Coupling Relationship Among Technological Innovation, Industrial Transformation and Environmental Efficiency: A Case Study of the Huaihai Economic Zone, China.

The 14th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period for China to achieve high-quality development. Based on super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SBM) model, grey-related analysis (GRA) and other models, this paper studies the heterogeneity of the coupling relationship among technological innovation, industrial transformation and environmental efficiency in the Huaihai Economic Zone during the period of 2005-2019. In addition, it analyzes the coupling mechanism of single and binary systems to the ternary system, which is of great significance for the collaborative symbiosis among systems. The findings are as follows. 1) The technological innovation, industrial transformation and environmental efficiency (TIE) systems of the Huaihai Economic Zone had significant spatial-temporal heterogeneity. Although their evaluation value fluctuated, the development trends are all positive. Ultimately, technological innovation is characterized by being high in the northeast and low in the southwest around Xuzhou, while other systems are relatively staggered in space. 2) The coupling of TIE systems is in transition, lack of orderly integration and benign interaction. However, the developing trend of interaction is also upward, and a spatial pattern driven by Xuzhou and Linyi as the dual cores has gradually formed. Moreover, the coupling is mostly manifested as outdated technological innovation and industrial transformation. Except for the final coordination of regenerative cities, the other resource types are all in transition. Cities in all traffic locations are still in transition. The overall system interaction of cities on Longhai Line (Lanzhou-Lianyungang Railway) is relatively optimal, and cities on Xinshi Line (Xinxiang-Rizhao Railway) are accelerating toward synergy. 3) The coupling status of TIE systems depends on the development of the single system and the interaction of the binary (2E) system. The coupling is closely related to technological innovation and Technology-Industry system, and is hindered by the inefficient interaction of Technology-Environment system. Specifically, the synergy of regenerative cities is attributed to the advantage of a single system and the effective integration of 2E systems. Beneficial from the advantages of environmental efficiency, the cities on Xinshi Line promote the synergy of the 2E and TIE systems. Therefore, while the Huaihai Economic Zone stimulates the development potential of the single and 2E systems, it is necessary to amplify the superimposition effect of systems in accordance on the basis of resource and location.

Do Coastal Areas Experience More Recession during the Economic Crisis-Evidence from China.

The notion of resilience has been increasingly adopted in economic geography, concerning how regions resist and recover from all kinds of shocks. Most of the literature on the resilience of coastal areas focuses on biophysical stressors, such as climate change and some environmental factors. In this research, we analyze the regional economic resilience characteristics responding to the Great Financial Crisis in 2008 and its main determinants. We conclude that the coastal areas encountered more recession (or less growth) in the long term, and the secondary industry showed higher resilience than the tertiary industry. The influential factors of regional economic resilience varied across different stages of the crisis, and for the long term, good financial arrangement and governance ability could prompt the regional resilience to the crisis. Finally, some policy implications are proposed which may benefit dealings with major shocks such as economic crises and COVID-19.

Research on the Spatial Correlation of China's Haze Pollution and the Government's Cooperative Governance Competitive Strategy.

A government's choice of environmental strategy plays an important role in the coordinated governance of regional air pollution. Based on changes in China's environmental policies and on changes in environmental indicators over the years, this paper selects regional haze data from the years 2005, 2009, 2013, and 2017; uses social network analysis to describe the structural characteristics of a spatial correlation network in China; measures the level of coordination using a population gravity model; and further analyzes the influence of the overall structural characteristics of spatial networks on the level of coordination. The results show that the spatial association of regional haze presents a typical "central edge" network structure. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta region are the largest emitters in China. The coordination level of haze control in China showed a fluctuating upward trend, but the overall level of coordination is relatively low, and there is still great room for improvement. Based on the above characteristics, using the provincial panel data from 2005-2017, a two-zone spatial Durbin model was built to empirically test the impact of changes to the environmental performance assessment system on local coordinated haze-control decisions and their stage characteristics. The overall sample results show that there was a "race to the bottom" among Chinese provinces during the study period. When the haze control intensity in neighboring areas was relaxed, the regional governments also tended to relax their own environmental regulation intensity. The time-based analysis results further show that with the improvement of the environmental performance assessment system, the strategy selection of coordinated governmental haze-management presents the possibility of a "race to the top".

[Factor decomposition and reduction effect on the changes of industrial wastewater discharge].

After describing the volume of industrial wastewater discharge, economic growth, economic space structure and industrial wastewater discharge intensity, the non-residue complete decomposition model was applied to analyze the effects of three economically factors, which were economic scale, discharge intensity and space structure, on the changes of industrial wastewater discharge quantitatively from 1981 to 2006 in China. Then industrial wastewater reduction effect was computed by use of H-P filter method. The main results could be summarized as follows: (1) The average annual growth of industrial wastewater discharge is 0.25 x 10(8) t, and the scale of economic development, the space structure and the industrial wastewater discharge intensity have different contributions to the change, being 25.9 x 10(8) t, - 25.5 x 10(8) t, -0.16 x 10(8) t respectively. (2) Accumulative quantity of industrial wastewater discharge reduction is 641.8 x 10(8) t from 1981 to 2006 in China. During this period, with the impact of macroeconomic policies, reduction gap has been fluctuating; however, total reduction gap is a positive number. It is to say that actual reduction volume is more than potential reduction one. (3) With the shift of time, potential reduction efficiency tends to increase firstly and then decline. (4) During 1982-1990 and 1997-2006, industry is high-pollution, while during 1991-1996, industry is low-pollution correspondingly.