providers in China should put more effort into customizing economic incentives as well as making an appropriate impression regarding the delivery speed. Second, satisfaction is fully supported by other factors, implying that O2O service providers should take into account feedback from the people in the market and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in mobile short-video platforms (MSVP) as a new social network service tool has surged in recent years. However, only a few studies have focused on MSVP users' post-acceptance behavior. To clarify this issue of sustainable usage, this study analyzed users' post-acceptance habit formation by incorporating perceived interactivity and perceived enjoyment into the expectation-confirmation theory of the information system continuance (ECT-IS) model using structural equation modelling. We developed and distributed an online questionnaire and collected 219 valid responses from Chinese MSVP users. Our results show that satisfaction is the foremost factor in determining users' habit formation as it completely mediates the influence of confirmation and perceived interactivity. We also show that perceived enjoyment positively influences habit formation directly and indirectly. Nonetheless, we note that sustainable usage should form the basis of continuous satisfaction from user experience due to a few missing links with regard to modulation in habitual usage. Therefore, we suggest that MSVPs should enhance their content recommendation algorithms using technologies such as deep-learning forecasting to improve users' satisfaction by increasing perceived enjoyment. We also show that the influence of perceived interactivity on habit formation is effective only when fully mediated by satisfaction. Thus, we recommend that MSVPs should diversify their interaction mechanisms, for instance, by introducing mass creators that promote users' habit formation by enhancing their satisfaction on the platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on urban economic data in the Yangtze River Delta region of China from 2011 to 2017, this study empirically explores the characteristics of green finance development and its influencing factors through the establishment of a time fixed effects Durbin model. The empirical results are as follows: (1) The development of green finance in the Yangtze River Delta has a clear spatial cluster effect, and there are large regional differences. (2) The regional GDP, regional innovation level, and air quality are the most important influencing factors, and the degree of financial development and the optimization of the industrial structure are not significant. (3) Regional GDP is positively correlated with the development of green finance, and regional innovation level and air quality are negatively correlated with the development of green finance. (4) Regional GDP, regional innovation level, and air quality are associated with the development level of green finance mainly through direct effects. The degree of financial development and the optimization of industrial structure are associated with the development level of green finance mainly through spillover effects. The degree of financial development has a positive spillover effect; in contrast, the optimization of the industrial structure has a negative spillover effect. Finally, according to the conclusions, countermeasures and suggestions for improving the level of green finance development in the Yangtze River Delta are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a rapid increase in inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into developing countries such as India. Some researchers argue that FDI has a positive impact on sustainable development in terms of environmental efficiency and brings innovative green technology to the host country. In contrast, others claim that FDI brings considerable pollution to the host country, and their motive is only to yield profit. To address this issue, this paper analyzes environmental efficiency between FDI and domestic firms in India for seven years between 2012 and 2018. The research aims to evaluate the performance of FDI firms in terms of environmental efficiency in India after implementing certain policy regulations, nationally and globally. In this analysis, we use the non-radial metafrontier Malmquist CO2 performance index (NMMCPI) with three decomposition indices: efficiency change index, best practice gap index, and technological gap change index. Our empirical results indicate that domestic firms have performed well in terms of better catch-up and innovation performance. On the other hand, FDI firms only demonstrated higher technology leadership performance, indicating weaker catch-up performance and weaker innovation performance. From the results, we proposed that policymakers should harmonize between the FDI promotion and regulation in its sustainable performance because global companies are not sensitive to the local regulations, and not very proactive in implementing the global standard of eco-friendliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the sustainable feasibility of major airports in China in terms of airport operational efficiency (AOE). As AOE should be measured by economic performance as well as qualitative service management such as delay rate abatement, our study uses a multi-input/output slack-based data envelopment analysis model. We find that the 37 major airports in China have very low AOE levels, with an average of 48.2% during the study period of 2016–2019, implying great potential to enhance their efficiency. Even though the AOE trend is increasing upwards, it is still very much behind in terms of global standards. Moreover, this upward trend