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Improving carbon emission efficiency is crucial for achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality. This paper analyzes the carbon emission efficiency of Chinese cities using panel data from 275 prefecture-level cities between 2006 and 2020. The super-efficiency SBM (undesirable slacks-based measurement) model of undesired output, combined with kernel density estimation and exploratory data analysis, is employed. This study finds, firstly, from 2006 to 2020, the average efficiency of carbon emissions in Chinese cities declined from 0.53 to 0.48, indicating a downward trend. Secondly, from a temporal perspective, the level of dispersion in urban carbon emission efficiency has become increasingly distinct over time, coupled with a decrease in polarization. Thirdly, in terms of spatial analysis, urban carbon emission efficiency in China shows a positive correlation in a global context. In terms of local spatial correlation, it primarily exhibits high-high and low-low clusters, with a few instances of low–high and high-low clusters. Finally, based on the research findings, this paper proposes suggestions to improve urban carbon emission efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of society, the number of female-headed households is on the rise. Based on the data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2019, this paper establishes a Tobit model to study the influence of female-headed households on household debt risk. Results indicate that female-headed households can substantially reduce household debt risk, and this conclusion still holds after overcoming endogeneity issues. Further tests on the mediating effect reveal that risk aversion and housing property holding have partial mediating effects and masking effects, respectively, in the path of female-headed households affecting household debt risk. In addition, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that the influence of female-headed households on household debt risk is more significant in third-tier cities, as well as in families without children, families without elderly members, and families with more than two elderly members. The conclusions of this paper provide a reference for the relevant policy measures to reduce household debt risk and promote gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green development is the main theme of modern development in China and even the world. Green development depends on green technology innovation (GTI). Therefore, for developing countries like China in the stage of economic transition, it is urgent to accelerate GTI to gain sustained advantages in the new round of international competition. As an important representative of contemporary rapid transportation, high-speed railway (HSR) can not only alleviate the rapidly growing transportation demand of the public, but also have potential benefits to the energy consumption structure and environmental quality. Whether and how HSR affects GTI has become the focus of this paper. Hence, by employing the panel data of 286 cities in China from 2007 to 2018 with the time-varying DID model, this paper verifies that HSR development can contribute to GTI. The main findings of this paper are as follows: (1) The operation of HSR can not only make the incremental development of GTI, but also improve the quality of GTI simultaneously. Moreover, the quality improvement effect of HSR is greater than the quantity increment effect. (2) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of HSR on GTI is more significant for cities that have implemented LCCP. (3) This paper verifies the mediating effect of high-quality human capital. The opening of HSR further stimulates GTI by improving the level of high-quality human capital in cities and increasing the opportunities for knowledge exchange and diffusion. Based on the above findings, this paper proposes some policy recommendations to help developing countries achieve GTI with positive externalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of global urban development, there are urgent ecological security and environmental pollution problems, green development is the fundamental way for urban sustainable development, economic transformation and mitigation of ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 283 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyzes spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of urban green development efficiency (UGDE) and the peer effects of UGDE between cities of different grades. It is found that during the study period, in terms of temporal evolution, the average UGDE in China increased from 0.47 in 2003 to 0.61 in 2017, with a cumulative growth rate of 29.79%, showing a rising trend in general. In terms of spatial evolution, the number of low-efficiency cities and medium-efficiency cities continued to decrease. The eastern region has always been the main distribution area of higher-efficiency cities and high-efficiency cities; in the central region, UGDE in most cities improved significantly; in the western region, UGDE has always lagged behind that in the eastern and central regions. In addition, the center of gravity of UGDE presented a trend of northwest migration in general, with a total displacement of 100.07 km, and UGDE showed a spatial dispersion trend. The empirical results indicate that the improvement of UGDE in large cities has a driving effect on that in neighboring medium cities and small cities through the positive peer effect, and the growth of UGDE in medium cities has a promoting effect on that in neighboring small cities through the positive peer effect; the increase of UGDE in medium cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring large cities, and the growth of UGDE in small cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring medium cities; UGDE promotes each other between large cities through the positive peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the effect of highways on economic growth has been widely discussed, its role in green technological innovation has not yet attracted attention facing today's strong emphasis on the green economy. To fill this gap, this paper aims to provide empirical evidence by investigating the effects of highways on regional green technological innovation in China. The paper elaborates theoretically on three mechanisms through which the development of highways may influence regional green technological innovation, namely the agglomeration effect, spatial spillover effect, and network effect. To advance the empirical analysis, this paper constructs a spatial Durbin model accounting for spatial interdependencies among regions. Unlike previous literature, this paper uses "the strength of economic linkage" to indicate the development of highways in each city and discusses geographic distance and time-distance effect (spatio-temporal effect) resulting from highways. Using panel data of 105 prefecture-level cities in China's Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2001 to 2013, we find that: (1) highway has a significant role in promoting regional green technological innovation; (2) significant spatial spillover effects resulting from highways exist and the magnitude of the influence varies with geographical and temporal distance effect. Our findings provide references for developing transportation infrastructure and green innovation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how National Eco-industrial Demonstration Parks (NEDP) in China affects carbon emission efficiency. The difference-in-differences (DID) strategy is used for analysis. This paper finds that the construction of NEDP is conducive to the improvement of carbon emission efficiency, and the findings remain robust through placebo tests and propensity score matching. Heterogeneity analysis shows NEDP construction has greater utility on carbon efficiency in non-resource-based cities as well as in environmentally friendly cities. The mechanism analysis found that green technology innovation, industrial restructuring, and the relocation of industrial enterprises are effective ways to improve carbon efficiency in NEDP. Finally, this paper finds that the construction of NEDP has obvious spatial spillover effects on carbon efficiency, which can effectively heighten the carbon efficiency level of this locality and nearby areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green economy is the core content of the high-quality economic development, and the digital economy is the new driving force to accelerate the realization of high-quality economic development. In this regard, this paper selects 248 resource-based cities in China from 2011 to 2019 as the research objects and uses the fixed effect model and mediation effect model to test the relationship between digital economy and regional green total factor productivity. We get the following conclusions: First, there is the nonlinear relationship between digital economy and regional green total factor productivity, and this relationship shows the inverted U-shape. Secondly, digital economy can influence regional green total factor productivity through the path transmission mechanism of regional technological innovation, industrial structure, and environmental regulation. Finally, the effect of digital economy