Industrial structural transformation and carbon dioxide emissions in China

Design innovation is a core part of the national creativity. ICSID defines that the industrial design is kind of creative activity and aims to build multi-aspect quality for articles, processes, services and the system constituted by them in the entire life cycle. Industrial structure refers to the link and proportional relation between all industries and their compositions, which is a key determinant of economic growth mode, and a significant symbol of measuring the development level of national economy and reflecting the overall quality of national economy. Therefore, the design innovation constitutes an important support to speed up the transformation of economic growth mode, promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, improve international competitiveness, and step up economic development. In this paper, the interactive relationship between the development of design industry and industrial structure is discussed, from the internal mechanism and ways of the design to influence the upgrading of industrial structure, the impact of the industrial structure upgrading on design; and then the constraints of the traditional Chinese industrial structure on design development, and finally opportunities brought by the current adjustment of China's industrial structure to design. Four main problems existing in the sustainable development of the modern agriculture are found: firstly, we are in urgent need of expanding agricultural production field and promoting the sustainable development of modern agriculture while resolving the surplus labor brought by urbanization; secondly, the manufacturing industry is still located at the bottom of global industrial chain, and the added value of products is low; meanwhile, our investment in industrial R&D is not enough, technical innovative ability is poor, and the industrialization is not finished yet; thirdly, the percentage of tertiary industry is too low, and the industrial structure needs adjustment; lastly, the regional economic development is not balanced, and economies in Midwest, East, North and South are in dire need of rational distribution and harmonious development. Moreover, the adjustment of China's industrial structure based on design service is discussed, and from the macroscopic perspective it proposes to involve design in national industrial policies and strategies, cooperate with relevant departments and industries, and explore the development mode of China's economic development and industrial structure; give a play to the role of design industry; apply design services to modern agriculture, enhance the value of agricultural products, and change the production and operation modes of traditional agriculture; adjust the industrial structure, apply design to lift the industrial level and technical level, push the development of manufacturing industry and build the core competitiveness of manufacturing industry; adopt design to step up the innovation of service products and service modes, promote the integration between productive service industry and advanced manufacturing industry, drive the accelerated development of productive service industry, and make the design industry become the key engine of modern service industry; it also proposes to adopt design to promote the adjustment of regional economic structure, develop service design, formulate local development strategies, and promote the rational layout and harmonious development of regional economy. In this way, the design service will promote the optimization and upgrading of China's industrial structure, in turn, the upgrading of industrial structure is bound to enhance the design ability and level.

In the process of transformation and upgrading of China's industrial structure, financial development and technological innovation have played an extremely important role. Financial development is the core of the modern economy and penetrates the entire process of industrial development. It plays a pivotal role in optimizing resource allocation, providing external financial support and risk management for industries, promoting technological innovation and promoting industrial structure upgrades. On the other hand, technological innovation is the embodiment of scientific progress and the key to upgrading industrial structure. Technological innovation is the endogenous driving force of modern economic growth, speeding up the flow of resources between industries, improving production efficiency, and truly realizing the upgrading of industrial structure. Therefore, this study uses a time series model to explore the impact of financial development and technological innovation on the optimization and upgrading of Zhanjiang's industrial structure. The empirical results show that: The bank-based financial system has no Granger causality and has no positive impact on the optimization of Zhanjiang’s industrial structure. But technological innovation can drive the optimization and upgrading of Zhanjiang's industrial structure. Therefore, Zhanjiang City needs to realize the integrated development of financial development and technological innovation to further promote the effective upgrading of the industrial structure.

The purpose of this research project is to deeply analyze how the innovation of carbon finance mechanism drives the optimization and upgrading of China's industrial structure to a more low-carbon, environmentally friendly and efficient mode at the provincial level. Under the new situation of global climate governance, carbon finance, as an innovative financial instrument and institutional arrangement, helps China's economy to develop in a green and sustainable way by guiding and allocating financial resources through the market mechanism. The project adopts provincial panel data analysis methods and double difference models to systematically examine the innovative practices of various carbon financial products (e.g., green credit, green bonds, carbon emissions trading, etc.) and their impacts on regional industrial structure. Specifically, we will explore how the carbon financial mechanism can effectively mobilize social capital to invest in the fields of clean energy, energy saving and consumption reduction, and circular economy, accelerating the development and growth of emerging industries; at the same time, we will analyze how it can act on the traditional high-carbon industries through price signals, motivate enterprises to increase technological research and development, reduce the intensity of carbon emissions, and promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. In addition, the project will also assess the interaction between government carbon emission reduction policies and carbon financial mechanisms, as well as the differences and effectiveness of different provinces in using carbon financial tools to promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, so as to provide strong data support and theoretical basis for the formulation of scientific and reasonable carbon financial policies and industrial restructuring strategies in various regions of China.

