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• Discussed why can certain rural areas withstand the external impact of urbanization and thus maintain the vitality of development, while others cannot and eventually decline. • Use Coupled Infrastructure System framework to the internal mechanisms of the response of the rural social-ecological system to the impact of urbanization. • The key to ensuring the robustness of the rural social-ecological system under the impact of urbanization is to provide institutional rules to guarantee the operational processes through the collective-choice process. Urbanization is essential for achieving rapid development. In this process, the labor outmigration from rural areas to cities caused by urbanization has diversified the impacts on the robustness of the rural social-ecological system. However, existing research has rarely discussed the internal mechanism of the response of the rural social-ecological system to the impact of urbanization. Based on the coupled infrastructure systems framework, in this paper, the internal interactions of the rural social-ecological system responding to the impact of urbanization are discussed. An empirical test is conducted using survey data from 123 villages of 14 Chinese provinces. Focusing on the specific practice of China, this paper further discusses how the robustness of the rural social-ecological system can be ensured under external impact. The main conclusions are as follows: under the impact of urbanization, the internal interaction paths with which the rural social-ecological system maintains robustness at the operational level are not unique. These different internal interaction paths may not only make the rural social-ecological system automatically realize a virtuous and robust cycle under the impact of urbanization, they may also cause a gradual collapse of the rural social-ecological system. Further, the discussion of China's specific practice shows that it is key to provide institutional rules to guarantee the operational processes through the collective-choice process, thus ensuring the robustness of the rural social-ecological system under the impact of urbanization. The inspection of the interaction mechanisms in this study may obtain some restricted views on the general laws that may be contained in the complex interaction within the rural social-ecological system, and provide a theoretical basis developing countries can apply to realize rural revitalization when faced with the irreversible wave of urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The income inequality effect of infrastructure investment is under-researched despite the fact that the world has been confronted with the formidable challenge of worsening income distribution. This paper addresses this gap by: (i) highlighting deficiencies in conventional inequality modeling, (ii) proposing an empirical framework that entails estimation of both income growth and income inequality effect of infrastructure using one model, and (iii) applying this model to individual-level data from rural China to estimate income growth and income inequality effect of specific public utility infrastructures. Our findings reveal that the usage of telephone and tap water infrastructure fosters rural income growth, particularly benefiting lower-income individuals, indicating benign income inequality effect. These effects are particularly notable in inland China. An investigation into underlying mechanisms shows that public utility infrastructures help improve educational attainment and health status in lower-income rural households, stimulating growth in income and reducing income inequality. These findings imply that development of public utility infrastructure can serve as a powerful policy instrument for government interventions to reduce income inequality and promote growth, especially in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Chinese medical assistance is significantly related to supporting China on human rights matters. • Countries supporting China on Hong Kong and Xinjiang matters received over double the amount of medical equipment and vaccine donations. • China's medical equipment donations matched the recipients' pandemic situation's severity, but vaccine donations did not. • As countries became less dependent on Chinese vaccine donations, political alignment mattered less. • Some recipients of Chinese vaccines moved from a neutral stance to one of defense or condemnation. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed all economies to a shortage of medical supplies alongside economic, institutional, and social challenges, prompting the Chinese government to step up its efforts to aid countries in need. At the same time, China faced a series of condemnations of its domestic human rights situation. This paper examines Chinese medical assistance and the relationship with recipient countries' position on key China-related human rights issues as a measure of political support. We find that support on human rights issues is significantly related to the receipt of Chinese medical assistance in 2020 and of vaccines in 2021. Countries that supported China in either of the two joint statements delivered at the UN on Hong Kong and Xinjiang received 125% and 174% more medical equipment and 205% and 166% more vaccine donations respectively, than those holding a contrary stance. Vaccine trade presents an even stronger association with such measures. Findings also show that political alignment and geographical proximity were more important in the first part of 2021, while these waned when the availability of new vaccines rose in the second half of the year. The association between Covid-19 assistance and political support on human rights issues post-Covid shows mixed results. Countries receiving assistance either moved from a neutral stance into one of defense of China or voted in favor of the UNHRC decision in 2022 to investigate human rights violations in Xinjiang. This indicates that while there is an ongoing politicization of human rights issues, countries do not necessarily give in to pressures. In conclusion, these findings and further analysis support fundamental concerns that vaccine donations during the Covid-19 pandemic have been mostly driven by geopolitics and not by the severity of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We analyse wage differences between Chinese and non-Chinese firms in Angola and Ethiopia. • There is scarcity of rigorous quantitative comparative work on working conditions in Chinese firms operating in Africa. • We find that Chinese firms do not consistently pay less than comparable firms. • A combination of individual worker