How does choice of residential community affect the social integration of rural migrants: insights from China.

The construction of public space is a new and important way to integrate rural migrants into urban society. Existing studies mainly discussed the factors affecting the social integration of rural migrants from the micro-individual and macro-system levels. Still, they seldom analyzed the differences between rural migrants' residential communities and the roles these differences play in their social integration, especially from the perspective of residential space. Based on the data of the 2014 China Migrants Dynamic Monitoring Survey, this paper systematically examines the impact of residential community selection on the social integration of rural migrants and its possible effects using OLS, 2SLS, CMP, omitted variable test method, and KHB mediating effect model. It is found that the choice of residential community has a significant positive impact on the social integration of rural migrants, and the social integration of rural migrants living in formal communities has increased by 2.44%-3.20%. To overcome the potential endogeneity problems and selection bias of the empirical model, the study further adopted an instrumental variable estimation approach, combined with the omitted variable method for robustness check; the results still revealed the positive effect of living in formal communities on the social integration of rural migrants. The heterogeneous results showed that living in formal communities has a greater effect on the social integration of women and older-generation rural migrants. The farther the migration range and the longer the residence time of rural migrants, the greater the effect of living in the formal community on their social integration. Further mechanism testing revealed that living in formal communities not only directly enhances the social integration of rural migrants but also indirectly improves their social integration through public resource allocation, human capital accumulation, social status screening, and social network expansion. The indirect effect of capital accumulation is even greater. Therefore, to accelerate the full integration of rural migrants into urban society and achieve real urbanization and citizenship, the study proposes that the government should scientifically plan the layout of rural migrants' living space and the construction of supporting facilities.

The impact of green technology innovation and firm default risk: benefit effect or risk effect?-evidence from the panel data on Chinese manufacturing firms.

In the context of China's strategic goal of carbon neutrality, the realization of green technology innovation to reduce the risk of manufacturing default will help promote the green transformation of firms and achieve high-quality economic development. The study explored the relationship between green technology innovation and default risk by taking the manufacturing industry of listed enterprises in China from 2001 to 2020 as research samples. The results showed that green technology innovation is negatively correlated with default risk. Moreover, the heterogeneity analysis showed that the benefit effect of heavy-polluting enterprises, state-owned enterprises, and large-scale enterprises was more significant. The mechanism analysis showed that green technology innovation can reduce default risk through market position and capital structure. In addition, the study further distinguished that environmental protection tax was conducive to green technology innovation to reduce the occurrence of default risk. In theory, the study expanded the research paradigm between green technology innovation and default risk in theory, and provided new evidence and enlightenment for reducing the default risk of enterprises and supported the green and sustainable development of enterprises in practice.

Does Social Capital Improve the Effectiveness of Public Service? An Insight from Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China.

Despite the extensive literature on the effectiveness of public service, measuring it from the user's side among rural-to-urban groups is limited. Moreover, although rich research has explored the factors influencing the effectiveness of public service, in-depth micro-level analysis is scarcely addressed. The current study addresses these gaps by examining the relationship between social capital and the effectiveness of public service in Jiangsu province of China. Overall, the findings revealed that migrant's social capital positively affects their perceptions of public service provision. Specifically, the structural dimension of social capital plays a role in expanding information channels. In contrast, the relational dimension of social capital works through shared norms and trust, eventually improving migrants' fairness perception. Notably, these effects are more prominent in education, employment assistance, and minimum livelihood security than in other services. Further, the findings revealed that regional differences are more pronounced in the central part of the study area, where the current public service system is weak. Put differently; social capital can have a more significant effect when the construction of public service is constrained. It is also found that social capital plays a more important role for migrants working in the manufacturing industry than in other sectors. This study has significant implications for policymakers with a new perspective of social capital for improving the quality of public service and making it more available to migrants.

Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty and Pandemic Uncertainty on International Tourism: What do We Learn From COVID-19?