may come from external factors in the commercially driven eastern region airports and politically supported western region airports, and the AOE gap with airports in the central region is becoming larger. This implies that most airports in China are not yet self-sustaining. There are two ways for these airports to enhance AOE: more investment in infrastructure, such as airport facilities, and management upgrades from peer-learning efforts. We examined the feasibility of these two optimal paths and found that there is no need for decreasing returns to scale, implying that most of the airports can improve their AOE through additional investment, except for the eight airports with constant returns to scale, such as Beijing and Guangzhou. Moreover, each of the individual airports should learn from the top benchmarking airports on the production frontier. This study emphasizes the role of qualitative service performance and concludes that customized, self-sustaining innovation is required for all of the 37 major airports in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managerial Pro-Social Rule Breaking (MPSRB) is a prevalent leadership behavior in China, characterized by conflict between favor and rule. Despite emerging interest in this behavior, two theoretical questions remain unsolved. First, its definition, dimensions, and measurement in the Chinese context are still lacking or improper; second, its double-edged sword effect on employees' attitude is rarely empirically examined. This paper conducts three studies to solve these questions. In study 1, based on an analysis of the Chinese traditional culture, three dimensions of MPSRB (i.e., benevolence-based, pragmatic-based, and justice-based) were identified. In study 2, a scale of MPSRB containing 12 items was developed through an interview, preliminary, and formal questionnaire survey. In study 3, employees' sustainable organizational identification perception (SOIDP) was studied as the dependent variable, to analyze and verify the double-edged sword effect of MPSRB by hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) methods on the data gathered through the three stages from 380 employees. The results show that the three dimensions of MPSRB have a direct positive impact on employees' SOIDP and, simultaneously, they have an indirect negative impact through the mediating role of procedural justice perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest emitter of CO2, China has also serious air pollution issues. Is it possible to catch these two rabbits under heterogenetic conditions of urbanization? To answer this, this study examines atmospheric environmental performance (SO2, NOx, and PMs) of 30 major cities in China using streaming data from 2011 to 2017. A non-radial SBM-DEA approach is adopted with a meta-frontier model to evaluate regional heterogeneity in atmospheric environmental management. Our results suggest that pollution prevention and regulation policies encouraged synergic development of most cities in the economy and atmospheric environment. On average, atmospheric environmental efficiency of the cities improved from 0.556 to 0.691. However, significantly unbalanced development exists in the regions, requiring customized policies. Eastern cities achieved continuing improvement owing to stringent air pollutant emission policies. Central cities showed a strong improvement but lacked momentum after they achieved certain targets. Western cities lagged behind in the studying period due to both technology gap as well as weak regulation. Furthermore, we identify heterogeneous paths for inefficient cities to enhance their performance using benchmark information. Economically developed eastern cities, such as Beijing, Fuzhou, are facing an over-supply issue. Reshaping their economic structure may be necessary to attain better environmental performance. Central cities face diversified issues. The emphasis of different cities may vary from stringent emission policies to proactive supply-side transition to achieve strong atmospheric management performance. For under-developed cities, preferential policies for investment and tax incentives may be needed to improve their production scale for higher efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emission trading system (ETS) is a powerful emission reduction tool for achieving low-carbon economic development in the world. Focusing on the industrial subsectors, this paper comprehensively analyzes the environmental and economic effects of the pilot ETS in China from the perspectives of economic development, technological optimization, and innovation-driven development by using the propensity score matching–difference in differences (PSM-DID) model based on 2005–2017 provincial panel data. This paper compensates for the limitations of existing studies on the effects of ETS on different subsectors; furthermore, the triple difference model (DDD) model is used to discuss the impacts of differences in environmental responsibility and economic potential among subsectors on policy effects. The empirical results show that: (1) The pilot ETS produces a 14.5% carbon reduction effect on the covered subsectors while reducing GDP by 4.8% without achieving a low-carbon economy. Thus, production decline is the main reason for carbon emission reductions. (2) Economic development factors have significant positive impacts on carbon emissions, while technological optimization and innovation-driven development are key factors for achieving reductions in carbon emissions. (3) The pilot ETS produces a 60.1% carbon emission inhibition effect and 23.2% GDP inhibition effect on the subsectors with greater environmental responsibility. Therefore, the Chinese government