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This paper investigates the impact of China's environmental regulations, with a focus on the green credit policy, on green innovation in pursuit of the "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" goal. Given the implementation of the 2012 Green Credit Guidelines, this paper employs the Difference-in-Difference Method (DID) and conducts a quasi-natural experiment to empirically examine the interactions among the central government, local governments, and high-pollution and high-emission enterprises by exploring the impact of green credit policies on green innovation of these enterprises. Relying on 4503 samples of 237 high-pollution and high-emission enterprises listed in the main board in China from 2003 to 2021, this study reveals that the green credit policy can improve green innovation of these enterprises. Specifically, this study explores the detailed mechanism through which the green credit policy enables these enterprises to increase their market concentration and then the monopoly profits, which in turn promotes their green innovative productivity. In addition, this paper also reveals how local governments' political and financial incentives may serve as positive and negative moderating factors, respectively, within the impact mechanism. This study has valuable implications for how to effectively formulate and implement environmental regulations by balancing the interests of the central government, local governments and enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a controversial question of whether environmental regulation can achieve the double dividend of improving environmental quality and increasing employment and income. This paper takes Chinese migrant population as the main research object and uses the Chinese Household Income Projects data (CHIPS) and the emission data of major pollutants at the prefecture-level city jointly. Based on the classic Mincer wage equation, we investigate the impact and mechanisms of environmental regulation on the income of Chinese migrant population. The results show that: (1) The intensity of environmental regulation significantly improves the income level of the migrant population, and for every 1% increase in the intensity of environmental regulation, the wage income of the mobile population will rise by 4.96%. (2) The documented positive effect of environmental regulation is more significant in non-public firms, the eastern regions and high-skilled workers. Conversely, for the female and elderly group, 1% increase in environmental regulations will restrain their income growth by 4.95% and 0.37%, respectively. (3) The influencing mechanisms include both the direct effect of labor demand and the indirect effects of firm performance and technological innovation. (4) we find that 1% increase in environmental regulations respectively raise the income of the low- and moderate-income migrant population by 10.834% and 3.579%, while having no significant impact on the high-income group, thus reducing the income gap of the migrant population. The findings of this paper provide theoretical support and practical evidence for achieving a coordinated development of ecological environmental protection and income improvement for socially disadvantaged groups in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The support of digital technology is urgently needed to promote low-carbon development and green economic and social transformation and to realize the goal of "carbon neutrality" early. This paper utilizes the "Golden Tax III" project for the digital transformation of China's tax collection and administration and empirically confirms that digital tax collection and administration significantly reduces carbon emissions based on the panel data of 30 provinces (municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions) in China from 2010 to 2020, i.e., digital technology plays a positive role in carbon emission reduction. The mechanism test shows that digital technology indirectly affects carbon emissions through industrial structure, technological innovation, and tax structure. Heterogeneity analysis shows that digital technology has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon emissions in the northern region, non-Yangtze River region, provincial administrative areas with heavy local government debt, and a large proportion of tax revenue from the secondary industry and tax revenue from state-owned enterprises. Under the requirement of high-quality and green development of the economy, this paper is of great theoretical and practical significance for using digital technology to ensure the governance functions of tax, help low-carbon development, and reach the goal of "carbon neutrality" at an early date. • This study assesses the impact of digital technology on carbon emissions from the government's perspective. • This study enriches the mechanism by which digital technology affects carbon emissions. • This study provides suggestions to promote the digitization of government affairs and carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing is both an essential pillar of China's economy and a significant source of environmental pollution, and there is an urgent need for the manufacturing industry to use green innovation to accelerate its goal of sustainable development. From the intellectual property protection (IPP) perspective, this paper uses Chinese manufacturing and its 26 sub-sectors as a sample from 2003 to 2018, examining the impact of two-way foreign direct investment (FDI) coordinated development in manufacturing green innovation capability. The empirical results suggest that two-way FDI coordinated development enhances manufacturing green innovation, and this finding still holds after endogeneity and robustness tests. Under the influence of IPP, the relationship between two-way FDI coordinated development and manufacturing green innovation capability is nonlinear. Under the influence of macroscopic, mesoscopic, and microscopic dimensions IPP, the effect of two-way FDI coordinated development on manufacturing green innovation capability is U, Steps, and N shaped respectively. This paper's findings can provide empirical evidence for the government to formulate industrial development strategies and for manufacturing enterprises to improve their green innovation capabilities to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big data industry development and carbon dioxide emissions reduction are the crucial driver and objective functions of economic growth, respectively. Whether the two types of corresponding policies can achieve the "win-win" effect is the key to green development transformation in the future. However, little attention has been paid to the influence of big data industry development on carbon dioxide emissions. Based on the quasi-natural experiment in China's national big data comprehensive experimental area, the paper identifies the causal effect between big data industry development and carbon dioxide emissions. Specifically, the panel data of 282 cities in China spanning from 2010 to 2019 are used in regression analysis. The study reveals that the big data industry development has a substantial impact in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Meanwhile, the findings are confirmed by a set of rigorous robustness checks. The heterogeneity analyses suggest that the effect of inhibiting carbon dioxide emissions due to the big data industry development is more significant in eastern & central China, and large-sized cities. In addition, the big data industry reduces carbon dioxide emissions through the effects of industrial structure optimization, technological innovation, and resource allocation. Our findings contribute to the nexus between big data industry development and carbon dioxide emissions. In light of these findings, the paper recommends that governments integrate economic growth and environmental protection policies by promoting big data industry development. • The paper provides a novel insight into the CO 2 emission from the perspective of big data industry. • Based on quasi-natural experiment, the paper has identified the causal effect between the big data industry development and CO 2 emissions with the Difference-in-Difference (DID) methodology. • Big data industry development effectively stimulate the reduction of CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coupling effect of green innovation participants, elements, and environments directly reflects the operation and evolution of a green innovation ecosystem. This paper studies the spatial organization mode of green innovation ecosystems and the structural evolution and self-organization mode of their associated networks under this coupling effect. By selecting relevant data from 286 cities in China from 2010 to 2021, the green innovation ecosystem coupling coordination index (GIECCI) is calculated using a coupling coordination model. The calculation result is used as a weight to modify a gravity model to construct an innovation ecological network. After analyzing the calculation results, the findings are as follows. (1) The polarization effect of the GIECCI is significantly alleviated, presenting a quantitative structure close to the normal distribution; However, the existence of the Matthew effect trap leads to great resistance to green innovation in some cities. (2) Cities with the same or a similar GIECCI are more likely to form agglomerations, including mature, cross-distribution, and budding agglomeration models. (3) The connectivity status of urban nodes significantly varies, and the mismatch between connectivity symmetry and the total strength of green innovation gravity is widespread. These findings may provide a reference for government departments to plan the layout of green innovation industries and choose sustainable innovation strategies for enterprises. This paper explains the coupling effect of urban green innovation ecosystem from three dimensions of green innovation participants, elements and environment, and corrects the gravity model with coupling coordination index to construct a directional complex network to describe the relationship between green innovation ecosystems (green innovation ecological network). Innovative indicators such as node efficiency, connection symmetry and chain network density are put forward to explore the evolution law