The spatiotemporal evolution of COVID-19 in China and its impact on urban economic resilience

Research on the impact of tourism cooperation on urban public health

Introduction

Tourism cooperation is increasingly recognized as a key driver of regional economic development, playing a crucial role in facilitating internal circulation and enhancing urban public health. This study examines the relationship between tourism cooperation and urban public health development, with a focus on China.

Methods

Using data from 284 Chinese cities over the period 2011-2022, this research measures both the degree of tourism cooperation and the level of urban public health development. Empirical analysis is conducted to assess the impact of tourism cooperation on urban public health outcomes. The study employs robustness tests to ensure the validity of its findings.

Results

The findings indicate that tourism cooperation significantly promotes urban public health development. After conducting robustness tests, this result remains consistent. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the "core hinterland" type of tourism cooperation model has a stronger impact on urban public health development compared to the adjacent city type. Among different city cooperation models, tourism cooperation between central cities has the greatest empowering effect, followed by cooperation between central and non-central cities, while cooperation between non-central cities has the smallest effect.

Discussion

The research suggests that tourism cooperation can effectively address regional economic disparities and the imbalanced development of urban public health in China. The findings have important implications for policy-making, particularly in promoting sustainable urban health development and narrowing regional gaps in economic and health outcomes.

Urban resilience in China's eight urban agglomerations: evolution trends and driving factors

Improving urban resilience (UR) and enhancing urban anti-risk ability are important foundations for promoting the high-quality development of new urbanization. This research employs the time-varying entropy method to evaluate the resilience level of 138 cities within China's eight urban agglomerations (UAs) between 2005 and 2019. Additionally, the Dagum Gini coefficient and the kernel density estimation method are utilized to examine the spatial disparities and distribution dynamics of UR across the eight UAs. The results of this investigation indicate that (1) the collective UR performance of the eight UAs has experienced an upward trend. However, a notable spatial disparity exits, which is primarily attributed to the differences among the UAs. (2) The overall UR development of the eight UAs has a certain gradient effect, and the UR within each UA has different degrees of polarization characteristics. (3) For the eight UAs as a whole, per capita savings deposits, capitalization of foreign capital, and per capita fiscal expenditure are the three most important driving factors. Within each UA, there was heterogeneity in the main influencing factors. The interplay between any two factors amplifies their individual driving effects on the spatial differentiation of UR.

Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity and Influencing Factors of Regional Economic Resilience in China

This study estimates regional economic resilience in China from 2000 to 2022, focusing on economic resistance resilience, recovery resilience, and reorientation resilience. The entropy method, kernel density estimation, and spatial Durbin model are applied to examine the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors. The results show significant spatial clustering, with stronger resilience in the east and weaker resilience in the west. While economic resilience has generally improved, regional disparities persist. Key factors such as human capital, urban hospitals, financial development, market consumption, and environmental quality have a positive effect on resilience, with spatial spillover effects. However, human capital and urban hospitals also show a negative indirect impact on surrounding regions. The influence of these factors varies across regions and periods, indicating strong spatiotemporal heterogeneity.

The impact of digital policies on urban economic resilience under the low-carbon background: A deep identification based on environmental regulation and industrial digital transformation

With over exploitation and increasingly severe environmental pollution, traditional economic growth models are no longer able to promote high-quality regional economic development. Especially in recent years, the limitations of resources and environment, global geopolitical conflicts, and other factors have brought enormous uncertainty to the economic development of each country. To cope with the uncertainty of economic development, it is necessary to use the digital economy formed by the new generation of information technology to strengthen the economic resilience of various regions. This study collected panel data from 30 provinces and cities in China from 2013 to 2022, using the PSM-DID model to examine the subtle relationship between the formulation of digital policies in different cities and their economic resilience. Specifically, environmental regulations and industrial digital transformation play an important role in the process of urban digital policies affecting economic resilience. The research findings of this article emphasize the crucial role of digital policies in addressing the current challenges of economic uncertainty. Through empirical research, the results show that the strategic implementation of digital policies can not only effectively promote the digital transformation of traditional industries, but also strengthen the role of environmental regulations in promoting sustainable development of industries. The digital transformation of industries and sustainable development will significantly enhance regional innovation capabilities and ultimately strengthen regional economic resilience.

Measurement of economic resilience under the COVID-19 based on nighttime light remote sensing: Case of Hubei province

This study investigates the economic resilience of cities in Hubei province during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilizing highway nighttime lights as a proxy indicator. By February 2020, the pandemic had caused a significant economic contraction in Hubei. However, by May 2021, a strong recovery was observed, with most cities experiencing growth rates of over 20%. Despite initially similar responses to the crisis, this study reveals significant heterogeneity in economic resilience across the examined cities in Hubei. The spatial distribution follows a core-periphery structure, with Wuhan exhibiting greater resistance to economic shocks compared to peripheral cities. Furthermore, the response capacity within the Wuhan urban agglomeration area exhibits regional variations. In summary, lockdown policies had spatially varied impacts on economic resilience across Hubei's cities. These results offer valuable insights into regional economic resilience and contribute to the formulation of strategies aimed at effectively addressing future unforeseen events.

