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China's pulp and paper industry (CPPI) has been always the main carbon emission source in recent years. However, the analysis on influencing factors of carbon emissions from this industry is insufficient. To address the issue, the CO 2 emissions from CPPI are estimated in the period of 2005-2019, the driving factors of CO 2 emissions are investigated by the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method, the decoupling state of economic growth and CO 2 emissions is determined by Tapio decoupling model, and finally, future CO 2 emissions are predicted under four scenarios by the STIRPAT model to explore the potential of carbon peaking. The results show that CPPI exhibits a rapid increase and a fluctuating downward trend in CO 2 emissions during the period of 2005-2013 and 2014-2019, respectively. The main promoting and inhibiting factors to the increase of CO 2 emission are per capita industrial output value and energy intensity, respectively. There are five decoupling states of CO 2 emissions and economic growth during the study period, and the CO 2 emissions exhibit a weak decoupling state with the industrial output value growth in most years of the study period. It is very difficult to realize the carbon peaking goal by 2030 under the baseline and fast development scenarios. Therefore, efficient low carbon and strong low-carbon development policies are necessary and urgent for the realization of carbon peaking goal and the sustainable development of CPPI., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The urgent global climate change situation forces the steel industry to confront enormous challenges and complex tasks. This research focuses on the steel sector and incorporates data from 56 nations between 2010 and 2018. We analyze the direct and indirect effects of the steel trade on CO 2 emissions using the spatial Durbin model. The results show that Moran's I ranges from 0.414 to 0.521, suggesting that carbon emissions are very spatially dependent. Developed countries such as Japan, Germany, and the USA form high-high agglomeration areas. In contrast, Brazil, Thailand, and India constitute low-low agglomeration areas. Under the three spatial weight matrices, the direct effect coefficients of steel exports are 0.045, 0.038, and 0.057, and the indirect effect coefficients are - 0.006, - 0.076, and - 0.015, indicating that steel exports increase local CO 2 emissions while decreasing carbon emissions in neighboring countries. Urbanization and per capita GDP have positive spatial spillover effects, while the spatial effect of R&D intensity is insignificant. Increased industrialization and renewable energy consumption positively affect carbon emission reduction in local and surrounding nations. The study provides empirical evidence for the steel industry to develop emission reduction strategies., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In the context of green and sustainable development and rural revitalization, analysis of the relationship between economic development and the evolution of carbon metabolism is of great significance for China's future transformation of development models. This study analyzed the spatial characteristics and spatiotemporal evolution pattern of the decoupling status between carbon metabolism and economic development of Laiwu during two periods from 2001 to 2018 at the village and town unit scales by using the Tapio decoupling model. The results showed that the growth rate of carbon metabolism from 2001 to 2009 was significantly higher than that from 2009 to 2018. The spatial heterogeneity of the decoupling states between economic development and carbon metabolism from 2009 to 2018 was significantly stronger than that from 2001 to 2009 in two units. From 2001 to 2018, the development trend gradually trended towards spatial imbalance. The decoupling status between villages and towns had a high degree of consistency from 2001 to 2009 and inconsistency from 2009 to 2018. From 2001 to 2009, the decoupling status of about 78% of villages was consistent with that of towns. Moreover, from 2009 to 2018, the consistency reduced to 32.2%, and the decoupling status of about 48% of villages was weaker than that of towns. According to the reclassification results of different decoupling state change types, from 2001 to 2018, about 52.2% of the villages had a decoupling state evolution type of eco-deteriorated economic development, which is an unsatisfactory development trend in a short time. Moreover, about 12.1% of the villages had a decoupling state evolution type of eco-improved economic development, which is a satisfactory development trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the background of comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, this paper selects panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2019, uses the panel fixed effects model and panel threshold effect model, and discusses the nonlinear correlation mechanism between green investment, industrial structure, renewable energy, and low-carbon development of the transportation industry. The results show that, firstly, industrial structure and renewable energy can significantly promote the low-carbon development of the transportation industry, while green investment has a restraining effect on it (the main reason is that currently its scale is small and its investment in the transportation industry is relatively low). Secondly, industrial structure and renewable energy have a negative moderating and threshold effect in the process of green investment restraining low-carbon development of the transportation industry. Thirdly, these threshold effects have obvious regional heterogeneity characteristics. Based on this, decision-makers should not only continue to expand the scale of green investment and optimize resource allocation but also fully utilize the threshold characteristics of industrial structure and renewable energy in different regions to develop different strategies and achieve the promotion of green