Uncertainty is an overarching aspect of life that is particularly pertinent to the present COVID-19 pandemic crisis; as seen by the pandemic's rapid worldwide spread, the nature and level of uncertainty have possibly increased due to the possible disconnects across national borders. The entire economy, especially the tourism industry, has been dramatically impacted by COVID-19. In the current study, we explore the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and pandemic uncertainty (PU) on inbound international tourism by using data gathered from Italy, Spain, and the United States for the years 1995-2021. Using the Quantile on Quantile (QQ) approach, the study confirms that EPU and PU negatively affected inbound tourism in all states. Wavelet-based Granger causality further reveals bi-directional causality running from EPU to inbound tourism and unidirectional causality from PU to inbound tourism in the long run. The overall findings show that COVID-19 has had a strong negative effect on tourism. So resilient skills are required to restore a sustainable tourism industry.

Causal relationship between health insurance and overall health status of children: Insights from Pakistan.

Evaluating the impact of health insurance always remains a methodologically challenging endeavor due to the absence of sample randomization. This paper evaluates the impact of health insurance on the health status of children in Pakistan using the data of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) for Punjab, Pakistan, from 2017 to 2018. The study adopted the propensity score matching (PSM) method to address the sample selection bias. The sample is matched on potential covariates such as mother characteristics (education level), household head characteristics (gender, age, and education), and other household conditions (such as home dwelling, internet access, wealth index, migration member, number of children residing in the home, as child illness, etc.). The findings revealed that children with insurance have considerably better health than non-insured, at a 1% significance level. The results confirm that health insurance is not a luxury but a need that improves children's overall health. In this regard, governments should enhance and expand programs related to health insurance, especially for children. Health insurance programs will not only help poor people but also improve the overall infrastructure of health services in the country.

Dialect culture and the utilization of public health service by rural migrants: Insights from China.

The right to health is a fundamental human right for human beings to live in dignity. Everyone has the right to enjoy the fair and accessible highest standard of health by utilizing public health services. However, access to essential public health services also highly depends on the dialect culture. It is believed that the dialect culture also influences the efficiency of public health policies. To explore the phenomenon empirically, the current study utilized data sourced from geographical distribution information of Chinese dialects and the China Migrants Dynamic Survey for 2017. The study employed the Probit, IVprobit, and Eprobit models to estimate the impact of dialect culture on migrants' use of public health services. The findings revealed that the dialect culture significantly hinders the migrants' utilization of public health services. Further, by employing heterogeneity analysis, the findings revealed that the results are more pronounced in migrants, born after 1980, and are female with low educational background and also those migrants having local medical experiences and moving toward non-provincial cities. Finally to explore the mechanism of dialect culture influencing migrants' public health service, the study employed mediation analysis and KHB Method. The findings revealed that information transmission, health habits, social capital, and cultural identity are the potential pathways influencing the migrants' use of public health services. The findings conclude that rural-to-urban migrants' access to public health services is influenced by their cultural adaptation. Hence, the study proposes that the government should amend the policy inefficiency concerns caused by cultural differences and strengthen the regional cultural exchanges to build trust.

Does Education Affect Rural Women's Trust? Evidence From China.

Trust is of great significance to the economic and social development of a country. In the case of China, the trust of rural women has undergone tremendous changes along with the development of rural areas. It is seen that the trust of rural women has changed from localized to generalized trust, and it is stated that the major factor leading to this transformation is education. To explore the phenomenon empirically, the current study uses the survey data of rural women sourced from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) over the year 2018. Through the ordered probit model, the study reveals that education plays a significant role in influencing rural women's generalized trust and localized trust. Through mediation analysis, the study further reveals that reliance on Internet information, access to public resources, and income are the factors mediating the relationship between education and generalized trust. Besides, the outcomes further unveil that the impact of education on localized trust is stronger when the level of mobility is low. For robustness check, the current study additionally employs a regression discontinuity model. The overall findings elucidate that education is the major factor triggering the trust of rural women in China. The findings propose that policymakers in China should imply education-oriented strategies as individuals with higher levels of education are more inclined to trust others.

Environmental performance and international trade in China: The role of renewable energy and eco-innovation.

Renewable energy and green innovation can enhance environmental performance by encouraging international trade, as anticipated by the current theoretical framework. This study investigates how renewable energy and eco-innovation affect international trade and environmental performance using quarterly data series from 1981 to 2018 for China. The study applies a quantile-based autoregressive distributed lag model. The results indicate that environmental innovation and renewable energy are consistent with environmental quality, while trade openness and urbanization contribute to environmental degradation by stimulating CO2 emissions. In addition, the quantile causality test showed a bidirectional causality between renewable energy and CO2 emissions, trade openness and CO2 emissions, and urbanization and CO2 emissions. Additionally, the findings lend theoretical support for the formulation of environmentally protective policies to better understand the role of renewable energy in stimulating international trade, which eventually enhances environmental performance. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:813-823. © 2021 SETAC.