and self-organization effect of ecological network. [Display omitted] • Green ecosystem's coordination gap has lessened. • Similar GIECCI cities tend to cluster. • The innovation network shows dual imbalance. • Cities display varied connectivity. • Connection quantity and strength often mismatch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China facing the challenge of coordinated development of "ecology, economy, and well-being". Scholars have conducted some research on the relationship between enviromental regulation and employment, but there is less research on the role of clean technology innovation in the employment effect of environmental regulation, which is the purpose of this paper. Using the panel data of 22 industrial sectors in China, the paper uses the number of clean technology patents to measure the level of clean technology innovation, and examines the moderating effect of clean technology innovation in the employment effect of environmental regulations. The results show that: (1) With the gradual improvement of environmental regulation, the impact of environmental regulation on employment presents the characteristics of inhibition first and then promotion. (2) Clean technology innovation has a moderating effect on the employment effect of environmental regulation. It should encourage the green upgrading of traditional technologies, support the development and optimization of private enterprises in various industries, so as to promote enterprises to effectively reduce pollution emissions and create jobs through green technology upgrading at the initial stage. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the phase-out of subsidies, the Chinese government has issued a series of non-subsidized industrial policies to support the development of the power Lithium-ion Battery (PLiB) industry, recognized as pivotal for achieving carbon neutrality in the transportation department. However, existing literature provides limited evidence on the contribution of non-subsidized industrial policies, particularly to the PLiB industry. To bridge this gap, using data of 31 PLiB listed firms and 279 relevant non-subsidized industrial policies, this paper analyzes the effects of non-subsidized industrial policies on the global value chain (GVC) embedding position. The results reveal that non-subsidized industrial policies significantly raise the GVC embedding position of Chinese PLiB firms, and the positive effects are prone to increase over the research period. Further investigation shows that there is heterogeneity among PLiB firms, with the raising effects on the GVC embedding position being more significant in eastern and middle PLiB firms, private PLiB firms and midstream PLiB firms. The mechanism verification shows that non-subsidized industrial policies raise GVC embedding position of PLiB firms through technological innovation effect and scale economy effect, while competitiveness effect does not give full play. These findings provide important recommendations for better design of the industrial policies to improve the international competitiveness of PLiB industry and other strategic emerging industries. • This study investigates the effects of industrial policy from the perspective of non-subsidized industrial policies. • Non-subsidized industrial policies raise global value chain embedding position of China's Power Lithium-ion Battery firms. • Mechanisms of technological innovation effect, scale economy effect and competition effect are verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's longest-implemented market-based environmental regulation policy, emission charges have contributed outstandingly to improving the ecological environment and reducing firms' pollution emissions. We assess the impact of emission charges on the innovation quality of Chinese firms based on the perspective of firms' breakthrough technological innovation. By observing Chinese A-share listed firms with heavy pollution from 2011 to 2020, we find that corporate breakthrough technological innovation positively moderates the emission charges to enhance the quality of corporate innovation. Our mechanism tests suggest that emission charges and breakthrough technological innovation positively affect innovation quality by improving the means of green innovation of enterprises. In addition, heterogeneity analysis shows that emission charges and firms' breakthrough technological innovation are only effective in improving the innovation quality of state-owned firms, and the effect on the innovation quality of non-state-owned firms is not significant. Our findings suggest that the imposition of emission charges and incentives for firms to embark on breakthrough technological innovation can effectively improve the quality of innovation. • The article is probably the first literature to explore the effects of breakthrough technological innovation and emission charges on the innovation quality of heavily polluting enterprises in China, enriching the research on the impact of enterprise innovation models on environmental regulation. • Based on the IPC information of enterprise patent applications, the paper distinguishes enterprise innovation patterns and explores the moderating effect of breakthrough technological innovation on emission charges to enhance the quality of enterprise innovation. • This paper provides micro evidence on the impact of environmental regulation on innovation quality based on the perspective of firms' breakthrough technological innovation, which has important implications for adopting environmental regulation to achieve a "win-win" situation between pollution control and improving innovation quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-commerce has emerged through digital platforms and Internet construction as an important way to achieve low-carbon development in China. To evaluate the mitigation effect of e-commerce, this paper conducts a quasi-natural experiment in terms of the pilot policy of national e-commerce demonstration cities (NEDC) to explore the changes in CO 2 emissions of 270 cities from 2004 to 2017 in China. We also check the asymmetry, mechanism effects and heterogeneity. The results show that the treated cities reduce CO 2 emissions by 4.1% due to the NEDC pilot policy compared to the untreated cities. The estimated results pass the parallel trend test, robustness tests, and the Goodman-Bacon decomposition. Moreover, the NEDC pilot policy increases the CO 2 emissions of treated cities by promoting economic growth (scale effect), and decreases the carbon emissions of treated cities by upgrading the industrial structure (structural effect) and increasing the technological innovation level (technical effect). Furthermore, the CO 2 mitigation effects of the NEDC pilot policy are significantly concentrated in the higher quantiles. Finally, the NEDC pilot policy has significantly negative effects on CO 2 emissions in "postage-free regions," southern China, and cities with large e-commerce sales. The results of this paper provide theoretical and practical references for China to achieve low-carbon development. • Evaluating the impact of pilot policies of national e-commerce demonstration cities (NEDC) on carbon emissions in China. • The NEDC pilot policy reduces carbon emissions of treated cities by 4.1%. • The NEDC pilot policy reduces carbon emissions through structural and technical effects. • The emission-reduction effects are significant at the higher quantiles. • The impact of the NEDC pilot policy on carbon emissions is obviously heterogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the urgency of the transition to renewable energy, this study examines the challenges and opportunities associated with the electrification of heavy-duty vehicles, particularly new energy construction dump trucks, in China. Through a combination of policy analysis and empirical research, it investigates drivers' purchase intentions towards these alternative energy vehicles in a designated study area. The findings reveal that while policies aimed at encouraging adoption are in place, drivers' purchase intentions remain low due to factors such as high costs, technical concerns, inadequate infrastructure, and satisfaction with existing trucks. Specifically, the study identifies key technical challenges, including battery performance and range limitations, and advocates for a shift in policy support towards product development to address these issues. Overall, the paper highlights the need for a comprehensive approach that combines policy incentives with technological advancements to promote the widespread adoption of new energy construction dump trucks in China and achieve sustainability and carbon neutrality goals in the transportation sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of accelerated globalization, the issue of technology blockade in complex product supply chains has taken centre stage, making the resilience and security of these chains a focal point in the strategic manoeuvres of major nations. This paper presents a tripartite evolutionary game model encompassing main manufacturers, domestic suppliers, and foreign suppliers. The aim is to delve into the internal mechanisms of transnational supply chain enterprises dealing with complex products, utilizing the "double cycle" framework to address technological blockade. The study's findings reveal a progression in the evolutionary system linked to the technological innovation capabilities of domestic suppliers. The system evolves from the independent innovation of domestic suppliers to cooperative innovation within domestic enterprises and ultimately culminates in joint ventures and cooperation involving multinational suppliers. Additionally, a noteworthy technology gap exists between domestic and foreign countries, suggesting that introducing foreign advanced technology initially and mimicking innovation can effectively mitigate research and development risks. Furthermore, the study underscores the role of Chinese government subsidies in incentivizing technological innovation among domestic suppliers, particularly pronounced when facing significant technology gaps. Simultaneously, the foreign government's imposition of penalties on premium sales by foreign suppliers serves as a catalyst for internal innovation within Chinese enterprises. These actions also motivate multinational enterprises to invest and cooperate, fostering