Comply or evade: factors influencing private enterprises' basic old-age insurance responsibilities.

Introduction: Private enterprises are playing an increasingly important role in production and employment in China. However, due to less regulation and a stronger profit motivation than state-owned enterprises with more standardized management, a considerable portion of these private enterprises fall short of fulfilling their basic responsibilities for government-mandated old-age insurance. Methods: This study establishes a comprehensive research framework aimed at delving into the precise factors contributing to the lax adherence of private enterprises to their basic old-age insurance obligations. This framework takes into account a range of factors, including enterprise profitability, the external environmental context (specifically the level of regional development), and internal organizational dynamics (such as the presence of labor unions and workers' congresses). To validate this framework, empirical data from a substantial sample of 3,123 private enterprises, which were part of the 10th Chinese Private Enterprise Survey (CPES), were utilized. This study employs the stepwise multiple regression analysis and conducts robustness tests to ensure the model's effectiveness. Results: Enterprise profitability, regional development levels, and the existence of labor unions all wield a positive influence on basic old-age insurance coverage that private enterprises extend to their workforce. Moreover, an intriguing aspect emerges: the developmental stage of the region, as well as the presence of labor unions exercise a negative moderating effect on the relationship between enterprise profitability and the coverage rate of basic old-age insurance. In essence, this implies that the basic old-age insurance coverage rate for private enterprises operating in well-developed regions and those with established labor unions is relatively insulated from fluctuations in profitability. Discussion: To increase the participation rate of private enterprises' basic old-age insurance, it is important to improve the overall development environment for private enterprises, enhance internal organizational mechanisms, and strengthen regulatory oversight of enterprises in various regions.

Sector connectors, specialists and scrappers: How cities use civic capital to compete in high-technology markets.

This article uses three cities in the same Canadian province (Ontario): Toronto, Ottawa and Waterloo, to examine how regions compete in high-technology markets. We find that regions use civic capital to leverage new, technological windows of opportunity, but they do so in very different ways. Tracing Toronto's evolution from a marketing hub for foreign multinationals into a centre for entrepreneurship, we illustrate how weak ties and cross-sectoral buzz created a 'super connector', scaling high-technology firms in a wide variety of areas. In Ottawa, task-specific cooperation in R&D, education and specialised infrastructure enabled the region to overcome the disadvantages of its small size as a 'specialist' in a single, capital-intensive niche, telecommunications equipment. Finally, entrepreneurs in Waterloo eschewed task-specific cooperation for peer-to-peer mentoring. By diffusing generic knowledge about how to circumvent the liabilities of smallness, mentoring networks enabled this 'scrapper' city to support smaller start-ups in a broad range of niches.

Spatial and temporal characteristics, spatial clustering and governance strategies for regional development of social enterprises in China.

Social enterprises are a powerful starting point for achieving Common Prosperity. Expanding the scale of social enterprises in China is conducive to promoting sustainable social development. This study uses exploratory spatial data analysis methods to systematically analyze the spatio-temporal pattern, clustering characteristics and impact mechanism of the development of social enterprises in provincial administrative regions in China. The research has found that provincial social enterprises in China showed a random distribution pattern from 2015 to 2018, and showed significant negative spatial correlation from 2019 to 2022, forming a local spatial pattern of "low ones consistently low, high ones consistently high", with obvious path and spatial dependencies as well as regional isolation effects; From 2015 to 2022, the core density of provincial social enterprises showed a significant "unipolar" phenomenon, exhibiting significant spatial imbalance. Based on the TOE framework, each province and city can be divided into three clusters: demonstration provinces and cities for the development of social enterprises, starting provinces and cities for social enterprises, and lagging provinces and cities for the development of social enterprises. The first classification presents characteristics of dispersion and cross domain, while the other two categories have strong regional continuity. The core driving factors that affect the spatial differentiation of social enterprise development have regional differences, among which the decisive factor is government policy support, and the interaction factor has an enhanced effect on provincial spatial differentiation compared to a single factor. Sorting out the development characteristics of social enterprises is conducive to promoting the large-scale development of social enterprises and promoting cooperation and dialogue with other countries.