The impact of economic agglomeration on China's urban public health

Introduction

This study aims to explore the impact of economic agglomeration on the urban prosperity through economies of scale and agglomeration, it may also affect the public health of the agglomeration area.

Methods

This paper takes 280 cities in China as the research object, and explores the impact of economic agglomeration on public health through a two-way fixed effects model, instrumental variable method, and generalized moment estimation.

Results

The results indicate that: (1) the improvement of China's economic agglomeration can significantly promote urban public health, and economic agglomeration is a prerequisite for the improvement of urban public health, but there is no reverse causal relationship. (2) The enhancement of economic agglomeration in Northeast China has the greatest promotion effect on public health, followed by the eastern, western, and central regions; The economic agglomeration enhancement of the pilot medical group in closely connected cities has a greater promoting effect on public health than the pilot medical group in non-closely connected cities. (3) Empirical results based on micro sample data show that the improvement of economic agglomeration will also promote the increase of the number of public hospitals in cities.

Discussion

This study emphasizes the important role of economic accumulation in the improvement of urban public health and provides empirical support for future economic development policies and practices.

Analysis of the integrated role of the Yangtze River Delta based on the industrial economic resilience of cities during COVID-19

The enhancement of regional comprehensive development ability is significantly impacted by the study on the implementation effect of regional integration strategies. The integration strategy's impact on urban development during COVID-19 in the Yangtze River Delta(YRD) is unclear. According to prior industrial transfer theory, Hefei, Anhui's capital, is difficult to transfer industries, and other YRD cities push industry integration in Anhui. This study employs the theory of economic and land resource use to examine the resilience of the industrial economy during an epidemic by using industrial land as a representation of industrial economic development. The three cities in Anhui-Wuhu, Maanshan, and Chuzhou (Wu-ma-Chu) were selected as the research area. The study employed the UNet deep learning method to detect the land use types in Wu-ma-Chu. The land transfer matrix and the standard deviation ellipse were utilised to research the alterations in industrial land use and the spatial distribution of industrial output value, respectively. The results showed that the industrial land in Machu continued to grow during the outbreak, highlighting the resilience of the region's industrial economy. During 2019-2022, the elliptical ring of industrial output value is distributed in Nanjing, revealing the radiating role of Nanjing in integrating into the integration of the YRD. This confirms China's YRD integration strategy, strengthens regional economic resilience, and encourages coordinated regional economic development.

The spatial spillover effect and its attenuation boundary of urban economy on port efficiency

Cities are commonly recognized as the immediate hinterland of ports and play a crucial role in fostering the sustainable development of ports. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the influence of cities on ports. By employing panel data from 2001 to 2021 for both ports and cities in the Bohai Rim region, this study examines the spatial spillover effect of urban economy on port efficiency using the spatial error model (SEM). The findings show that urban economies have a significant spatial spillover effect on port efficiency, but this effect diminishes across different spatial matrices. In particular, the geographical matrix demonstrates a stronger spatial spillover effect of the urban economy on port efficiency. These research findings help to establish a collaborative mechanism for port-city development and provide useful insights for government management decision-making.

Can urban e-commerce transformation improve economic resilience? a quasi-natural experiment from China

The impact of urban e-commerce transformation on economic resilience can help a country improve its ability to resist risks and seize the initiative in economic development. This study examines the impact of the construction of the National E-commerce Demonstration City (NEDC) on economic resilience using the staggered different-in-differences approach using a sample of 282 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2020. The results show NEDC construction significantly strengthens urban economic resilience. This result remains robust after undergoing placebo test, exclusion of other policies interference, and examining endogeneity. Furthermore, noteworthy heterogeneity exists in the effect of NEDC construction on urban economic resilience, particularly in eastern, developed regions, and cities with high Internet penetration. The mechanisms analysis indicates that NEDC construction enhances urban economic resilience by expanding the scale of urban employment and enhancing market dynamism. Overall, this study refines the causal relationship between e-commerce development and urban economic resilience, providing empirical evidence and policy insights for China and other countries to enhance urban economic resilience and stabilize macroeconomic fluctuations.

