Impact of digital inclusive finance on agricultural total factor productivity in Zhejiang Province from the perspective of integrated development of rural industries.

Improving agricultural total factor productivity is crucial for comprehensive rural revitalization and building a strong agricultural nation. Digital inclusive finance amalgamates the benefits of digital technology and inclusive finance, mitigating financial exclusion in agricultural production. It fosters rural revitalization and the modernization of agriculture by bolstering farmers' innovation, entrepreneurship, and agricultural technology advancements. Consequently, it significantly enhances overall agricultural total factor productivity. This study uses panel data from 2011 to 2020 to empirically investigate the impact and mechanism of digital inclusive finance on agricultural total factor productivity in Zhejiang Province, China. The research results show that digital inclusive finance significantly enhances agricultural total factor productivity in Zhejiang Province, which holds true even after a series of robustness tests. Analysis of the mechanism reveals that the integrated development of rural industries plays a crucial mediating role in empowering agricultural total factor productivity through digital inclusive finance. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive effect of digital inclusive finance on agricultural total factor productivity is more pronounced in the northeastern region of Zhejiang Province and in areas ranked in the second tier of agricultural development. Therefore, we recommend comprehensively enhancing the development of digital inclusive finance in rural areas, fostering a financial ecosystem that integrates rural industries, promoting the coordinated development of digital inclusive finance in different regions, and comprehensively improving agricultural total factor productivity.

Evaluation of sustainable development capacity of water sources: a case study of China.

The issue of water scarcity has drawn attention from all over the world. The coordination of the interaction between ecological and environmental development of water sources and socio-economic development is currently an essential issue that needs to be solved in order to safeguard the water resources environment for human survival. In this essay, we suggest a paradigm for assessing the sustainable exploitation of water resources. First, three ecological, economic, and social factors are investigated. Twenty essential evaluation indexes are then constructed using the Delphi approach, along with an index system for assessing the potential of water sources for sustainable development. The weights of each evaluation index were then determined using the combination assignment approach, which was then suggested. The coupled degree evaluation model of the capability for sustainable development of water sources was then developed. In order to confirm the viability and validity of the suggested model, the model was used to assess the Liwu River water source's capacity for sustainable growth in the context of the South-North Water Transfer in Shandong, China. It is believed that the aforementioned study would serve as a helpful resource when evaluating the capacity of water sources for sustainable development.

Does the "Belt and Road Initiative" benefit the environment? Insight from analysis of intra-industry trade in environment goods.

The expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has raised a wide range of concerns about its environmental impact. Therefore, from the perspective of environmental impacts, this study used the two-way fixed effect staggered differences in differences (TWFE Staggered DID) method to examine the impact of the BRI on the Environment Goods (EGs) intra-industry trade (IIT) between China and other Belt and Road (B&R) countries, including a sample of 191 countries, covering the period from 2010 to 2019 for eliminating the impact of COVID-19 and the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Because only 135 countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding between 2010 and 2019, this study treated these B&R countries as the study group, and the other 73 countries (non-B&R countries) as the control group. This study described EGs using the 54 6-digit code Environment Goods in Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System listed in the "APEC LIST OF ENVIRONMENT GOODS" published by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in 2012, and used the intra-industry trade index proposed by Grubel and Lloyd in 1971 to measuring dependent variable. The research results indicated that the BRI has significantly promoted bilateral EGs IIT. The mechanism test implied that, in addition to direct impacts, the BRI also has indirect impacts by boosting the energy restructuring of B&R countries. These results prove that the BRI has positive impacts on the environment. The heterogeneity test showed that there is a heterogeneous impact depending on the type of IIT, product categorization, B&R countries' income levels, and geographic environment. This study not only gives theoretical and empirical evidence of the positive environmental impacts of the BRI, but also provides practical guidance for the development of EGS IIT between China and B&R countries, thereby contributing to global carbon emissions reduction and environmental governance to some degree.

Quality adjustment and analysis of human resource prices in China: Based on a hedonic price model.