Uncovering the building blocks of rural entrepreneurship: A comprehensive framework for mapping the components of rural entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Entrepreneurship is a crucial driver of economic growth, especially in rural areas. Understanding the unique components that contribute to the success of rural entrepreneurial ecosystems is essential. This study presents a cutting-edge approach to uncover the essential components of rural entrepreneurial ecosystems that support rural entrepreneurship. We employ bibliometric techniques that enable us to leverage the Scopus database's academic paper metadata related to entrepreneurial ecosystems. Through citation analysis, we identify a core network of studies related to entrepreneurial ecosystems. Co-occurrence analysis visualizes the clusters of the most prominent components in both general and rural entrepreneurial ecosystems. We interpret the results based on a literature review. Our study categorizes the essential components into two: actor (academics, business, government, and community) and non-actor (human capital, network, entrepreneurial culture, financial systems, governance systems, infrastructure, environmental resources, and market) components. Environmental resources are critical in distinguishing the conditions of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in rural areas. This component represents the uniqueness and local economic potential of smaller areas, whereas in general entrepreneurial ecosystem studies, this component might not be a concern. By uncovering the components of rural entrepreneurial ecosystems, our study provides insights that can help policymakers, practitioners, and academics better support rural entrepreneurship and promote economic growth in rural areas.

The Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Regional Development in Shandong Province of China from 2012 to 2021 Based on Nighttime Light Remote Sensing.

As a major coastal economic province in the east of China, it is of great significance to clarify the temporal and spatial patterns of regional development in Shandong Province in recent years to support regional high-quality development. Nightlight remote sensing data can reveal the spatio-temporal patterns of social and economic activities on a fine pixel scale. We based the nighttime light patterns at three spatial scales in three geographical regions on monthly nighttime light remote sensing data and social statistics. Different cities and different counties in Shandong Province in the last 10 years were studied by using the methods of trend analysis, stability analysis and correlation analysis. The results show that: (1) The nighttime light pattern was generally consistent with the spatial pattern of construction land. The nighttime light intensity of most urban, built-up areas showed an increasing trend, while the old urban areas of Qingdao and Yantai showed a weakening trend. (2) At the geographical unit scale, the total nighttime light in south-central Shandong was significantly higher than that in eastern and northwest Shandong, while the nighttime light growth rate in northwest Shandong was significantly highest. At the urban scale, Liaocheng had the highest nighttime light growth rate. At the county scale, the nighttime light growth rate of counties with a better economy was lower, while that of counties with a backward economy was higher. (3) The nighttime light growth was significantly correlated with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and population growth, indicating that regional economic development and population growth were the main causes of nighttime light change.

"Dark under the lamp": ecological equity of urban agglomeration from the perspective of natural capital in China.

Although equity is an important aspect of sustainable development, equity research has mainly focused on income and economics while paying insufficient attention to ecological equity. Therefore, aiming to improve our understanding of equity and promote environmental protection, this study introduced natural capital to measure regional ecological equity and analyze its driving factors. Based on ecological footprint (EF) and ecosystem service value (ESV), we constructed evaluation indexes and drew an "ecological Lorentz curve bundle" to analyze ecological equity in the Jing-Jin-Ji urban agglomeration (JUA) from 2009 to 2020. The results showed that economic development in JUA resulted in the severe depletion of natural capital, especially biological and energy resources, and the supply and demand of natural capital was in a low-level equilibrium state. Based on JUA's population base, natural capital utilization in the region had exceeded ecological equity, and the Gini coefficient of EF based on population was close to the international warning value of 0.4. Although economic development in JUA has promoted economic equity, it has also led to environmental inequity. Large cities such as Beijing and Tianjin, as well as industrial cities such as Tangshan and Handan, have had the greatest effects on ecological equity. Moreover, the excessive consumption of natural capital stock and energy-dependent industrial structures threaten ecological equity.