on regional green total factor productivity is heterogeneous, especially in the eastern region and cities with high human capital level. Based on the digital economy, the findings of this paper provide theoretical basis and reference suggestions for promoting the green development of regional economy. The government should attach importance to regional green development, actively guide the digital economy to promote green development, accelerate the development of the digital economy, and achieve high-quality economic development finally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of environment in promoting happiness has been well known, but the impact of the government's ecological environment policy on residents' happiness remains to be explored. This paper uses the first batch of pilot policies for the construction of eco-civilized cities in China (Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guizhou) as a quasi-natural experiment to empirically study the impact of ecological civilization construction in China on residents' subjective well-being. Using the data from the China Household Finance Survey and difference in difference method, we find that Chinese ecological civilization construction has significantly improved the happiness of local residents. Mechanism analysis shows that the "happiness effect" mechanism of Chinese ecological civilization construction by improving household income, health level, and the living environment of residents. In addition, the "happiness effect" of Chinese ecological civilization construction shows group heterogeneity, and ecological civilization construction plays a larger role in promoting the well-being of residents of low-asset families, urban families, and families that own their own houses. Finally, the "happiness effect" of Chinese ecological civilization construction shows regional heterogeneity, and the construction of ecological civilization has a more striking effect on improving the well-being of residents in Jiangxi province and Guizhou province. According to the authors' knowledge, the present study is the first to study the impact of China's macroeconomic environmental policies on residents' happiness, and the present study contributes to the research on residents' happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the panel data of 275 prefecture-level cities in China in 2003–2019 and spatial Durbin model to verify the impact of environmental regulation and industrial agglomeration on air pollution. This paper finds that the enforcement intensity of environmental regulations (ER) is not consistent among cities. The effects of strict ER on air pollution in local city are the inverted-U-shape curve. The effects of more stringent ER in adjacent cities j on air pollution in city i are the U-shape curve. The more stringent ER in local city may lead to the decrease in agglomeration of manufacturing sectors (AM), thereby reducing air pollution. The polluting firms may shift production from neighboring cities j with stringent ER to city i with lax ER, thereby leading to the increase in AM, which aggravate air pollution in city i. The more stringent ER in local city i may lead to the increase in agglomeration of productive service industry (AS), thereby reducing air pollution. To avoid the transfer of polluting industrial sectors, the paper suggests that the more stringent implementation of ER should become nationwide actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food consumption has resulted in great carbon emissions in recent years. China has been facing the new mitigation challenge of carbon emissions with its emerging middle-income groups, especially in urban areas. This paper analyzes and predicts carbon emissions from food consumption (CEFC) of middle-income groups in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), which has a higher emerging middle-income group and the highest economic corridor in China. Few studies address CEFC analysis from middle-income groups perspective; thus, this paper calculates urban–rural CEFC of middle-income groups spanning 2010–2018 and predicts them in 2025, 2030 and 2035 using the extended IPAT model. Results are as follows: (1) YREB's urban–rural CEFC of middle-income groups show an upward trend and present a spatial pattern of "low–high–low–high" from the western region to the eastern region. Urban CEFC of middle-income groups are significantly higher than that of rural areas; (2) rural CEFC of middle-income groups in the YREB will first increase in 2025 and then decrease in 2030 and 2035. The growing trend of urban CEFC of middle-income groups will show a significant downward from 2025 to 2035. The growing proportion of urban CEFC of middle-income groups will exhibit an objective growth in 2035. Understanding the changing trend of CEFC of middle-income groups provides governments with differentiated and forward-looking suggestions toward coordinating middle-income groups' expansion and carbon emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of high-speed railways and the smart city pilot (HSR-SCP) demonstrates the synergy of traditional and new infrastructure upgrades, which has a significant influence on the economic transition and green economic growth. However, little study has been conducted on the impact of HSR-SCP synergy on carbon emissions. Applying China's prefecture-level panel data, this paper, therefore, attempts to investigate the effect of HSR-SCP on carbon emissions and uncover its in-depth mechanism through the multi-period difference-in-differences model. Notably, an appropriate instrumental variable for HSR-SCP is introduced to address possible endogeneity. The main conclusions indicate that the construction of HSR-SCP plays an essential role in cutting carbon emissions, which is still valid after adopting the instrumental variable method and some robustness tests. Furthermore, green technology innovation plays a crucial intermediary role in that relationship. Finally, the carbon reduction effect of HSR-SCP is significant in Mid-Eastern China and cities with high population sizes and administrative levels, but not in other cities or regions. The research conclusions demonstrate the significant synergy of traditional and new infrastructure upgrades on carbon reduction and provide an empirical foundation for developing countries to realize low-carbon development through optimizing smart infrastructure and promoting green technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper firstly uses the DEA-based Range Directional Model (RDM) and the Global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index to calculate the Green Efficiency Index (GEI) of China's cities under the constraints of pollution emissions, energy consumption, and natural resource occupancy. The GEI shows that the average green efficiency of the 285 sample cities achieved a total improvement of 10.1% from 2003 to 2019. The average cumulative improvement rate of green efficiency in the 110 cities in Pollutants Emission Trading Pilot Scheme (PETPS) from 2003 to 2019 was 14.9%, which was higher than the average of non-pilot cities (8.6%). Subsequently, this paper constructs a spatial difference-in-differences model (Spatial-DID) to empirically test the green efficiency promotion effect of PETPS from two aspects: local and spatial spillover. It is found that PETPS can promote the progress of local green efficiency in pilot cities, but there is a spatial spillover effect that is not conducive to the green efficiency progress in surrounding areas. The results of the mediation effect analysis show that the launch of PETPS will significantly reduce the clustering of industrial production activities in the pilot cities, thereby accelerating the green efficiency progress. However, PETPS can also promote clustering of industrial production activities in surrounding areas, thereby inhibiting the green efficiency progress in surrounding areas. These analysis results can fully explain the cause of the negative spatial spillover effect of PETPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How the transformation of trade patterns affects carbon emissions is an important topic in the field of trade and the environment. Based on the panel data of Chinese cities from 2000 to 2016, this paper uses fixed effect model, instrumental variable model and threshold estimation model to investigate the impact of the transformation of export trade patterns on carbon emissions and its internal mechanism. We find that during the investigation period, the transformation of export trade pattern has a significant "U"-shaped nonlinear impact on carbon emissions, and the research results still hold after a series of robustness checks and instrumental variable estimation; through the mechanism analysis of the threshold effect, it is found that in the process of the impact of trade patterns transformation on carbon emissions, there are double thresholds for energy structure transition; the nonlinear impact of export trade pattern transformation on carbon emissions has significant heterogeneity in different regions, city categories, and different periods; the mechanism analysis results show that industrial structure upgrading, industrial co-agglomeration, and green technology innovation are the main paths that the transformation of export trade patterns affects