the development of an international cycle. This study provides a fresh perspective on overcoming foreign technological blockades. Its positive implications extend to the advancement of technology in China's complex product landscape and the bolstering of supply chain resilience. • Evolutionary Game Theory Research on the Dynamic Impact of Technology Blockade on China's Complex Product Supply Chain. • Improving the level of technological innovation capability helps to break the foreign technological blockade. • The increase in fines imposed by foreign governments helps break the technological blockade through international circulation. • Domestic government subsidies are beneficial for breaking the technological blockade in domestic circulation. • Significant technological gap between domestic and foreign countries should be introduced first, and innovation should be based on imitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the dynamic landscape of rapid change and the pervasive influence of the digital revolution, the discussion surrounding the impact of digital transformation on the innovation performance of firms has become a focal point of intense debate. This paper aims to contribute to the evolution and advancement of traditional organizations toward high-quality development by addressing this issue through the integration of technology into the framework, leveraging the resource-based theory. The study seeks to explore the influence of digital transformation on innovation performance, specifically examining the role of supplier concentration in this relationship. Additionally, we investigate the moderating effect of CEO financial experience on the association between digital transformation and innovation performance. Utilizing multiple regression methodologies and analyzing data from Chinese listed firms spanning the period from 2007 to 2022, our empirical findings reveal a direct positive relationship between digital transformation and innovation performance. Furthermore, the study uncovers an indirect pathway through which digital transformation enhances innovation performance by mitigating supplier concentration. Notably, the positive impact of digital transformation is amplified by a CEO's background in finance. Finally, the effect of digital transformation on innovation performance is particularly pronounced in sectors such as state-owned entities, advanced technology companies, large-scale businesses, and those in their maturity phase. These insights provide valuable contributions to addressing concerns related to digital transformation, particularly in emerging economies like China. The findings offer essential lessons for navigating the transition to Industry 4.0 and fostering sustainable innovative practices. By emphasizing the role of supplier concentration and the moderating influence of CEO financial experience, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of how digital transformation can positively impact innovation performance across diverse sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of digital finance has profoundly changed the pattern of economic and social development, which is of great significance for the realization of the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature and for the promotion of sustainable development. This study measures the state of China's provincial ecological footprint from 2011 to 2019, combines the characteristics of digital financial development, and explores whether such development can promote sustainable development from an ecological footprint perspective. The results show that (1) China's provincial ecological footprint per capita, which was continuously aggravated, increased by an average of 29.15% during the sample period. Digital financial development is shown to be able to effectively suppress the ecological footprint, and an environmental inclusion effect is also observed, which helps achieve a win‒win solution for economic development and ecological conservation while promoting environmental equality. Endogeneity tests and other robustness tests indicate that causality holds. (2) Bridging the digital divide, the improvement of environmental constraints and government digital governance capacity can help amplify the marginal effects of digital finance and mitigate the ecological footprint. (3) Green technological innovation and green finance are critical paths to achieve sustainable development. Digital financial development can facilitate green-biased technological innovation and increase the scale of green credit effectiveness, thereby reducing the ecological footprint. In the future, digital technology should be used to achieve the precise sinking of financial resources, while the government's role in guiding sustainable development should be enhanced, the digital divide should be narrowed, and the role of digital finance in supporting sustainable development should be strengthened. • Using the latest improved methodology, this paper measures the provincial ecological footprint in China. • This paper investigates the impact of digital finance development on the ecological footprint. • Digital finance development can effectively mitigate the ecological footprint and has an environmentally inclusive effect. • The reasons for this are the green bias push of digital finance towards technological innovation and the increase in the scale of green credit effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, green innovation has become an important means of achieving sustainable development, but the impact of peer firms on green innovation is less discussed. To fill this research gap, this paper explores the effect of peer firms on the green innovation activities of the Chinese A-share listed firms in the manufacturing industry from 2011 to 2020 and investigates influencing factors of peer effect. The main findings are as follows. First, there is a peer effect in making green innovation decisions. Second, industry competition has a positive moderating effect on the peer effect of green innovation. Third, digital financial inclusion and government intervention both promote the peer effect of green innovation. The peer effect is more significant with a high degree of digital financial inclusion. But the peer effect has no significant difference between different degrees of government intervention. This paper aims to explore the influencing factors of a firm's green innovation from the perspective of peer effect. The research results can provide a guide for the government to better promote green innovation activities of firms and benign competition in the industry. • A firm's green innovation activities are positively affected by industry peers. • Industry competition has a positive moderating effect on green innovation peer effect. • Digital financial inclusion and government intervention both promote the peer effect. • The peer effect is more significant with a high degree of digital financial inclusion. • The peer effect has no significant difference between different degrees of government intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of digital finance has profoundly changed the pattern of economic and social development, which is of great significance for the realization of the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature and for the promotion of sustainable development. This study measures the state of China's provincial ecological footprint from 2011 to 2019, combines the characteristics of digital financial development, and explores whether such development can promote sustainable development from an ecological footprint perspective. The results show that (1) China's provincial ecological footprint per capita, which was continuously aggravated, increased by an average of 29.15% during the sample period. Digital financial development is shown to be able to effectively suppress the ecological footprint, and an environmental inclusion effect is also observed, which helps achieve a win‒win solution for economic development and ecological conservation while promoting environmental equality. Endogeneity tests and other robustness tests indicate that causality holds. (2) Bridging the digital divide, the improvement of environmental constraints and government digital governance capacity can help amplify the marginal effects of digital finance and mitigate the ecological footprint. (3) Green technological innovation and green finance are critical paths to achieve sustainable development. Digital financial development can facilitate green-biased technological innovation and increase the scale of green credit effectiveness, thereby reducing the ecological footprint. In the future, digital technology should be used to achieve the precise sinking of financial resources, while the government's role in guiding sustainable development should be enhanced, the digital divide should be narrowed, and the role of digital finance in supporting sustainable development should be strengthened. • Using the latest improved methodology, this paper measures the provincial ecological footprint in China. • This paper investigates the impact of digital finance development on the ecological footprint. • Digital finance development can effectively mitigate the ecological footprint and has an environmentally inclusive effect. • The reasons for this are the green bias push of digital finance towards technological innovation and the increase in the scale of green credit effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, green innovation has become an important means of achieving sustainable development, but the impact of peer firms on green innovation is less discussed. To fill this research gap, this paper explores the effect of peer firms on the green innovation activities of the Chinese A-share listed firms in the manufacturing industry from 2011 to 2020 and investigates influencing factors of peer effect. The main findings are as follows. First, there is a peer effect in making green innovation decisions. Second, industry competition has a positive moderating effect on the peer effect of green innovation. Third, digital financial inclusion and government intervention both promote the peer effect of green innovation. The peer effect is more significant with a high degree of digital financial inclusion. But the peer effect has no significant difference between different degrees of government intervention. This paper