The Impact of Location-Based Tax Incentives and Carbon Emission Intensity: Evidence from China's Western Development Strategy.

This study seeks to address the question of whether China's Western Development Strategy (WDS) has affected the carbon emission intensity of the regions it covers. There remains a distinct lack of analysis based on the normative causal inference method regarding the impact of this economic development policy on carbon emissions. Our research contributes to the large body of international literature studying the effects of place-based policy and has implications for place-based policies regarding the impact of carbon emissions. It constructs a duopoly model to illustrate the relationship between lower prices of capital (caused by policies such as tax reduction) and carbon emissions. Using county-level data on both sides of the provincial boundary of the WDS from 1998 to 2007, and applying the difference-in-differences method, our results indicate that the WDS has significantly increased carbon emission intensity of the western counties. Our findings also indicate that while the WDS has had no significant positive effect on counties' economic growth, no policy trap effect was found. There is also no evidence suggesting that the economic activities attributable to the WDS have brought any negative externalities of carbon emissions to the counties east of the western provincial border.

Place-Based Policies and Carbon Emission Efficiency: Quasi-Experiment in China's Old Revolutionary Base Areas.

Regional imbalance is a typical feature of economic and social development in China, and place-based policies aimed at promoting balanced regional development may bring challenges to low-carbon goals. This study uses the panel data of China's prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019 to investigate the impact of place-based policies on carbon emission efficiency using a quasi-experimental method. Results indicate that place-based policies significantly reduce the regional total-factor carbon emission efficiency. The difference-in-differences method based on propensity score matching and entropy balancing matching consistently supports the finding that carbon emission efficiency decreases after policy intervention. Place-based policies lead to a significant decline in capital allocation efficiency but have an insignificant impact on labor allocation efficiency. Moreover, place-based policies result in the expansion of carbon-intensive industries but hinder the progress of the financial technology of financial institutions. Nevertheless, place-based policies do not lead to the deterioration of environmental quality. Among the advantages of these policies are the significant promotion of regional digitization and increased fiscal expenditure on science and technology. Political promotion, carbon regulation, trade policies, and other conditional factors may be optimally designed to promote low-carbon development in the old revolutionary areas.

District-Level Mortality Convergence in Reunified Germany: Long-Term Trends and Contextual Determinants.

The mortality gap between former East and West Germany decreased rapidly in the decade following the reunification of the country in 1990. However, because no previous study has estimated life expectancy (e0) over time for all German districts, the extent of mortality convergence across districts and its determinants are largely unknown. We used a novel relational Bayesian model to estimate district e0 in Germany during 1997-2016, examined mortality convergence using a novel convergence groups approach, and explored the role of selected district characteristics in the process. Differences in e0 between German districts decreased for both sexes during 1997-2016, mainly driven by rapid mortality improvements in eastern German districts. However, considerable heterogeneity in district-level e0 trajectories within federal states was evident. For example, district clusters in northwestern Germany showed increasing e0 disadvantage, which led to a north-south divergence in mortality. A multinomial regression analysis showed a robust association between the e0 trajectory and the district-level tax base and long-term unemployment but not with hospital density. Thus, an equitable "leveling up" of health seems possible with policies investing in places and the people who inhabit them.

Beyond ambidexterity: universities and their changing roles in driving regional development in challenging times.

Around the world today, universities are expected to play a unique role as creators of regional growth and innovation. While there appears to be a consensus that the role of universities has been expanded, critiques show that the contribution of universities to their regions is still not well defined. There have been some developments in the literature on the concept of modern universities such as the triple helix, entrepreneurial university and engaged university. However, those concepts focus on enforcing universities' roles in a single domain such as entrepreneurship, innovation, or civic engagement. Little is known about how universities can facilitate regional growth that goes beyond knowledge transfer activities such as spin-off creation, licensing, and patenting. This paper contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of universities' role in regional growth through the theoretical lens of ambidexterity. Using ambidexterity, universities with a regional focus were distinguished from those engaged in research commercialization and traditional third-mission roles. Through two case studies, this study found that teaching, research, and engagement should not be separated, since they can serve both economic and social missions. As a result, a new model of multidextrous universities is proposed where universities meet both economic and social missions through teaching, research, and engagement. Contrary to previous contributions which presented universities as ambidextrous organizations where tension appears only between research commercialization and research publication or between teaching and research, this study suggests that universities need to overcome tensions and incorporate a sense of place in all activities to successfully contribute to regional growth.