characteristics, sector specificities, and firm attributes other than the national origin, are necessary to explain variations in wages in both countries. This paper analyses wage differences between Chinese and non-Chinese firms in Angola and Ethiopia. The growing engagement of Chinese firms in sub-Saharan Africa has generated debates about the working conditions offered to African workers. However, the evidence for many of the claims made about wages in Chinese firms operating in sub-Saharan Africa is unconvincing. In this paper the authors identify problems with the existing literature and provide new comparative evidence on wages in Chinese, other foreign and domestic firms in Angola and Ethiopia. Drawing on over 1,400 worker-level interviews the authors find that Chinese firms do not consistently pay less than comparable firms. Using a multi-scalar labour regime framework the authors show that a combination individual worker characteristics, sector specificities, and firm attributes are necessary to explain variations in wages in both countries. The national origin of firms by itself cannot explain the observed differences in wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper performs the first meta -regression analysis of Chinese aid effectiveness using 1,149 estimates from 29 studies. • Chinese aid is positively associated with economic outcomes in recipient countries. • Chinese aid correlates with deforestation and negative perceptions of China among citizens, albeit negligible in size. • Sub-sample MRAs detect publication selection bias in the Chinese aid effectiveness literature. • Heterogeneity is driven by differences in the choice of data, estimation method, and authors' institutional affiliation. This paper employs a meta -regression analysis of 1,149 estimates from 29 studies to take stock of the empirical literature on Chinese aid effectiveness. After accommodating publication selection bias, we find that, on average, Beijing's foreign assistance is positively associated with economic outcomes in recipient countries, but correlates with deforestation and negative perceptions of China among citizens, albeit negligible in size. We also show that studies that fail to uncover empirical effects that conform to researchers' expectations are less likely to be submitted or accepted for publication. Differences in the choice of data, estimation method, and authors' institutional affiliation explain the heterogeneity among Chinese aid effectiveness estimates reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In the post-financial crisis era, fiscal challenges have led countries adopt a more market-based means of development finance. • The state is not a sheer subsidizer distorting market in favor of policy objectives, but a risk-sharing, profit-seeking equity investor. • China's investment fund offers not only equity shares but also state-related resources to assist private firms' business expansion in Africa. • Stateness has prevented the investment fund from choosing the most financially promising projects or withdrawing from the failing ones. The post-2008 financial crisis era has witnessed a significant change in the global development landscape. Fiscal challenges have led countries that historically provided state-led, gift-like development assistance to adopt a more market-based means of development finance driven by self-interest. This allows us to reconsider the roles of the state and the market in development by focusing on the China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund), China's first official development-oriented investment fund and a subsidiary of the China Development Bank, the world's largest national development bank. This paper draws from interviews and participant observations involving CADFund, its partners, and project companies in Africa to examine how China's official finance mobilizes private investment to facilitate global development. The findings indicate that the state-led equity fund has catalyzed the start-up and expansion of Chinese overseas private enterprises by providing otherwise inaccessible equity support and channeling additional state-related resources to empower long-term business development. Meanwhile, stateness has created an adverse selection problem, preventing CADFund from choosing the most financially promising projects or withdrawing from the failing ones. The paper sheds light on the potential challenges facing development finance institutions in employing equity investment as a tool for reconciling long-term development objectives and short-term commercial objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An institutional-analytic framework is introduced to understand the functioning and diverse trajectories of informal property rights. • A game-theoretic model is constructed to characterize the strategic interactions of actors and agents in China's extralegal housing market. • It is found that the security of property rights to extralegal housing varies across regions contingent upon state-market-society interplay. • Integrating the effects of structural and endogenous factors and interplay of formal and informal institutions is theoretically advocated. This paper engages with the ongoing theoretical enquiry into the actual functioning and diverse practices of informal property rights. Departing from the prevailing neoliberal perspective and the credibility thesis, this paper develops a framework of institutional analysis to understand the functioning and regional variation of informal property rights. It takes the institutions-as-equilibria perspective and situates both structural and endogenous institutional variables in actors' strategic choices. We test our conceptual framework through a multisite empirical study of extralegal and untitled housing in China. Building on game theory, archival research, and fieldwork, we compare the key variables contributing to the divergent fortunes of extralegal and untitled housing property rights in three Chinese cities: prospering in Shenzhen, selectively interfered with in Beijing, and eliminated in Sanya. The functioning of informal property rights is found to be contingent upon diverse strategic interactions of local governments and key local stakeholders. Our paper highlights the formation of local actors' behavioral beliefs and their adjustment through a nonlinear feedback mechanism. It suggests the necessity and significance of integrating structural and endogenous institutional variables, elaborating on the interplay of formal and informal institutions, and applying the microeconomic and dynamic perspectives to better understand the functioning and diverse practices of informal property