The competition in the world has shifted from natural resources and capital resources to human resources. The human resources have become the real power source of the economic growth. Firstly, the price of human resources in China is calculated. Secondly, in order to measure the human resources quality adjustment index, the indicators system is constructed. Third, the Hedonic method is used to calculate the human resources "pure price" of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) in China. The "pure price" has no the factor of human resources quality. Lastly, comparing the price of human resources before and after quality adjustment. The results show that: first, the number of human resources in China increased continuously during 1995-2015 and decreased during 2016-2020. Second, the price of nominal human resources in China keeps rising. In 2020, the nominal price is 39,087 yuan per person which is 15.44 times as many as in 1995. Thirdly, after the quality adjustment, the price of human resources has decreased significantly. The multiple between the actual and nominal price of human resources is between 1.75 and 2.12. Fourthly, the province with high human resource quality adjustment index generally have high quality human resource level or quantity. Fifth, the top five provinces of actual human resource prices are Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong, Tianjin, Zhejiang, the bottom five provinces are Guizhou, Yunnan, Henan, Xizang, Gansu. Finally, the paper puts forward some policy recommendations: Improving the data collection mechanism of human resources accounting to provide a basic guarantee for the accurate accounting of human resources. Improving the price of human resources in the central and western regions to attract the talents to transfer to the central and western regions. Enhancing the skills training of human resources to improve the quality of human resources in the western region.

What influences the performance of carbon emissions in China?-Research on the inter-provincial carbon emissions' conditional configuration impacts.

The severe global warming issue currently threatens humans' existence and development. Countries and international organizations have effectively implemented policies to reduce carbon emissions and investigate low-carbon growth strategies. Reducing carbon emissions is a hot topic that academics and government policy-making departments are concerned about.Through necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA), this paper investigates local governments' configuration linkage effect and path choice to improve carbon emission performance from six dimensions: energy consumption, industrial structure, technological innovation, government support, economic development, and demographic factors. The research findings include the following: (1) Individual condition does not represent necessary conditions for the government's carbon performance. Among the two sets of second-order equivalence configurations(S and Q) (five high-level carbon performance configurations), those dominated by economic development or low energy consumption can produce high-level carbon performance. Therefore, the six antecedent conditions dimensions work together to explain how the government can create high levels of carbon performance. (2)According to the regional comparison, China's eastern, central, and western regions exhibit similarities and differences in the driving forces behind high carbon emission performance. All three regions can demonstrate carbon emission performance when all the factors are combined. However, when constrained by the conditions of each region's resource endowment, the eastern region emphasizes the advantage of economic and technological innovation, the central region favors government support and demographic factors, and the western region prefers upgrading industrial structure based on a specific level of economic development.

Does wealth equate to happiness? an 11-year panel data analysis exploring socio-economic indicators and social media metrics.

The Easterlin paradox questions the link between economic growth and national well-being, emphasizing the necessity to explore the impact of economic elasticity, income inequality, and their temporal and spatial heterogeneity on subjective happiness. Despite the importance of these factors, few studies have examined them together, thus ongoing debates about the impact of economics on well-being persist. To fill this gap, our analysis utilizes 11 years of panel data from 31 provinces in China, integrating macroeconomic indicators and social media content to reassess the Easterlin paradox. We use GDP per capita and the Gini coefficient as proxies for economic growth and income inequality, respectively, to study their effects on the subjective well-being expressed by citizens on social media in mainland China. Our approach combines machine learning and fixed effects models to evaluate these relationships. Key findings include: (1) In temporal relationships, a 46.70% increase in GDP per capita implies a 0.38 increase in subjective well-being, while a 0.09 increase in the Gini coefficient means a 1.47 decrease in subjective well-being. (2) In spatial relationships, for every 46.70% increase in GDP per capita, subjective well-being rises by 0.51; however, this relationship is buffered by unfair distribution, and GDP per capita no longer significantly affects subjective well-being when the Gini index exceeds 0.609. This study makes a synthetic contribution to the debate on the Easterlin paradox, indicating that economic growth can enhance well-being if income inequality is kept below a certain level. Although these results are theoretically enlightening for the relationship between economics and national well-being globally, this study's sample comes from mainland China. Due to differences in cultural, economic, and political factors, further research is suggested to explore these dynamics globally.

The agricultural carbon reduction effect of digital rural construction under the dual carbon target.

The exploration of the agricultural carbon emission reduction effect of digital rural construction offers a promising path towards achieving dual carbon goals. This study establishes an evaluation system for digital rural construction and analyzes its impact on agricultural carbon emissions using various creative techniques including panel fixed effects, mediation effects, threshold effects, and spatial Durbin models based on provincial panel data from 2011 to 2021.It is found that: (1) The impact of digital rural construction on agricultural carbon emissions exhibits a "inverted U-shaped" pattern, with a nonlinear effect on emissions through promoting agricultural green total factor productivity and adjusting agricultural structure.(2) Digital rural construction has both promoting and inhibiting effects on agricultural carbon emissions, both locally and in adjacent areas. It also demonstrates a threshold effect, with rural human capital as the sole threshold. Once the threshold value 8.830 is surpassed, the agricultural carbon emission reduction effect becomes prominent.(3)Digital rural construction has a dual effect on local agricultural carbon emissions in terms of both promoting and then restraining the emissions, which has a spatial spill-over effect in the neighboring areas. This study contributes to our understanding of carbon reduction pathways by highlighting the comprehensive utilization of digital rural construction and expanding research on the dynamic context of its impact on carbon emissions.