On the coordination in diversity between water environmental capacity and regional development in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

Water environment capacity has drew the attention of policymakers and stakeholders to sustainable development, and its dynamic changes are ultimately impacted by population, capital, and industrial clusters under regional development. Previous research, however, has not been able to completely comprehend it. In this paper, the authors use the Coupling Coordination Degree model and the Geodetector model to study the temporal and spatial evolution of water environment capacity and its driving mechanism based on regional development represented by regional function including urbanization function, ecological function, and agricultural function using the Three Gorges Reservoir area on county scale as a case study from 2000 to 2015. The results showed that (1) compared with 2000, 2005, and 2010, the water environment capacity of the whole reservoir area in 2015 was significantly improved. (2) The urban functions of each district and county are increasing in different years, and the dynamic changes of ecological and agricultural functions are obviously different. (3) The water environment capacity of districts and counties in the head area. There are significant disparities in the relationship between water environment capacity and regional function in various regions. Differences in water environment capacity are largely influenced by ecological function and the interaction driver of the proportion of agricultural function and urban function, which are typically the biggest of all the components. This suggests that regional development is a top priority in order to improve the operability of the water environmental capacity through more regulation, rules, and planning.

How can Quality of Life be Achieved in a Sustainable Way? Perceptions of Swiss Rural Inhabitants.

Rural regions in Europe are often structurally weaker than urban areas and are subject to strong socio-economic development. At the same time, they offer opportunities for a high quality of life and sustainability. The key question of this article is how quality of life in high-income countries can be achieved more sustainably. Little is known about the perception of the rural population itself on the reconciling of high quality of life with sustainability. Thus, based on a concept of sustainable quality of life, qualitative interviews with 90 rural residents were conducted to ask them which factors benefit sustainable quality of life. In the perception of the interview participants, a change in attitudes and values would be a starting point for shaping many other areas to enhance sustainable quality of life; social and legal norms should provide reference points for individuals and economic actors; infrastructure should support individuals in their ecological behaviour; and the economy should serve the common good. We derive four strands of recommendations for decision-makers from these results: the enhancement of education on applicable environmental behaviours, equal access to renewable energies and local productions and services.

O sindicalismo rural na região de Santa Cruz do Sul ­ RS / Rural syndicalism in the Santa Cruz do Sul region ­ RS / Sindicalismo rural en la región de Santa Cruz do Sul - RS

Este artigo resulta da dissertação de mestrado, defendida junto ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Desenvolvimento Regional da UNISC, que teve como objetivo analisar a representatividade dos agricultores familiares pelo Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Agricultores Familiares (STR), vinculado à Federação dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura no Rio Grande do Sul (FETAG), e pelo Sindicato Rural, vinculado à Federação da Agricultura do Rio Grande do Sul (FARSUL). Para a realização da pesquisa delimitou-se a região de Santa Cruz do Sul, composta de oito municípios, cuja economia está vinculada à produção do tabaco, realizada em regime de agricultura familiar. Tendo em vista que as duas entidades representam concepções divergentes sobre o significado de desenvolvimento rural, optou-se pela dialética como método de abordagem, uma vez que são abordadas as contradições inerentes à representatividade dos agricultores familiares pelas duas frentes sindicais na região. Concluiu-se que o STR apresenta maior legitimidade na representação dos agricultores familiares da região, tendo em vista a sua trajetória histórica, seus propósitos e sua atuação em defesa das necessidades e dos desafios do segmento da Agricultura Familiar.(AU)