Research on industrial structure adjustment and spillover effect in resource-based regions in the post-pandemic era

Resource-based regions support national economic development and are essential sources of basic energy and raw materials. In the post-pandemic era, however, there are practical situations to deal with, such as a fractured industrial chain, a weaker industrial structure, and a sharp reduction in economic benefits. Based on data collected from 68 cities in China, from 2010 to 2021, with 816 observations, this paper explores the industrial development process of resource-based regions in China and the change in the toughness of the industrial structure under the impact of COVID-19. The paper studies and analyzes industrial development trends, industrial structure toughness, and spatial spillover effects. The methods used are the Markov chain model and the Industrial Structure Advancement Index. By building the spatial Dubin model, the paper analyzes the spatial spillover effect of regional industrial development. It decomposes the spillover effect using the partial differential model based on regression. The results show that, during the study period, the comprehensive development level of industries in resource-based regions in China was slowly improving and tended to stabilize after entering the post-pandemic era. The evolution of an advanced industrial structure is significantly heterogeneous among regions, and each region has different toughness. The impact of COVID-19 has reduced the toughness of China's resource-based regions' industrial structure. The spatial spillover effect of regional industrial development is significant. Labor force, technology input, and industrial-structure optimization have different impacts on the industrial development of neighboring regions. In the post-pandemic era, China has used new management methods for more innovation. In order to achieve low-carbon, environmental protection, and sustainable development of resources, realize the rapid recovery of the toughness of industrial structure in China's resource-based cities, and reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, China proposes to expand the supply of resources, improve the allocation of resources, optimize the direction, promote the rational flow and efficient aggregation of various factors, and enhance the impetus for innovation and development.

Public opinion communication mechanism of public health emergencies in Weibo: take the COVID-19 epidemic as an example

As a major public health emergency, the COVID-19 epidemic not only has a real risk of infection, but also easily generates public opinion risks. Under the condition of social communication of microblog, how to effectively identify public opinion and the harm of public health emergencies, avoid the overlay of real risk of epidemic and network public opinion risk, and prevent and resolve major public opinion risks is an important public opinion research topic in the new era. Taking the most influential outbreak of COVID-19 pneumonia in China in 2020 as an example, this paper discusses the effect of sudden major public health cases on Chinese microblogs and the spreading mechanism of public opinion. This paper mainly explores the communication motivation of public opinion from the four communication elements of the microblog public opinion center, public opinion object, public opinion carrier and public opinion ontology. And combined with the life cycle theory, this study analyzes the interaction between the communication elements of public opinion in different stages. In the fluctuation period of public opinion, the amount of public opinion information decreases relatively, and the frequent occurrence of secondary public opinion in the outbreak period promotes the continuation of public opinion. Compared with the diversified demands of public materials and medical assistance during the pandemic, public opinion in the fluctuation period reacts on the epidemic situation, which to some extent alleviates the tension of the epidemic situation. Based on this, this study puts forward the guidance strategy of public opinion of public health emergencies.

Digital finance and regional economic resilience: Evidence from 283 cities in China

Digital technology provided a new driver for the rapid recovery of the global economy in the post-COVID-19 era. This study examined how digital financing affected regional economic resilience. First, this study constructs a multidimensional regional economic resilience evaluation system and measures the economic resilience levels of 283 Chinese cities for 2012-2021-using the entropy value method. Then, panel data, mediation effect, and threshold effect models were constructed to empirically test the impact mechanism of digital finance (DF) on regional economic resilience. The results show that DF improves regional economic resilience, which is more evident in central and western cities. Capital allocation efficiency, regional innovation, and regional consumption are effective paths, whereas DF affects regional economic resilience by enhancing capital allocation efficiency, strengthening regional innovation capacity, and promoting resident consumption. It is worth noting that excessive financialization can mask the role of DF. These conclusions provide new evidence clarifying the role of DF in promoting rapid economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 era.

Spatial association network of economic resilience and its influencing factors: evidence from 31 Chinese provinces

The spatial correlation pattern of economic resilience is an important proposition for China's sustainable economic development. This paper measures the economic resilience of 31 provinces in China from 2012 to 2020, and explores the spatial correlation of economic resilience from the overall, group and individual perspectives and its influencing factors. The results show that first, a tightly ordered hierarchy of economic resilience formed in each province of China after 2016. Among them, Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, Hubei, and Shaanxi are the most important clustering points and radiation centers in the spatial correlation framework of economic resilience. Second, being adjacent to marginal and core provinces will maintain the province's centrality index category to the greatest extent, while being adjacent to sub-core and general provinces leads the province to gain more opportunities for upward transfer. Third, the essence of the interprovincial economic resilience subordination linkage in China is manifested in the aggregation of city clusters or economic circles. The northern economic resilience linkage system with the Bohai Rim as the core contains more provinces but is less stable. Provinces located in the Yangtze River Delta region are the opposite. Fourth, the proximity of geographical location and the difference in human capital level drive the formation of spatial association networks, while the difference in external openness and the difference in physical capital inhibit the formation of networks.