investment in low-carbon development of the transportation industry as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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Based on the resource allocation optimization theory, from the perspective of internal control (IC) and financial mismatch jointly affecting technological innovation, this study selects the listed enterprises in China's capital market from 2012 to 2020 as the sample, and explores the mechanism among IC, financial mismatch and technological innovation. The results show that effective IC significantly promotes corporate innovation, and mitigates financial mismatch. The mitigation of financial mismatch presents a significant mediating effect between effective IC and innovation output. In Discussion, this study finds that the effects are significantly reflected in non-state-owned enterprises, but not in state-owned enterprises. Finally, it is suggested to improve IC effectiveness continuously, to stimulate innovation vitality, optimize financial resources allocation, and foster new momentum for economic development. And it is suggested to facilitate the transmission effect that effective IC mitigates financial mismatch, and enhances innovation output. Also, the innovation activities in state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises should be coordinated to promote the steady and healthy development of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between financial development and economic growth has become a hot topic in recent years and for China, which is undergoing financial liberalisation and policy reform, the efficiency of the use of digital finance and the deepening of the balance between quality and quantity in financial development are particularly important for economic growth. This paper investigates the utility of digital finance and financial development on total factor productivity in China using interprovincial panel data decomposing financial development into financial scale and financial efficiency; an interprovincial panel data model is used to explore the utility of digital finance on total factor productivity. This involves the collection and preprocessing of financial data, including feature engineering, and the development of an optimised predictive model. We preprocess the original dataset to remove anomalous information and improve data quality. This work uses feature engineering to select relevant features for fitting and training the model. In this process, the random forest algorithm is used to effectively avoid overfitting problems and to facilitate the dimensionality reduction of the relevant features. In determining the model to be used, the random forest regression model was chosen for training. The empirical results show that digital finance has contributed to productivity growth but is not efficiently utilised; China should give high priority to improving financial efficiency while promoting financial expansion; rapid expansion of finance without a focus on financial efficiency will not be conducive to productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological footprint (EF) focuses on exploring regional sustainable development, thereby making the evaluation of sustainability an important part of academic research. However, few efforts have been made into investigating EF's influencing factors. This study explores the changes of EF and its influencing factors in Rizhao, a coastal city in China, and verifies the changes of EF through EKC. The results are as follows: (a) The rapid growth of EF is an important cause of ecological deficit. The evolution of EF shows obvious stage characteristics. (b) In terms of composition, the EF of fossil fuel‐rich land contributes greatly to the growth of EF; the EFs of cultivated land and water area also always account for a large proportion. (c) The EF is driven by the proportion of the secondary and tertiary industries, which has an inhibitory effect. Moreover, different influencing factors determine the stage change of EF. (d) EF is used to indicate the degradation of the environment. EKC shows that Rizhao City is in a negative correlation between economic development and environmental quality, confirming the change of EF. Based on the empirical results, suggestions have, hence, been made in this study to achieve sustainable development targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether or not China can succeed at the forefront of international development in the coming decades will largely hinge on its ability to adapt to low-carbon economic development and its efforts to promote the Unified National Emission Trading System (UNETS). To understand the evolution of China's carbon market, this paper firstly divides the development of China's regional carbon markets into three phases: pilot construction (phase 1, before 31 May 2015), preparation for the UNETS (phase 2, 1 June 2015–19 December 2017), and formal construction of the UNETS (phase 3, 20 December 2017–present). Then this research reviews the trading performance and employs four robust variance ratio (VR) tests to capture structural changes and examine the efficiency of China's eight regional carbon markets in different periods. Results show that compared to phase 1, smaller price volatility, larger daily trading volume, and higher market liquidity are more frequent at the later stages of majority markets. Despite these improvements, results from the VR tests indicate that the statistic in majority of China's regional carbon markets is insignificant in any given period and, therefore, they are not weak-form efficient. The additional detrended cross-correlation analysis demonstrates that market liquidity affects market efficiency in the Hubei market only, which implies that Hubei, where the market liquidity reaches almost 100% in phase 3, is highly likely to be weak-form efficient shortly. Finally, several recommendations are provided to improve the efficiency and maturity of China's carbon markets, including strengthening legislation, improving the market design, and