This article is the result of a master's thesis, defended by the Postgraduate Program in Regional Development at UNISC, which aimed to analyze the representation of family farmers by the Union of Family Farmers Workers (STR), linked to the Federation of Agricultural Workers in Rio Grande do Sul (FETAG), and by the Rural Union, linked to the Federation of Agriculture of Rio Grande do Sul (FARSUL). In order to carry out the research, the region of Santa Cruz do Sul was delimited, composed of eight municipalities, whose economy is linked to the production of tobacco, carried out in a family farming regime. Bearing in mind that the two entities represent divergent conceptions about the meaning of rural development, dialectics was chosen as a method of approach, since the inherent contradictions in the representation of family farmers by the two union fronts in the region are addressed. It was concluded that the STR has greater legitimacy in the representation of family farmers in the region, in view of its historical trajectory, its purposes and its performance in defense of the needs and challenges of the Family Agriculture segment.(AU)

Este artículo es resultado de una tesis de maestría, defendida en el Programa de Postgrado en Desarrollo Regional de la UNISC, que tuvo como objetivo analizar la representación de los agricultores familiares por el Sindicato de los Agricultores Familiares (STR), vinculado a la Federación de Trabajadores Agrícolas de Rio Grande do Sul (FETAG), y por el Sindicato Rural, vinculado a la Federación de Agricultura de Rio Grande do Sul (FARSUL). Para realizar la investigación, se delimitó la región de Santa Cruz do Sul, compuesta por ocho municipios, cuya economía está ligada a la producción de tabaco, realizada en régimen de agricultura familiar. Teniendo en cuenta que las dos entidades representan concepciones divergentes sobre el significado del desarrollo rural, se optó por la dialéctica como método de abordaje, ya que se abordan las contradicciones inherentes a la representación de los agricultores familiares por parte de los dos frentes gremiales de la región. Se concluyó que el STR tiene mayor legitimidad en la representación de los agricultores familiares de la región, en vista de su trayectoria histórica, sus propósitos y su actuación en defensa de las necesidades y desafíos del segmento Agricultura Familiar.(AU)

Transformational health-care leaders in collaborative entrepreneurial model to achieve UNSDG: a qualitative study.

PURPOSE: The agglomeration of specialist health-care facilities has often been restricted to metropolitan areas. This study aims to understand how health-care professionals with transformational leadership behaviors and entrepreneurial aims with a similar vision and expertise play pertinent roles in providing essential specialized health care in rural and semi-urban areas and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Qualitative synthesis using focused-group discussions and interviews was conducted in a phased manner. For this, this study has used stakeholder-theory, and dynamic-capabilities approaches. FINDINGS: This study explores the intricacies of collaborative entrepreneurship (CE)-based health-care ventures in developing regions and reveals five pertinent attributes: strategic control, synergy, commitment, empathy and satisfaction. This study recommends that entrepreneurial collaboration, especially by transformational health-care leaders, can significantly contribute to creating an endogenous health-care ecosystem with advanced facilities and technology-enabled modern infrastructure and augmenting regional development. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: This study was conducted in semi-urban settings in India. Future research should include other sectors and regions to generalize the findings. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: This study benefits health-care professionals having an analogous vision, skills and entrepreneurial aims. SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS: Collaboration of health-care professionals and using transformational leadership behaviors can considerably contribute to providing specialist health care in developing areas and enhance patient satisfaction. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to discuss the importance of CE in health care in developing areas. In addition, it discusses the benefits of the CE model in achieving the UNSDGs and offers valuable suggestions for health-care professionals and administrators.

[Temporal and spatial characteristics and correlation of the coordinated development of economy, society and ecological environment in the Yangtze River Delta, China]. / é•¿ä¸‰è§’åŒºåŸŸç»æµŽç¤¾ä¼šä¸Žç”Ÿæ€çŽ¯å¢ƒåè°ƒå‘å±•æ—¶ç©ºç‰¹å¾åŠç›¸å ³æ€§.