As an important driving force and new kinetic energy, digital economy is promoting the development of economy in the direction of high quality, and brings new opportunities and challenges to the development of real economy and the upgrading and optimization of industrial structure. Therefore, this paper measures the digital economy from the two aspects of “digital industrialization” and “industrial digitization”, and selects the data of 30 provinces and cities from 2012 to 2019 to empirically study its impact on the upgrading and optimization of China’s industrial structure. Through the research, it is found that digital economy can indeed improve the level of upgrading and optimization of industrial structure. At the same time, further analysis shows that the degree and mechanism of improving the level of eastern, central and western regions will be different according to different regions. Finally, according to the research results, this paper puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions to promote the development of digital economy and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure in China.

Along with the contradiction between economic growth and resource depletion, the concept of economic development has changed to innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing”. The concept of green development focuses on the ecological environment, low-carbon development and the construction of green economic system. Under the background of green development, to guide the green upgrading of traditional industries and cultivate new green industries is the key to the restructuring of current industrial structure in China. However, how green credit acts on the upgrading of the industrial structure and its impact are still lacking systematic analysis. This paper reviews domestic and foreign literature to understand the main directions and progress of the research related to the optimization of green credit and industrial structure. And based on the current situation of green credit adjustment in China, this paper analyzes the impact of green credit on industrial structure upgrading by combing three mechanisms: capital formation, signal transmission, and feedback & credit generation. The relevant data is selected from 2004 to 2015 in China and 31 provinces and cities. Firstly, the relationship between the development of green credit and the upgrading of industrial structure is analyzed empirically through the gray relational analysis method, that is, China’s green credit can indeed optimize the industrial structure. Followed by the regression model of panel data, it makes the regression analysis and comparative analysis of the effect of regional green credit on the adjustment of industrial structure in Eastern China, Central China and Western China.The conclusions are as follows: firstly, green credit affects the industrial structure mainly through the capital and capital channels of enterprises; secondly, the current situation in China shows that there is a relationship between green credit and the optimization of industrial structure; thirdly, the overall green credit adjustment of industrial structure in China has a significant effect on the upgrading of industrial structure; fourthly, the impact of green credit in the three major regions on the adjustment of industrial structure is different, and the positive effects of green credit on industrial structure adjustment in the eastern and western regions are more obvious than that in the central region. In our opinion, in the process of green transformation to promote industrial development, we should give full play to the role of governments, financial enterprises and real enterprises, adjust the credit structure based on the market orientation, rationally allocate green credit funds, promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, and pay attention to the regional balance; at the same time, it is necessary to improve the connection between policy issuance and policy implementation and promote the effective role of green credit in the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure.

Transformation and upgrading of industrial structure is the key link to achieve high-quality economic development in China. In recent years, China has begun to eliminate some industries with high energy consumption and high pollution through environmental regulation policies and promote transformation and upgrading the industrial structure. Under multiple pressures such as the shortage of industrial structure and the decline in the demographic dividend, environmental regulation as a binding force will have an significantimpact on ecological protection and economic structure adjustment. With the promotion of the inter-regional integration strategy, the links between various regions are becoming closer and closer. Therefore, the environmental regulation policies implemented by the government will not only affect the region, but canalso impactneighboring regions. So, how will environmental regulation affect the optimization of industrial structure in the local and surrounding areas and themechanism and pathways of its impact are theoretical topics worthy of in-depth study, which have important practical significance for exploring the win-win sustainable development path of industrial structure optimization and ecological protection. This paper selects the data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2009 to 2019, analyses their spatial distribution characteristics, and establishes a spatial Dubin model to explore the spatial effect of environmental regulation intensity on the upgrading of local and adjacent regional industrial structure. The research results show that: (1) China's environmental regulation policy is not developed independently, but has certain relevance in space, that is, regions with higher environmental regulation intensity are adjacent to each other, and regions with lower environmental regulation are adjacent to each other; (2) The intensity of environmental regulation does not directly promote or inhibit the transformation and upgrading of the local industrial structure, but has a positive spatial spillover effect on the upgrading of the industrial structure in the surrounding areas; (3) The impact of environmental regulation policies on the upgrading of industrial structure is mainly reflected through indirect effects.

