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We examine the effect of a place-based policy in China, the Northeastern Revitalization Program. In 2003 the State Council of the People's Republic of China initiated the program in northeastern China by removing an agricultural tax, enhancing the urban social security system, facilitating foreign investment, and restructuring state-owned enterprises in the region. Using the synthetic control method, we find that the program had no significant effect on GDP per capita in all three regions. Liaoning had slightly worse GDP per capita post-treatment, as did Heilongjiang (albeit to a lesser extent). While the multiple synthetic control analysis shows that economic outcomes were worse post-treatment, the impact of this program was heterogeneous across the three regions. We argue the lackluster performance likely comes from the continuing dominance of inefficient state-owned enterprises in the provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the grey prediction, the GM(1, 1) model is an important type, but it sometimes shows big prediction errors. To improve the prediction precision of GM(1, 1) model, the paper makes improvements from the following three aspects: (1) to improve the data's adaptability to the model, the paper transforms the accumulated generating sequence of original time sequence; (2) to make the model meet the variation characteristics of data, the paper extends the grey action of traditional GM(1, 1) model; (3) to avoid big average simulation or prediction relative error of model, the paper considers the minimum of the maximum of the two errors as the optimization objective function. The new extended grey model is called the GM(1, 1, exp × sin, exp × cos) model. The paper uses an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for the parameter optimization of GM(1, 1, exp × sin, exp × cos) model and thus improves the model's convergence rate and precision. According to the model and method proposed, the paper builds a GM(1, 1, exp × sin, exp × cos) model for China's GDP per capita. Results show that the model has high precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The One Belt One Road Initiative (BRI) has been the subject of multitudinous studies from various angles. Most previous studies have focused on BRI's economic, geopolitical, or commercial implications for China. However, the few studies that focused on BRI's influence on the exportations or importations of Chinese products via the Chinese Cross-border Electronic Commerce Market (CCBECM) have been carried out based only on authors' opinions rather than on empirical evidence. Therefore, the actual effect of BRI on the exportations of Chinese product brands via CCBECM in BRI countries still needs to be discovered. Utilizing B2C exportation data of Chinese smartphones and a Difference-in Difference Model (DIDM), we have first examined the actual and direct impact of BRI policy on Chinese smartphone brands exportations via the Chinese Cross-border Electronic Commerce Market (CCBECM) from 2012 to 2019 in BRI countries. Secondly, we assessed the moderating role of GDP per capita (GDP) and Internet Access Rate (IAR) between BRI policy and exportations of Chinese smartphone brands. The results showed that the impact of BRI remains insignificant on the exportations of Chinese smartphones via CCBECM in BRI countries. However, it could be significant if BRI includes more developed and economically strong countries. The study also highlighted a negative moderating role of GDP per capita between BRI policy and exportations, showing that the higher the BRI effect is, the less GDP per capita will influence Chinese smartphone exportations in BRI countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China's export spells defined at the 6-digit HS level are dynamic and short-lived. • Product sophistication is a crucial determinant in stabilizing export relationships. • Comparative advantage strengthens the effect of sophistication on export survival. • Income affects the link between sophistication and export in a reverse U-shaped way. • The findings shed light on the rapid expansion of China's export trade. This study investigates the survival of China's bilateral export flows at the six-digit HS level over the period 2002–2020. The results reveal that export relationships defined as product-destination pairs are highly dynamic and short-lived. Most export spells last no longer than five years, with a median duration of only two years. Product sophistication is a crucial determinant in establishing and stabilizing export relationships. This conclusion remains robust even after accounting for various measures for product sophistication, alternative definitions of export spells, and potential biases arising from simultaneity, sample selection, and data aggregation. Further analyses demonstrate that comparative advantage plays a positive role in moderating the nexus between product sophistication and export survival. In contrast, destination income poses a reverse U-shaped moderating effect on the relationship. The per capita income corresponding to the maximum moderating effect is US$ 6996.94, or the 56th percentile of the variable. Income distance accounts for the nonlinear effect of per capita destination income on export survival. These findings provide insights into China's rapid export growth and have significant implications for policymakers in China and other emerging economies striving for global trade success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the secular trends of cause-specific mortality among adolescents aged 10 to 24 years from 2004 to 2019 and explore the association between mortality and economic status, education level as well as health investment. Methods: Mortality data of adolescents aged 10 to 24 years were obtained from the national disease surveillance points system. The age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) was calculated by using the population data from the sixth national population census in 2010. GDP per capita, urbanization rate, illiteracy rate of the population over 15 years old, government education expenditure per capita, number of health service providers per 1000 people, and number of health beds per 1000 people were collected from China's Economic and Social Big Data Research Platform. Age-period-cohort analysis was used to analyse the net age, period, and cohort effects of mortality among adolescents, while panel data regression was used to explore the association between mortality and economic status, education level as well as health investment. Results: Overall, the ASMR was 28.84 per 100,000 and the top five causes of mortality were road injuries, drowning, intentional self-harm and sequelae, leukaemia, and falls among adolescents aged 10 to 24 years in China in 2019. All-cause mortality declined with an annual percentage change of 4.02% (95% Confidence interval: 3.74% to 4.30%) from 2004 to 2019 yet with persistent differences across different demographic (gender and age) and geographical (urban-rural, and regional) subgroups. Notably, the ASMR for HIV/AIDS in males, lower respiratory infections in urban adolescents, and iron deficiency anaemia as well as cervical cancer in adolescents aged 20 to 24 years showed an increase over time. The multivariate panel data regression showed that the ASMR decreased by 5.18 (3.27, 7.08) per 100,000 for every increase in the number of health beds per 1000 population, but with insignificant association with GDP per capita and illiteracy rate in the total sample. Health beds investment was positively associated with ASMR at almost all subgroups except for adolescents aged 10 to 14 years; GDP per capita increase was helpful to males and rural adolescents while an increasing literacy rate was beneficial for females and adolescents aged 15 to 19 years. Conclusion: Given the persistent differences between subgroups, further investments including improving health services, especially increasing health bed investment, GDP per capita, and reducing the illiteracy rate and concern for adolescents in males, rural areas, the western regions, and aged 15 to 24 years are needed. Additionally, the increased burden of some diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, must be of further concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization has a great impact on urban evapotranspiration. Water evaporation inside buildings is an important part of urban water vapor resources and a crucial core of urban hydrological processes. The systematic studies on building water evaporation (BWE) are mostly the method of experimental monitoring. This study proposed a new method to simulate and estimate water evaporation flux inside buildings in urban areas. Based on the nighttime light data and urban per capita gross domestic product (GDP), a new modeling system was built to simulate the total BWE. Building area was calculated using the nighttime light data. And the BWE coefficient Df was estimated according to the important indicator of economic development per capita GDP value. Then the water evaporation inside urban buildings and the spatial distribution of water evaporation inside buildings in typical cities could be obtained. The results showed that the total amount of water evaporation inside buildings in China's urban areas was 24.5 billion m3. Among the 31 provincial capitals in China, Shanghai had the largest BWE of 1.08 billion m3. The minimum water evaporation of buildings in Lhasa was 20.0 million m3. Studies of BWE can assess urban water budgets, support on‐demand allocation of water resources, and provide a fundamental understanding of the relationship between water resources and energy heat island effects in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper redefines the connotation of China's human