constructing information platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical researchers and policy makers have been using both traditional production factors and relatively new production factors to explain the different growth rates in different countries and regions. However, as pollution becomes more serious, the ecological environment gradually becomes an important part of the national (regional) development strategy. Few scholars have laid their hands on energy and environmental factors in the study of China's economic growth. On the contrary, they have frequently considered physical and human capital accumulation as the main sources of China's economic growth. Thus, strong sustainability should attract more attention from researchers. This article attempts to shed light on the sources of China's economy from the perspective of strong sustainability. Employing a Cobb-Douglas production function, this paper introduces environment pollution, as a key natural capital, and energy consumption into the economic accounting framework. We also introduce government intervention, financial structure, industrial structure and degree of openness into the framework of total factor productivity to examine the effectiveness of the Chinese government's direct and indirect participation in the markets. Then, we use the long-term growth accounting equation of China to decompose its economic growth and to analyze the decomposition results dynamically. In addition, this paper analyzes the short-term change of China's economic growth by using a VAR model. The results revealed three facts. First, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship between the degree of openness and the industrial structure and their marginal growth effects, a U-shaped relationship between the financial structure and its marginal growth effect and a negative relationship between the government intervention and gross domestic product growth. Secondly, China's economic development approach was still extensive and unsustainable, and it should follow a model that relies more on total factor productivity and relies less on ecological factors. China's economic growth mainly depended on physical capital and energy consumption, and environment pollution was also a necessary byproduct of economic growth, however, the contribution of human capital and total factor productivity were small. Last but not the least, in the short term, the total factor productivity was an important source of China's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon development is an essential measure to combat climate change, and the establishment of low-carbon standards is an important means to achieve low-carbon development. Due to the differences in size and development level among counties of China, the applicability and fairness of county-level low-carbon standards are very important in this country. This study analyzed the trends of county-level carbon emissions in China, defined the peak value of carbon emissions per capita, summarized the characteristics of existing low-carbon standards, and proposed a fair county-level low-carbon standard based on carbon emissions per capita. The results of our analysis suggest that, under the constraints of carbon emissions reduction policies, China's carbon emissions per capita will tend towards a stable range. Additionally, by referring to predictions results of the peak value of China's carbon emissions per capita, it was determined that, in low-carbon development targets, China's county-level carbon emissions per capita should be set within the range of 2–4 tons. Besides setting low-carbon standards, the Chinese government and private enterprises should develop low-carbon technologies as soon as possible and innovate management models to achieve the win–win situation of simultaneous economic growth and carbon emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research project measures the added value, employment and export of copyright industries in China by adopting the methodology of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Based on statistics since 2006, it makes historical and international comparisons, and also introduces the development of copyright industries in some Chinese provinces and municipalities, showing the industries' contribution to boosting economic growth, employment and export. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the problem of environmental pollution caused by fossil fuel combustion, and its association with rapid urbanization, China is grappling with the question of how to reduce carbon emissions through more efficient energy consumption while simultaneously advancing its economic development. We applied a directional distance function to estimate the carbon emission performance of 30 provinces in China during the period 2000–2016. We selected an index system to assess urbanization processes in these provinces and conducted a spatial analysis to investigate the relationship between urbanization and carbon emission performance. We obtained the following results. First, the carbon emission performance of the eastern region, valued at 0.853, was relatively higher than the corresponding values of 0.810, 0.804, and 0.843 in the central, western, and northeastern regions, respectively. However, during this period, disparities among provinces increased. Second, the average urbanization value for each province showed an upward trend during the study period, and urbanization assumed a “striped” spatial agglomeration pattern. A third finding was that carbon emission performance and urbanization demonstrated a relationship of positive spatial dependence. The average value of their coordinated coupling indicated an upward trend, with an annual increase of 0.85%. Last, we found that efforts to reduce carbon emissions that are solely based on carbon emission performance do not yield reliable results. Accordingly, measurements of urbanization values can enable more detailed differentiation. In conclusion, reasonable measures should be implemented to improve