Modelling the spatiotemporal spread of COVID-19 outbreaks and prioritization of the risk areas in Toronto, Canada

Modelling the spatiotemporal spread of a highly transmissible disease is challenging. We developed a novel spatiotemporal spread model, and the neighbourhood-level data of COVID-19 in Toronto was fitted into the model to visualize the spread of the disease in the study area within two weeks of the onset of first outbreaks from index neighbourhood to its first-order neighbourhoods (called dispersed neighbourhoods). We also model the data to classify hotspots based on the overall incidence rate and persistence of the cases during the study period. The spatiotemporal spread model shows that the disease spread to 1-4 neighbourhoods bordering the index neighbourhood within two weeks. Some dispersed neighbourhoods became index neighbourhoods and further spread the disease to their nearby neighbourhoods. Most of the sources of infection in the dispersed neighbourhood were households and communities (49%), and after excluding the healthcare institutions (40%), it becomes 82%, suggesting the expansion of transmission was from close contacts. The classification of hotspots informs high-priority areas concentrated in the northwestern and northeastern parts of Toronto. The spatiotemporal spread model along with the hotspot classification approach, could be useful for a deeper understanding of spatiotemporal dynamics of infectious diseases and planning for an effective mitigation strategy where local-level spatially enabled data are available.

Commercial dynamics in urban China during the COVID-19 recession: Vulnerability and short-term adaptation of commercial centers in Shanghai

Studying the commercial dynamics during the COVID-19 recession could help deepen our understanding of how the pandemic damages the commercial economy and how to against the pandemic. This study aims to explore the vulnerability and adaptation of commercial centers using a weekly consumption data of UnionPay cards in Shanghai. A vulnerability index and multiscale geographically weighted regressions (MGWR) are employed. Our results suggest that retail, leisure, and entertainment sectors are less vulnerable to the pandemic at the early stage, when catering, life service, and wholesale sectors are more influenced. Catering, life service, and wholesale sectors were better adapted to the second wave of the pandemic, while the retail and entertainment sectors were even more vulnerable. Further analysis using MGWR models suggests that the commercial centers with higher consumption volume are better adapted to the shock. The diversity of commercial sectors mainly reduces low-level commercial centers' vulnerability to the pandemic. The commercial centers targeting high-end consumers with wider hinterland were less adapted to the pandemic. These research outcomes reveal the disparities in commercial centers' vulnerability against COVID-19 and highlight adaptation's role during the pandemic.

Effect of "green technology-institution" collaborative innovation on ecological efficiency-the moderating role of fiscal decentralization

With the tightening of resource constraints and the proposal of the Chinese High-quality Development strategy, innovation-driven has emerged as a new option to balance economic progress with environmental protection. The paper takes Chinese inter-provincial panel data from 2007 to 2017 as a research sample and is based on a spatial Durbin model, investigating the association among green technology innovation (GTI), "green technology-institution" collaborative innovation, and ecological efficiency (EE), while fiscal decentralization is discussed as a moderating factor. According to the results, "green technology-institution" collaborative innovation is positively promoting ecological efficiency and causing spatial spillovers if the economic distance is taken into account. Compared with the single role of green technology innovation, collaborative innovation has a greater role in improving ecological efficiency. Among them, to improve ecological efficiency, it is best to develop green technology innovation and encourage production institutions in a coordinated manner. According to the moderating effect, fiscal decentralization moderates the impact of innovation collaboration on ecological efficiency in a negative way. Therefore, balancing the decentralization of local fiscal expenditures is important to promoting China's ecological efficiency. In addition, China should purposefully promote the degree of synergy between green technology innovation and related institutions for enhancing eco-efficiency.

Sponge City Construction and Urban Economic Sustainable Development: An Ecological Philosophical Perspective

The Party's 14th Five-Year-Plan and the 2035 Visionary Goals point out that green and sustainable development is the direction of China's road in the present age, and provide a theoretical basis for further improvement of ecological civilization. "Sponge city" is a new type of urban construction idea in China; moving from pilot to vigorous implementation at present, it is an important element of China's promotion of green development and development of ecological civilization. At present, a number of sponge city pilot projects have been built in China, and evaluation of their effects is already a matter of urgency. The overall planning of China's current policies in sponge city construction and the specific analyses conducted by experts from both subjective and objective aspects have not been able to completely fill the gap in this regard, thus making it particularly urgent to conduct in-depth studies. Based on this, this paper discusses the performance assessment of sponge cities in China on the basis of the prediction and analysis of the development trend of sponge cities in China. In the performance assessment system, the correctness and timeliness of the index system should be considered in terms of practical effects; in the city performance assessment, the ideas of new city development such as low-carbon cities and smart cities should be combined to build a comprehensive and multi-perspective intelligent assessment system, so as to provide a strong boost to promote the development of city construction and its evaluative research. Firstly, a system-dynamic model is applied to sort out and combine its internal operation mechanism, and a set of evaluation systems based on the ecological philosophical perspective of the sponge city and urban sustainable development performance is established. Second, to improve the accuracy of the research results, parallelism tests and robustness analysis were conducted on this performance index evaluation system. The study's results show that sponge city construction has achieved good results in sustainable urban development and has contributed to future development.