should fully simulate the impact of technological innovation and utilize resource endowment differences in the environmental and economic aspects of different sectors to achieve low-carbon economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans can derive the benefits from the ecosystem to satisfy human needs as well-being. Therefore, good ecosystem management is the intermediary between ecosystems and human well-being. The ecosystem services depend on the supply of nature, and also reflect the value orientation of human beings, as the basis for the realization of human survival and cultural development. Land ecosystem services are the core and hot topic of ecological research. Under the current severe depletion of land use, this research evaluates the sustainable governance on the natural resource shortage, serious environmental pollution and ecosystem degradation. Based on the Web of Science database, this paper analyzes the development characteristics and trends of global land ecosystem services research using the Bibliometrix software package. The results show that (1) the amount of literature on land ecosystem services research between 2000 and 2019 has generally increased significantly, and entered a stage of rapid development from 2015. (2) Developed countries are the main research force in the field of land ecosystem services, and the United States has the absolute leading position. Developing countries are dominated by China, Argentina, and Brazil. (3) The high-frequency keywords for land ecosystem services are land use change, land use, climate change, urbanization, carbon and water quality. This can be regarded as a research hotspot in the field of land ecosystem services to a certain extent. (4) Through cluster analysis on the big data, the research found the direction for the future land ecosystem services, mainly: (I) the restoration of degraded land and its impact on ecosystem services; (II) the environmental impact assessment of land use planning based on the ecosystem services value; (III) the tradeoff analysis of ecosystem services in sustainable land management; (IV) the impact of land cover change on ecosystem services; (V) through the historical analysis of citied papers, the research history and evolution path of land ecosystem services are explored. Based on all these arguments, a comprehensive study on the diverse facets of land ecosystem services and the practical application of land ecosystem services areas is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue consists of selected papers from the 2019 Sustainable Asia Conference (SAC), an annual international conference held at the Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, China, in June of 2019, and the 12th Sustainable Asia Conference held at Inha University, Incheon, Korea, in October of 2019. SAC is one of the leading international conferences for presenting novel and fundamental advances in sustainable development issues for Asia. Evidently, sustainable development urgently requires public and private cooperation for the challenges faced across diverse fields of activities because of the complex procedure of enactment. Northeast Asian countries are very sensitive to this matter because of the strong leadership of their governments, and thus, it is of utmost importance to develop sustainable governance mechanisms. Government-led political regulations could be much more important in Asia, but without the strong support of the private sector, they cannot be sustainable. We have already seen many policy failures in Asian countries during this initial stage of ecological civilization. Therefore, this Special Issue proposes the workable mechanism for sustainable development in diverse perspectives. This Special Issue focuses on diverse yet unique issues for sustainable development and its governance under the Paris regime in 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socialist countries, such as China, have stressed the importance of an equitable society where citizens work together. Thus, the sharing economy (e.g., the bike-sharing industry) could be one of the challenges determining the future of China, as the initial bubble of the bike-sharing industry collapsed in 2017, with many problems stemming from the users' deposits that were lost and the depletion of the investment funds, resulting in numerous malfunctioning bikes every day. This paper evaluates the bike-sharing industry in terms of sustainable governance in the future and identifies its factors. Therefore, we use the structural equation model based on survey questionnaires and find that most of the input variables of the perceived rational (PRV) and emotional values (PEV), perceived risk (PR), and externalities (EXT) are not very successful in promoting the sustainable governance of the bike-sharing industry. However, using the bootstrapping simulation approach, we find that the role of modulators such as satisfaction and sustainable management factors are statistically significant. The modulating effect of a user's satisfaction on the intention of continuous use based on all four inputs of PRV (0.304), PEV (0.298), PR (−0.156), and EXT (0.263), as well as the other indirect variables of sustainable management, such as environmental factors (0.284), is shown to be statistically significant. Based on these modulating effects, we conclude that the sharing economy, represented by the bike-sharing industry, could be one of the most important business cases for the future of China, but only if it is strongly supported by the public. Therefore, to help the industry get out of its current slump, we propose that the bike-sharing companies put in more diverse efforts to employ multi-use types of innovation with