development in the context of the new development concept and high-quality development, and constructs the China Human Development Index (CHDI) indicator system accordingly. Then, based on the inequality adjustment model and DFA model, the human development level of each region in China from 1990 to 2018 is measured, and the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of China's CHDI and the current situation of regional imbalance are analyzed accordingly. Finally, LMDI decomposition technique and spatial econometric model were used to study the influencing factors of China's human development index. The results show that: (1) The weights of the CHDI sub-index estimated by the DFA model have good stability, and it is a relatively good objective weighting method. (2) Compared with the HDI, the CHDI in this paper can better reflect the level of human development in China. (3) China's human development has made great achievements and has basically achieved the leap from the low human development level group to the high human development level group. However, there are still significant gaps between regions. (4) From the results of LMDI decomposition, the livelihood index is the most important driving index of CHDI growth in each region. From the results of spatial econometric regressions, there is a strong spatial autocorrelation of China's CHDI among the 31 provinces. GDP per capita, financial education expenditure per capita, urbanization rate, and financial health expenditure per capita are the main influencing factors of CHDI. Based on the above research findings, this paper proposes a scientific and effective macroeconomic policy with important reference value for promoting the high-quality development of China's economy and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grey prediction is a common method in the prediction. Studies show that general grey models have high modeling precision when the time sequence varies slowly, but some grey models show low modeling precision for the high-growth sequence. The paper researches the grey modeling for the high-growth sequence using the extended nonlinear grey Bernoulli model NGBM(1,1,t⌃p,α). To improve the nonlinear grey Bernoulli model NGBM(1,1,t⌃p,α)'s prediction precision and make data have better adaptability to the model, the paper makes improvements in the following three aspects: (1) the paper improves the accumulated generating sequence of original time sequence, i.e. making a new transformation of traditional accumulated generating sequence; (2) the paper improves the model's structure, extends the grey action and builds an extended nonlinear grey Bernoulli model NGBM(1,1,t⌃p,α); (3) the paper improves the model's background value and uses the value of cubic spline function to approximate the background value. Because the parameters of the new accumulated generating sequence transformed, the nonlinear grey Bernoulli model's time response equation and the background value are optimized simultaneously, the prediction precision increases greatly. The paper builds an extended nonlinear grey Bernoulli model NGBM(1,1,t⌃2,α) using the method proposed and seven comparison models for China's express delivery volume per capita. Comparison results show that the extended nonlinear grey Bernoulli model built with the method proposed has high simulation and prediction precision and shows the precision superior to that of seven comparison models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last four decades, the Chinese socio-spatial formation has become the most significant commercial, industrial, and financial power worldwide. Internally, in 1978, the annual GDP growth was 11.3%, and its average real growth was 2.3% in 2020. Per capita income went from US$ 194.80 in 1980 to US$ 10,434.78 in 2020. Externally, China exported US$ 325 billion and imported US$ 295 billion in 2002. In 2020, the exports were US$ 2.5 trillion and imports US$ 2.0 trillion. In turn, the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) increased from US$ 830 million in 1990 to US$ 110.2 billion in the same period. This rise of China in the world economy has led different authors to emphasize the Chinese imperialist and geopolitical strategies. Contrary to these assertions, the text hypothesizes that the Chinese dynamics in the post-2000 world economy characterize geo-economic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For mankind's survival and development, water, energy, and food (WEF) are essential material guarantees. In China, however, the spatial distribution of WEF is seriously unbalanced and mismatched. Here, a collaborative governance mechanism that aims at nexus security needs to be urgently established. In this paper, the Yellow River Basin in China with a representative WEF system, was selected as a case. Firstly, a comprehensive framework for WEF coupling coordination was constructed, and the relationship and mechanism between them were analyzed theoretically. Then, we investigated the spatiotemporal characteristics and driving mechanisms of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) with a composite evaluation method, coupling coordination degree model, spatial statistical analysis, and multiscale geographic weighted regression. Finally, policy implications were discussed to promote the coordinated development of the WEF system. The results showed that: 1) WEF subsystems showed a significant imbalance of spatial pattern and diversity in temporal changes; 2) the CCD for the WEF system varied little and remained at moderate coordination. Areas with moderate coordination have increased, while areas with superior coordination and mild disorder have decreased. In addition, the spatial clustering phenomenon of the CCD was significant and showed obvious characteristics of polarization; and 3) the action of each factor is self-differentiated and regionally variable. For different factors, GDP per capita was of particular importance, which contributed most to the regional development's coupling coordination. For different regions, GDP per capita, average yearly precipitation, population density, and urbanization rate exhibited differences in geographical gradients in an east-west direction. The conclusion can provide references for regional resource allocation and sustainable development by enhancing WEF system utilization efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the efficiency with which natural resources are utilized is an indispensable for achieving sustainable development and carbon neutrality. By analyzing the utilization efficiency of energy, water, and land, we established a comprehensive natural resource utilization efficiency index (NRUEI). We then calculated the 2016 index for 165 cities in China, and investigated what caused it to vary. We found three main results: (1) the NRUEI varied greatly across China and there were significant positive correlations between urban energy utilization efficiency (EUE), water utilization efficiency (WUE) and land utilization efficiency (LUE); (2) the NRUEI showed a significant positive correlation with a city's population size, economy (Gross Domestic Product (GDP)), and the level of urban social development (GDP per capita); (3) cities in East China have the highest natural resource utilization efficiency, while cities in Northeast China have the lowest. These results indicate that China's increasing urban development is associated with rising natural resource utilization efficiency and that the city's endowment of natural resources is an important factor affecting that efficiency. Further, the results showed that the determinants of a city's NRUEI differed in large and small cities. Lastly, our results suggest that improving EUE is key for improving NRUEI in urban China, and different efficiencies can be improved intertwined. A major takeaway of this study is that there is great potential for improving natural resource utilization efficiency in Chinese cities and we include city-specific suggestions for efficiency improvements. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aging population is a common problem faced by most countries in the world. This study uses 18 years (from 2002 to 2019) of panel data from 31 regions in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Province), and establishes a panel threshold regression model to study the non-linear impact of the aging population on economic development. It is different from traditional research in that this paper divides 31 regions in China into three regions: Eastern, Central, and Western according to the classification standard of the National Bureau of Statistics of China and compares the different impacts of the aging population on economic development in the three regions. Although this study finds that the aging population promotes the economy of China's eastern, central, and western regions, different threshold variables have dramatically different influences. When the sum of export and import is the threshold variable, the impact of the aging population on the eastern and the central region of China is significantly larger than that of the western region of China. However, when the unemployment rate is the threshold variable, the impact of the aging population on the western region of China is dramatically higher than the other regions' impact. Thus, one of the contributions of this study is that if the local government wants to increase the positive impact of the aging population on the per capita GDP of China, the local governments of different regions should advocate more policies that align with their economic situation rather than always emulating policies from other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to explore the spatial-temporal evolution of forest resources construction and protection in China, whether there are spatial correlation and agglomeration effects in the process of development, and identify the key obstacles to forest resources construction and protection in China, the entropy method was used to calculate the comprehensive evaluation index of forest resources construction and protection in China, the Moran index was used to test the spatial correlation effect and spatial agglomeration effect of forest resources construction and protection level in China, and the obstacle model was used to determine the key obstacle factors affecting the construction and protection of forest resources in China. The results showed that: the comprehensive score of China's forest resources construction and protection level increased from 0. 