Can environmental protection policies promote regional innovation efficiency: a difference-in-differences approach with continuous treatment

Environmental regulation and innovative development are essential means to solve the negative externalities of environmental pollution. However, developing countries often face the dual pressures of environmental pollution and innovative development. This paper focuses on whether environmental protection policies (EPP) can achieve a win-win situation between green development and innovative development. Based on the panel data of 277 cities in China from 2006 to 2016, this paper studies the impact of China's EPP on urban innovation efficiency by using a time-varying difference-in-differences approach. Combined with the geographical features of Chinese cities, we further take urban form into the mediating effect analysis. The results show that (1) EPP has a significant positive impact on innovation efficiency, and the result satisfies the parallel trend test; (2) the robustness test shows that EPP has technological innovation and diffusion effects; and (3) the mediating effect test show that urban form has a significant mediating effect on the impact of EPP on innovation efficiency. Therefore, environmental policies should be formulated considering the differences of urban form to achieve the optimal implementation effect.

How does national development zone policy affect carbon emissions in China? New evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

The expansion of China's development zones has made great contributions to economic development, as well as provided practical guidance for other developing countries to implement development zone policies. However, in the context of global advocacy of low carbon, literature about how the development zone policy affect carbon emissions is poor, especially in China at the urban level. Therefore, this study takes China's development zone policy as a quasi-natural experiment, using the panel data of 285 cities in China from 2003 to 2020, and adopting the DID model to analyze its impact on carbon emissions. After a series of robustness tests including placebo test, dynamic test (all independent variables are lagged by one period), endogeneity test, and parallel trend test, the results are basically robust. The findings show that the development zone policy indeed significantly reduces carbon emissions. In addition, we find that cities with higher resource endowments, cities in the eastern and central regions, and other larger cities across the country have better carbon emissions reduction effects. To a certain extent, the research in this paper fills the gap of theoretical research on carbon emissions in terms of the development zone policy, and provides some practical basis for future research in the field of carbon emissions.

Transportation Infrastructure, Population Mobility, and Public Health

This paper constructs an overlapping generations model, including health human capital, to investigate the impact of transportation investment on public health with population mobility. The theoretical analysis shows that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between transportation infrastructure and population flow, which also exists between transportation and health. Health is affected by transportation from three aspects: positive output effect, negative substitution effect on public health investment, and an indirect effect through population flow. In the empirical part, considered with the infectious diseases, we found that the more intensive the traffic facilities, the greater the population flow, and therefore, the traffic facilities will have a negative impact on health. When population mortality is used to measure the level of public health, transportation improvement will significantly enhance public health with an inverted U-shaped relationship, which is consistent with the theoretical portion.

Empirical Study on the Influence of Urban Environmental Industrial Structure Optimization on Ecological Landscape Greening Construction

With the rapid development of the economy in China, the ecological environment problem of the city has become an important factor that restricts the development of our economy and society. People gradually realize that, while rapidly generating wealth, they have been shrouded by the shadow of environmental pollution for a long time, which makes people feel more and more frightened and thoughtful. Industry is the carrier of economic activities, so we must pay attention to the relationship between industry and the natural environment. In this case, people pay more and more attention to the study of ecological construction and bring it into the optimization of environmental industrial structure. During this period, to correctly handle the relationship between industrial structure and ecological construction, to realize the overall transformation, development and cultivation of industrial structure, is the inevitable choice to promote the healthy and sustainable development of enterprises. From the perspective of industrial structure adjustment and the green space system, this paper makes theoretical assumptions about the impact of environmental industrial structure adjustment on urban ecological green space construction. Then, through the panel data of 260 cities from 2008 to 2018, the impact of China's industrial structure adjustment on the scale of urban ecological green space was empirically analyzed. On this basis, this paper puts forward some policy recommendations for the development of urban ecological green space in our country.