practical benefits such as coupons for the nearest shops, and social functions that enhance the quality of life such as mileage contribution from bike sharing for disabled people. Evidently, the Chinese government should eliminate "the over-supply issues" through appropriate market governance and increase its efforts toward a better public–private partnership (PPP), as the sharing economy should be based on the harmonization of all interest groups to eventually create value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A carbon emission trading system (ETS) is an effective market mechanism for promoting the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions and achieving sustainable development between the economy and the environment. To analyze the emissions reduction effect and economic effect of China's ETS and further discuss the mechanisms of economic development differences and industrial development differences on the final effect of the policy, this study adopts the propensity score matching-difference in differences method and triple difference method. The empirical results show the following: (1) The ETS can simultaneously achieve both the emissions reduction effect and economic effect when key control variables are included. (2) The population, carbon emissions intensity and per capita GDP have significant positive impacts on carbon emissions; the environmental pollution control intensity, research structure, and research intensity have negative impacts on carbon emissions; and the capita stock, employment, and energy consumption have significant positive economic effects. (3) The ETS has a stronger inhibitory effect on the provinces with higher levels of economic and service development compared to the provinces with lower levels of economic and service development. In contrast, the policy has a weaker inhibitory effect on provinces with higher levels of industrial and construction development compared with the lower level provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the feasibility of fintech as a platform for sustainable economic growth and as a prompter of the fourth industrial revolution. To analyze the role of fintech in the national economy, we first broaden its definition and compare its economic performance using three methodologies—Demand-driven model, Supply-driven model and industry linkage effect in interindustry analysis. We find that the fintech industry has a stronger effect on production inducement. Regarding industry linkage effects, fintech ranked the top in all 31 industries for the forward linkage effect and 22 for the background linkage effect—much higher than the traditional financial industry. This implies that the fintech industry is effective as the intermediate good with national demand as well as the final good. Particularly, this industry plays the roles of intermediate and final goods across almost all industries. That is, fintech could better promote overall national economic performance as a platform industry. Because most businesses within the fintech industry depend on innovation through the integration of finance and information technology, we find that fintech can feasibly prompt the fourth industrial revolution. Nonetheless, this industry is characterized by excessive regulations in Korea, indicating the need for negative regulation for new, innovative businesses within the fintech industry that would critically emphasize innovativeness for inclusive, sustainable economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the worldwide spread of emissions trading schemes (ETSs) and the need for international cooperation on climate change, there is growing interest in linking ETSs. Along with sustainable development, preventing and controlling pollution, is now regarded as an urgent priority by China and Korea. In the context of the willingness of the Chinese and Korean governments to cooperate on ETS, this paper examines the feasibility of a pilot ETS cooperation between Shanghai and Korea from environmental efficiency and CO2 marginal abatement cost (MAC) perspectives. We apply a directional distance function (DDF) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to estimate the environmental efficiency and the CO2 MAC of coal-fueled power plants in Shanghai and Korea using cross-sectional data from 2015. The results indicate that the group frontier environmental efficiency of Shanghai and Korea reached a similarly high score. However, as to meta-frontier environmental efficiency, the coal-fueled power plants in Korea performed better than those in Shanghai. The CO2 MAC results indicate that, despite the small gap in efficiency performance, the CO2 MAC of coal-fueled power plants is much higher than that in Shanghai due to the big feed-in tariff difference. This is because the MAC not only relates to the environmental efficiency, but also to the feed-in tariff. A higher feed-in tariff leads to higher MAC. To tackle this serious problem, which has also been addressed in previous studies, we suggest that policymakers should focus on the huge CO2 MAC differences caused by feed-in tariff differences to avoid equity problems when building the structure of the Shanghai-Korea ETS cooperation. For instance, compared with power plants in Shanghai, policymakers should set a looser cap and a higher offset for Korean plants. To reduce the impact of feed-in tariff on carbon trading in the market, it would also be effective to arrange a higher quota or a lower carbon tax for coal-fueled power plants in Korea. In addition, policymakers should fill the gaps of 85.15% and 67.6% between the realistic market price and the MAC results of coal-fueled power plants in Shanghai and Korea, respectively, by introducing