aims to explore the influencing factors of a firm's green innovation from the perspective of peer effect. The research results can provide a guide for the government to better promote green innovation activities of firms and benign competition in the industry. • A firm's green innovation activities are positively affected by industry peers. • Industry competition has a positive moderating effect on green innovation peer effect. • Digital financial inclusion and government intervention both promote the peer effect. • The peer effect is more significant with a high degree of digital financial inclusion. • The peer effect has no significant difference between different degrees of government intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the main driving forces that influence the sustainable innovation of enterprises based on a three-dimensional framework at the organization level, individual level and system level. Using data from China's Innovation Survey, which is in line with the Community Innovation Survey（CIS）, this paper examines the behaviours and strategies of Chinese enterprises' sustainable innovation. The study finds that China's sustainable and innovative enterprises are generally large-scale, are long lasting, have good profitability and invest more in R&D and environmental protection. And the sustainable innovation of state-owned enterprises is significantly more than other enterprises. The primary purpose of enterprises engaged in sustainable innovation is to reduce environmental damage, but financial constraints are still an important obstacle for enterprises to overcome to carry out sustainable innovation. In addition, enterprises with more conservative senior executives and more political connections to government do not prefer sustainable innovation. The institutional pressure exerted by external environmental regulations and the cost constraints alleviated by government environmental protection subsidies are the key factors affecting enterprises' sustainable innovation. In conclusion, depicting the real situation of Chinese enterprises' sustainable innovation behaviour based on the survey framework and data of systematically identifying enterprises' innovation behaviour is beneficial to provide examples for developing countries related to sustainable innovation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural waste is large in number and the utilization rate is extremely low in China, requiring remediated. Formatting the project system and introducing the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode are inevitable to realize the specialization and socialization in resource utilization of agricultural wastes. However, the confusion of financing, management, responsibilities of participants and difficulties in coordinating interests limit the expected effect of the resource utilization of agricultural wastes (RUAW). To this end, combined with the examination of actual cases, this paper constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of RUAW PPP projects among local government, social capital and farmers, then conducts simulation and case study. We find that the local government does not supervise, social capital acts opportunistically, and farmers choose to cooperate is the evolutionary stable situation, and the cost of supervision for local government and the reward and punishment mechanism of local government to social capital will largely influence the strategy choice of the stakeholders. Strengthening the local government's sense of responsibility and regulatory capacity, optimizing the reward and punishment system, vigorously making technological innovations, and improving the operational capacity of the special purpose vehicle can effectively improve the efficiency of cooperation. The results of the study have some guiding significance for further improving the level of circular agriculture in China even in developing countries and forming a more complete system of resource utilization of agricultural wastes. • The PPP model was used in projects of resource utilization of agricultural wastes. • The local government plays an important role in coordinating between social capital and farmers. • The probability that the social capital will act opportunistically in the PPP project is extremely high. • Farmers' willingness to cooperate is sometimes fragile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly prominent global climate and environmental issues have raised concerns about the living environment and the scrutiny of production and innovation in heavily polluting industries. Environmental concerns can evolve into environmental regulation in the legal sense, as well as environmental attention in informal rules. Although there has been a lot of research on environmental regulation and green open innovation (proportion of collaborative filings in green patents), there is still a lack of identification of the impact of the role of environmental attention, especially in heavily polluting industries that are critical to the economy. Based on this background, this paper uses the relevant data of listed companies in China's heavily polluting industries as a research sample. We use neural networks (Word2Vec) to extract indicators of environmental attention from the text of listed companies' annual reports and measure their impact on green open innovation using multidimensional fixed effects regression. Our research shows that the environmental attention of listed companies in highly polluting industries will significantly reduce their ability to engage in green open innovation. Ultimately, our study will help managers in heavily polluting industries rebalance the economic benefits and environmental transformation of their companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vigorous development of the digital economy (DIEC) offers a substantial potential for China and global economies to realize the goal of "double carbon". This study attempts to analyze the heterogeneous effect of DIEC on carbon emission reduction (CERE), in order to extend a valuable reference for effectively achieving the dual-carbon goal. Accordingly, the effect of DIEC on carbon emission scale (CESC) and carbon emission intensity (CEIN) are examined in this paper by using dual fixed effect model and intermediate effect model, respectively. The study findings show that, at first, DIEC significantly supports the CERE while significantly constraining the uplift in CESC and CEIN. Simultaneously, the CERE effect of DIEC contains digital economy dimensional heterogeneity, industry heterogeneity, production and life heterogeneity, and urban-rural heterogeneity. Finally, the DIEC boosts the technological innovation (TEIN) and residents' income (REIN) levels, in order to heighten the CERE. Further, improving invention technology innovation and TEIN is more conducive to catalyzing the reduction of carbon emission in the whole society and the production field. Conversely, the improvement of non-invention technology innovation and rural- and urban residents' income impedes CERE in the field of life. Thus, the implications of this study are of vital significance for China and the rest of the world to foster CERE and achieve the "dual carbon" goal through DIEC development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of renewable energy is the key to tackling climate changes and ensuring energy security. Meanwhile, the process is usually associated with a huge investment and financing gap, especially for transitional countries like China. Hence, developing and innovating the traditional financial system is urgent. However, existing studies have mainly focused on traditional financial perspectives, and few papers have critically examined how digital financial inclusion affects the growth of renewable energy industries. To this end, using Chinese provincial data from 2011 to 2020 and applying Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) method, this study explores the effect of financial inclusion on renewable energy and its underlying mechanisms from the production and consumption perspectives. It is found that the impact of financial inclusion on the production side of the renewable energy industry is significantly better than on the consumption side, and there is heterogeneity effect in different energy resource varieties, different regional locations, and different financial regulation intensities. The financial inclusion on renewable energy has a significant pulling effect in photovoltaic and wind provinces, but not in large hydropower provinces. Then, its driving effect is particularly pronounced in the northern region. Nonetheless, it is not significant for renewable energy consumption in the southern region. Besides, this positive effect cannot be achieved without stronger financial regulation. The mechanism of action assessment finds that optimizes the consumption pattern, increase the competition of commercial banks, and improve technological innovation all contribute to the positive effect whereas, FDI shows the negative effect. This study provides new evidence on China's achievement of the energy transition, suggesting the need to further improve incentives for FDI firms and to strengthen consumption-side guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent environmental information is fundamental for the government to better regulate pollution and for the public to be aware of pollution. However, how the improvement of environmental information transparency affects firms' environmental behavior has been underexplored. This paper fills this gap by exploring the impact of China's air quality monitoring and disclosure program on the green innovation of firms; via this program, real-time air quality monitoring stations have been constructed nationwide, and the information is promptly released to the public. The results of a difference-in-differences estimation show that the information program has significantly increased the green innovation of firms, especially the number of green invention patent applications. Moreover, this increase is realized via the regulatory effect of both the local government and public attention. Additionally, the green innovation effect performs stronger in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and firms in heavily polluting industries. This paper contributes to the related literature from the perspective of central government-led