Intelligence level evaluation and influencing factors analysis of equipment manufacturing industry in the Yangtze River Delta.

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) bears the vital task of driving the growth of China's equipment manufacturing industry (EMI) intelligence as an advanced region. Fostering the transformation and upgrading of the EMI in the YRD and constructing a modern production mode is vital to developing and reforming China's manufacturing industry. This paper uses industrial robot data to assess the level of intelligence (LoI) in the EMI from 2016 to 2019. The OLS (ordinary least squares) model is used for the measurements, and the MQ (the modified contribution index) is used to estimate the degree of contribution from a host of variables. It is identified that the LoI is on the rise. However, excluding railways, aerospace, shipbuilding, and other transportation equipment manufacturing, the LoI is significantly higher than in other subsectors. It is also identified that technological innovation ability, human capital density, and enterprise cost pressure govern the industry's LoI. Moreover, while there is a difference in the main influencing factors in LoI within different industries, R&D investment, technological innovation ability, and enterprise cost pressure have the most significant impact across most equipment manufacturing sub-industries.

Digital economy, innovation factor allocation and industrial structure transformation-A case study of the Yangtze River Delta city cluster in China.

The attainment of regional high-quality development necessitates the critical role of the digital economy in facilitating the transformation of industrial structures. This study intends to investigate the effect of the digital economy on industrial structure transformation from the perspective of innovation factor allocation using a panel dataset of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region for the period from 2011 to 2020. This paper considers four dimensions to measure the level of industrial structure transformation i.e. industrial structure servitization, industrial structure upgradation, service industry structure upgradation and industrial interaction level. The results of the study suggest that the digital economy can significantly improve industrial structure transformation. The results remain consistent even after several robustness checks. Further, the analysis of the mechanism of action shows that the digital economy can promote industrial structure transformation by optimizing the innovation factor allocation. The study provides several policy implications for the digital economy and its role in the promotion of industrial structure transformation.

Spatio-temporal evolution of sports tourism industry integration: A empirical analysis of Xinjiang in China.

Since the issuance of the "Guiding Opinions on Vigorously Developing Sports Tourism" in 2016, the integration of sports and tourism has become a strategy in regional economic development. It creates new economic growth points, enhances local images, and promotes cultural communication. In the context of the "Tourism Makes Xinjiang Thrive" strategy, quantitatively investigating the integration of the sports and tourism industries helps people to better understand their interaction which can serve as the valuable input in policy-making for the comprehensive development of a region. This paper uses entropy weight method, stochastic frontier analysis and coupling coordination model to quantitatively analyze the effect of sports tourism industry integration in Xinjiang from the perspective of integration path. Meanwhile, the Dagum Gini coefficient and nuclear density estimation were used to analyze the regional differences and dynamic evolution of industrial integration quality. The result shows that (1) The sports and tourism integration quality in Xinjiang has not reached the optimal goal of complete integration. In the process of mutual industrial promotion, tourism promotes a higher degree of integration with the sports industry. (2) The industrial integration quality shows a phenomenon of "imbalance and inadequacy" among the regions. The regions with high quality of industrial integration were Urumqi, Ili, Kashgar, Altay and Changji, which have rich sports tourism resources. (3) The overall spatial difference in the quality of industrial integration presented a fluctuation downtrend. The difference between the tourism industrial belts was very significant.

Research on the spatial effect of digital economy development on urban carbon reduction.

Cities are one of the main sources of regional carbon emissions, and reducing urban carbon emission is the key to reducing emissions. The digital economy has transformed the economic operation mode, and it is a significant approach to support the "dual carbon goals" (carbon peaking and carbon neutrality). This article considers the externalities of the digital economy and carbon emissions. And we use spatial econometric models to analyze the effectiveness of digital economy in empowering carbon emissions reduction. Besides, we explore the static and dynamic spillover effects, and use spatial Durbin panel quantile model to analyze the digital economy's heterogeneity on carbon emissions. Research has shown that the digital economy has a remarkable carbon reduction effect, and the conclusion remains valid after considering robustness tests such as replacing the weight matrices, calculation methods, and proxy variables. The analysis of static and dynamic spillover effects indicates that the degree of the digital economy's impact on carbon emissions are significantly different. Heterogeneity analysis shows that as the digital economy develops from a low level to a high level, its impact on carbon emissions also shifts from positive promotion to negative suppression. This paper proposes a policy reference to help the development of digital economy and promote carbon neutrality in the face of severe environmental challenges.