How Population Aging Affects Industrial Structure Upgrading: Evidence from China

The question of how to proactively respond to population aging has become a major global issue. As a country with the largest elderly population in the world, China suffers a stronger shock from population aging, which makes it more urgent to transform its industrial and economic development model. Concretely, in the context of the new macroeconomic environment that has undergone profound changes, the shock of population aging makes the traditional industrial structure upgrading model (driven by large-scale factor inputs, imitation innovation and low-cost technological progress, and strong external demand) more unsustainable, and China has an urgent need to transform it to a more sustainable one. Only with an in-depth analysis of the influence mechanism of population aging on the upgrading of industrial structure can we better promote industrial structure upgrading under the impact of population aging. Therefore, six MSVAR models were constructed from each environmental perspective based on data from 1987 to 2021. The probabilities of regime transition figures show that the influencing mechanisms have a clear two-regime feature from any view; specifically, the omnidirectional environmental transition occurs in 2019. A further impulse-response analysis shows that, comparatively speaking, under the new environment regime the acceleration of population aging (1) aggravates the labor shortage, thus narrowing the industrial structure upgrading ranges; (2) has a negative, rather than positive, impact on the capital stock, but leads to a cumulative increase in industrial structure upgrading; (3) forces weaker technological progress, but further leads to a stronger impact on the industrial structure upgrading; (4) forces greater consumption upgrading, which further weakens industrial structure upgrading; (5) narrows rather than expands the upgrading of investment and industrial structures; and (6) narrows the upgrading of export and industrial structures. Therefore, we should collaboratively promote industrial structure upgrading from the supply side relying heavily on independent innovation and talent, and the demand side relying heavily on the upgrading of domestic consumption and exports.

Characteristics and Spatial-Temporal Differences of Urban "Production, Living and Ecological" Environmental Quality in China

The article analyses the spatial and temporal differences in the environmental quality of production, living and ecology of 285 cities in China from 2010 to 2020 by using the entropy method, the Theil index and correlation analysis. The study concludes the following: (1) in terms of overall differences, the overall differences in the "production, living and ecological" environmental quality indices of 285 cities during the study period undergo a process of "narrowing-widening-narrowing". The differences within the four major zones of the country are higher than those between the four major zones, and the differences within the zones show an increasing trend year by year. (2) In terms of temporal differences, the combined scores of "production, living and ecological" environmental quality of the 285 cities in the study period show a decreasing trend, and the contribution of the PLE subsystem scores are, in descending order, production environmental quality > living environmental quality > ecological environmental quality. (3) In terms of overall ranking, the head effect of the combined production, living and ecological environmental quality (PLE) scores of cities in the study period is significant, and the top 10 cities in terms of combined scores are all small and medium-sized cities with significant regionalization characteristics. (4) In terms of spatial pattern, there is a significant spatial gradient in the east, central and western regions, with the overall PLE scores of the four major regions in descending order: eastern region > central region > western region > northeastern region. The regions with high scores in the "production, living and ecological" environmental quality of cities can be divided into three types: multi-core, dual-core and single-core. (5) In terms of influencing factors, there is a logarithmic curve relationship between the combined production, living and ecological environmental quality (PLE) score and the built-up area (BUA) of cities. The study proposes to optimize the layout of urban production, strengthen the industrial links of urban clusters, improve the level of public services, ensure the equalization of urban public services, strengthen the management of ecological environment and improve the quality of ecological environment in order to optimize the quality of urban "production, living and ecological" environment.

Can Green Innovation Improve Regional Environmental Carrying Capacity? An Empirical Analysis from China

Green innovation has become an important driving force for China's economic transformation and development. This paper selects the 2010-2020 provincial-level regions in China as samples, and adopts a multi-indicator comprehensive evaluation method to comprehensively, objectively and scientifically evaluate the environmental carrying capacity of air pollution in two dimensions: natural resource endowment and human activity impact, and also measures and calculates the green innovation in each province, city and autonomous region to explore the specific impact of green innovation on environmental carrying capacity and its spatial spillover effect; it also explores the heterogeneous effects of green innovation on environmental carrying capacity under different pollution environments. The conclusions show that: (1) Green innovation has a positive impact on environmental carrying capacity. (2) There is a spatial spillover effect of green innovation on environmental carrying capacity. In other words, in areas with higher PM2.5 concentration, that is, lower environmental quality, green innovation has a weaker ability to improve environmental carrying capacity; in areas with lower PM2.5 concentration, that is higher environmental quality, green innovation has a stronger ability to improve environmental carrying capacity. (3) In the process of green innovation affecting environmental carrying capacity, PM2.5 plays the part of a mediating effect, indicating that green innovation is an intermediate transmission mechanism affecting environmental carrying capacity, and the results show that the absolute value of the short-term indirect effect is greater than the absolute value of the short-term direct effect, and the long-term direct effect is greater than the long-term indirect effect.

Can Inbound Tourism Improve Regional Ecological Efficiency? An Empirical Analysis from China

Inbound tourism has an important impact on regional eco-efficiency. This paper uses the panel data of 31 provincial administrative units in China from 2005 to 2019; uses the improved DEA model to measure the regional ecological efficiency; and uses the panel threshold model to investigate input, output, and efficiency from the perspective of green technology innovation. Then, it explores the heterogeneous effects of inbound tourism on ecological efficiency. This paper finds that cross-border tourism has a positive impact on the ecological efficiency of tourist destinations. However, the degree of influence varies and will be changed with the level of regional green innovation. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) From an overall perspective, inbound tourism has a significant positive effect on ecological efficiency. (2) With the increase in green innovation investment and output, the promotion effect of inbound tourism on regional ecological efficiency first increases and then decreases. (3) The higher the green innovation efficiency, the greater the promotion effect of inbound tourism on ecological efficiency. Therefore, the Chinese government should encourage the development of inbound tourism, adopt greener innovative technologies that are cleaner and more environmentally friendly, and enhance the welfare effect of tourism on green economy.