real-time transparent environmental information disclosure. The findings of this study highlight policy implications from the perspective of the importance of the application of information technology in environmental regulation, as well as the vital role of information-based instruments in exerting a public regulatory effect on environmental governance. • Effect of pollution information disclosure on firm's green innovation is tested. • DID is used exploiting China's Air Quality Monitoring-and-Disclosure Program. • The pollution information disclosure significantly boosts firm' s green innovation. • The mechanism is the regulatory effect from local governments and public attention. • Porter's Hypothesis is supported from the new view of information disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-innovation is an important driving force of high-quality economic development, which can promote economic growth while also ensuring ecological benefits. However, the characteristics of public goods, as well as the dual positive externalities of eco-innovation, lead to its internal reliance on government. Using China's low-carbon city pilot policy as an example, this paper empirically examines the impact of the pilot environmental policy on urban eco-innovation. The results demonstrate that the pilot policies promote urban eco-innovation and a progressive pilot policy promotion model presents an 'experience accumulation effect' in which the effect of the second batch of pilot policies is significantly better than that of the first batch. Dynamic analysis indicates that the eco-innovation effect of the first batch of pilot policies exerts a policy lag. Specifically, the impact of pilot policies on the number of urban green invention patent application lags by approximately 2 years, whereas the impact on the number of patent applications regarding green utility models exhibit a longer lag time. Mediating mechanism analysis reveals that the pilot policy can promote eco-innovation by promoting the agglomeration of innovation factors, including investment and human capital. This paper confirms the eco-innovation effects of a pilot environmental policy model with Chinese characteristics, with significant theoretical implications. The conclusion also offers practical advice to other countries on how to implement progressive environmental governance reforms. • The eco-innovation effect of pilot environmental policy with Chinese characteristics is investigated. • The effect of experience accumulation exists in different period policies. • There is a time lag in the effect of pilot environmental policy. • Factors agglomeration plays a mediating role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, more people are becoming aware of the importance of ecosystem protection. As a crucial part of the human well-being, ecological well-being has always had essential scientific research value. In this paper, authors take the Yellow River Delta high-efficiency eco-economic zone as a case study, based on the theory of land ecosystem services to study the ecological well-being. With the help of expert coefficient value assessment for different types of land use, authors have researched the spatiotemporal differentiation and influence mechanism of regional ecological well-being, using the Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD) model and Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) model. The results found small differences in change of resource well-being (RW) and large differences in change of environmental well-being (EW) from 1990 to 2020, and the RWs and EWs of the central cities including Dongying Core, Hekou Core, Kenli, Hanting Core and Changyi are higher than those of their surrounding counties. The coupling coordination relationship of RW and EW in the central cities including Dongying Core, Hekou Core and Changyi is larger than in their surrounding counties. Population urbanization (PU) and industrial urbanization (IU) are important factors of change in land use and ecosystem services which influence the human well-being, PU affects RW more significantly, and IU affects EW more significantly. In order to further promote the sustainable ecological well-being of the Yellow River Delta region, authors recommend the conservation of land resources, technological innovation of environmental management and the formulation of environmental law. It provides significant enlightenment and decision support for strengthening the environmental protection of the Yellow River Delta high-efficiency eco-economic zone. In this paper, authors take the Yellow River Delta high-efficiency eco-economic zone as a case study, based on the theory of land ecosystem services to study the ecological well-being. With the help of expert coefficient value assessment for different types of land use, authors have researched the spatiotemporal differentiation and influence mechanism of regional ecological well-being, using the Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD)Model model (CCDM) and Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) model. The results found small differences in change of resource well-being (RW) and large differences in change of environmental well-being (EW) from 1990 to 2020, and the RWs and EWs of the central cities including Dongying Core, Hekou Core, Kenli, Hanting Core and Changyi are higher than those of their surrounding counties. The coupling coordination relationship of RW and EW in the central cities including Dongying Core, Hekou Core and Changyi is larger than in their surrounding counties. Population urbanization (PU) and industrial urbanization (IU) are important factors of change in land use and ecosystem services which influence the human well-being, PU affects RW more significantly, and IU affects EW more significantly. In order to further promote the sustainable ecological well-being of the Yellow River Delta region, authors recommend the conservation of land resources, technological innovation of environmental management and the formulation of environmental law. The study has important value for realizing regional sustainable development and improving human well-being, and also provides a new research idea for exploring the relationship between man and land by using the intersection of sociology, geography, and ecology. [Display omitted] • It provides a new perspective for studying ecological well-being based on ecosystem services. • It analyzed the spatial characteristics of ecological well-being in the Yellow River Delta of China. • 3. It explored the mechanism of urbanization on ecological well-being with GWR model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important water-saving regulation, the construction of national water-saving city (NWSC) plays an important role in agricultural production, however, there is little research on its impact on agriculture. This paper uses super efficient Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) to measure agricultural total factor productivity (ATFP) in the regions along the Yellow River, and uses difference-in-difference (DID) model to explore the impact of NWSC on ATFP based on the theory of production factor flow. The results show that: First, the ATFP in the regions along the Yellow River demonstrated an initial increase followed by a decrease from 2000 to 2019, the ATFP in the regions along the Yellow River is low in the north and high in the south, and the ATFP of the main grain producing areas is generally higher. Second, the establishment of the NWSC can effectively improve the ATFP, the ATFP has increased by 6.57% compared with the control group, and the dynamic effect of the policy has shown an "N" pattern since its implementation. Particularly, in areas with relatively poor water resources, high agricultural factor intensification and major grain production areas, NWSC has a stronger impact on the ATFP. Third, NWSC has promoted the flow of labor production factors and improved ATFP through income effect, industrial synergy effect and technological innovation effect. The transfer of agricultural labor has also injected strong impetus into industrial development, and improved the return on industrial capital, which can promote agricultural capital more significantly, and further improved ATFP. Our findings provide empirical evidence for achieving high-quality agricultural development through the construction of NWSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterprise environmental performance has always been the core topic of enterprise environmental management. Under the promotion of the new generation of technological revolution, whether enterprise digitalization can help improve enterprise environmental performance has become a new research hotspot. Taking Chinese A-share listed industrial enterprises as the research sample, this paper discusses the influence mechanism of digitalization on corporate environmental performance. The results show that:(1) digital investment has a significant U-shaped relationship with corporate environmental performance; (2) Technological innovation is an important intermediary channel through which digital investment promotes enterprise environmental performance: digital investment can positively promote technological innovation, and there is also a significant U-shaped relationship between technological innovation and corporate environmental performance; (3) The hometown identification degree of executives positively moderates the relationship between technological innovation and corporate environmental performance. Accordingly, we suggest that companies need to adopt hedging policies in the early stage to reduce the adverse environmental effects caused by digital technology and accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises and promote the development of technological innovation to achieve the goal of coordinated environmental protection. Finally, we hope that executives will actively participate in this activity and jointly promote the development of this cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urbanization has developed, a variety of urban clusters have gradually emerged with important effects on regional economic growth and carbon emissions. This paper constructs a multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) model for testing how urban cluster synergistic development policy (UCSDP) affects urban carbon productivity