Revisiting the relationship between natural resources and environmental quality- can ICT break the "resource curse" in the environment?

Despite the prevalence of discussions on the "resource curse", the impact of natural resources on environmental quality for better or for worse has not been clearly answered, this study aims to answer the question by introducing the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). To that end, by using the Instrumental Variable Generalized Method of Moments (IV GMM) estimator and a sample of 102 developing and emerging economies from 2006 to 2016, this paper studies the impact of ICT on the relationship between natural resources and environmental quality. Specially, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) captures the environmental quality. The results show that natural resources have a significant negative effect on EPI, specially, EPI decreases by one unit with a 1% increase in natural resource rents. ICT significantly mitigates this adverse effect, and marginal effects analysis further confirms its positive moderate effects. The results proved to be robust by Lewbel 2SLS and Driscoll-Kraay techniques or other robust tests. It is noteworthy that the adverse effect of natural resources on EPI is greater and the mitigating effect of ICT is more pronounced in low-income countries and lower-middle income countries. Overall, these results remind resource-based countries to vigorously develop ICT, and apply intelligent exploration, digital monitoring, or other digital technologies to realize the high-efficiency use of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution and ecological damage.

The effectiveness of emerging markets' legal structure in explaining financial development.

This article examines the role of legal structure in explaining financial development in twenty-three emerging markets, which has not been explored in institutional economics literature before. This study relied on Pedroni, and Kao cointegration tests, which is followed by the renowned panel cointegration technique. The results of the Pedroni and Kao cointegration tests show that the variables understudy is cointegrated in the long-run. These findings are confirmed by the panel cointegration showing that legal structure (LS) has positive impact on financial development (FIND) in long-run that support Law and Finance, and New Institutional Economics theories in emerging markets. This study is the first to directly examine the long-run impact of LS on FIND in emerging markets, and the result remains consistent across alternative measure of FIND. The findings of this study have important policy implications for emerging markets. Policymakers should focus on creating a legal environment that is conducive to financial development. This includes strengthening the legal framework, improving regulatory regimes, and promoting market autonomy. Additionally, policymakers should work to attract foreign investment, which can help spur economic growth and development in emerging markets. The findings of the study are consistent across battery of robustness testing.

Coupling development of sports industry and tourism industry based on internet of things.

This study investigates the positive coupling between the sports industry and tourism, exploring the ways to promote their interconnection. Under state guidance, the integration of sports industry services is facilitated to attract sports culture and tourism fairs, leveraging regional economic development advantages to enhance the industrial market appeal. The emerging leisure consumption mode of sports tourism injects vitality into the economy, fostering the core sports service industry. The coupling of the education and tourism sectors is strategically aligned with long-term national policies. Using IoT technology, this paper employs a grey relational analysis to assess the coupling between the sports industry and tourism, revealing a significant correlation. Experimental results demonstrate a positive coupling trend, likened to conjoined twins with a natural material basis and technical support. This coupling not only aligns with industry trends but also resonates with the "environmental protection era," "green era," and "ecological era," marking a pivotal aspect of industrial development. The study contributes valuable insights into the symbiotic relationship between the sports and tourism industries, emphasizing their interconnectedness and the positive implications for economic and environmental sustainability.

Exploring the impact of climate technology, financial inclusion and renewable energy on ecological footprint: Evidence from top polluted economies.

Most South Asian countries' economies have grown dramatically during the past few decades. However, in light of their environmental sustainability goals, the quality of such growth performances by South Asian nations is called into doubt by the concurrent degradation in environmental quality. Consequently, reducing the environmental challenges these nations encounter is prioritized on the agendas of the relevant authorities. This study aimed to analyze the effect of the top 11 most polluted countries' levels of financial inclusion, technological innovation, consumption of renewable energy, and adoption of climate technology on environmental deterioration from 2000 to 2022. Therefore, this research aims to use cutting-edge panel data econometric techniques to investigate the factors contributing to high carbon footprints in the world's most polluted nations. The results support an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and carbon footprints, crediting the environmental Kuznets curve concept. In addition, it has been shown that TECH, REC, and CT can reduce carbon footprints in both the short and long term, while GDP and financial inclusion only affect carbon footprints in the long term. The results further endorsed the pollution haven hypothesis by showing that GDP positively affects carbon footprint. As a result, leading polluting economies need to strengthen their financial sectors, create green technology, migrate to renewable energy, and limit financial inclusion to improve environmental quality.

Analyzing the spatiotemporal pattern of the decoupling degree between carbon metabolism and economic development in village and town units.