352 1 in 2011 to 0. 705 0 in 2020, and showed obvious stage characteristics. The global Moran index was all greater than 0 and passed the 10% significance test during 2015-2016 and 2018-2020. The local Moran index showed “high-high” agglomeration only in Heilongjiang and Jilin at the 10% significant level in 2020. Origin structure, forest age structure, per capita forestland area, and forest fire frequency were the main obstacles affecting the construction and protection of forest resources in China. From 2011 to 2020, the construction and protection of forest resources in China showed an upward trend. There was obvious spatial positive autocorrelation, and the spatial relationship of most provinces was not significant, but the degree of agglomeration increased with the evolution of time. The level of forest construction is the main obstacle to the construction and protection of forest resources in China. Based on this, some countermeasures and suggestions are put forward to promote the construction and protection of forest resources in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With climate change and rising sea levels, the residents and assets in low-elevation coastal zones (LECZ) are at increasing risk. The application of high-resolution gridded population datasets in recent years has highlighted the threats faced by people living in LECZ. However, the potential exposure of gross domestic product (GDP) within LECZ remains unknown, due to the absence of refined GDP datasets and corresponding analyzes for coastal regions. The climate-related risks faced by LECZ may still be underestimated. In this study, we estimated the potential exposure of GDP in the LECZ across China by overlying DEM with new gridded GDP datasets generated by random forest models. The results show that 24.02% and 22.7% of China's total GDP were located in the LECZ in 2010 and 2019, respectively, while the area of the LECZ only accounted for 1.91% of China's territory. Significant variability appears in the spatial-temporal pattern and the volume of GDP across sectors, which impedes disaster prevention and mitigation efforts within administrative regions. Interannual comparisons reveal a rapid increase in GDP within the LECZ, but a decline in its share of the country. Policy reasons may have driven the slow shift of China's economy to regions far from the LECZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building sector is the second-largest energy consumer in China. With the proposal to reach a carbon peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, China attaches more importance to the energy conservation and emission reduction of the residential sector. To study the connection between socioeconomic factors and residential energy consumption (REC), this paper collects the data of 13 prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province, China, from 2001 to 2019 to explore the REC impact factors by the STIRPAT model. The factors for modeling are identified from relevant studies and weighted by the independent weight coefficient method (IWCM). The regression result shows that the average number of persons per household, per capita housing construction area, urbanization rate, and cooling degree days have a significant positive impact on REC, while a negative correlation is found between per capita housing construction area, residential water consumption, and residential liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption. Strategies of energy conservation and emission reduction in residential building sector are explored based on the demonstration of the future REC pattern evolution and the changes in its impact factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study compared the cost-effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines applied in Chinese seniors. • The PCV13 vaccination for Chinese seniors is cost-effective at a threshold of the national GDP per capita. • The PCV13 vaccination strategy is more cost-effective than PPSV23 vaccination and PCV13-PPSV23 sequential vaccination. • Potential vaccine price reductions would make pneumococcal vaccination more economical. We aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness and health benefits of 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23), 13-valent pneumococcal conjunctive vaccine (PCV13), and PCV13-PPSV23 sequential vaccination strategies in preventing pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases among the senior citizens (≥ 65 years) in China. The cost-effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines compared to no vaccination was estimated using a decision-tree Markov model from a societal perspective. Parameters including epidemiological data, vaccine efficacy and cost data were obtained from previous studies. Cases and deaths averted, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were presented as outcomes. Sensitivity analyses were performed to explore the uncertainty in the model. In the base-case analysis, compared with no pneumococcal vaccination, the ICERs of PPSV23, PCV13 and PCV13-PPSV23 are US$10,776.7/QALY, $9,193.2/QALY, and $15,080.0/QALY, respectively. PCV13 is the most cost-effective strategy and the only cost-effective strategy based on a threshold of the one-time national GDP per capita, whereas PPSV23 vaccine strategy is provided with the lowest cost, and PCV13-PPSV23 demonstrates the greatest impact on pneumococcal disease burden. Sensitivity analyses reveal that the results are greatly influenced by serotype coverage, vaccine efficacy, CAP incidence and vaccine prices. The PCV13 vaccination for Chinese seniors is more cost-effective than PPSV23 vaccination and PCV13-PPSV23 sequential vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the construction of beautiful countryside to carry out zoning and grading of domestic waste disposal in rural areas and to improve the harmlessness of domestic waste disposal in rural areas is of great importance in this regard. 8 indicators (disposable income per capita, population density, garbage collection density, household waste generation per capita, distance from urban and county centres, road network density, topography fluctuation, land area) of 30 881 township units in China were proposed; a scientific and reasonable township identification index system was constructed; the spatial distribution pattern of townships in China was calculated by using spatial difference analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, spatial interpolation analysis; and the domestic waste disposal patterns of different types of townships in the eastern, central, western and northeastern of China were discussed. The results show that (1) according to the township classification, China’s townships can be divided into the urban-rural integration type, the intensive type, and the dispersed type of villagers; (2) in terms of spatial heterogeneity, the difference within the indices of townships in the eastern and central of China is relatively small, so the same waste treatment model are popularized; the township indices in the northeastern and western of China are very different, so the different types of domestic waste disposal should be popularized; (3) with respect to spatial correlation, the spatial agglomeration effect of the township index is evident at different scales in China, particularly the spatial correlation effect of “near-vermilion” in the eastern of China. Lastly, based on the spatial distribution characteristics of rural cities and towns, the selection of the rural domestic waste disposal model in different regions of China was summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) in elderly inpatients in the Aerospace Center Hospital, and probe into the work pattern of PIM pharmaceutical intervention conducted by clinical pharmacists, so as to provide theoretical and practical basis for ensuring rational medication in elder patients. METHODS: Through a single center cohort study, the elder patients hospitalized in the Aerospace Center Hospital from Jan. to Jun. 2021 were selected as research objects. These patients were divided into intervention group and control group based on whether the clinical pharmacists carried out pharmaceutical intervention. The Criteria of Potentially Inappropriate Medications for Older Adults in China (2017 version) (hereinafter referred to as the Criteria) was applied to evaluate the PIM of both groups and analyze the effect of PIM improvements by clinical pharmacists. RESULTS: A total of 455 patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled in the research, including 214 patients in the intervention group and 241 patients in the control group. To eliminate the effect of confounding factors between two groups, propensity score was used to balance the between-group differences. After matching, there were 164 cases in the intervention group and 164 cases in the control group, a total of 328 patients. By applying the Criteria, 257 patients (78. 35%) had at least 1 PIM, with 1 (1 to 2) PIM per capita. In terms of effectiveness, the incidence of PIM (P =0. 023), PIM per capita (P =0. 024) and 90 d all-cause readmission rate (P =0. 