in 148 cities of China with 13 urban clusters as the experimental group from 2003 to 2019. According to the results, the UCSDP improves carbon productivity, mainly via reducing energy intensity. In addition, UCSDP improves carbon productivity by adjusting energy structure, increasing green innovation, altering city greening levels, and accelerating the process of urbanization. Moreover, it can produce synergistic effects in terms of energy structure, green innovation, greening level, and urbanization level. Furthermore, the UCSDP has heterogeneous effects on the carbon productivity in various cities. Specifically, the carbon productivity of high-status, high-rank, and resource-based cities responds more significantly to UCSDP. Therefore, policymakers should strengthen the integration of urban clusters, offer targeted development suggestions for different cities, modify the energy and greening structure, accelerate the process of urbanization, and focus on the formulation of reasonable environmental regulation policies. • Exploring the impact of UCSDP on carbon productivity with multi-period DID model. • The improvement of carbon productivity by UCSDP mainly comes from the decrease of energy intensity. • UCSDP increases carbon productivity by affecting energy structure, green innovation, greening level and urbanization level. • UCSDP produces synergistic effects in terms of energy structure, green innovation, greening level and urbanization level. • The impact of UCSDP on carbon productivity varies by city status, city rank and city type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming can be solved with carbon trading. When carbon emissions become a commodity, it can be a powerful motivator for companies to optimize production capacity and innovate technologically. The goal of this paper is to examine the way in which China's carbon emissions trading policy (CET) influences firm technological innovation in seven pilot regions, using a sample of firms in eight high-carbon industries. We employ difference-in-difference (DID) as well as DID-based propensity score matching (PSM-DID) models to investigate the influence of China's carbon emission policy on firms' technological innovation by using 4745 observations of 749 A-share listed firms in eight high-carbon industries in mainland China from 2007 to 2021. According to the findings, China's CET policy significantly boosts firms' technological innovation, and this beneficial effect persists even after a series of robustness tests that change the policy's implementation year and the technological innovation measure. Further analysis shows that this positive effect is heterogeneous across high-carbon industries and firms with different ownership. In addition, based on the external governance perspective, we find that CET policy performs better in firms in high-carbon industries with a sizable portion of ownership held by institutional investors. This study suggests the effectiveness of CET policy in promoting firms' technological innovation, confirms empirical evidence for Porter's hypothesis, and provides a basis for Chinese firms to achieve their emission reduction targets by improving technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dual-credit policy is expected to achieve subsidy policy withdrawal through the effective market-oriented mechanism of credit trading, which has both rewards and sanctions for auto firms. The policy can activate the endogenous motivation of automakers to conserve energy and cut carbon emissions, which aids in creating a long-term mechanism to foster the growth of the auto industry. This paper examines the impact of the dual-credit policy on the quantity and quality of green innovation in auto firms using the difference-in-differences (DID) model. Based on the data of listed firms in the auto industry in the China A-share market from 2014 to 2020, we discover that the DCP-assessed auto firms' green innovation performance improves significantly after implementing the DCP. By analyzing the mediating effect, we identify that the dual-credit policy enhances corporate environmental responsibility and R&D investment, thus improves their green innovation performance. Further, the role of the dual-credit policy in enhancing green innovation increases significantly with the weakening of government environmental subsidies and the strengthening of government environmental penalties. Our findings expand the research on the implementation effects of the dual-credit policy and policies combining environmental regulation and market incentives. We emphasize the importance of the dual-credit policy in furthering the reform of the energy consumption structure and building a green innovation system that is focused on the market, and we propose that the government play a complementary role with the market through reasonable regulation and supervision. • The dual-credit policy (DCP) can improve auto firms' green innovation. • The corporate environmental responsibility and R&D investment are primary mechanisms for improvement of green innovation. • Government subsidies dampens the green innovation-enhancing effect of the DCP. • Government environmental penalties promotes the green innovation-enhancing effect of the DCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alleviating global climate change requires the development and adoption of green innovation. This study compares the impact of cooperative and independent green innovation on carbon reduction based on the panel data covering 252 cities in China from 2003 to 2019. We examine the heterogeneous impacts of cooperative green innovation across units, and explain the transmission mechanism. The two-way fixed effects model and interaction model are adopted. Results show that: (1) Cooperative green innovation can reduce carbon emissions more effectively than independent green innovation. A 1% increase in cooperative green patents (inventions) will reduce carbon emissions by 0.023% (0.037%), while independent green patents or inventions play a weak role. (2) For research and development (R&D) partners, firms' cooperative green innovation has a stronger positive effect on carbon reduction than research organizations. The carbon reduction effect of cooperative green innovation is better for listed firms and universities. (3) Mechanism analysis shows cooperative green innovation can reduce carbon emissions by improving the industrial structure and decreasing energy intensity. These effects are stronger when cities have more talent, funds and higher marketability. (4) We also find that listed firms' cooperative green inventions with a ten-year lag can still reduce carbon emissions effectively. Cooperative green innovation is conducive to carbon reduction among eastern and central cities of China. [Display omitted] • This paper explores the impact of green innovation on carbon reduction from the new perspective of cooperation. • Cooperative green innovation is more effective than independent green innovation in carbon reduction. • Cooperative green innovation of listed firms and universities is more conducive to carbon reduction. • Cooperative green innovation can optimize the industrial structure and decrease energy intensity for better carbon reduction. • Cooperative green innovation with more talent, funds and market has better carbon reduction effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on China's provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, this paper examines the complex impact of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency from the perspective of spatial mismatch of research and development (R&D) resources. The super slack-based measured directional distance function (super-SBM-DDF) is applied to measure the green innovation efficiency, while the least square dummy variable model (LSDV) is implemented to evaluate the mismatch of R&D resources in the new energy industry. Based on the generalized method of moment (GMM), the moderating effect model, and the dynamic threshold model are employed to investigate the threshold effect of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency and the moderating effect of spatial mismatch of R&D resources. We come to the following findings. First, the agglomeration of China's new energy industry exhibits a "west-east-central" gradient distribution. In the meantime, there is a widespread insufficient mismatch of R&D resources in the majority of regions. Second, the agglomeration of the new energy industry can significantly boost the efficiency of green innovation. Moderate agglomeration can have a marginally enhancing effect, whereas excessive agglomeration will obscure the green innovation effect of new energy industry agglomeration. Third, the relationship between the new energy industry agglomeration and green innovation efficiency is negatively moderated by the mismatch of R&D resources, while the moderating effect is amplified by the mismatch of innovation financial resources. Fourth, there are two inflection points in the positive impact of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency when the innovation resource mismatch is assigned as the threshold variable. [Display omitted] • The relationship among industry agglomeration, R&D resources mismatch and green innovation efficiency is investigated. • The mismatch of R&D resources is calculated by LSDV. The green innovation efficiency is measured by super-SBM-DDF. • The new energy industry presents a gradient distribution of "west-east-central" and there is a mismatch of R&D resources. • R&D resources mismatch hinders the positive effect of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency. • Dynamic threshold panel model reveals the nonlinear relationship between agglomeration and green innovation efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions reduction has become a core task with the goal of "emission peak and carbon neutrality", in which green innovation plays an important role. This paper takes the fast-tracking green patent applications (FGPA) system in China as a quasi-natural experiment to empirically study the impact of green innovation incentive-based policies (GIIPs) on CO 2 emissions in Chinese cities by applying a continuous difference-in-difference approach. The results show that the CO 2 emissions of cities in the treatment group are significantly reduced by about 1.6% after the implementation of FGPA relative