Exploring the Role of Health Expenditure and Maternal Mortality in South Asian Countries: An Approach towards Shaping Better Health Policy.

Accomplishing unremitting favorable health outcomes, especially reducing maternal mortality, remains a challenge for South Asian countries. This study explores the relationship between health expenditure and maternal mortality by using data set consisting of 18 years from 2000 to 2017. Fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) models were employed for the empirical analysis. The outcomes revealed that a 1% rise in health expenditure increased the maternal mortality rate by 1.95% in the case of FMOLS estimator and 0.16% in the case of DOLS estimator. This reflects that the prevailing health care system is not adequate for reducing maternal mortality. Moreover, the meager system and the priorities established by an elitist system in which the powerless and poor are not considered may also lead to worsen the situation. In addition, the study also added population, economic growth, sanitation, and clean fuel technology in the empirical model. The findings revealed that population growth has a significant long-term effect on maternal mortality-an increase of 40% in the case of FMOLS and 10% in the case of DOLS-and infers that an increase in population growth has also dampened efforts towards reducing maternal mortality in the South Asian panel. Further, the results in the case of economic growth, sanitation, and clean fuel technologies showed significant long-term negative effects on maternal mortality by 94%, 7.2%, and 11%, respectively, in the case of the FMOLS estimator, and 18%, 1.9%, and 5%, respectively, in the case of the DOLS estimator. The findings imply that GDP and access to sanitation and clean fuel technologies are more nuanced in declining maternal mortality. In conclusion, the verdict shows that policymakers should formulate policies considering the fundamental South Asian aspects warranted to reduce maternal mortality.

Elucidating the Macroeconomic Determinants of Undernourishment in South Asian Countries: Building the Framework for Action.

Undernourishment is a big challenge for humanity across the world. Considering the significance of reducing undernourishment, the current study focuses on exploring the macroeconomic determinants of undernourishment in the South Asian panel. The study employed econometric models that are more robust to underpin cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity in a panel data set. The overall findings reveal that an increase in food production increases undernourishment and infer that food availability at the national level is insufficient to reduce undernourishment unless poor people also had economic and physical access to food. In the case of economic growth and governance, the results are negatively significant in some countries. The results infer that GDP and quality of governance are nuanced in declining the rate of undernourishment in some countries, while in other countries where the results are found insignificant, the government should seek other interventions to curtail the prevalence of undernourishment. Unexpectedly, an increase in food prices lessens the undernourishment in developing countries that reflect that food prices might transform the dietary patterns of poor people from nutrient-rich foods to nutrient-poor staples, thus lead to undernourishment reduction but trigger overweight and obesity alongside. In conclusion, the results depict that policymakers should devise strategies keeping in view fundamental aspects of the country to reduce undernourishment.

Investigating the Links Between Vaccination Against COVID-19 and Public Attitudes Toward Protective Countermeasures: Implications for Public Health.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is spreading globally at an unprecedented rate. To protect the world against this devastating catastrophe, vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 have been produced following consistent clinical trials. However, the durability of a protective immune response due to vaccination has not been confirmed. Moreover, COVID-19 vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is not 100% guaranteed, as new variants arise due to mutations. Consequently, health officials are pleading with the public to take extra precautions against the virus and continue wearing masks, wash hands, and observe physical distancing even after vaccination. The current research collected data from 4,540 participants (1,825 vaccinated and 2,715 not vaccinated) in China to analyze this phenomenon empirically. The propensity score matching (PSM) model is employed to analyze the impact of vaccination against COVID-19 on participants' attitudes toward protective countermeasures. The findings showed that gender, age, education level, occupation risk, individual health risk perception, public health risk perception, social responsibility, peer effect, and government supervision are the main drivers for participants to be vaccinated with COVID-19's vaccines. The results further show that vaccination lessened participants' frequency of hand washing by 1.75 times and their compliance frequency intensity of observing physical distancing by 1.24 times. However, the rate of mask-wearing did not reduce significantly, implying that China's main countermeasure of effective mask-wearing effectively controls COVID-19. Moreover, the findings indicate that a reduction in the frequency of hand washing and observing physical distance could cause a resurgence of COVID-19. In conclusion, factors leading to the eradication of SARS-CoV-2 from the world are complex to be achieved, so the exploration of COVID-19 vaccination and people's attitude toward protective countermeasures may provide insights for policymakers to encourage vaccinated people to follow protective health measures and help in completely defeating the COVID-19 from the globe.