stricter regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korea inaugurated an emission trading scheme (ETS) in 2015 for its ambitious target to reduce 37% greenhouse gas per 2030 business-as-usual level. This study examines the sustainable governance of the Korean petrochemical industry, one of the world's major emitters of greenhouse gas, with 55 firms participating in ETS. On the basis of the non-radial, non-parametric directional distance function, this study derives three types of efficiencies: greenhouse gas technical efficiency (GTE), pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency. Using these indices, this study also provides information for benchmarking for the fast followers. The findings of this study reveal the following. First, petrochemical industry exhibits 63.5% ETS performance, on average, showing huge potential improvement. Second, by decomposing GTE value, this study provides information from the perspective of scale to find out the oversupply issues in some petrochemical firms. Lastly, benchmark information for each firm is provided to enhance its efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since water stress and industrial water pollution pose a huge threat to South Korea's sustainable water use, it is an urgent task to assess industrial water green use efficiency (GUEIW). Based on the global non-radial directional distance function (GNDDF) model, this paper calculated GUEIW in 16 Korean local governments from 2006 to 2015 using two decomposition indicators: Economic efficiency of industrial water use (ECEIW) and environmental efficiency of industrial water use (ENEIW). The growth of GUEIW is mainly driven by ECEIW, and subsequent environmental problems are obstacles to achieving green use of Korean industrial water. The regional heterogeneity of GUEIW is so important that the downstream region outperformed the upstream region in all three indicators. The government's efforts to ensure water quality inhibits industrial development in upstream areas, where incomes are much lower than in downstream areas, and downstream industrial areas have to pay upstream industrial areas extra for water. However, regarding upstream industrial areas, low prices easily promote water waste. Because of relatively high water use costs, downstream producers are encouraged to save water. To improve the economic efficiency of industrial water use in upstream areas, advanced water technology should be developed or introduced to make full use of water resources in industrial production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines not only the effectiveness of the South Korean emissions-trading scheme (ETS), but also the determinants of its performance. We apply a directional distance function and stochastic frontier analysis method to estimate environmental efficiency and the marginal CO2 abatement costs for 50 coal-fueled power plants from 2008 to 2016. The result indicates that the efficiency differs between the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administration periods, with performance in the former period being relatively more effective than in the latter. Meanwhile, there were price gaps of 57.98% and 72.76% in 2015 and 2016, respectively, between the realized carbon market price and our result, indicating significant suppressed pressure on the market. We conclude that the Korean government should strengthen its regulations to more effectively implement a green economy. Policymakers could impose a carbon tax; substantially decrease the carbon emissions-free quota; and provide more incentives, especially to the energy-intensive, resource-saving coal-fueled power plants. This would ultimately keep market prices within a reasonable range and achieve a balance between the supply and demand for carbon emission allowances in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northeast Asia is one of the most dynamic regions in the global economy in its dynamic change in the economic scape as well as in the challenge of environmental issues. In particular, many countries in Asia have experienced transitional challenges from a quantitative, GDP-oriented economic development toward environmental-friendly, sustainable development. The quality of the life became much more important for government policies, also fueled by the demand from the private sector. Nonetheless, these countries are experiencing much more severe and sarcastic skepticism in response to government policies, resulting in a lack of effective governance. The Sustainable Asia Conference (SAC) has promoted the importance of these challenges for 10 years since its inauguration in 2009. The major consensus on sustainable development reached at the conference may come from innovation in the positive-sum game approach to environmentally friendly development and sustainable governance in order for the initial innovation to be put into effect. Moreover, due to the complicated and complex process of solving environmental challenges, the countries in this region should cooperate with strong partnerships as well as open connectivity. Therefore, all the countries should participate in the project not as helpers, but as partners to create and share value through regional cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study's aim is to examine the environmental performance of the South Korean manufacturing industry and suggest performance-oriented policies. The manufacturing industry is classified into seven sub-sectors based on individual sectoral differences among firms. For this purpose, a sequential generalized directional distance function and the Sequential Malmquist-Luenburger (SML) index are used with the assumption of no deterioration in technology over