032) were significantly lower in the intervention group compared with the control group, with statistically significant differences; in terms of economy, the average treatment cost of patients in the intervention group was significantly lower compared with the control group, with statistically significant difference (P = 0. 022). CONCLUSIONS: Pharmaceutical intervention on elderly inpatients by clinical pharmacists can not only reduce the incidence of PIM, per capita PIM and 90 d all-cause readmission rate, but also reduce the treatment cost of patients and improves the rationality of clinical medication in elderly patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The floating population’s livelihood is an important indicator for the measurement of local governments’ governance ability and is also an important way to test the results of urbanization. From the perspectives of fiscal system and fiscal resource, we constructed a theoretical analysis framework of the government’s fiscal capacity affecting the floating population’s settlement intention. Based on the dynamic monitoring data of China ’s National Health Commission and the data of its National Bureau of Statistics during 2014− 2018, this article empirically analyzed the effects of local government’s fiscal capacity on the floating population’s settlement intention. The results showed that: ① During the sample period, fiscal capacity and public service supply had significant positive effects on the floating population’s settlement intention, and fiscal capacity exhibited enhanced adjustment effects in the influence path of public service. ② Region heterogeneity analysis found that the floating population in the eastern region paid more attention to public service, but the adjustment effect of fiscal ability on public service supply was lower, and the mismatch between the demand side and supply side reflected the shortcomings of the fiscal functions. However, the adjustment effect of fiscal ability on public service supply in the central region was the highest. ③ In terms of the local government’s fiscal capacity, fiscal skill capacity improvement enhanced the public service supply levels to promote the settlement intention, while fiscal decentralization, fiscal configuration capacity, and fiscal transparency exhibited interference adjustment effects. ④ In terms of the public service, with the improvement of the government’s fiscal capacity, the positive impact of the hard public service supply on the settlement intention was strengthened, while the household registration restrictions on soft public service weakened the settlement intention. This study then constructed threshold regression models and found that there existed heterogeneous fiscal incentives and government strategic behaviors because of the per capita GDP differences. As the regional per capita GDP exceeded the threshold point, the adjustment effect of fiscal capacity on soft public service was transformed from enhancement to inhibition. Therefore, we should reform the public fiscal system, correct improper fiscal resource allocation patterns, increase local public service supply, and strive to promote the process of urbanization with the people as the key factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the impact of inclusive finance on agricultural green development, This paper uses both static panel and dynamic panel (system GMM model) estimation methods to make empirical analysis of the impact of inclusive financial development on agricultural green development. The results both find that there is a significant positive correlation between the level of inclusive financial development, real GDP per capita, the proportion of the added value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery in GDP and agricultural green development. This paper puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions to promote agricultural green development, including vigorously developing inclusive finance, promoting economic growth, promoting the development of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, and increasing environmental protection expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to further develop and improve the management theory of public libraries, this paper studies the impact of library information on the utilization of regional environmental resources from the perspective of intelligent adaptive learning. Firstly, based on the data envelopment analysis method, this paper measures the efficiency of Public Libraries in various regions of China. Then, using Tobit model, this paper analyzes the environmental factors affecting the efficiency of public libraries from three aspects: financial allocation, per capita GDP, and per capita years of education. The results show that there is a significant correlation between per capita GDP, per capita years of education, and the efficiency of public libraries. There is a significant negative correlation between per capita GDP and public library efficiency (the coefficient is -5.73x10-6, and the probability of two-sided t-test is 0.0229); There is a significant positive correlation between the number of years of education per capita and the efficiency of Public Libraries (the coefficient is 0.0684, and the probability of two-sided t-test is 0.0169). Conclusion: This study provides a reference for the performance evaluation of provincial public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to explore effective ways for energy conservation and emission reduction, seven correlated variables are selected in this paper according to the government statistics with the extended STIRPAT model, and the impact of China's industrialization and urbanization on carbon emission intensity of energy consumption is studied. The study found that urbanization rate and urban population employment rate are the main factors affecting per capita carbon emission of energy consumption in China;the industrialization has a reverse impact on per capita carbon emission of energy consumption, indicating that China's industrialization is relatively low and is not the main factor affecting per capita carbon emission of energy consumption; the service industry added value rate and the agricultural industry added value rate also have reverse effects on China's per capita carbon emission of energy consumption, and the degree of impact is relatively small. Therefore, China is supposed to develop industry vigorously in the future, to appropriately control the development speed of urbanization and to increase the agricultural industry added value rate moderately, so as to achieve effective control of per capita carbon emission intensity of energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economy in the poverty-stricken areas of China has grown rapidly in response to poverty alleviation policies in the 21st century. To explicate the response of the eco-environment to rapid economic growth in the 14 contiguous areas of dire poverty in China, we developed a method of evaluating the impact of poverty alleviation policies on ecological health. Based on the yearly data of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from 2000 to 2019, the dynamic changes in NDVI and GDP were calculated, and the development patterns in the 14 contiguous areas of dire poverty were evaluated and classified. The results show that both annual GDP per capita and average annual NDVI exhibited an increasing trend, increasing by 43.81% and 0.84% per year, respectively. The development of the 14 contiguous areas of dire poverty all presented a coordinated and sustainable (A) development pattern during the period from 2000 to 2019. The consistency of economic and ecological health development between 2000 and 2013 was less than that between 2014 and 2019. Moreover, the result indicates that it is necessary to make timely adjustments to poverty alleviation strategies based on the positive consistency between economic growth and ecological health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the spillover effects of Chinese real and monetary sector shocks on the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) economies. The study adopted a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) estimation technique to analyse the dynamic propagation of Chinese shocks in the real sector (gross domestic product (GDP) and trade openness (OPEN)) and monetary sector (nominal interest rate (NIR)) for a sample of 50 BRI countries from 2000 to 2017. The main results revealed that Chinese income shocks positively spill over to all macroeconomic variables except BRI countries' consumer price index (CPI). However, the Chinese trade openness shock only has a temporary positive spillover to BRI international trade and a temporary negative spillover on its monetary policy. In addition, the Chinese monetary policy shock has a negative spillover on GDP and a positive spillover on CPI in BRI economies. Chinese shocks, however, do not constitute a significant source of variation in any interest variable. As explained by the Chinese income shock, the BRI interest rate is the highest percentage of variable variation accumulated over time. Further, the highest variation of Chinese trade shock is BRI trade openness, and lastly, the highest variation of Chinese interest rate shock is CPI in BRI economies. The beggar-thy-neighbour effect may dominate the positive trade effect and is a negative impact of the Chinese shocks. Hence, BRI economies should alleviate the adverse shocks since the upcoming rapid growth from the Chinese has disturbed the BRI economies. Our results reveal the importance of Chinese development on BRI partners' economies and the significance of Chinese shocks in real and monetary sectors in assisting policymakers in designing international and monetary policy for BRI economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of average wages on electricity consumption among urban residents in China has generated many fascinating debates for scholarly research, but only a few studies have considered the spatial spillover effect of average wages on residential electricity consumption. With the use of city-level panel data from 278 Chinese cities spanning 2005 to 2016, this preliminary study explores the impacts of the average wage on residential electricity consumption. Specifically, based on the spatial Durbin model with fixed effects, three different spatial weight matrices (the economic distance, the inverse distance, and the four nearest neighbours) are utilised to check the robustness of the results under different standards. The results show that the residential electricity consumption of each city increased during the observation period, presenting obvious spatial correlations. Secondly, the average wage of residents had a positive spatial spillover effect, which promoted the residential electricity consumption of both local and surrounding cities. Thirdly, the population density, electricity intensity, educational level of urban residents, and per capita household liquefied petroleum gas consumption in urban areas are key factors influencing residential electricity consumption. Therefore, improving the educational level of urban residents and reducing the electricity intensity can help reduce electricity consumption by residents in China. This paper also presents policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are large heterogeneities in the logistics development of urban agglomerations in western China due to the low compactness and spatial stability of urban agglomerations. Using the statistical yearbook and logistics industry data of 135 cities in western China from 2003 to 2018, we analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics of logistics enterprises using kernel density and cold–hot spot analysis. Simultaneously, economic development level, industrial structure of circulation, and the logistics industry are identified as influencing factors of logistics industry evolution. The comparative and integration analysis of spatial autocorrelation models and geographically weighted regressing models are implemented on the influencing factors of logistics enterprises' spatial-temporal evolution. Our study revealed that the number and density of logistics enterprises in western China have continually increased in the past 20 years, factors such as per capita gross domestic product, population quantity, population density, the proportion of the tertiary industry, and density of logistics enterprises are all key factors supporting the evolution of the logistics industry in western China. The logistics industry in the western provinces has had outstanding development in the past 20 years; however, there are still obvious regional inequalities due to factors such as infrastructure and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, there is less attention paid to the relationship between the frequency of travel and built environment, especially in households. In this paper, some of the determining factors in the frequency of daily cycling per household were explored based on the data from 2018 Daily Trip Survey in Xianyang, China. Then a two-level linear model was construct to identify the determining factors in the frequency of per capita daily cycling of household. According to the research results, 22.8% of the differences in the per capita cycling frequency of household are due to the differences between communities. In terms of community factors, the densities of road networks and educational facilities delivered a significantly positive impact on the per capita daily cycling frequency of family; on the contrary, the densities of medical facilities, intersections and POI delivered a significantly negative impact. Per capita cycling frequency varies considerably between households. For instance, the number of bicycles owned and the number of school-age children have a significantly positive impact on the per capita daily cycling frequency of family. However, car ownership, household income and occupation composition impose a significantly negative impact. The findings of this study would benefit the transportation engineers and planners who are keen to boost the use of active means of transportation for residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gap between relatively developed and less developed areas in China has become more evident with economic development. However, only a few investigations have compared factors of transportation CO2 emissions in relatively developed and less developed areas at the micro level. Factors differ for transportation CO2 emissions between areas. To assess their differences, we select Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in China as examples. This study conducted a decoupling research between transportation CO2 emissions and economic output based on the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition and Tapio decoupling model during 2000-2017. The LMDI model successfully quantified the effects of six factors, focusing on technology-related factors, i.e., research and development (R&D) efficiency and per capita R&D expenditure. Different factors of transportation CO2 emissions in the two provinces were then compared. Results were as follows: (1) Four decoupling states appeared in the two areas. (2) Per capita R&D expenditure was the primary contributor to increased CO2 emissions, followed by population size. Relative to those in Guangdong, the two effects were weaker in Guangxi. (3) Energy intensity was the major inhibitor of CO2 emissions in Guangdong, followed by R&D efficiency. The two effects can reduce CO2 emissions in Guangxi, although the inhibitory effects were relatively small. (4) Freight transportation intensity in Guangdong increased CO2 emissions, whereas it decreased CO2 emissions in Guangxi due to the extremely weak inhibitory effect. Finally, the study provides valuable suggestions for the development of low-carbon transportation in different areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving carbon-neutrality 2060 target is a solemn commitment made by China to the world. In the process of advancing carbon neutrality goals, power industry is an important starting point for addressing climate change. This study employs China's electric carbon productivity (ECP) to efficiently integrate economy and environment to explore carbon neutrality in power industry. Based on the electricity, economy, and population-related data of 30 provinces and municipalities in China from 2007 to 2017, the LMDI method is used to decompose ECP on the power production and consumption side, while considering regional and industrial dimensions. Furthermore, it is divided into six drivers respectively. The results show that: 1) From the production perspective, the regional ECP and reciprocal of standard coal consumption for power supply are the dominating drivers to improve China's ECP. 2) From the consumption perspective, the per capita GDP and reciprocal of provincial industrial electricity consumption intensity are primary drivers in the rise of ECP. 3) The regional decomposition indicates that electricity utilization efficiency and economic development mode are the main reasons why Xinjiang's ECP level is lower than that of Guangdong and Jiangsu. Finally, some conclusions that may be helpful to the government and enterprises are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because logistics is an important service industry with regard to national economic development, the development level of this industry has emerged as one of the most significant indicators of a country or region's comprehensive strength. An in-depth study of the regional differences in China's logistics efficiency and its evolution law in time and space can help promote the high-quality development of the logistics industry. To this end, this study collects data pertaining to the development of the logistics industry in China's eight economic regions during the period 2009–2018. Moreover, it uses DEA models to calculate the logistics efficiency of 31 provinces and cities in these eight economic regions. Results indicate the following: (1) affected by external environmental factors, the pure technical efficiency is underestimated and the scale efficiency and integrated technical efficiency are overestimated; (2) it reveals that residents' consumption level and the total retail sales of social consumer goods are negatively correlated with regional logistics efficiency, whereas the regional per capita gross domestic product is positively correlated with regional logistics efficiency; (3) in terms of space, the logistics industry in the same region displays characteristics of high aggregation and cooperation, whereas serious segmentation and opposition are found among different regions. The logistics efficiency of China's eight economic zones is unbalanced. It displays a pattern of high efficiency in the east and low efficiency in the west on the whole. Moreover, valuable suggestions were propounded to improve regional logistics efficiency in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the contemporary society is increasingly entering an aging society, heart failure, as a common disease in the elderly population, has an increasing impact on people. The common one is mainly chronic heart failure. Coupled with the influence of various complications, such as hypostatic pneumonia and venous thrombosis, the mortality and hospital admission rates of patients are very high. Moreover, the current technology is not very effective for the prevention and treatment of chronic heart failure. The per capita consumption level of ordinary people in China is