Factor market distortion, technological innovation, and environmental pollution

Administration or marketization: Environmental regulation, marketization and agricultural green total factor productivity

The mature market can effectively reflect the value of green agricultural products, but the market in developing countries is developing slowly, so how to implement administrative environmental policies while cultivating the market has become the key to the green development of agriculture. In this paper, the government and the market are discussed under the common goal of agricultural green development. Based on the provincial panel data of China, taking agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) as a breakthrough point, the relationship between environmental regulation tools, marketization processes and agricultural green development, specific applicable conditions and transmission mechanisms are explored, and further subdivided into factor and product markets to verify their correlation with AGTFP. The results show that environmental regulation and marketization processes and AGTFP are positively correlated. The former can establish a positive relationship with AGTFP through resource reallocation and technological innovation, and the latter can do so by improving the level of information and land transfer and perfecting infrastructure construction. These findings will provide new ideas for developing countries similar to China's agricultural development and enlighten developing countries pay full attention to and cultivate the market while formulating appropriate environmental regulation policies. In addition, they also need to coordinate the development of technology and organizations.

Breathing in danger: Understanding the multifaceted impact of air pollution on health impacts

Air pollution, a pervasive environmental threat that spans urban and rural landscapes alike, poses significant risks to human health, exacerbating respiratory conditions, triggering cardiovascular problems, and contributing to a myriad of other health complications across diverse populations worldwide. This article delves into the multifarious impacts of air pollution, utilizing cutting-edge research methodologies and big data analytics to offer a comprehensive overview. It highlights the emergence of new pollutants, their sources, and characteristics, thereby broadening our understanding of contemporary air quality challenges. The detrimental health effects of air pollution are examined thoroughly, emphasizing both short-term and long-term impacts. Particularly vulnerable populations are identified, underscoring the need for targeted health risk assessments and interventions. The article presents an in-depth analysis of the global disease burden attributable to air pollution, offering a comparative perspective that illuminates the varying impacts across different regions. Furthermore, it addresses the economic ramifications of air pollution, quantifying health and economic losses, and discusses the implications for public policy and health care systems. Innovative air pollution intervention measures are explored, including case studies demonstrating their effectiveness. The paper also brings to light recent discoveries and insights in the field, setting the stage for future research directions. It calls for international cooperation in tackling air pollution and underscores the crucial role of public awareness and education in mitigating its impacts. This comprehensive exploration serves not only as a scientific discourse but also as a clarion call for action against the invisible but insidious threat of air pollution, making it a vital read for researchers, policymakers, and the general public.

State transition of carbon emission efficiency in China: empirical analysis based on three-stage SBM and Markov chain models

Assessing China's carbon emission efficiency (CEE) and analyzing efficiency state transition trends are necessary to accelerate the promotion of carbon emission reduction and achieve low carbon goals. This study evaluates China's economic and social environments by using the entropy weight method. The CEE of 30 Chinese provinces from 2006 to 2020 is measured using the three-stage slack-based model with an undesirable output. Then, this study introduces a Markov chain to explore the state transition trend of China's CEE. The research conclusions are as follows. First, compared with the social environment, the economic environment has a more significant impact on CEE. Second, the CEE of the eastern region is the highest, followed by that of the central region and the western region, which has the worst CEE. Third, the inefficiency of the central and western regions pulls down the overall CEE of China. Fourth, the state of China's CEE is gradually shifting to a high level; however, achieving a leapfrog shift is difficult.

Digital financial development, synergistic reduction of pollution, and carbon emissions: evidence from biased technical change

Environmental pollution control and greenhouse gas emissions reduction have become the main ecological protection issues. The digital transformation of the financial sector provides a vital opportunity to holistically promote environmental governance. This article incorporates the synergistic reduction of pollution and carbon emissions into the environmental governance system of digital financial development. Using panel data from 280 cities in China between 2011 and 2018, we examine the impact of digital financial development on the synergistic reduction of pollution and carbon emissions. We find that (1) digital finance development can significantly improve the synergistic reduction of pollution and carbon emissions, effectively lowering carbon emissions while reducing pollution. External environmental concerns can further unleash the potential for digital finance development to enhance its synergistic reduction of pollution and carbon emissions. (2) The key transmission mechanism lies in the dual guidance of digital finance development toward biased technical change, i.e., toward energy-saving elements on the input side and toward reduced pollution output on the output side, thereby inducing the synergistic reduction of pollution and carbon emissions. (3) The synergistic effect of digital finance development on pollution and carbon reduction depends on the necessary regional development endowment, such as strong green technology innovation capabilities, lower traditional financial accessibility, and carbon sink reserves. This study expands the understanding of the environmental effects of digital finance development and offers crucial insights for exploring the optimal development path under green strategies.