The imbalance of regional development is one of the important obstacles for the implementation of regio-nal coordinated development strategy. Based on the panel data of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2010 to 2019, the regional coordinated development index system with five subsystems was constructed, including economic development, science and education, infrastructure, people's life, and resource and environment. With the help of GeoDa and ArcGIS software, we used measurement model of regional coordinated development and method of exploratory spatial data analysis to analyze the temporal and spatial variations and internal correlation of various elements of regional coordinated development in the Yangtze River Delta. The results showed that, from the perspective of regional development, the coordination of regional development in the Yangtze River Delta had increased annually from 2010 to 2019. The level of economic development and science and education in Shanghai and Suzhou was ahead of other cities, while the development coordination of Northwest Anhui, Zhoushan and Huangshan was weaker than other cities. The order of average autocorrelation degree of each subsystem from high to low in the Yangtze River Delta from 2010 to 2019 was people's life, economic development, resource and environment, science and education, and infrastructure. Among them, the global Moran's index (Moran I) of economic development and science and education subsystem showed a downward trend, while science and education subsystem showed no significant correlation. Moran I of infrastructure subsystem was mostly at the low level with a great fluctuation in different years. People's life had obvious spatial characteristics of high-high and low-low agglomeration. The global Moran I of resources and environment showed a pattern of "V" distribution. Economic development and science and education were the two factors most closely related to regional coordinated development.

Government Health Expenditure, Economic Growth, and Regional Development Differences-Analysis Based on a Non-parametric Additive Model.

Government health expenditure plays an important role in guaranteeing people's livelihood and in improving the quality of human capital, and it also plays an important role in affecting economic development. In order to characterize the specific trend of government health spending affecting economic growth, and analyze the impact difference in different regions, this paper uses a non-parametric additive model to analyze the impact of government health expenditure on economic development and regional development differences based on three aspects: linear, non-linear and comprehensive effects. From the perspective of linear effects, the results show that the proportion of government health expenditure to GDP nationwide and in the western regions has a positive impact on economic development, while the impact in the eastern and central regions is negative. From the perspective of non-linear effects, in the national and in the eastern, central and western regions, the proportion of government health expenditure to GDP has a significant non-linear impact on economic development. From the perspective of comprehensive effects, the proportion of government health expenditure to GDP has a significant non-linear positive effect on economic development nationwide and in all regions. In addition, the proportion of fixed assets investment to GDP, the proportion of exports to GDP, and the proportion of residents' income to GDP promote non-linear effects to different extents of non-linear promotion, but there are slight differences in different regions. Based on estimation results, the paper recommends that the government further expands the proportion of government health expenditure in GDP, promotes investment in fixed assets, stimulates exports in the eastern region, and continues to implement the western support policy.

A sustainability assessment model for industrial parks: A Choquet integral aggregation approach.

This study deals with subject sustainability assessment for industrial parks which are seen as systems of interrelated companies and infrastructures. Although sustainability was introduced into mainstream policy discourse several decades ago, it remains complex to assess, and thus to improve in an integrated way. This is particularly true for such elaborate structures as industrial parks. However, the literature has made little effort to present tools for industrial parks managers to take decisions towards sustainability. The paper develops a sustainability assessment framework aimed at industrial parks' managers. The model is based on a multi-criteria compromise aggregation principle and relies on a preliminary systemic deployment of industrial park sustainability. The presented assessment uses a double aggregation mechanism using the weighted arithmetic mean (WAM) and the Choquet integral (CI) to account for the interrelations between stakeholders involved in an industrial park. This double aggregation results in two level of assessment, offering a more comprehensive view of the examined industrial park. A first level of assessment allows managers to control and improve the performance of their industrial parks in each pillar of sustainability. The second level is the assessment of the overall sustainability, which supports the managers' analysis of their strategy to achieve sustainability. As an illustration, the model is used to assess the sustainability of a Canadian industrial park. Application of the model shows that the completion of the studied industrial park's action plan results in reaching a 54% sustainability performance considering the managers' long-term sustainability strategy and that their vision of sustainability moderately favors the simultaneous satisfaction of economic criteria with environmental or social criteria. These results illustrates the capacity of the model to guide managers in the sustainable development of their industrial parks.