Short and long-run causal effects of agriculture, forestry, and other land use on greenhouse gas emissions: evidence from China using VECM approach.

Climate change caused by different anthropogenic activities is a subject of attention globally. There is a concern on how to maintain a clean environment and at the same time achieve optimal use of land. To this end, this study examines the causal effects of land use including agricultural, forestry, and other land categories on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The data for China is collected over the period 1990 to 2012 for the empirical examination. By employing vector error correction model (VECM), it is found that there is significant long-run causality among variables. However, in the short run expectedly, only land under agriculture has strong causality with the GHG emissions. The results in case of variance decomposition analysis highlight that land under agriculture and other use significantly causes the GHG emissions in the long run. Further, impulse responses of variables are also measured with the Cholesky one standard deviation. The results are robust and support the argument that different land uses cause GHG emissions in China. The study provides insights for policy makers to improve the activities occurring on agricultural and other land uses. Assessment of overall potential, including bio energy, needs to include analysis of trade-offs and feedbacks with land-use competition. Many positive linkages with sustainable development and with adaptation exist but are case and site specific as they depend on scale, scope, and pace of implementation.

The Influence of Women's Empowerment on Poverty Reduction in the Rural Areas of Bangladesh: Focus on Health, Education and Living Standard.

Women's empowerment has a great influence on health, nutrition, education, and the overall well-being of societies as well as of the children and households. This study investigates the effect of women's empowerment on poverty reduction and focuses on household deprivation, in terms of education, health, and standard of living. Primary data was collected from 914 married women from rural areas of Bangladesh using a well-structured questionnaire and a random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and ordinary least squares models were used in this study. The results indicate that increased women's access to education, asset ownership, decision-making power on children's health and education, and access to medical facilities, have caused a significant decline in income poverty and multidimensional poverty. However, gender violence, taking resources against women's will, and preventing women from working outside, have caused a considerable decline in per capita income and an increase in income poverty and multidimensional poverty. Overall, it is found that women's empowerment has a great impact on the reduction of income poverty and multidimensional poverty in society. The findings of the study can assist and guide policymakers to initiate appropriate strategies for women's empowerment to reducing poverty in Bangladesh while making progress towards other social and developmental goals.

Impact of COVID-19 on peoples' willingness to consume wild animals: Empirical insights from China.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presented an unprecedented challenge to public health and food systems. It is debated in the literature that SARS-CoV-2 accountable for COVID-19 originated from nature, and wildlife colonized in nature are also likely to cause COVID-19 havoc. In this study, we attempted to explore the effect of COVID-19 on peoples' willingness to consume and pay for wild animals. Data were gathered online from 1250 household heads of both urban and rural residents of Hubei, Hunan, and Guangdong provinces of China from the 19th to March 26th, 2020. The Probit and Tobit models were employed to meet the study objectives, and the results showed that around 39% of residents were willing to consume wild animals (WCWA), and their amount of willingness to pay (AWP) was 134.65 USD/year. The mediating effects of market control & home restriction policies showed strong effects between COVID-19 and peoples' WCWA. In contrast, the results of ecological environment risk and food security risk perceptions showed relatively weaker effects. The overall results of the current study provided acumens for policymakers to raise awareness within the populations concerning the adverse upshots resulting from consuming wild animals.

The role of natural resources, globalization, and renewable energy in testing the EKC hypothesis in MINT countries: new evidence from Method of Moments Quantile Regression approach.