carbon emissions. Under the dual goals of fulfilling China's commitment to "carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060" and implementing corporate social governance to promote green and sustainable development, this paper will provide suggestions for realizing the goal of low-carbon emission reduction from the perspective of the transformation of export trade patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance (GF) is recognized as a key driver of sustainable development. While existing studies have extensively discussed the relationship between GF and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), few have explored the coupling coordination relationship between GF and SDGs. In this paper, we use data from thirty Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) from 2008–2021 to examine the degree of coupling coordination development (CCD) between GF and the SDGs systems using the CCD model. We find that most SDGs and their sub-goals exhibit a significant upward trend, except for SDG8, 14–16. GF presents a fluctuating upward trend, with a significant decline in 2010 and 2019. The CCDs between GF and SDGs and their sub-goals generally show an M-shaped upward trend in most regions, with most of them experiencing a synchronous decline in 2011–2012 and 2019. In the analysis of regional heterogeneity, the eastern region performs better in SDG8–9, the central region performs better in SDG3, 14–15, while the western region performs better in SDG7. This paper provides empirical evidence for a further in-depth understanding of the relationship between GF and SDGs, which can contribute to advancing GF development and the SDG process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a quasi-natural experiment of national innovative city pilot policy (NICPP) is carried out to investigate the impact of the NICPP on green technology innovation (GTI) and its intrinsic mechanism with the method of difference-in-differences. It is found that the NICPP significantly enhances GTI, and there is a certain lag and persistence in this effect. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the higher the administrative level and the more the geographical advantages of NICPP, the more obvious the driving effect of GTI. The mechanism test shows that the NICPP has an effect on the GTI through three channels: innovation factor input, agglomeration effect of science and technology talent, and entrepreneurial vitality empowerment. The findings of this study provide policy insights for further optimizing the construction of innovative cities and then promoting GTI development, ultimately realizing green dynamics transformation and high-quality development of China's economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the cancellation of highway tolls can reduce costs and increase efficiency in the transportation industry, it also triggers environmental problems. Using panel data on 276 cities in China from 2005 to 2019, we explore the urban haze pollution and its mechanism caused by cancellation of high-grade highway tolls with a combination of propensity score matching and time-varying difference in differences, and also apply a spatial Durbin model to test the haze pollution spatial spillover effect. The study shows that the cancellation of high-grade highway tolls significantly aggravates haze pollution in cities. Regional heterogeneity analysis indicates that the policy has a greater impact on eastern cities and raises haze pollutions in resource-based cities more than in non-resource-based cities. Further mechanism tests show that the policy exacerbates urban haze pollution through the detour effect and pollution spatial spillover effect. The findings of this paper enrich the literature on the environmental impacts of highway toll behavior and provide experiences for the formulation and implementation of highway toll policies in China's transportation sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential part of ecological civilization, water ecological civilization has significant influence on the green and sustainable development of cities. Under the background of China's Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot (WECCP), based on data from 275 cities in China from 2007 to 2019 by using the difference-in-differences (DID) model, we empirically analyzed the influence of the WECCP establishment on urban green innovation and explored the impact mechanism in depth using a mediating effect model, which aimed to verify whether the "Porter hypothesis" holds true in China. The result indicated that the WECCP had made a remarkable contribution to enhancing urban green innovation in the pilot cities. Further research found that the input mechanism played an important mediating role. In addition, the heterogeneity test indicated that cities in the central region, at low administrative levels, and in the first batch of pilots gained more from the policy establishment. This paper has theoretical implications for understanding the derived innovation benefits of the environmental policy, practical implications for identifying new drivers of urban innovation, and provides related experience for the country to further promote and expand water ecological civilization construction and useful policy inspiration for other developing countries to formulate ecological and environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening up, China has achieved rapid economic development at the cost of environmental pollution, but this extensive development mode is increasingly difficult to sustain. Fortunately, China has begun to attach importance to environmental pollution and green output, and the central and local governments have successively issued many environmental regulation policies. Taking 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2017 as samples, this paper uses slacks-based measure (SBM) model based on unexpected output to measure the green output efficiency. Taking green output efficiency as the explanatory variable and environmental regulation as the explanatory variable, this paper analyzes its local effect and neighboring effect. The regression results of the whole sample show that environmental regulation in China will have a positive impact on green output efficiency, but it will have a negative impact on neighboring cities. Furthermore, considering the differences of economic development levels among the eastern, central and western regions of China, the samples of the three regions were regressed, and it was found that the higher the economic development level, the greater the impact of environmental regulation on the regions. Therefore, cities should not only ensure their own characteristics, but also pay attention to policy coordination among cities when formulating relevant environmental regulation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provinces (cities and districts) with identifiable boundaries are under intense pressure to reduce emissions as a fundamental unit and research object of carbon peaking and carbon-neutrality goals. Due to the significant variability of regional development, achieving equilibrium between carbon emissions and carbon absorption is challenging, contributing to the difficulty of developing carbon emission reduction and relevant green strategic initiatives in China. Therefore, this paper explored the spatial effect of carbon balance with carbon pressure as the starting point. First, this paper defined the "carbon pressure index" (CPI) of 30 provinces (cities and districts) in China from 2000 to 2019. Second, this paper validated the CPI agglomeration evolutionary characteristics in global and local aspects based on the Moran's index. Third, this paper identified and decomposed the spatial heterogeneity of CPI using the kernel density estimation method and the Theil index, then extracted typical cities to analyze the specific causes. Finally, this paper classified the seven regions in China into four types according to a comprehensive analysis of CPI. The results indicated that China's ecological carbon cycle system was in a serious "carbon overload" state. Thirty provinces (cities and districts) showed significant spatial agglomeration characteristics. The spatial gap of CPI was gradually decreasing nationwide, and the intra-regional differences were the leading cause of CPI levels in China. This can provide policy basis for the improvement of China's balanced development system of regional carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Basin Horizontal Ecological Compensation Mechanism (BHEC) is a significant institutional innovation in China's water environment management, aimed at achieving green, low-carbon, and high-quality development in the basin. This paper examines the current status of the spatial association network of green low-carbon development in Xin'an River basin, using social network analysis based on data from prefecture-level cities between 2006 and 2019. Using a dual difference model, the paper explores the important role of BHEC in promoting green low-carbon development from the perspectives of production and consumption and analyzes the path of BHEC's promotion of green low-carbon development in detail. The results indicate that (1) the green low-carbon development in the Xin'an River basin is universally connected in space, but