Ecosystem Health and Environmental Geography in the Belt and Road Regions.

The "Belt and Road" Initiative (BRI), i.e., the official Chinese term for the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road", was proposed to share China's development opportunities with BRI-related countries and achieve common prosperity. Though the BRI itself conveys rich social and economic connotations, ecosystem health and the environmental problems in the Belt and Road regions are scientific issues. In this study, papers relating to the ecological issues of the BRI between January 2013 and December 2021 were collected and analyzed via CiteSpace. We found that some ecological issues were involved with the environmental challenges posed by the BRI, whereas others were, to a certain extent, subjective assumptions. Accordingly, we identified and classified the limitations and constraints of those environmental views about the BRI. By emphasizing that scientific data is key to explaining the ecological problems, we advanced four prospects for ecosystem health and environmental geography studies in the Belt and Road regions: (1) Spatial analysis and monitoring technology for the environment; (2) Clarification of the characteristics and mechanisms of the ecosystem and environments; (3) A focus on the interaction between the economy and the environment; (4) Specific and targeted strategies and solutions to different environmental problems.

Decomposition of China's regional carbon emission paths: an analysis of environmental input and output considering regional development differences.

At present, the imbalance in regional development and carbon emissions are the two major challenges that China faces in terms of achieving high-quality development. This paper takes regional development differences as the starting point. First, we adopt the improved CRITIC method to measure the comprehensive development level of 30 regions in China and use K-means clustering to divide the 30 regions into five development levels. Second, the structural path analysis for environmental input-output analysis (EIOA-SPA) model is used to quantify the transfer of carbon emissions between sectors in various regions. Finally, a comprehensive analysis is performed based on the development characteristics of each region and the decomposition results of the carbon emission paths. Then, more precise carbon emission reduction strategies are proposed for the development of different regions in China. The results show that first, the development gap between regions in China has improved, and the development of the central and western regions has achieved remarkable results. However, differences between the north and the south and the gap between coastal and inland regions still exist. Second, the direct carbon emissions of regions with different levels of development are mainly derived from high energy-consuming sectors, especially the production and supply of electricity and heat sector. Third, there are certain differences in the indirect carbon emission pathways of regions with different development levels. The transportation, storage, and postal sector in high developed regions have obvious driving effects on carbon emissions. The building sector plays a prominent role in driving carbon emissions in high developed regions and medium-high developed regions. The building sector, nonmetallic mineral products sector, metal smelting sector, and rolled processed product sector in medium developed regions and medium-low developed regions have relatively high carbon emission-stimulating effects. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt differentiated emission reduction strategies for regions with different development levels in China to achieve adequate carbon emission reductions. This effort would further promote the construction of China's ecological civilization.

Does Efficiency of Oral and Dental Health Centers Change by the Development Level of Regions?

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to analyze the efficiency levels of oral and dental health centers (ODHCs) affiliated to the Ministry of Health from the perspective of the development levels in the regions. METHODS: Within the framework of this study, the efficiencies of 127 ODHCs are evaluated with the data envelopment analysis based on Charnes, Cooper, Rhodes (CCR); Banker, Charnes, Cooper (BCC); and scale efficiency methods. RESULTS: It is found that CCR, BCC, and scale efficiencies of the 42 ODHCs located in the first region, the highest development region, are efficient by 31%, 50%, and 38% whereas 13%, 26%, and 26% of other 85 ODHCs located in other regions are efficient, respectively. Additionally, the average efficiency scores of 42 ODHCs in the first region by CCR (0.82), BCC (0.89), and score efficiency (0.93) are much higher than the average efficiency scores of 85 ODHCs in other regions by CCR (0.73), BCC (0.80), and scale efficiency (0.92). CONCLUSIONS: According to the findings, it is considered that the individuals from the first region use the oral and dental healthcare more than the individuals do in other regions because the access to oral and dental healthcare is higher in the first region and the individuals living in this region have better predisposing and enabling factors. The study results are thought to present evidence-based information to health policy makers regarding the regional planning of oral and dental healthcare.