carbon emission performance and urbanization that are in alignment with the actual situation within a given region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the growing evidence and scientific consensus on global climate change, carbon emission trading schemes (ETS) have been deemed crucial in mitigating the problem. Therefore, this study compares the mechanisms of ETS in the European Union with those in China. The results indicate similarities in cap determination, the coverage and calculation method of allowance allocation, trading participants and allowance category, offset credit, and MRV. On the other hand, the allocation method and supervision of allowance allocation, allowance formats and trading methods, market risk management, market linkage mechanism, and legislation security evidently appear to vary. However, the results were unable to identify which ETS is absolutely good or bad due to the political, economic, and institutional contexts and the varying developmental phases. Eventually, drawing on these findings, we conclude with implications for the promotion of ETS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of Chinese activities in sub-Saharan African countries with respect to the growth performance of economies in that region. Using a Solow-type growth model and panel data for the period 1991 to 2010, we find that African economies that export natural resources have benefited from positive terms-of-trade effects. In addition, there is evidence for displacement effects of African firms due to competition from China. On the other hand, Chinese foreign investment and aid in Africa does not appear to have a significant impact on African growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many rivers in China and other newly industrialized countries have suffered from severe degradation of water quality in the context of rapid economic growth. An accounting method was developed to investigate the source and mass fluxes of the main contaminants in the Ziya River, a severely polluted and heavily modified river in a semiarid area of the North China Plain, where chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH-N) were the most important indicators of pollution. The results showed that the urban sewage with high concentration of COD and NH-N dominated the streams, contributing to 80.7 % of the streamflow, 92.2 % of COD, and 94.5 % of NH-N. The concentrations of COD and NH-N in streams varied from 24.0-195.0 to 5.8-43.8 mg/L, respectively. Mass fluxes of COD and NH-N of all pathways were quantified. Much of the polluted water was diverted to irrigation, and some eventually flowed into the Bohai Sea. Installation of adequate wastewater treatment facilities and making strict discharge standards can help improve the water quality. Our findings imply that a simple accounting method provides an extremely well-documented example for load estimation and can be useful for intervention strategies in heavily polluted and modified rivers in newly industrialized countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper attempts to combine cointegration theory and the material flow analysis approach to examine the causal relationship between resource use and real GDP in Jiangsu Province in East China. The study considers the period from 1990 to 2007. We use direct material input as the proxy variable for resource use. Our estimation indicates that real GDP and resource use are cointegrated and there is only unidirectional long-run Granger causality running from resource use to real GDP, but not vice versa. The estimation results mean that resources are a limiting factor in terms of economic growth, and, therefore, strategies should be adopted for more vigorous economic development and consistent resource use in East China. Furthermore, the novel idea and methodology involved in the present study can be readily extended to cover other regions for the analysis of the relationship between resource use and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Transformations taking place in China are of crucial importance in the development of the world economy. The international community is turning its attention to China's move towards a market economy and assessing the likely impact on the years ahead. This paper aims to plot the evolution of administrative reforms in China with particular reference to the state (and therefore public sector), because the modernization of the state is an issue that will persist into the future, and because the state itself was driving the country's transformation towards a market economy in a deliberate way. Design/methodology/approach - The paper revisits the debate on administrative reforms at different levels, i.e. fiscal, budgeting, government organizations, and public sector units (PSUs). In addition to reconstructing the evolution of norms and procedures as part of deliberate strategies by the center, the paper also investigates how actual practices at the micro level have followed this process of reform, with reference to the administration of cultural heritage at the municipal level, based on a field research project. Findings - A lack of understanding of the role played by actual accounting transformation seems to characterize the current debate on policies. Serious discrepancies can be found between expectations and actual changes; between macro and micro policies, and micro practices. Originality/value - An holistic focus on various trend of reforms is taken, looking at debates that are usually separated, also linking them to actual changes in accounting practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this article is to disentangle the determinants of the Chinese economic growth that occurred from 1965 to 2000. We have explored, first, the time series properties of the growth rates of gross domestic product and labour productivity with an extended battery of unit-root tests. Then, in a multivariate setting, we use the VAR model methodology to provide evidence that physical and human capital accumulation, R&D expenditure, openness