this connection is uneven among the cities in the basin, presenting a network spatial structure with the central region as the core and the north and south regions approaching the core. (2) BHEC contributes to green low-carbon development, and the "two-wheel drive" of green technology progress and green technology efficiency is essential to improve green low-carbon development. (3) From the perspective of consumption affecting green low-carbon development, the positive impact of BHEC on green low-carbon development is inseparable from the synergistic guarantee of public participation. (4) From the production side of green low-carbon development, the ecological effect, structural effect, and technological effect are significant transmission factors of compensation policies affecting green low-carbon development. (5) The "blood transfusion" pilot policy is more helpful to improve green low-carbon development, and compensation policy has positive spillover effects. Finally, the paper argues that the trans-basin ecological compensation policy is expected to become a long-term mechanism to promote green low-carbon and high-quality development in the basin, providing a theoretical and practical basis for developing countries to achieve green low-carbon development through an ecological compensation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving total factor carbon emission efficiency (TCE) is the key to achieving carbon emission reduction targets while ensuring economic growth. In this paper, the global Malmquist index based on the SBM model is used to measure TCE of 283 cities in China from 2011 to 2019. On this basis, this paper uses the spatial econometric model and intermediary effect model to empirically analyze the impact of industrial co-agglomeration on TCE and its transmission mechanism. Furthermore, considering the differences in geographical location and resource endowment among regions, this paper analyzes the heterogeneous effect of industrial collaboration agglomeration on TCE in different regions and cities. The results show that: (1) Industrial co-agglomeration can improve TCE, and its main transmission channel is technological innovation. (2) Industrial co-agglomeration has a positive spatial spillover effect. Industrial co-agglomeration in one region can improve the TCE in the surrounding regions. (3) Industrial co-agglomeration of cities with different geographic locations and resource endowments has a heterogeneous effect on TCE. Regarding geographical heterogeneity, the industrial co-agglomeration in the eastern region has the greatest promoting effect on TCE, followed by the central region. However, the impact of industrial co-agglomeration in the western region on TCE is not significant. Regarding resource endowment heterogeneity, the industrial co-agglomeration in non-resource-based cities has a greater promoting effect on TCE than that in resource-based cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatial impact effects and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the digital economy on urban carbon emissions (CO2). Specifically, firstly, the Digital Economy Index (DEI) system of 285 cities in China was constructed and the Global Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) was applied to evaluate the digital economy level of Chinese cities. Based on spatial correlation and spatial heterogeneity, the paper explores the global spatial impact and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the impact of digital economy on CO2 using spatial Durbin model (SDM) and geographic time-weighted regression (GTWR), respectively. And the mechanism variables are used to further demonstrate the mechanism effect and nonlinear characteristics of the impact of digital economy on CO2. The findings indicate that (1) the advancement of the digital economy is beneficial for achieving carbon abatement goals, and the impact of the digital economy on CO2 mitigation remains stable across several robustness tests. (2) The spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on the impact of carbon reduction is not significant. And there is significant temporal and spatial heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions. (3) According to the mechanism analysis, the digital economy reduces carbon emissions by encouraging the development of green technologies and promoting the modernization of industrial structures. And there are non-linear characteristics of this effect. This study concludes that the digital economy can support China's goal of achieving "carbon peak and carbon neutrality." However, it is important to consider the differences in urban development over time and space. Leveraging the city's strengths to develop a digital economy in a unique way that will help achieve China's carbon reduction goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the digital economy grows rapidly around the world, how would it impact carbon emissions? This paper discusses this issue from the perspective of heterogeneous innovation. Based on the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper empirically examines the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions as well as the mediating and threshold effects of different innovation modes. The study finds that the digital economy can significantly reduce carbon emissions; this conclusion holds after a series of robustness tests. Independent innovation and imitative innovation are important channels through which the digital economy affects carbon emissions, but technological introduction is not an effective way. For regions with high levels of financial investment in science and innovative talents, the reduction in carbon emissions from the digital economy is more significant. Further research shows that the effect of the digital economy on carbon emissions has a threshold feature, with an inverted U-shaped relationship between the two, and that an increase in autonomous innovation and imitation innovation can enhance the digital economy's carbon reduction effect. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the capacity of independent innovation and imitation innovation to exploit the carbon-cutting effect of the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the efficiency of factor allocation, breaking the resource curse, and achieving high-quality economic development are an urgent concern in resource-based cities. Using the panel data of 116 prefecture-level resource-based cities in China from 2005 to 2020, this paper constructs the data envelopment analysis-Malmquist index model to measure the level of high-quality economic development; to construct a resource misallocation growth accounting model based on the total production function to measure the distortion coefficient, the threshold panel model is employed to explore the threshold effect of factor market distortion on high-quality economic development. The results yielded three important findings: (1) The green total factor productivity of resource-based cities in China presents spatial heterogeneity and type heterogeneity. (2) Factor market distortion gradient standards are proposed innovatively, and the factor market distortion level shows the spatial heterogeneity and type heterogeneity. (3) The influence of factor market distortion on high-quality economic development in resource-based cities presents a double threshold effect. According to the above research conclusions, this paper gives several policy recommendations to promote the factor marketization allocation and high-quality economic development of resource-based cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of digitization and greening in China, digital infrastructure offers new opportunities for developing green innovation. This paper investigates the effect of digital infrastructure on urban green innovation using panel data from 285 Chinese prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2020, and explains the mechanism and its spatial-temporal dynamic effect. The results demonstrate that digital infrastructure promotes urban green innovation. Talent agglomeration, R&D investment increase, and industrial structure upgrading are crucial channels. Furthermore, depending on a city's size, human capital, environmental regulations, and financial subsidies, digital infrastructure contributes to urban green innovation differently. Also, there is not only a positive spatial spillover effect of digital infrastructure but a threshold effect that presents a nonlinear trend of rising marginal effect. This study provides a new perspective for promoting digital infrastructure and urban green innovation, which makes a difference in facilitating its high-level development collaboratively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of population agglomeration on urban economic development quality in various cities of China. The results show that population agglomeration significantly contributes to the improvement of urban green total factor productivity by increasing population diversification, promoting knowledge spillovers, and reducing pollution emission intensity. Moreover, we find that population agglomeration in type II big cities and type I large cities significantly improves green total factor productivity, while the impact of population agglomeration in metropolises and mega-cities on