to that in the control group. After a series of robustness tests, the conclusion is still valid. Furthermore, the significant negative impact on CO 2 emissions is more reflected in cities located in eastern China, cities with lower financial pressure, and cities with more universities. Overall, this study fills up the gap in the empirical research on the impact of FGPA, and casts a new light on the significant environmental performance of GIIPs. The findings obtained through this study are conducive to strengthening and optimizing the implementation of FGPA, and offering policy-makers with a scientific basis of GIIPs to approach the task of reducing CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, cleaner production (CP) has attracted more attention from developing countries because of its various advantages. However, due to the lack of management constraints, CP activities often cannot keep efficient for long. To alleviate this problem, we put forward the cleaner production management (CPM) system and applied it in China. Based on our previous research, this paper constructed a comprehensive performance evaluation system to effectively supervise the implementation effect of CPM system. By analysing the flows of material, energy and information, a multi-level index system integrating the CPM requirements and sustainable development needs was established. And the quantification of performance was realized by combining the analytic hierarchy process and grey relational degree operation, which reliability was confirmed by sensitivity analysis. The case study in Chinese steel enterprise showed that after implementing CPM system for three years, the overall performance level increased by about 25%. It has confirmed that the application of CPM mode could obviously promote the sustainable green development of the steel enterprise and provide the directions for carrying out CP plans in the next step, such as strengthening innovation of management system and improving employees' awareness of CP activities. In the context of enterprises seeking sustainable development, CPM system and performance evaluation possess broad application value. [Display omitted] • Quantitative evaluation of a new management system integrating cleaner production. • Case study of the cleaner production management system applied in steel enterprise. • An index system focused on the green sustainable development benefits. • A performance evaluation method combining AHP and grey relational analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research takes manufacturing enterprises with big data capability as the research object, based on organizational decision-making theory and planned behavior theory, the mediation effect model of "capability-intention-behavior" is constructed. It uses econometric models to explore the impact and conduction process of big data capability on green process innovation. The results show that big data capability have an obvious direct effect on green process innovation. By examining the mediation effect test, we find that green innovation intention partially mediates the relationship between big data capability and green process innovation. Then a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fs QCA) is used in this paper to analyze the causal complexity between big data capability and green process innovation, and to identify six effective configuration paths. According to the results, the synergy of big data acquisition capability, big data analysis capability and big data insight capability is crucial for high green process innovation, where big data insight capability plays a central role and big data acquisition capability or analysis capability and green innovation intention play a marginal role. According to the heterogeneity test, it is found that big data capability has stronger roles in the eastern region in China; green innovation intention has a stronger impact in the central and western regions in China. As enterprise-scale increases, the impact of big data capability on green process innovation increases and then declines, while the impact of green innovation intention on green process innovation continues to decline. [Display omitted] • Dividing big data capability into acquisition, analysis and insight capabilities. • Big data capability affects green process innovation via green innovation intention. • Constructing the intermediary effect model of "capability-intention-behavior". • Fs QCA is used to analyze the causal complexity and identify the configuration paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a special type of innovation ecosystem, enterprise green innovation ecosystem (EGIE) provides important support for the formation and diffusion of green innovation. Facing the complexity of green innovation, the research of enterprise green innovation ecosystem needs to rely on new methods and theories. Based on this, we propose to clarify the evolution mechanism of EGIE through synergetics theory. We establish a three-dimensional dynamic evolution model to describe the interactive relationship among green knowledge creation, green product production and green product commercialization in EGIE and conduct simulation analysis. The research finds that under the effect of environmental regulation (ER), EGIE has a trend of collaborative evolution, in which green knowledge creation and green product commercialization show a significant collaborative relationship, while green product production is relatively stable. The life cycle of EGIE will lead to the difference of collaborative state, and the synergy rate of mature EGIE is the fastest. Under different intensities of ER, the synergistic effect of EGIE is significantly different, and higher intensity of ER is more conducive to the collaborative evolution of EGIE. With this research, the paper promotes the research on the collaborative evolution mechanism of EGIE, provides new perspectives and new methods, and plays a positive role in the collaborative development of EGIE. • Established a three-dimensional dynamic evolution model to reveal the interactive relationship in the enterprise green innovation ecosystem. • Explained the linkage effect between the external environmental control mechanism and the internal green innovation process interaction mechanism. • Provided a new perspective for solving the complexity of the collaborative evolution mechanism of enterprise green innovation ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a model for the slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) was used to measure the green innovation efficiency (GIE) of 79 cities in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) from 2003 to 2018. In addition, the panel threshold model was employed to test the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulation intensity (ERI) and GIE. According to the results, the average GIE in the YRB was 0.68. However, the GIE exhibited a rising and fluctuating temporal trend and the following spatial trend: "lower reaches > upper reaches > middle reaches." Moreover, ERI had a double threshold effect on GIE in the YRB. That is, ERI had a significant positive impact on GIE only when ERI ranged between 0.595 and 0.899. Furthermore, the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the YRB exhibited different nonlinear correlations between ERI and GIE. Therefore, it is essential to implement environmental regulations that are appropriate for the actual conditions of each region. In addition, the per capita income, teacher resources, industrial structure, and actual utilization of foreign capital are significant factors affecting GIE in the YRB. These findings can help governments formulate suitable environmental policies and promote green innovation in the YRB, thereby contributing toward the goal of global sustainable development. • The efficiency of green innovation in the Yellow River Basin increases. • The efficiency of green innovation shows a spatial pattern of "lower reaches > upper reaches > middle reaches". • Regulations have a double threshold effect on the efficiency of green innovation. • The efficiency of green innovation must be improved based on the actual development of each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy is becoming increasingly important in the field of carbon governance. However, there is little literature examining the relationship between the digital economy and clean energy development. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between the digital economy and clean energy and its spatial effects. We explored the effects of the digital economy using adouble fixed effects model and a spatial econometric model using 276 cities in China from 2011 to 2019 as the original data. We find that the digital economy can drive clean energy development. Technological innovation and city bank loans play an important mediating role in this. Second, we find that market-driven amplifies the positive effects of the digital economy compared with government intervention, and the effects of the digital economy are different under different regions. Finally, we find that the digital economy can drive clean energy not only in local cities, but also indirectly in neighboring cities. These facts suggest that the digital economy is an important way to drive clean energy development and thus effectively achieve sustainable development. Our study provides new ideas for building digital economy and clean energy development in emerging developing countries such as China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling carbon emissions and sustaining growth constitute essential concerns in the post-financial crisis era combined with low-carbon sustainable development. However, the impact of financial development on carbon emissions remains controversial and lacks mechanisms investigation covering finance spatial attributes. Relying on China province's data during 2005–2019, this paper contributes to the literature by constructing multi-spatial models to investigate how financial geo-density mitigates carbon emission intensity and explore the spatial transmission mechanisms. The results reveal that there is a balance between financial geo-density and carbon emission intensity. The intrinsic mechanisms include: (1) raising financial geo-density is accompanied by the law of marginal diminishing carbon emission intensity tendency; (2) high financial