Projections in Various Scenarios and the Impact of Economy, Population, and Technology for Regional Emission Peak and Carbon Neutrality in China

Owing to the surge in greenhouse gas emissions, climate change is attracting increasing attention worldwide. As the world's largest carbon emitter, the achievement of emission peak and carbon neutrality by China is seen as a milestone in the global response to the threat. By setting different "emission peak" and "carbon neutrality" paths, this study compares the different pathways taken by China towards regional emission reduction to illustrate China's possible contribution to global emission reduction, and analyzes the role that China's economy, population, and technology need to play in this process through the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology model. In terms of path setting, based on actual carbon emissions in various regions from 2000 to 2019 and grid data on land use from 2000 to 2020, the model simulates three emission peak paths to 2030 and two carbon neutrality paths to 2060, thus setting six possible carbon emission trends from 2000 to 2060 in different regions. It is found that the higher the unity of policy objectives at the emission peak stage, the lower the heterogeneity of the inter-regional carbon emission trends. In the carbon neutrality stage, the carbon emissions in the unconstrained symmetrical extension decline state scenario causes the greatest environmental harm. Certain regions must shoulder heavier responsibilities in the realization of carbon neutrality. The economic development level can lead to a rise in carbon emissions at the emission peak stage and inhibit it at the carbon neutrality stage. Furthermore, the dual effects of population scale and its quality level will increase carbon emissions at the emission peak stage and decrease it at the carbon neutrality stage. There will be a time lag between the output of science and technology innovation and its industrialization, while green innovation is a key factor in carbon neutrality. Based on the results, this study puts forward policy suggestions from a macro perspective to better realize China's carbon emission goals.

Agglomeration of Productive Services, Industrial Structure Upgrading and Green Total Factor Productivity: An Empirical Analysis Based on 68 Prefectural-Level-and-Above Cities in the Yellow River Basin of China

Improving green total factor productivity (GTFP) is the inherent requirement for practicing the philosophy of green development and achieving regional high-quality development. Based on panel data for 68 prefectural-level-and-above cities in the Yellow River Basin of China from 2006 to 2019, we measured their GTFPs and degrees of productive-services agglomeration using the non-radial directional distance function and industrial agglomeration index formulas, respectively. Furthermore, we empirically investigated the interactive relationship between agglomeration of productive services, industrial-structure upgrading, and GTFP using the dual fixed-effects model, the mediating-effect model, and the moderating-effect model. The findings were as follows. (1) Both specialized and diversified agglomeration of productive services significantly improved the GTFPs of cities in the Yellow River Basin, and the promoting effect of specialized agglomeration was stronger than that of diversified agglomeration. (2) The diversified agglomeration of productive services (hereinafter referred to as diversified agglomeration) made a significant contribution to GTFP in all sample cities of the Yellow River Basin, while the specialized agglomeration of productive services (hereinafter referred to as specialized agglomeration) only significantly improved GTFP in the upstream cities and had no significant effect on the midstream and downstream cities. (3) When examined according to city size, specialized agglomeration was found to have a positive impact on the GTFPs of small and medium-sized cities in the Yellow River Basin but a non-significant negative impact on large cities, while the effect of diversified agglomeration on GTFP was found not to be significant. (4) Industrial-structure upgrading played partially mediating and negative moderating roles in the process of specialized agglomeration affecting the GTFPs of cities in the Yellow River Basin, but it did not become a mediating channel and moderating factor that influenced diversified agglomeration in relation to GTFP.

The Impact of Air Pollution on the Protection of World Cultural Heritage in China

The damage of air pollution to cultural heritage is widely known. However, the quantitative effects still need to be explored at a holistic level. Different from existing research which focuses on the "model calculation" methods, this paper uses an econometric approach to assess the overall impact of air pollution on the sustainable protection of world cultural heritage in China. Based on the data of the annual monitoring report from 2014 to 2020 released by the China World Cultural Heritage Monitoring Platform, this paper uses the thermal inversion as an instrument variable of air pollution to estimate the overall effects of air pollution on all world cultural heritage sites in China. The results indicate that almost all the air pollutants (except for CO) have significantly negative effects on heritage. The damaging effects of gaseous pollutants including SO₂, NO₂ and O₃ is greater than that of particulate pollutants such as PM2.5 and PM10. Rainfall can exacerbate the worsening effects of gaseous pollutants, but will mitigate the negative effects of particulate pollutants; the windy weather may weaken the negative impact. In addition, environmental regulations from the local government can also alleviate the negative influence of air pollution on heritage protection. This research can provide a more comprehensive environmental prevention policy reference for the protection of world cultural heritage.