green total factor productivity is not significant. On the one hand, type II big cities and type I large cities are in the period of rising economic development, the population has not yet reached saturation, and there is still a large demographic dividend space. On the other hand, excessive population agglomeration also brings about "urban diseases" such as population congestion and traffic congestion, especially in the metropolises and mega-cities. Finally, using data on producer services and its sub-sectors, we identify a more significant driving effect of high-end talent agglomeration on green total factor productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban governance aims to enhance overall social welfare, while residents' happiness frequently falls by the wayside. Civilization, as a critical factor influencing residents' happiness, has not yet been fully understood regarding its impact and mechanisms. This paper uses the China Family Panel Studies data, which includes around 50,000 samples ranging from 2010 to 2020, to construct a multi-period difference-in-differences model. It finds that China's highest honor for urban brands, the civilized city program, leads to an average increase of 2.6% in residents' happiness as measured by life satisfaction. This happiness effect is robust but temporary, gradually diminishing within five years following the honor. The happiness effect is heterogeneous across different waves and city sizes and is effective only for urban residents. Mechanism analysis indicates the happiness effect of the civilized city program through three channels: government efforts, social trust, and identity recognition. Additionally, our research indicates that the civilized city initiative improves residents' perception of environmental quality and reduces income inequality. These findings provide insights into understanding how the civilization tournament policy promotes happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interactive behaviors, such as competition and learning between local and neighboring cities, can lead to spatial spillover effects in policy implementation. Estimating the direct, indirect, and total effects of the carbon emission trading scheme (CETS) on green innovation is crucial to clarify its role and mechanisms. This paper applies the spatial difference-in-differences model to estimate these effects using data from 278 cities in China from 2009 to 2019. The results demonstrate that the CETS implementation catalyzes green innovation in pilot cities, which supports the Porter hypothesis. However, it has a negative impact on green innovation in neighboring cities of pilot cities, with this negative impact diminishing as distance increases. Notably, the total effect of the CETS is significantly negative, indicating that the CETS's average impact on green innovation in all cities is negative. Mechanism analysis reveals that the direct and indirect effects of the CETS on green innovation are strengthened in cities with higher levels of financial development, lower financial pressure, and easier economic growth targets. Notably, in cities with high-level industrial structures, the CETS not only enhances its contribution to green innovation but also mitigates its negative impact on neighboring cities. Furthermore, this paper explores the heterogeneous effects of the CETS from the perspective of its implementation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green economic development is an effective tactic for China to cope with the predicament of resources and the environment. As "smoke-free industries", producer services are becoming the main contributors to urban green economic development (UGED). The paper adopts the super-efficiency EBM model to estimate the UGED index of 268 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2019. Based on the theoretical analysis, econometric models are constructed to systematically test how the specialized and diversified agglomeration of producer services impacts UGED. The findings reveal that both agglomeration modes considerably enhance UGED in the local area and its surroundings. Diversified agglomeration exerts a stronger radiation and promotion effect than specialized agglomeration. In addition, the impact of the two agglomeration modes on UGED demonstrates pronounced heterogeneity in urban scales, economic development stages, and industries. Furthermore, mechanism studies suggest that agglomeration substantially boosts UGED by improving human capital, technological innovation, and upgrading industrial structure. As such, our findings serve as an empirical basis for understanding the mechanism of the impact of PSA on UGED and also offer significant insight for local governments to adopt differentiated industrial policies to enhance the positive agglomeration effect on UGED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid growth of urban population and unplanned urbanization are reducing the number of urban parking spaces and increase traffic congestion. In China, due to the tripling of the number of motor vehicles in the last decade, the problem of finding a parking space has become very pressing. Increased difficulties are observed with short-term parking near public urban locations such as cinemas, shopping centers, universities and hospitals. In the telecommunications industry and other related fields, learning automata have been widely employed as adaptable devices for making decisions in unknowable settings. Their use in choosing a parking spot for a little time in cities hasn't been properly researched, nevertheless. The usage of learning automata in the created LAPS (Learning Automata Parking System) parking algorithm is discussed in this study in contrast to other algorithms. More specifically, the study will gain insight into the impact of factors such as vehicle count, space between vehicle arrivals in the parking lot, time of day, and the parking area that can be used for reservations on the average waiting time for a parking space and the likelihood of finding one. The paper presents the research findings determining the parking system's effectiveness based on learning automata in the urban areas of China. The experimental part of the study was performed using Arena simulation software on the parking lot model, with the maximum parking time under simulation conditions not exceeding 4 h. The paper evaluated such parking efficiency metrics as the average parking space waiting time and the probability of getting one, measuring the influence on these indicators on such factors as the number of motor vehicles, interval between the arrival of vehicles in the parking lot, time of day, as well as the parking area that can be used for reservations. The research findings suggested that the LAPS algorithm can be recommended for development of smart packing systems software in urban areas in China and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital inclusive finance has an essential impact on improving the urban green economy efficiency by demonstrating environmental friendliness in agglomerating factors and promoting the flow of factors. Based on the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model with undesirable outputs to measure the urban green economy efficiency. Then, the fixed effect model and spatial econometric model of panel data are used to empirically test the impact of digital inclusive finance on urban green economic efficiency and its spatial spillover effect, and the heterogeneity analysis is carried out. This paper draws the following conclusions. (1) The average value of urban green economic efficiency of 284 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020 is 0.5916, showing a "high in the east and low in the west." In terms of time, it showed a rising trend year by year. (2) Digital financial inclusion and urban green economy efficiency have a high spatial correlation, both showing "high-high" and "low-low" agglomeration characteristics. (3) Digital inclusive finance significantly impacts urban green economic efficiency, especially in the eastern region. (4) The impact of digital inclusive finance on urban green economic efficiency has a spatial spillover effect. In the eastern and central regions, digital inclusive finance will inhibit the improvement of urban green economic efficiency in adjacent cities. In contrast, it will promote urban green economy efficiency in the western regions in adjacent cities. (5) The coverage and depth of digital inclusive finance significantly affect the urban green economy efficiency, while the level of digitization has yet to show a significant effect. This paper puts forward some suggestions and references for promoting the coordinated development of digital inclusive finance in various regions and improving urban green economic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intelligent city pilot policy is a major measure in China to promote urban development from factor driven and investment driven to innovation driven. Intelligent city construction can effectively coordinate specialized production factors and information sharing mechanism, promote digital information technology innovation, promote smart industry cluster, and expand ecological scenarios of clean industry application, so as to reduce carbon emissions. This paper reveals the internal mechanism of intelligent city construction to promote carbon emission reduction. Based on the quasi-natural experiments carried out in three batches of pilot construction of intelligent cities since 2012, the difference-in-difference model (DID) is used to identify its impact on urban carbon emissions. The research results show that the pilot construction of intelligent cities is conducive to reducing carbon emissions, which is still robust under multiple scenarios such as placebo test and endogenous test. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the pilot policies have a more significant carbon emission reduction effect on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, non-resource-based cities, and non-old industrial bases. After further quantitative analysis of 917 pilot policy texts based on Simhash algorithm, Jieba word segmentation, and word frequency statistics, it is found that intelligent industry policies reduce carbon emissions by driving data elements agglomeration and optimizing industrial structure, while intelligent government and intelligent people's livelihood policies improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions through green technological innovation. Counterfactual tests using machine learning algorithms show that the later the pilot batch, the better the sustainable carbon emission reduction effect of intelligent city pilot policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether the technological finance cooperation pilot (TFCP) policy in China can promote energy efficiency remains under investigated. Using the dataset covering 284 cities in China from 2003 to 2019, this paper adopts the Super-SBM model with undesirable outputs to measure energy efficiency. Based on this efficiency, the Difference-in-Differences model (DID) and Spatial Durbin model (SDM) are employed to discuss the impact of TFCP policy on energy efficiency. Results demonstrate that TFCP policy has significantly promoted energy efficiency. And the conclusion is still valid after the robustness checks and endogenous treatment has been carried out. The impact of the TFCP policy on energy efficiency is heterogeneous, depending on the geographical, administrative, and resource characteristics of cities. To be specific, the promotion effect tends to be pronounced in east-central cities, high-ranking cities, and high-tech cities. Moreover, TFCP policy could significantly improve energy efficiency through the effects of technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and financial development. A further policy spillover analysis shows that TFCP policy has exerted a remarkable incentive influence on energy efficiency locally, while the neighboring cities are inhibitive. To sum up, this research is of important theoretical value and policy-making reference on green economy transformation for cities with differential features and energy utilization capacity, by shedding light on the impacts of such a technological finance cooperation system on energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how digital finance alleviates the resource curse effect from resource-based cities in China. This paper selects the data from 88 resource-based cities in China from 2011 to 2019 to construct the econometric model test hypothesis. The results show that (1) a resource curse does exist in Chinese resource-based cities. (2) Digital finance can alleviate the resource curse of resource-based cities in China, and this effect has two significant thresholds. (3) The heterogeneity test results show that digital finance's mitigation effect on the resource curse significantly differs in cities with different environmental regulation intensities and resource abundance. (4) Using the implementation of the broadband China strategy as the proxy variable of digital finance for the robustness test, the above conclusions are still robust. This paper considers the impact of digital upgrading on the financial industry and further studies the mitigation effect of digital finance on the resource curse. It provides a new perspective to study the recent changes in traditional issues in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues of housing and traffic in China's mega cities have become increasingly pressing problems, particularly for middle/low-income tenant workers. These tenants are from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, which has resulted in a significant geographical separation between their workplace and their residence. Although a large number of studies have confirmed that built environment factors have a solid impact on residents' commuting distance, few studies have investigated the mechanism underlying the nonlinear influence on middle/low-income tenants. This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the key factors and nonlinear influencing mechanism of the built environment on middle/low-income tenant workers' commuting distance by establishing a gradient-boosting decision tree model, using Beijing as an empirical case. The paper reveals three primary findings: (1) An important nonlinear relationship between the surrounding built environment and peoples' jobs–housing spatial proximity can be observed for those middle/low-income tenant workers who use slow and public modes of commuting. Specifically, the density of public transport stations, road networks, and workplaces, and the land use mix play a dominant role. (2) A limited effect of built environment factors can be found for the same group of tenant workers who choose cars as their mode of commuting. (3) The differences in self-selected commuting modes have a significant mediating effect on the relationship between the built environment and jobs–housing situation among middle/low-income tenant workers. Given this, effective policy guidance for residents' travel modes is necessary to optimize the built environment indicators to achieve the best effect. In addition, we should consider giving priority to the matching indicators such as land use mix and resident population density. Another possibility is to strengthen the connection to the public transport stations, which in turn can optimize the walkability in residential environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are urgent ecological and environmental problems in the process of the utilization of urban construction land, promoting green utilization of construction land is conducive to urban sustainable development and high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 108 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China from 2003 to 2017, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the green efficiency of urban construction land (GEUCL), analyzes its spatial–temporal evolution characteristics, and constructs the spatial autoregressive model to study its spatial spillover effects from the perspective of urban hierarchy. It is found that, in terms of temporal variation, the average efficiency value shows a fluctuating upward trend during the study period, rising from 0.27 in 2003 to 0.39 in 2017, the cumulative growth rate is 44.44%, with an average annual growth rate of 3.14%. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics, during the study period, the number of medium-efficiency and high-efficiency cities increases significantly, while the number of low-efficiency cities decreases sharply; high-efficiency cities always present scattered distribution, while medium-efficiency cities change from scattered distribution to agglomeration distribution. In addition, GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of different grades and between neighboring cities of the same grade, among them, the increase of GEUCL in higher-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in adjacent lower-grade cities; the increase of GEUCL in lower-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in neighboring higher-grade cities; GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of the same grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The haven paradise hypothesis has been widely supported in the international carbon transfer, but there is still a lack of inter-city evidence. The emergence of the digital economy in recent years has introduced unprecedented opportunities and challenges for carbon emissions reduction and carbon transfer. As the world's largest carbon emitter and a major player in the digital economy, exploring whether the pollution haven hypothesis exists among cities in China and how the digital economy affects inter-city carbon transfer is crucial for countries to optimize their domestic carbon reduction structures. To this end, this paper employs the 2012 and 2015 Chinese Urban Household Survey data alongside input-output tables based on the life cycle assessment method to quantify the inter-city carbon transfer. In addition, the impact and mechanisms of the digital economy on inter-city carbon transfer are explored using the two-way fixed effects model. The results show that 54% of Chinese cities' carbon emissions come from outside, with third-tier cities bearing high carbon transfer pressures, indicating the presence of the pollution haven hypothesis. The digital economy exacerbates inter-city carbon transfer by promoting market integration and facilitating industrial transfer, and it mainly promotes the transfer of