low, and it is not suitable to promote high-cost treatment programs. Based on this, this paper proposes the intervention management of mental failure patients under the intervention of health education based on IMB, in order to explore the impact of the intervention of health education on patients. The research in this paper selected 112 patients with chronic heart failure who were admitted to the cardiovascular ward of a city public hospital in 2017 and divided the patients into two groups. One group received health education intervention, which was the intervention group. The other group was the control group. The control group was given routine education and nursing. The experimental results of this paper show that the satisfaction of the intervention group is higher, accounting for 85.3%, and the satisfaction of the control group is lower than that of the intervention group, about 67.9%. Dissatisfaction with health education and the probability of short-term readmission were higher than those in the intervention group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Previous studies have examined family socioeconomic status (SES) and regional-level factors that predict adolescents' present subjective wellbeing (SWB). However, as adolescents' SWB tends to be future-oriented, this study examined the relationships between family SES and provincial-level economic, educational, and health-related factors and adolescents' present- and future-oriented SWB.Methods: The sample includes 17,341 12- to 17-year-old adolescents (Mage  = 13.86; SDage  = 0.79; 9056 girls and 8285 boys) from 31 different provinces of China. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze the data at two levels.Results: The findings showed that family SES (Level-1) was positively correlated with present life satisfaction (LS-P), present positive affect (PPA), hopeful future expectations (HFE), and positive affect toward future life (FPA), but negatively correlated with present negative affect (PNA) and negative affect toward future life (FNA). Provincial-level (Level-2) years of education per capita, average life expectancy, and human development index (HDI) were positively associated with LS-P, PPA, FPA, and HFE, and negatively associated with PNA; only average life expectancy was negatively associated with FNA. There was no association between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and SWB. Simple slope analyses demonstrated that, in provinces with relatively less or short years of education per capita, GDP per capita, average life expectancy, or HDI, the correlations between family SES and present- and future-oriented negative affect were stronger.Conclusions: The present- and future-oriented SWB of adolescents from families with low SES in underdeveloped areas was relatively poor. More psychologically focused education activities are needed for these adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds an evaluation index system, uses the entropy weight method (EWM) to decide the weights and, based on the coupling coordination degree model (CCDM), it systematically studies the coupling relationship between Chinese cold chain logistics and the Chinese economy from 2010 to 2019. It performs a grey relational analysis (GRE) to explore the main factors influencing the coordinated development of the two. The results show that the coupling coordination degree between the two presents a steady upward trend, and their coupling relationship has been upgraded from 'coordination' to 'good coordination'. They also indicate that the added value in the tertiary industry, the per capita gross domestic product (GDP), and household consumption levels are the main factors affecting the development of cold chain logistics, while the per capita cold storage capacity, the turnover of road cold chain freight, and the volume of human-power employed in cold chain logistics are the main factors affecting economic development. This study makes suggestions to support the coordinated development of cold chain logistics and economy, and provides a scientific basis for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using two-wave balanced panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS), this study examines the association between the number of children and the monetary transfers received by elderly parents in rural China. Through theoretical and empirical analysis, we find evidence that parents with more children receive more economic transfers. For each additional child, the probability of receiving transfers increases by 3.1%, and the amount of total transfers increases by 328 yuan, which is roughly equivalent to 5 percentage points of the per capita pre-transfer income of rural families. We conclude that the positive impact for the elderly is mainly reflected in cash transfers, specifically for those from high-income families, with non-co-residence with their children, and aged 60–69. Meanwhile, the quality of offspring and intimate parent–child ties stimulate the effectiveness of the number of children on the monetary transfers received by elderly persons. From the younger generation's perspective, more siblings also contribute to reducing the burden of support for each child. These findings enhance our understanding of the relationship between the number of children and upstream intergenerational monetary transfers, and provide us with a useful reference for future policy design that encourages children to meet their filial obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coordination of the relationship between new-type urbanization (NTU) and carbon emission reduction has become China's primary strategic goal. However, previous studies on this topic mainly examined the unidirectional impact of NTU on carbon emissions, while disregarding their potential relationship. This study establishes an evaluation system for measuring NTU and explores the bidirectional impact between NTU and total carbon emissions (TCE), per capita carbon emissions (PCE), and carbon emission intensity (CEI). The Yangtze River Economic Belt of China is selected as the study area, and the period from 2005 to 2019 is studied. The results show that: (1) The NTU levels in the upstream, midstream, and downstream regions of the Yangtze River increase from 0.148, 0.208, and 0.365 in 2005 to 0.465, 0.503, and 0.675 in 2019, suggesting that NTU levels tend to be balanced in these three reaches. (2) A positive bidirectional impact is found between NTU and TCE, as well as PCE in midstream and upstream regions, whereas in downstream regions, only a positive unidirectional effect of NTU on TCE and PCE is found. (3) Specifically, TCE plays the most significant role in promoting NTU in upstream regions, while NTU exerts the greatest pulling force on TCE and PCE in midstream regions. (4) Unlike the positive impact between NTU and TCE or PCE, there is a significant two-way inhibitory effect between NTU and CEI. (5) A three-step carbon emission reduction law is found in the process of NTU, where NTU towards low carbon development will experience NTU inhibits CEI, PCE, and TCE in sequential order. These findings provide an important reference for promoting a harmonious relationship between NTU and carbon emission reduction, helping governments formulate reasonable measures to achieve high-quality urban development and carbon emission reduction goals. • Bidirectional impact between new-type urbanization and carbon emissions of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is examined. • New-type urbanization positively affects total carbon emissions and per capita carbon emissions. • Negative bidirectional impact between new-type urbanization and carbon emission intensity is observed. • Regional heterogeneity of the impact between new-type urbanization and carbon emissions is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen act as "nature's recorder". A s a carrier for individual human information, human hair can be measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry ORMS) to translate into information about people's dietary habits, health condition and life track. The basic principle behind establishing dietary lifestyle using isotopic profiles of human hair is the fact that the body's only source of C, N is a person's staple diet. It may have significant differences in carbon, nitrogen isotopic compositions of human hair that are living at different regions. The aim of the study was to analyze the discrepancy of 15N and 13C stable isotope ratios in human hair collected from different cities, and explore the relationship between carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios and human groups, such as gender and age. The carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in the human hair of 247 local residents from 8 different cities were investigated by IRMS. The results showed that there were significant difference in carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of human hair from different cities. The value of δ13 C was negatively correlated with vegetable consumption per capita. The value of δ15N was positively correlated with meat consumption per capita, and might be increased by high intake of fish. The relationship between δ13C, δ15N and the factors of gender and age demonstrated that there were no significant difference between males and females, but the age of females showed a weakly negative correlation with δ13 C. By comparing the data of this paper and other literatures, the carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in the hair of residents in China were different from other countries, which implied that there were various dietary habits in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CPC's 100th anniversary is not only of significance for China. The CPC, since the creation of the People's Republic of China, has led the