Can Nuclear Power Products Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Evidence from Global Trade Network

Since its birth, nuclear power has been a hot topic of academic research while being subject to much controversy. As a new green energy source with zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nuclear power plays a vital role in combatting global climate change. Based on global databases and various empirical analysis methods, this study aimed to explore the changes in the global nuclear power product trade (GNT) network and its impact on GHG emissions from 2001 to 2018. The main findings are summarized as follows. (1) Global trade in nuclear power products and GHG emissions showed a non-linear and fluctuating growth during the research period. The geographical pattern of GNT not only has prominent spatial heterogeneity, but it also has some spatial reverse coupled with the spatial distribution of global GHG emissions. (2) The overall regression analysis finds that nuclear power product trade had a significant suppressive effect on global GHG emissions and had the greatest influence among all the selected variables. (3) As for the impact of the GNT network on GHG emissions, nuclear power product trade was better able to curb GHG emissions in countries with the dominate positions compared to those with affiliated positions, which reflects the heterogeneous effect of nuclear power product trade on GHG emissions. These results provide further evidence for the dialectical debate on whether nuclear power products contribute to GHG emissions reductions. This paper also provides corresponding recommendations for policymakers.

Spatial Pattern of Technological Innovation in the Yangtze River Delta Region and Its Impact on Water Pollution

The impact of technological innovation on water pollution is an important parameter to determine and monitor while promoting and furthering a region's economic development. Here, exploratory spatial data analysis was used to analyze: the spatial patterns of technological innovation and water pollution in the Yangtze River, the changes in technical innovation and the resulting changes in water pollution, and the impact of technological innovation on water pollution. The following major inferences were drawn from the obtained results: (1) The spatial pattern of innovation input has a single-center structure that tends to spread. The patent innovation output has evolved, from a single spatial pattern with Shanghai as the core to a diffusion structure with three cores-Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Nanjing. (2) The aggregation mode of water pollution has evolved from the original "Z" mode to a new mode of core agglomeration, and water pollution is constantly being reduced. (3) The trends of change in patent innovation output and innovation input are roughly the same, while the trends of both and that of water pollution are contrary to each other. (4) The correlations between innovation input, patented innovation output, and water pollution are relatively low. From the perspective of spatial distribution, the number of cities with medium and high levels of gray correlation with water pollution is the same.

Environmental Performance Evaluation of Key Polluting Industries in China-Taking the Power Industry as an Example

This paper analyzes the environmental performance, spatial and temporal characteristics, and optimization paths of key polluting industries, represented here by the power industry, using the super-efficient MinDS model. The study shows that the environmental performance as a whole presents the characteristics of an inverted U-shaped and then a U-shaped trend; each region presents an asymmetric state of convergent development followed by differentiated development, with 2014 as the structural change point; the development trend of environmental performance in each region is divided into three categories (rising, falling, and stable) and four types of spatial clustering (ultra-high, high, medium, and low levels); and input-output indicators of environmental performance in China and across regions have varying degrees of redundancy, with labor input redundancy being the greatest, followed by capital input, technology input, and pollution emissions. On this basis, we propose to improve the monitoring and inspection mechanism of the implementation process of pollution control in key polluting industries and to improve the level of environmental performance of key polluting industries by optimizing the combination of labor, capital, and technology input factors in each region according to local conditions and adopting differentiated strategies. The main contributions of this paper are threefold: first, we incorporate technological inputs into the environmental performance evaluation index system of the electric power industry, which can better reflect the real inputs of the electric power industry and measure the results more accurately; second, we adopt the MinDS model for measuring the environmental performance level, which can quantitatively analyze the gap between each indicator and the optimal level; and third, we propose a redundancy index, which can be used to compare the redundancy of each indicator and then judge the main efficiency levels of the different factors.

Empirical Research on the Influence Mechanisms of Digital Resources Input on Service Innovation in China’s Finance Industry

In today’s era, digital technology and the digital economy are the forerunners of the scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation in the world. This paper chooses the organization and executive integration perspectives, studies the effects of relationship between digital resources input and service innovation in China’s finance industry, and the path and the mechanism of the transmission process. Through empirical research, we find that digital resource input has a significant positive impact on service innovation, and information sharing and value creation have significant mediating effects on the relationship between digital resource input and service innovation. Network openness significantly promotes the positive relationship between digital resource input and value creation, while big data technical ability significantly promotes the positive relationship between information sharing and service innovation. Our findings have some significant meanings for China’s financial enterprises.