geo-density accelerates technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, thereby decreasing carbon emission intensity, but drives industrial-scale expansion, thereby increasing carbon emission intensity; and (3) financial institution competition and inter-industry linkage notably influence the relationship between financial geo-density and carbon emission intensity, promoting the emission reduction effect of financial geo-density in accelerating technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, and suppressing the emission increase effect of financial geo-density in driving industrial expansion. Our findings provide new insights for developing systemic emission reduction policies for employing financial sectors as catch-all and integrating industries and competition. • Mechanism analysis of financial geo-density affects carbon emission intensity (IC). • Propose an integrated spatial model including spatial mediated moderating effects. • Financial geo-density drives IC by industrial-scale expansion. • Reduce IC by technological innovation and industrial upgrading. • Financial institution rivalry and inter-industry link mitigate total driven effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms of green finance on green innovation, focusing on their spatial and non-linear relationships. Using panel data of 30 provinces of China during the period of 2009–2017, a green finance index is constructed, and the spatial Durbin model and panel threshold model are used. The results reveal that: (1) Green finance and green innovation had significant positive autocorrelation, and the development of green finance in provinces of central and western China were still in the lower-level range. (2) The coefficients of the direct effect and indirect effect of green finance on green innovation were significantly positive, which indicated that green finance was conducive to enhancing green innovation in local and adjacent provinces during the research period. (3) Double threshold effects of green finance on green innovation were observed, which demonstrated that the driving effect of green finance was decreased with the raising of intensity of environmental regulation. The implication of these results is that government should make full use of the radiation and trickle-down functions of green finance and green innovation to narrow regional gaps in sustainable development while maintaining a moderate intensity of environmental regulation. • A green finance index of 30 provinces of China during the period of 2009 to 2017 was constructed on the basis of green credit, green securities, green insurance, and green investment. • The heterogeneity of region and time for green finance were analyzed employing the spatial exploratory analysis, which manifested that the spatial evolution of green finance in China presents a gradient decreasing pattern from east to west. • The impact of green finance on green innovation was explored by the spatial Durbin model, which proved that the direct effect and the spatial spillover effect were significantly positive. • Moderate intensity of environmental regulation helps green finance promote green innovation and this value should not exceed a maximum of 0.935. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has incorporated green technology innovation into its national development strategy based on its national conditions and development needs. The emission permit system is a typical environmental regulation, and one of the driving forces of green technology innovation. Research into the pollution discharge permits system is a key for improving environmental regulations. This study seeks to investigate the impact of pollution permits system on green innovation in China. Using econometric methods, we constructed and tested the model of green technology innovation incentives based on the emission permits system, and applied it to several Chinese counties and districts. The results revealed shortcomings in implementation of the emission permits system in various counties and districts. From a governmental perspective, this was due to poor standardization of management processes and insufficiently innovative supervisory methods. On the corporate side, problems included poor auditing of law enforcement plans, poor implementation of the ledger system, and a lack of disclosure of pollution data. We propose comprehensive strategies to address these issues. This paper explores the emission reduction potential of the pollution discharge permits system at the county level, in accordance with the Porter hypothesis, and provides reference data for the formulation and optimization of energy conservation and emission reduction policies. This will promote green development of the chemical and other industries, and green technology innovation in China. • We explore the pollution discharge permits system at the county level. • We construct a model of the impact of pollution discharge permits system. • We put forward some strategies for promoting green technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model, this paper explores the influence of electricity generation and technological innovation on CO 2 emissions, as well as that of population and economic growth, in China during the period of 1985–2019. Econometric methods of smooth transition regression (STR) are used to calculate the threshold effects of the linkage among the selected variables. The conversion function of LSTR(1) (logistic STR with one regime switch) is selected by F-statistics based on third-order Taylor approximation. The results of the diagnostic test indicate that when the growth rate of electricity generation exceeds 8.914%, the relationships become nonlinear. Moreover, 1% increases of electricity generation and technological innovation may lead to increases of 2.91664% and 0.31016% in China's CO 2 emissions, respectively, while a 1% increase in economic growth can decrease China's CO 2 emissions by 1.16441%. Finally, some implications are suggested, such as strengthening the publicity surrounding environmental protection to reduce the footprint of CO 2 emissions, extending the green GDP even further, and building a more diversified power supply structure. [Display omitted] • Nonlinear STR model is established based on STIRPAT model in China. • Positive impacts of population, electricity, and innovation on emissions are found. • Economic growth may lead to emissions reduction. • Translation of technological innovation should be advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the effects of China's green credit policy on highly polluting enterprises' green radical and incremental innovations. Utilizing the data of China's listed firms from 2007 to 2019, the empirical results show that green credit policy improves the overall and incremental green innovations but impedes the radical green innovation of highly polluting enterprises. Local governments' interventions, including direct intervention and environmental investment, not only mitigate the negative impact of the policy on radical innovation but also facilitate the positive effects. Our findings provide suggestions for the implementation of China's green credit policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world second largest economy, China aims at achieving high-quality and innovation-driven development. This paper investigates the effects of different technological innovations on green productivity in 261 Chinese cities from 2004 to 2017. We employ the super-efficiency Epsilon-based measure (EBM) model with undesirable outputs under meta frontier and a global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index. We decompose the GML index into efficiency change (GEC) index and technology change (GTC) index to measure the dynamic changes of China's urban green development. Results showed that the average GML index is 0.924 thereby, indicating China's urban green development is at a decreasing trend. The eastern region had the highest GML index among three regions followed by the western region. Moreover, we explored the determinants of urban green productivity through panel quantile regression and found the heterogeneous impacts of different technological innovations on green productivity. Invention patents and design patents positively affected the urban green productivity while utility patents exerted a significantly negative influence. Invention patents promoted the GTC and GEC index while utility patents impeded at some quantiles. FDI yielded both "Pollution Halo Hypothesis" and "Pollution Heaven Hypothesis" effects. Invention, utility and design patents all have threshold effects on China's green productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional finance has many deficiencies in promoting green technology innovation (GTI) and energy-environmental performance (EEP). The emerging digital finance is filling the gaps left by conventional finance with the support of information technology. Using panel data from 2011 to 2017, the paper explores the impact of digital finance on energy-environmental performance in China. The results show that digital finance significantly improves China's energy-environmental performance, which remains robust after a series of tests. Green technology innovation is the transmission path through which digital finance affects energy-environmental performance. The impact mechanism test proves that digital finance affects pure technical efficiency rather than scale efficiency. Furthermore, we also find that digital finance has a greater stimulus effect on energy-environmental performance where credit and capital markets are more immature. Financial supervision and environmental regulation from the Chinese government can reinforce the role of digital finance in promoting energy-environmental performance. Our study suggests that China should accelerate digitization in the financial markets, particularly in pursuit of its energy-saving and emission-reduction effects. • Digital finance can improve energy-environmental performance significantly. • The green technology innovation is the primary mechanism for the improvement of energy-environmental performance. • Instrumental variable, Semiparametric, DID models are employed to exclude endogeneity. • Credit and capital markets, financial and environmental supervision can reinforce the role of digital finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]