high-intensity carbon emissions to third-tier cities. Considering carbon emission reduction targets, mandatory environmental regulations have strengthened the effect of the digital economy on carbon transfer. Therefore, the Chinese government needs to properly address carbon transfer by improving the collaborative carbon reduction system, enhancing carbon emission reduction efficiency, and accelerating the equitable progress of the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are the main spaces to study a low-carbon economy. This paper introduces basic concepts covering "tolerance of planning carbon emissions," "inevitable carbon emissions" and "excessive carbon emissions," then discusses the problem with optimal city carbon emissions under the condition of tolerance. Theoretical analysis and scenario analysis were employed. First, according to optimal allocation theory of resources, we discuss how optimal society carbon emissions take place. Then, the deviation of optimal city carbon emissions was explored and analyzed, which was mostly caused by the missing price of carbon emissions allowance, excessive carbon emissions, and so on. Third, we analyzed optimal city carbon emissions under different conditions, in which different types of tolerance were included. Results show that theoretical investigations on optimal city carbon emissions provide relative ideas for determining control index and optimizing control countermeasures. Policy implications include improving the control index of city carbon emissions through environment enhancement, setting a reasonable control index of city carbon emissions under the consideration of the relationship between city economy and its environment, and establishing trading allowance and compensation mechanism of city carbon emissions, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cities suffer from frequent pollution events and massive population gathering in cities, haze pollution and human capital exert a significant influence on economic resilience. Thus it is significant to thoroughly investigate city economic resilience for the sound development of the city economy and enhance economic resilience. Based on the data from 239 cities in China from 2005 to 2017, this paper uses the OLS model to study the impact of haze on economic resilience. The findings reveal that haze pollution significantly reduces economic resilience. Also, there is a significant negative correlation between haze pollution and economic resilience in the East and Middle areas, while there is an adverse nexus in the West. Human capital has a positive role in promoting economic resilience, and this role is the strongest in the Middle area and the weakest in the West area. Moreover, human capital positively moderates haze pollution and economic resilience in Full sample, and East and Middle sample sets, while insignificant in the West sample set. Considering the possible endogeneity of the model, the robustness of the above results is tested using System GMM two-step and 2SLS methods. From the perspective of haze pollution, this study deeply excavates the short board factors affecting economic resilience. It regards human capital as an essential variable to repair the weak links of the economy and enhance economic resilience, which is conducive to improving the anti-risk ability of China's economy under the background of the gradual intensification of the contradiction between environmental pollution and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Baidu migration data to obtain the intercity trips between cities in China. Taking intercity travel as a functional connection between cities, taking into account the internal and external intercity travel connections of urban agglomerations, an improved rank scale distribution method was used to quantitatively measure the form and function of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu-Chongqing, Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Harbin-Changchun urban agglomerations. It is found that, firstly, there are differences in the Functional Polycentricity presented by the internal and external connections of urban agglomerations, which are related to the economic development of urban agglomerations and central cities. Secondly, there are differences between Morphological Polycentricity and Functional Polycentricity of the eight urban agglomerations measured by the internal and external connections, indicating that the external connections have a significant impact. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections of urban agglomerations. The study of urban agglomerations should not ignore the internal or external connections, and the overall consideration can more comprehensively reflect the polycentric characteristics of urban agglomerations. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections, and the study of urban agglomerations should not ignore internal or external connections. Overall consideration can better reflect the polycentirccharacteristics of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the first batch of smart city pilots in China, this paper systematically investigates the impact of smart city construction on urban employment and employment structure, and its influence mechanism and urban heterogeneity are explored using the difference-in-differences (DID) model. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Smart city construction significantly promotes urban employment, especially employment in the secondary and tertiary industries. (2) Digital technology development and public services are important mechanisms for smart city construction to improve urban employment. (3) There was heterogeneity among Chinese cities, with the employment promotion effect of smart city construction is primarily reflected in cities located in the eastern and central regions, medium cities, large cities, as well as cities with higher levels of financial development, human capital, and informatization. (4) Through different impacts on various sectors, smart city construction promotes the transfer of employment to the service sector and optimizes the urban employment structure. Conclusions enrich the academic community's understanding of the development and construction of smart cities and provide enlightenment and reference for the formulation and promulgation of relevant supporting policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air quality is an important factor affecting human health. This paper aims to explore the key determinants of urban air quality in China and their synergistic mechanism based on a hybrid model integrating weighted gray relation analysis (WGRA) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). First, text mining technology is introduced to excavate factors related to urban air quality, and WGRA method is employed to determine the key influencing factors. Second, taking 42 representative cities in China as samples to apply QCA method, we attempt to investigate the complex causal mechanism between key determinants of urban air quality and air quality index (AQI). Results show that: (1) Since the consistency level of a single conditional variable is not greater than 0.9, a single factor that influences urban air quality cannot constitute the necessary condition to worsen or improve the urban air quality. (2) Synergistic effect mechanisms of key factors influencing urban air quality are obtained, including four configuration paths that bring about high AQI and four configuration paths that inhibit the generation of high AQI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the adoption of SO2 emission tax rates higher than the legal minimum standard is regarded as a noteworthy policy reform in China (quasi-natural experiment), and a spatial Difference-in-Differences (Spatial-DID) model is constructed to test the direct effects (local effects) and indirect effects (spatial spillover effects) of SO2 emission tax policy reform on PM2.5 concentrations in the atmosphere of 285 China's cities. The estimation and calculation results of the Spatial-DID model show that the SO2 emission tax policy reform can significantly reduce local PM2.5 concentration and significantly promote PM2.5 concentration in surrounding areas. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the SO2 emission tax policy reform can produce a relatively more beneficial spatial spillover effect in eastern cities and higher administrative level cities, while the pollutants emission rights trading and the reform of NOx emission tax rates can produce beneficial spatial spillover effects when cooperating with the reform of SO2 emission tax rates. The results of the mediation effect analysis show that the higher SO2 emission tax rate can aggravate the surrounding PM2.5 pollution by promoting the aggregation level of industrial production factors and the industrial SO2 emission intensity in the surrounding areas, which can support the existence of the pollution heaven effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic and technological development zone (ETDZ) serves an essential role in driving green development and ecological civilization. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the impact of ETDZs on eco-efficiency for sustainable development. This paper investigates the impact of the establishment of ETDZs on eco-efficiency by constructing a differences-in-differences (DID) model on the basis of 253 cities in China from 2004 to 2017 as the dataset. This paper also explores the possible intrinsic impact mechanisms through the channels of industrial structure and technological innovation by constructing a mediating effect model, and the heterogeneous effects of ETDZs on eco-efficiency from the perspectives of regional imbalance and city class heterogeneity. Statistical results report that ETDZs significantly positively affect eco-efficiency and such effects are most significant in the first year after the establishment of ETDZs. Industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation are essential role mechanisms for ETDZs to enhance eco-efficiency. Besides, the enhancement effect of ETDZs on eco-efficiency is only observed in the eastern part of the city, with an insignificant inhibitory effect in central and western parts of the cities. However, the establishment of ETDZs in cities with higher city classes is more beneficial to improve eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource-based cities, which are widely distributed in China, contribute significantly to China's sustainable development. The digital economy and the construction of ecological civilization are central issues in the sustainable development of resource-based cities, and it is necessary to analyze the impact of the digital economy on the ecological resilience of resource-based cities. Thus, this paper measures ecological resilience of 117 resource-based cities from 2011 to 2020 using the entropy weight TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution; see Table 1 for a list of acronyms) method and empirically investigates the impact and mechanism of digital economy on ecological resilience using the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and intermediary effect model. The results show that the ecological resilience of resource-based cities has a certain upward trend, with a stepwise distribution pattern from east to west. There is a significant positive correlation between ecological resilience of resource-based cities, showing the phenomenon of club convergence which is primarily dominated by high-high (H–H) and low-low (L-L). The digital economy has a significant spatial spillover effect, which promotes ecological resilience of resource-based cities in the local and adjacent regions. A mechanism analysis reveals that technological innovation and industrial structure are mediators between digital economy and ecological resilience of resource-based cities, with significant heterogeneity in region and growth cycle. Among them, the intermediary role of technological innovation is stronger. Following the above findings, this paper proposes policy suggestions related to digital economy evolution and ecological resilience enhancement. This paper further enriches the literature on the ecological resilience and provides a theoretical basis for government policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges to the global economy, especially within the tourism industry. Economic downturns and psychological barriers make it even more challenging to attract tourists back. This paper explores the stimulating effect of digital travel vouchers on tourist mobility, as well as the heterogeneous effects of different vouchers modes. Using monthly data on tourist inflows in 306 cities from September 2020 to December 2021, collected by a web-crawling tool, and manually gathered information of digital travel vouchers issued during this period, our analyses show that digital travel vouchers can boost tourist inflows. Their effectiveness, however, depends on the method of issuance and the total number distributed. Furthermore, significant spillover effects among neighboring cities are found through a spatial econometric model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As major carriers of modern economy and population, cities and towns are vortex centers of pollution migration, and the environmental effects brought about by China's unprecedented urbanization can be imagined, although the specific scale is still a mystery. This paper focuses on the nonlinear response mechanism of urban PM2.5 concentration to the urbanization population scale, considering that China's urbanization development path is dominated by large- and medium-sized cities. The panel data of PM2.5 concentration of Chinese cities observed by satellite during 1998–2016 are used to capture the nonlinear characteristics of panel threshold model (PTM). The estimation results of the double-threshold PTM including the quadratic term of urbanization population show that the U-shaped relationship between urbanization population and PM2.5 concentration is nonlinear adjusted by urban GDP per capita with the two thresholds of 6777 Yuan and 10,296 Yuan at 2010 constant price. When the urban GDP per capita exceeds 10,296 Yuan, the urbanized population at the turning point of the U-shaped curve is 12.967 million people, which only appears in a few super-large cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. The size matching of urban economy and population is an important follow-up of environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widely harming the society and economy, the problem of haze pollution needs to be solved urgently. Local governments play an important role in the effective management of haze pollution. This paper first uses an evolutionary game model to analyze the mechanisms by which local governments choose different strategies to combat haze, and then extends the study to the micro level at the city level. Using panel data from 209 prefecture-level cities in mainland China from 2007 to 2016, a two-region spatial Durbin model is constructed to study the competitive patterns of local government haze pollution management. The results show that different from the "competition to the bottom" of provincial governments, there is a significant "imitation" behavior in the governance of haze pollution by local governments at the city level in China. In addition, a local government's efforts to reduce haze pollution are easily influenced by neighboring administrative regions, especially those with low levels of control. The research results passed the robustness test. Finally, relevant policy implications are provided to help improve the regional cooperative management system of haze pollution in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to maintain the balanced stability and resilient development of rural systems is an important issue that needs urgent attention in the field of sustainable rural development at present. In this paper, the entropy method, spatial autocorrelation model, and Geodetector were used to explore the rural resilience level, spatial distribution characteristics, and driving factors of 31 cities in the urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR), and to put forward corresponding policy suggestions. The results are as follows: (1) From 2005 to 2020, rural resilience in the UAMRYR showed an upward trend with an average annual growth rate of 8.26%. The ranking of the three major urban agglomerations is Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomerations > Wuhan urban agglomerations > Poyang Lake urban agglomerations. (2) During the study period, the spatial distribution of rural resilience gradually developed from a negative correlation to a strong positive correlation and generally showed the characteristics of high in the west and low in the east. (3) The urbanization rate, the size and structure of the economy, the difference in consumption and income between urban and rural areas, the local fiscal revenue, and the number of village committees are the key factors affecting the level of rural resilience. On this basis, we proposed policy recommendations to improve the economic, social, and ecological resilience of rural areas in the UAMRYR. The findings of this paper are expected to provide insights into the policy formulation of China's rural revitalization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public investments in subway systems are often motivated by improving local air quality. Recent studies, however, have reached different conclusions on the air quality benefits of subway investment. To reconcile these findings, this paper examines the air quality effects of all 359 subway line openings in China between 2013 and 2018. The machine learning method adopted in this paper substantially improves the consistency and precision of the estimates by purging seasonality, volatility, and the nonlinear effects of meteorological conditions in air quality data. The empirical results suggest an insignificant short-term effect and a significant long-term effect, which is expected as the adjustment of commuting mode takes time. Using the causal forest approach, the heterogeneity analysis find that a city that is experiencing rapid economic growth from a lower income level and currently has fewer subway lines is more likely to experience statistically significant improvements in air quality from a subway opening. These findings help reconcile the different findings in the literature and shed light on air pollution reduction as one of the objectives of public transit investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]