and competitiveness are the main drivers of output, labour productivity and total factor productivity growth in the long run. Additionally, we also show that although China has not yet converged to its long-run equilibrium, it is in the process of catching up. These results are more consistent with some versions of the endogenous growth models than with Solow-type models of growth, since they support active strategies of economic policy to stimulate economic growth and catching up with more advanced economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors use a growth accounting framework to examine growth of the rapidly developing Chinese economy. Their findings support the view that, although feasible in the intermediate term, China's recent pattern of extensive growth is not sustainable in the long run. The authors believe that China will be able to sustain a growth rate of 8 to 9 percent for an extended period if it moves from extensive to intensive growth. They next compare potential growth in China with historical developments in the United States and the European Union. They discuss the differences in production structure and level of development across the three economies that may explain the countries' varied intermediate-term growth prospects. Finally, the authors provide an analysis of "green" gross domestic product and the role of natural resources in China's growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dabie Mountain area is a typical poverty-stricken area in China. It is of great significance to evaluate the ecosystem service value and its impact mechanism toward optimizing the ecological structure and coordinating ecological protection and economic development. This study determined the ecosystem service value coefficient and calculated the ecosystem service value (ESV) according to the regional economic development in the past ten years, and the ESV was spatialized based on NPP, which is closely related to ecological function. The temporal and spatial variation of ESV was then analyzed, and an RDE index was proposed to describe its response to land cover change. Further, the relationship between ESV and several parameters that reflect socioeconomic development was researched and analyzed. The results show that the total ESV in the study area first decreased and then increased, with an overall increase of CNY 3.895 billion. Among the land cover types, forest land had the greatest impact, contributing more than 70%. In the ecosystem service functions, the contribution of regulation function exceeded 50%. ESV was found to be sensitive to land cover change. On average, every 1 km2 change leads to an ESV change of about CNY 1 million. Socioeconomic-related parameters were negatively correlated with ESV, among which the correlation with per capita disposable income was the weakest, indicating that there was no obvious contradiction between human well-being and ESV. Therefore, a path for harmonious symbiotic development can be found between man and nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key to making China wealthy and powerful was to raise total factor productivity. (Dwight Perkins 1988) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the last decade, international accounting, as a common language of business and a mode of governance, has come to be widely disseminated in China, and has become an indispensable infrastructure of its socio-economy. This diffusion of accounting was propagated as a national strategy for growth, led by a few senior officials as key actors, and implemented through the National Account- ing Institutes (NAIs) as a distinct institutional mechanism. Despite its importance, accounting is rarely examined in the literatures of knowledge transfer, institutional sociology, transitional economics and development studies. Drawing on the multidisciplinary methods of contemporary history, this paper casts light on the NAIs as a focal point which effectively transfers and disseminates new knowledge, order and the spirit of a market economy, and which could be further developed, with cautions, as a replicable model for transitional and developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the challenges faced by higher education in China related to its expansion. Pressure exerted on the scale of higher education by the state of population; Increase in higher education tuition fees; Need to increase employment opportunities; Economic and non-economic benefits of expansion.

Analyzes the economic and political aspects of state building of the People's Republic of China in 1949 to 1953. Discussion on the government's resource extraction; Theoretical framework for analyzing the institutional conditions of strong extractive capacity; Major sources of budget revenue during the period; Constraints on the current regime; Means by which the state secured tax collector and taxpayer compliance.

When one examines the pace and progress of economic reform in the People's Republic of China, one has to agree that reform has pushed China from a largely agricultural society to a powerful economic entity ready for takeoff. Based on the current exchange rate of RMB 8.28 yuan to one U.S. dollar, China is now the sixth largest economy in the world. Based on purchasing-power parity, it is the third largest economy after the U.S. and Japan. All this has taken place during a relatively short time. In fact, one can argue that true economic reform in China only started in the early 1980s. Between 1991 and 1997, China experienced double-digit GDP growth. Even during the 1998 financial crisis, GDP growth continued at an impressive rate of 7.8 percent. The critical question one might ask at this juncture is whether this pace of economic reform and development can continue into the next millennium. It would be foolish and against all economic-development theory to expect this rate of economic development to continue indefinitely. In fact, if one examines the regional differences in economic development, one may draw some very important lessons from the process.