greatest improvement in the conditions of the largest number of people, and the greatest proportion of humanity, in any country in history. In just over 70 years China has gone from almost the world's poorest country, as measured by per capita GDP, to the brink of a high-income economy by World Bank classification—this level will be achieved within three years. High-income economies today include 16% of the world's population, but China is 18% of the world's population. China becoming a high-income economy will therefore more than double the proportion of the world's population living in high-income economies—producing a radical change in the global situation. China's achievements include the fastest sustained economic growth in any major country in human history, the fastest rise in average living standards of any major country, and the lifting of 853 million people out of World Bank defined poverty—almost three out of every four people lifted from poverty in the world. These are the precise results of the CPC's integration of Marxism with Chinese reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region is an important economic center of China but has the problem of severe environmental pollution. Urbanization prompts the household energy consumption growth and then deteriorates the environmental conditions in this region. Based on panel data of the BTH region from 2000 to 2017, this research uses a dynamic threshold model with per capita disposable income as the threshold variable to investigate the non-linear impact of urbanization on household energy consumption. The empirical results show that: 1) In the process of urbanization, per capita resident disposable income has a significant threshold effect on household energy consumption, and their relationship presents an inverted U-shaped trend. 2) The change of household energy consumption habits can significantly improve the household energy consumption level. 3) Industrial structure adjustment, urban population density, and education level of residents have restraining effects on household energy consumption growth. 4) Technical advance and GDP per capita growth opposite effects. The empirical analysis also shows that the regional government can consider increasing the disposable income of the residents in Hebei Province to alleviate the imbalance in energy consumption. At the same time, efforts should be made to develop high-tech industries and high-end service industries, and adopt a more intensive urban planning development model to increase urban population density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter Solar highlights some shortcomings of our treatment of government spending. However, correcting for these shortcomings using data rather than assumptions confirms our principal findings. GDP per capita in the leading region of China remained around the same level as in the leading region of Europe until the eighteenth century before declining substantially during the Qing dynasty. The Great Divergence thus began around 1700, earlier than originally suggested by the California School, but later than implied by earlier writers. The new data do not support Solar's novel chronology with its Great Crossing, Great Convergence and Greater Divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing inter-regional and inter-provincial responsibility-sharing mechanisms for climate change mitigation requires the knowledge of carbon distributions. This study is the first to use a two-sector (i.e., productive and household sectors) inequality decomposition approach to examine the regional, provincial, and national inequalities of per capita CO2 emissions (CPC) in China, as well as their determinants. We show that the CPC inequality index in China increased from 1.1364 in 2000 to 2.3688 in 2017, with the productive sector accounting for 91.42% of this expansion and households responsible for the rest. The production-side per capita output level, energy efficiency, energy structure, and industrial structure explain 69.01%, 12.81%, 5.57%, and 4.03% of these inequalities, respectively. Further, the household per capita energy consumption and energy structure explain only 8.12% and 0.46%, respectively. Therefore, future responsibility-sharing mechanisms for climate mitigation need to be formulated taking mainly the productive sector into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of great significance to understand the spatial non-equilibrium and the solidification degree of transportation carbon emissions, so that differentiated measures can be taken to reduce transportation carbon emissions. Based on China's provincial data from 2005 to 2015, this article uses the Dagum Gini coefficient to decompose the spatial non-equilibrium of per capita transportation carbon emissions from static viewpoint. The results indicate that the overall spatial non-equilibrium shows a significant downward trend; the intensity of transvariation has had an increased contribution rate year by year since 2008, and replaces the inter-regional differences as the main source of the overall spatial non-equilibrium. Next, Kernel density estimation is employed to analyze the evolution laws of spatial non-equilibrium from dynamic viewpoint. The results show that the per capita transportation carbon emissions in the eastern region are successively higher than those at the national level, and in other regions. Meanwhile, some provinces are concentrated at a low level, while others at a high level. Finally, Markov chains approach is applied to identify the solidification effect of the spatial non-equilibrium. The results indicate that the effect is obvious and the state transitions occur only between adjacent types. Moreover, the solidification effects of the provinces with higher per capita transportation carbon emissions are stronger than those provinces with a lower level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explored the long-run relationship between financial development and income inequality at the provincial level. In contrast with the intuitive hypothesis that financial deepening helps reduce the inequality, the provincial data reveal that financial deepening cannot improve the inequality. Instead, it makes the inequality worse. Since this result implies that financial development can increase GDP per capita and also increase income inequality, China is not passing the turning point of the inverted U-shaped curve yet. This is consistent to the fact that China is a developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper performs a comparative analysis of the Chinese and Mexican production structures, through a descriptive study and using the methods of structural analysis on input-output tables of 1995 and 2011. During this period, the average annual per capita gross domestic product (gdp) growth in China amounted to 9.18%, while in Mexico it reached only 0.95%. Assuming that China's growth has been successful in this sense, then a mayor conclusion from this paper is that if Mexico wishes to reach high growth rates, the main element potentially useful to elaborate an efficacious strategy from China's experience is clear: To foster, from a proactive participation of the state, the development of key sectors which will constantly increase their multiplier effects, so that a mayor integration of the national economy is achieved, and the development and consolidation of the productive apparatus sufficient to support the generation of next-generation productive sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has used a stirpat model to investigate the synergistic effect of CO2 emission, energy consumption, energy intensity, economic growth, population, urbanization and trade openness to demonstrate growthenvironment nexus in four selected developing Asian economies. Taking a panel data set from Bangladesh, China, India and Indonesia this study applies Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ardl) model and vec Granger Causality/Block Exogeneity Wald Tests. The empirical results show that energy intensity, urbanization, population, and per capita gdp growth are the raison d'être of CO2 emissions whereas trade openness is found to be negatively related to CO2 emissions. Conversely, energy consumption, urbanization, population and trade openness are positively related to per capita gdp. In addition, it also investigates the Environmental Kuznets Curve (ekc) hypothesis and the findings substantiate an inverted Ushaped relationship. Cross-section short-run coefficients of country-level data are inquired into to check the robustness of the panel outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid increase in anthropogenic activities, socioeconomic development, and land use land cover (LULC) changes since the opening of economic reforms (1978), have changed the ecosystem service value (ESV) in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao (GKHM) region located in South China. This leads to the requirement of a significant tailored analysis of ecosystem services regarding incisive and relevant planning to ensure sustainability at regional level. This study focuses on the use of Landsat satellite imagery to quantify the precise impact of LULC changes on the ecosystem services in GHKM over the past three decades (1986–2017). The most renowned established unit value transfer method has been employed to calculate the ESV. The results show that the total ecosystem service value in GHKM has decreased from 680.23 billion CNY in 1986 to 668.45 billion CNY in 2017, mainly due to the decrease in farmland and fishponds. This overall decrease concealed the more dynamic and complex nature of the individual ESV. The most significant decrease took place in the values of water supply (-22.20 billion CNY, -14.72%), waste treatment (-20.77 billion CNY, −14.63%), and food production (-7.96 