We employ the new Method of Moments Quantile Regression approach to expose the role of natural resources, renewable energy, and globalization in testing Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) in MINT panel covering the years 1995-2018. The outcome validates the EKC curve between economic progress and carbon emissions from the third quantile to the extreme highest quantile. The result also shows that natural resources increase CO2 emissions at the lowest quantile and then turn insignificant from the middle to the highest quantiles due to the potential utilization of resources in a sustainable manner. The renewable energy mitigates CO2 emissions at the lower half quantiles. Still, for upper quantiles, the results are unexpected and imply that the countries' total energy mix depends heavily on fossil fuels. As far as globalization is concerned, the significant results from medium to upper quantiles reveal that as globalization heightens due to foreign direct investment or trade, energy consumption also expands, leading to the worst environment quality. Thus, the present study's consequences deliver guidelines for policymakers to utilize natural resources sustainably and opt technologies based on clean energy, which may offset environmental degeneration.

Asymmetric link between environmental pollution and COVID-19 in the top ten affected states of US: A novel estimations from quantile-on-quantile approach.

This study draws the link between COVID-19 and air pollution (ground ozone O3) from February 29, 2020 to July 10, 2020 in the top 10 affected States of the US. Utilizing quantile-on-quantile (QQ) estimation technique, we examine in what manner the quantiles of COVID-19 affect the quantiles of air pollution and vice versa. The primary findings confirm overall dependence between COVID-19 and air pollution. Empirical results exhibit a strong negative effect of COVID-19 on air pollution in New York, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania; especially at medium to higher quantiles, while New Jersey, Illinois, Arizona, and Georgia show strong negative effect mainly at lower quantiles. Contrarily, COVID-19 positively affects air pollution in Pennsylvania at extreme lower quantiles. On the other side, air pollution predominantly caused to increase in the intensity of COVID-19 cases across all states except lower quantiles of Massachusetts, and extreme higher quantiles of Arizona and New Jersey, where this effect becomes less pronounced or negative. Concludingly, a rare positive fallout of COVID-19 is reducing environmental pressure, while higher environmental pollution causes to increase the vulnerability of COVID-19 cases. These findings imply that air pollution is at the heart of chronic diseases, therefore the state government should consider these asymmetric channels and introduce appropriate policy measures to reset and control atmospheric emissions.

The role of tourism and renewable energy in testing the environmental Kuznets curve in the BRICS countries: fresh evidence from methods of moments quantile regression.

BRICS are among the rising nations which drive economic growth by excessive utilization of resources and resulting in environment degradation. Although there is bulk of research on environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), very limited studies explored the scope in context of tourism in BRICS countries. So this research is conducted to explore the association of tourism, renewable energy, and economic growth with carbon emissions by using annual data of BRICS countries from the year 1995 to 2018. By using the recent approach of method of moments quantile regression (MMQR), the finding shows that tourism has stronger significant negative effects from 10th to 40th quantile while the effects are insignificant at remaining quantiles. Furthermore, an inverted U-shape EKC curve is also apparent at all quantiles excluding 10th and 20th quantiles. For renewable energy, the results are found negatively significant across all quantiles (10th-90th) which claim that CO2 emission can be reduced by opting renewable sources. Hence, the empirical results of the current study provide insights for policymakers to consume renewable energy sources for the sustainable economic growth and solution of environmental problems.

Revisiting the role of forestry, agriculture, and renewable energy in testing environment Kuznets curve in Pakistan: evidence from Quantile ARDL approach.

This paper assesses the Environmental Kuznets curve based on quantile behavior of the relationship between economic growth, forest area, agriculture production, renewable energy, and environmental degradation. The current literature generally used a single indicator to address environmental issues; however single indicator neither measures overall environmental conditions nor does specify that the environment issue is generally diminishing. Our study is the first one that used ecological footprint (EF) as an indicator to test environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for Pakistan by employing recent approach of quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) initiated by Cho et al. (J Econ 188(1):281-300, 2015). The result of this study validates the EKC hypothesis for Pakistan and shows quantile-dependent relationship, and in that case, using the conventional methods may somewhat lead to biased results. Moreover, the rejection of the null hypothesis of parameter constancy is also confirmed by Wald test. In the long run, the findings of renewable energy consumption and forest area show significant negative effects on ecological footprints, which indicates that by increasing renewable energy usage and forest area, ecological footprints can be minimized. Interestingly, the short-term effects of agricultural production findings on EF show statistically negative results. This illustrates that EF can also be reduced in the agriculture sector by adopting environment-friendly technologies. In order to create efficient policies for environment deterioration, the empirical findings of the current analysis can be used as a guideline for policy implications.