In the context of green and sustainable development and rural revitalization, analysis of the relationship between economic development and the evolution of carbon metabolism is of great significance for China's future transformation of development models. This study analyzed the spatial characteristics and spatiotemporal evolution pattern of the decoupling status between carbon metabolism and economic development of Laiwu during two periods from 2001 to 2018 at the village and town unit scales by using the Tapio decoupling model. The results showed that the growth rate of carbon metabolism from 2001 to 2009 was significantly higher than that from 2009 to 2018. The spatial heterogeneity of the decoupling states between economic development and carbon metabolism from 2009 to 2018 was significantly stronger than that from 2001 to 2009 in two units. From 2001 to 2018, the development trend gradually trended towards spatial imbalance. The decoupling status between villages and towns had a high degree of consistency from 2001 to 2009 and inconsistency from 2009 to 2018. From 2001 to 2009, the decoupling status of about 78% of villages was consistent with that of towns. Moreover, from 2009 to 2018, the consistency reduced to 32.2%, and the decoupling status of about 48% of villages was weaker than that of towns. According to the reclassification results of different decoupling state change types, from 2001 to 2018, about 52.2% of the villages had a decoupling state evolution type of eco-deteriorated economic development, which is an unsatisfactory development trend in a short time. Moreover, about 12.1% of the villages had a decoupling state evolution type of eco-improved economic development, which is a satisfactory development trend.

Does the opening of producer services promote the wage growth of the downstream manufacturing industry?-Empirical evidence from Chinese manufacturing listed companies.

Based on the vertical connection between upstream and downstream industries, a unique theoretical model is constructed to analyse the impact mechanism of the opening of producer services on downstream manufacturing wage growth. The empirical tests are carried out using the data of China's manufacturing listed companies from 1999 to 2020. Our findings indicate that the opening of producer services has an inverted-U-shaped impact on downstream manufacturing wage growth, and the average level of the opening of producer services in the sample period is lower than the corresponding threshold. Overall, it is in the stage of promoting the wage growth of the downstream manufacturing industry. The opening of producer services mainly affects the wage growth of the downstream manufacturing industry through two channels: labour productivity and labour income share. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the wages of capital and technology-intensive and low-competitive manufacturing industries are relatively strongly promoted by the opening of producer services. Therefore, promoting the orderly opening of producer services and strengthening the technological links between industries will help promote the wage growth of downstream manufacturing industries.

Assessing the technical efficiency performance of Chinese ports logistics: Evidence from the DEA and fsQCA.

Ports are critical centers of international trade and global logistics now that economic globalization has taken hold. The efficiency performance of port logistics is crucial to building an emerging pattern of development in which domestic and foreign dual cycles are complementary for China. This paper examines the efficiency performance of 19 ports within five major economic circles in China. It explores how their efficiency is distributed, and the configurations of efficiency improvement during the new normal of China's economy. First, the DEA-BCC model is employed to calculate the technical efficiency performance and distribution of each port from 2011 to 2020. Then, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was applied to integrate and analyze the influencing factors. The results show as follows: (1) Each port group performed differently on efficiency rankings, as well as regional distributions. Among these, the port groups of the Bohai Rim region, the Yangtze River Delta region, and the Bohai Rim region continue to rank highly. (2) From the perspective of configuration analysis, the results suggest that government support is not necessary for port logistics with better economic endowments. However, it is critical for backward ones. (3) A rational industrial structure can enhance levels of infrastructure, openness, and information technology, improving port performance. The findings can provide theoretical and practical references for better promoting the development of Chinese port management.al references for better promoting the development of Chinese port management.

Research on the impact of digital economy on labor resource allocation: Evidence from China.

This paper establishes a coherent framework for delineating the nexus between the digital economy and the subjective efficacy of labor resource allocation. It elucidates the theoretical underpinnings of the digital economy's impact and its channel effects on the efficiency of labor allocation. Within the digital economy landscape, the phenomena of survivorship bias, digital divide, and algorithmic hegemony wield substantial sway over the efficiency of labor market allocation. Empirical analysis, conducted through a cross-sectional data model, validates the theoretical framework. The findings demonstrate that the digital economy markedly diminishes the subjective efficiency of labor allocation. Notably, this inhibitory effect is more pronounced among female workers, households with multiple residences, the non-unmarried demographic, and individuals over the age of 40, with the most pronounced effect observed among those aged over 60. In the examination of the causative mechanisms, it is discerned that the digital economy attenuates the subjective efficiency of labor allocation by workers through three conduits: alterations in social and economic status, shifts in living standards, and modifications in workplace comfort.