billion CNY, −33.18%). On the other hand, the value of fertile soil formation and retention (6.28 billion CNY, +7.26%) and recreation and culture (5.09 billion CNY, +12.91%) increased. Furthermore, total ESV and ESV per capita decreased significantly with the continuous increase in total gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP per capita. A substantial negative correlation exists between farmland ESV and GDP indicating human encroachment into a natural and semi natural ecosystems. The results suggest that in the rapidly urbanizing region, the protection of farmland and to control the intrusion of urban areas has marked an important societal demand and a challenge to the local government. This required a pressing need for smart LULC planning and to improve policies and regulation to guarantee ecosystem service sustainability for acceptable life quality in the study area and other fast expanding urban areas in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid economic and population growth, construction land expansion in Yangtze River economic belt in China becomes substantial, carrying significant social and economic implications. This research uses Expansion Speed Index and Expansion Intensity Index to examine spatiotemporal characteristics of construction land expansion in the Yangtze River economic belt from 2000 to 2017. Based on a STIRPAT model, driving forces of construction land expansion are measured by Principal Component Analysis and Ordinary Least Square regression. The results show that: (1) there is a clear expansion pattern regarding the time sequence in provinces/cities of the Yangtze River economic belt, with rapid expansion in the initial stage, moderate expansion in the middle stage and rapid expansion in the later stage. (2) Spatial analysis demonstrates first expansion in the lower reaches in the early stage, rapid expansion of the upper reaches in the middle and later stage, and steady expansion of the middle reaches throughout the research period. (3)There are statistical significant correlations between construction land expansion and GDP, social fixed asset investments, population at the end of the year, population urbanization rate, per capita road area, and number of scientific and technological professionals as well as secondary and tertiary industry values. Of these factors, GDP, social fixed asset investments, population urbanization rate and second industry value are important common driving forces of construction land expansion in this region. The research findings have significant policy implications particularly on coordinated development of urban agglomerations and sustainable industry upgrading when construction land expansion is concerned. [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]

Assessing urban environmental sustainability is fundamentally important for guiding urban areas to achieve more sustainable urban development. We followed the theme-oriented framework to select eight indicators for measuring urban environmental sustainability performance in China using three aspects: waste emissions, resource consumption, and environmental initiatives. These eight indicators were measured per unit area, per capita, and per GDP for 286 prefecture-level cities, 22 urban clusters, and 7 geographic regions of China from 2000 to 2010. Among the 7 geographic regions, the East China region had the greatest intensity of waste emissions, resource consumption, and environmental investment per unit area. In comparison, the Central China region had greater water consumption and wastewater discharge measured per capita and per GDP. The North China region had greater waste gas emissions and energy consumption measured per capita and per GDP than the other regions. The three northern regions of China (North China, Northeast China, and Northwest China) also had the greatest solid waste emissions measured per capita and per GDP. The expansion of the built-up area per GDP was the greatest in the western regions (including Northwest China and Southwest China), indicating a very low urban land-use efficiency for these two regions. Among the 22 urban clusters, the 12 well-developed urban clusters had greater waste emissions, resource consumption, and environmental investment per unit area than the 10 less-developed urban clusters. The well-developed urban clusters also had larger environmental investment as a share of GDP than the less-developed urban clusters, but waste emissions and resource consumption per GDP were much lower for the well-developed urban clusters. Among the 286 prefecture-level cities, the cities with greater waste emissions and resource consumption per unit area also had greater environmental investment per unit area, but these cities increased their environmental investment at a relatively slower rate than the increase in their waste emissions and resource consumption. The cities that spent a larger share of GDP on pollution reduction had relatively lower waste emissions per GDP, but more investment should be targeted at improving resource efficiency, especially for those resource-intensive cities. In summary, the well-developed urban clusters and cities in the eastern region of China generally had much greater waste emissions and resource consumption per unit area (i.e., greater impacts), while they had lower waste emissions and resource consumption per capita and per GDP (i.e., higher efficiency) relative to the less-developed urban clusters and cities in central and western regions. Based on these findings, we proposed several countermeasures for improving urban environmental sustainability for different cities, urban clusters, and geographic regions of China. • We provided an assessment framework and an indicator set for measuring Urban Environmental Sustainability (UES). • We compared UES performance among 286 prefecture-level cities, 22 urban clusters, and 7 geographic regions of China. • We proposed several countermeasures for improving UES in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to measure the income-related inequality of depressive symptoms and its trends among middle-aged and elderly people in China.Methods: Data were extracted from the 2011 baseline and 2015 follow-up of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), a nationally representative survey for people aged 45 years and more. Depressive symptoms were evaluated with the Chinese version of the ten-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Five relative income levels were derived from ratios between the participants' annual per capita household expenditure, excluding medical expenditure, and the median PCE of their cities. The concentration curve and index were used to compare the magnitude of income-related inequality between 2 years. A logistic regression model was used to control the other socio-economic factors.Results: The prevalence of depression among middle-aged and elderly people in China decreased from 37.0% (5540 of 14,956 participants) in 2011 to 32.7% (5606 of 17,165) in 2015. However, the absolute value of the standardized concentration index increased from 0.005 to 0.028. Although the second lowest-income group had the greatest improvement in the decline of prevalence (5.7%, from 38.6 to 32.9%), the lowest-income group had only the minimal decline (2.4%, from 40.6 to 38.2%). In 2015, there were significant differences between the lowest-income group and other four groups while the differences among other four groups were not statistically significant.Conclusions: The prevalence of depression among the middle-aged and elderly in China is declining, but the issue of income-related inequality has been exacerbated. The fairness of mental health deserves more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The accuracy of methods to calculate the global distribution of income has not yet been tested. • Among four methods, the Lorenz-curve regression method is the most accurate. The two-parameter distribution method is also very precise. • On the basis of our new dataset, we find that income inequality among the citizens of 145 countries declined significantly between 1988 and 2015. • Our new method to deconstruct the change in the global Gini coefficient of income inequality reveals that income convergence was the main driver. • Without China and India, global interpersonal income inequality in 143 countries was higher in 2015 than in 1988. While various methodologies have been used in the literature to estimate global interpersonal income inequality, the accuracy of these methods has not so far been tested. We compare the accuracy of four methods and find that the Lorenz curve regression method is the most accurate and robust, while the accuracy of the identical quantile income and the Kernel density methods depends on the level of detail about income shares. The simple two-parameter distribution method is also very accurate when either the Log-normal or the Weibull distribution is used. Using the two-parameter distribution method, we show that global income inequality among the citizens of 145 countries declined significantly between 1988 and 2015, largely because of the convergence of income per capita, which was offset to a small degree by the increase in within-country inequalities and the increased population share of poorer and more unequal countries. Regional income inequality declined in most parts of the world, with the notable exception of developing Asia where it has increased. Despite the large increases in within-China and within-India inequality, income convergence of the two countries drove down global income inequality. Without China and India, global interpersonal income inequality in 143 countries was higher in 2015 than in 1988, indicating that more than half of the world has not really become more equal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]