rights in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Estimate the joint impact of environmental and digital policies (for designing smart cities) upon the generation of eco-innovations. • Apply negative binomial and quasi-natural experimental methods (i.e., Difference-in-Differences and Propensity Score Matching). • When digital policies (Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things) are implemented in cities that have adopted strict environmental policies, the production of green patents increases. In this paper, we employ negative binomial and quasi-natural experimental methods (i.e., Difference-in-Differences and Propensity Score Matching), whereby we examine the joint impact of environmental and digital policies (for designing smart cities) upon the generation of eco-innovations in China. Using longitudinal data for the period 2006–2018, we examine the changes in green patents granted: (i) due to the implementation of various levels of stringency of environmental policies across all cities; and (ii) after the introduction of smart city policies in 2012 in China. The prior literature stresses the importance of environmental policies, yet less attention has been paid to digital policies required to drive eco-innovation and their spatial dimension in the context of a developing economy. Our results show that, when digital policies (artificial intelligence and internet of things) are implemented in cities that have adopted strict environmental policies, the production of green patents increases. We contribute to debates in the literature of policy mix for sustainability transitions in the context of a developing economy by illustrating the importance of both types of policy for eco-innovation, as they correct two market failures and, more importantly, address the systemic coordination problems that occur during the production of green patents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

•.Even within authoritarian systems, knowledge communities can generate, capture and diffuse knowledge about development into policymaking. • In cross-sector knowledge communities, NGOs to generate knowledge about development in concert with officials, citizens and academics. • NGOs impact policy by leveraging their ability to provide grounded knowledge of underrepresented interests and conditions at the grassroots. • NGOs can serve as localized centers for knowledge generation by connecting local knowledge with outside expertise. • Knowledge generation by NGOs includes not only crafted policy documents but takes a variety of forms that should not be overlooked by policymakers. How do citizen groups influence policy, particularly in political contexts thought to lack grassroots inputs into the policymaking process? Predominant explanations focus on bargaining and mobilization around interests and identities, neglecting the role of ideas. Emerging scholarship shows how knowledge—or epistemic power—shapes political decision making. This paper applies these advances to the Chinese context to uncover how knowledge communities impact policy and governance. The paper draws on extensive longitudinal field research embracing Chinese NGOs, local officials, and policy research bodies. It presents three cases of cross-sector collective knowledge generation within the Chinese context. In these cases, communities comprised of combinations of NGO staff, villagers, academics and officials interact around specific policy issues, generating knowledge and spurring policy innovations. The cases highlight the porous nature of sectoral boundaries that enable the formation of cross-sector communities, suggest an expanded notion of epistemic expertise and a broader conceptualization of knowledge production. In this way, the paper identifies mechanisms by which knowledge about development intersects with power structures and is then diffused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The average adult stature of Chinese people born in 1950–1990 increased dramatically over these turbulent times. • We link individual adult height with conditions during the individual's early childhood. • The long-run increase in stature is positively associated with local government spending on health and education. • The sharp acceleration in the 1980s is mainly due to economic reforms, not to the One-Child Policy. • Policy changes benefitted urban more than rural dwellers and men more than women. This paper explores the changing trend of adult height in China for cohorts born in 1950–90. We use information on household structure and local economic conditions during the individual's childhood to explain the trend. We find that during the 40-year period, the growth rate of adult height increased, with the most substantial increase occurring in the 1980s. One important contributing factor to the growth of adult height is the continued increase in government per capita spending on health and education. The impressive growth in the 1980s was mainly due to the introduction of market-oriented economic reforms, rather than the advent of the One-Child Policy. We find that the positive effect of economic reforms was larger for urban dwellers than for their rural counterparts and within the rural areas the benefit was far greater for men than for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Spousal retirement exerts significant influence on an individual's health and health behavior. • The health effects of spousal and own retirement are gender-asymmetric. • Spousal retirement positively affects women's physical and mental health. • Own retirement negatively affects men's self-rated health and subjective well-being. This paper investigates the impact of spousal and own retirement on health in urban China. To identify the causal impact of retirement on the health outcomes of the couple, we exploit the discontinuity in retirement rate at the gender-specific legal retirement ages, and apply a fuzzy regression discontinuity design using data from four waves of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The estimates suggest that spousal retirement would exert significant influence on an individual's health and health behaviour. We also find that the health effects of spousal and own retirement exhibit different patterns for men and women. Men's self-rated health and subjective well-being tend to be negatively affected by their own retirement, while women's physical and mental health are both positively influenced by the retirement of their husbands. The retirement-induced change in marital bargaining environment may serve as one underlying mechanism for the retirement effects on health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]