time. The SML is decomposed into two indices: efficiency change (EC) and technical change (TC). The empirical results showed an average increase of 0.3% in environmental productivity measured by the SML over the whole period. Although the overall average value is low, it showed a 0.8% increase after 2015, implying that ETS policy has enhanced environmental productivity. From the decomposition of the SML, it was also found that the EC index (−1.1%) was comparatively lower than the TC index (1.5%) over seven years, implying that the innovation effect leads the environmental productivity of the Korean manufacturing industry. With regard to individual sectors, the seven sub-sectors showed quite different patterns in their performance. Therefore, not only should firms in each sector make an effort to enhance their performance, but the government also needs to support specialized measures to enhance firms' overall competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the technology gap, energy efficiency, and CO2 emission performance of the agglomerated cities in Eastern and Central China and South Korea under economic heterogeneity. The potential reductions of energy and CO2 emission are estimated from agglomerated city perspectives. The global meta-frontier non-radial direction distance function is used to conduct an empirical analysis of agglomerated cities among Eastern, Central China and South Korea. The results show the potential reduction of 7.58 billion tons of CO2 emissions in Korea and another potential reduction of 1930.62 toe energy for the research period in China, if Korea and China proactively collaborate with each other. The empirical results conclude several unique findings and their implications. First, there are significant differences between the Chinese and Korean cities, in energy efficiency, CO2 emission performance, and meta-technology gaps. Korean cities play a leading role at benchmarking efficiency level with meta-frontier technology. Second, there is no significant difference between total-factor and single-factor performance indexes in the Korean cities, because South Korea requires large capital stocks to replace energy in the production process. However, the opposite is true for Eastern and Central China cities. Finally, there is huge potential for the Chinese cities to reduce energy and CO2 emissions by "catching up" internally as well as by the collaborative efforts with Korean cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most Asian countries are experiencing escalating air pollution and other environmental challenges. Many political measures, such as regulations and promotional subsidies, have not proved effective or efficient due to a lack of governance. The reason for this may come from the historical and cultural background of government-led economies. Due to the top-down approach to sustainable development, most private sector companies, as well as the general population, do not participate voluntarily in meeting these new challenges. In order for these Asian countries to become leaders in the new global trend towards green growth, this paper examines the Asian values of guānxì to facilitate the interrelationship between public and private sectors, and proposes an Asian public–private partnership model with five structural principles, three functional propositions, and seven procedural factors. Using these governance elements, Asian governments should create, maintain, and utilize the progression of guānxì from acquaintance via trust to loyalty. Through this stepwise approach, Asian governments could construct an innovative virtuous circle to create value based on network management, which is the ultimate paradigm of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon emissions and agricultural nonpoint source pollution constraints were incorporated into the input–output index system, and the epsilon-based measure (EBM) super efficiency model and global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index were used to measure the cultivated land use efficiency and changes in the total factor productivity (TFP) of cultivated land use in the main grain-producing areas in China from 1993–2016. The results indicate that: (1) from 1993 to 2016, the cultivated land use efficiency in the main grain-producing areas in China showed a tendency to fluctuate and increase, with obvious stage characteristics; however, the overall level was not high. (2) There is a significant difference in the cultivated land use efficiency under the constraints of carbon emissions and nonpoint source pollution in the main grain-producing areas in the different provinces, and low-efficiency provinces have higher input redundancy and undesired output redundancy than high-efficiency provinces. It can be observed that input redundancy and undesired output redundancy have a significant negative effect on cultivated land use efficiency. (3) The TFP of cultivated land use under the constraints of carbon emissions and nonpoint source pollution in China’s main grain-producing areas is estimated by the GML index. The results show that the TFP of cultivated land use in the main provinces in the main grain-producing regions is greater than 1, indicating that the productivity levels of all the provinces in China’s main grain-producing areas are increasing. From the perspective of the power sources in each province, global pure technological change (GPTC) and global scale technological change (GSTC) are the main driving forces for the TFP of cultivated land use, while global pure efficiency change (GPEC) and global scale efficiency change (GSEC) are the bottlenecks for increasing the TFP of cultivated land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]