Can heterogeneous environmental regulations improve industrial green total factor energy efficiency?

Whether heterogeneous environmental regulations in China can improve industrial green total factor energy efficiency (IGTFEE) is essential to sustainable industrial development nationwide. However, under China's fiscal decentralization system, the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on the IGTFEE and its underlying mechanism needs further exploration. This study incorporates capital misallocation and local government competition into the research framework and systematically investigates the mechanisms and effects of environmental regulations affecting the IGTFEE under China's fiscal decentralization system. Based on provincial panel data from 2007 to 2020, this study measured the IGTFEE using the Super-SBM model with undesirable outputs. Based on efficiency, this study uses a bidirectional fixed-effects model, an intermediary effect model, and a spatial Durbin model for empirical testing. The results show that the effect of command-and-control environmental regulation on the IGTFEE presents an inverted U shape, while the effect of market-incentive environmental regulation on the IGTFEE presents a U shape. Conversely, the effect of command-and-control environmental regulation on capital misallocation presents a U shape, while the effect of market-incentive environmental regulation on capital misallocation presents an inverted U shape. Capital misallocation is the mediating variable of heterogeneous environmental regulations affecting IGTFEE, but heterogeneous environmental regulations do not affect the IGTFEE through the same mechanisms. The spatial spillover effects of command-and-control and market-incentive environmental regulations on IGTFEE present a U shape. Local governments adopt a differentiation strategy for command-and-control environmental regulation and a simulation strategy for market-incentive environmental regulation. Environmental regulations have spillover effects on the IGTFEE under different competitive strategies, but only the imitation strategy, characterized by the race-to-the-top, can promote local and neighboring IGTFEE. Therefore, we propose the following recommendations: the central government should flexibly adjust the intensity of environmental regulations to maximize the capital allocation effect, set diversified performance assessment indicators to motivate local governments into the healthy competition and reform the modern fiscal system to correct distortions in the behavior of local governments.

Can the digital economy development achieve the effect of pollution reduction? Evidence from Chinese Cities

As a new economic form, the digital economy is not only empowering new impetus to economic growth, but also reshaping specific business forms of economical operation. Therefore, we conducted an empirical test to verify the impact and mechanism of pollution reduction in the digital economy, based on the panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The results show that, first the development of the digital economy indeed has the positive effect of realizing pollution reduction. The results of mediating effect test indicate the influence mechanism mainly rely on promoting the upgrading of industrial structure (structural effect) and upgrading the level of green technology innovation (technical effect). Second, the results of regional heterogeneity analysis show that the emission reduction effect of digital economy development on four pollutants is characterized by weakness in the east and strong in the west in regional distribution. Third, the development of digital economy has a threshold effect on the level of economic development to achieve its pollution reduction effect. Further identification of the threshold effect indicates that the higher the level of economic development, the better in emission reduction effect.

Effects of risk perception and agricultural socialized services on farmers' organic fertilizer application behavior: Evidence from Shandong Province, China

Introduction

The application of organic fertilizer is an important measure to control agricultural non-point source pollution, improve the quality of cultivated land and enhance the degree of agricultural green development.

Methods

Based on the survey data of sample farmers in Shandong Province, China, the binary Probit model is used to analyze the influence of risk perception and agricultural socialized services and their interaction on farmers' organic fertilizer application behavior, and further analyze the difference of influence between groups of risk perception and agricultural socialized services on farmers' organic fertilizer application behavior with different characteristics.

Results and discussion

We found that risk perception has a significant negative impact on farmers' organic fertilizer application behavior. Farmers with stronger technical risk perception and market risk perception are less likely to apply organic fertilizer. Agricultural socialized services have a significant positive impact on farmers' organic fertilizer application behavior, and can effectively alleviate the inhibitory effect of risk perception on farmers' organic fertilizer application behavior. The roles of risk perception and agricultural socialized services vary greatly among different farmer groups. For older generation, large-scale and pure agricultural farmers, agricultural socialized services can more effectively alleviate the inhibitory effect of risk perception on organic fertilizer application behavior.