By dividing the production process into technical processes and procedural processes, this paper supplements the theoretical connotation of production roundaboutness, and analyzes and discusses the micro impact mechanisms of environmental regulation on industrial structure through production roundaboutness. Subsequently, based on the panel data of 31 provinces and cities in China from 2003 to 2017, a panel threshold model was adopted to empirically analyze the impact of environmental regulation, the synergy of environmental regulation, and roundabout production on the transformation and upgrading of industrial structures. The result shows there is a single threshold effect of environmental regulation on the upgrading and transformation of industrial structures based on the threshold variable of production roundaboutness. As well as the continuous increase in production roundaboutness, significant positive correlations between environmental regulation and the transformation and upgrading of industrial structures gradually vanish. However, the synergistic growth of environmental regulation and production roundaboutness is significantly and negatively correlated with industrial structure transformation and upgrade. Investment in social fixed assets has a positive incentive effect on industrial structure transformation and upgrade, while government expenditure, foreign trade, and opening-up have different degrees of inhibition on it. In order to speed up the transformation and upgrading of industrial structures under environmental and resource constraints, it is necessary to straighten out the relationship between environmental regulation and roundabout production, and to promote the scientific development of both.

Under the background of "dual carbon", green finance plays a key role in promoting the optimization, transformation and upgrading of regional industrial structure. The conclusions are as follows: green finance has a significant spatial spillover effect on the optimization of industrial structure, and there is regional heterogeneity. The spillover effect of green finance on the optimization of industrial structure is more significant in the western region, followed by the central and western regions. Therefore, in the process of regional green finance development, each region should actively promote the improvement and development of green finance according to local conditions, to drive the optimization and transformation of regional industrial structure.

Breaking the “poverty trap” has gradually become the core topic of economic research. The transformation and upgrading of industrial structure is considered an essential means to break the “poverty trap”. How to use the digital economy effect to change the allocation of capital and labor factors and realize the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure is a significant issue in this paper. The study focuses on examining the development of China’s digital economy between 2013 and 2021, uses the entropy method to measure it, and conducts an empirical study through a fixed-effects model and an intermediary-effect model to investigate the influence and mechanism of the digital economy on industrial structure transformation and upgrading. The results indicate the following: Firstly, the digital economy plays a crucial role in facilitating the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, and this conclusion was still robust even after controlling for a series of factors affecting the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure and correcting the endogenous estimation deviation by using instrumental variables. Secondly, through the heterogeneity analysis of regions with different economic development levels, it was found that compared with economically developed regions, economically backward regions need to pay more attention to the development of the digital economy. Thirdly, the examination of the mechanism revealed that the digital economy has realized the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure by optimizing the allocation of capital and labor. In this paper, Schumpeter’s innovation theory is regarded as a new perspective to break the “poverty trap” and realize the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, filling the gap in related research in this field. This study provides a suggestion for economically backward areas to break the “poverty trap” and provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the sustained economic growth of the whole country.

In the context of today’s sustainable development, green finance and industrial structure optimization and upgrading are important components of sustainable development and are new trends in today’s society. Based on the relevant data from 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, this study considers the role of green finance in optimizing and upgrading industrial structure from the technological progress perspective. The entropy weight method and the principal component downscaling method are used to measure the level of green finance development and industrial structure optimization and upgrading indexes of each province; the existence of the intermediary effect is verified using stepwise regression and the Sobel test. Through model construction comparison, the two-step system GMM is optimal, and the corresponding final two-step system GMM model is constructed to verify the promotion effect of green finance on the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. The model introduces the control variables of openness to the outside world, government support, human resources, environmental regulation, and urbanization rate. Except for the insignificant effect of the urbanization rate control variable, the rest of the control variables have a significant promotion effect on the optimization of industrial structure because the corresponding urbanization rate in China at this stage does not bring about the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. After the robustness test of the model, a sub-regional regression using the constructed model reveals that the effect of green finance on the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure is most significant in the central region, whereas the central and western regions are weaker compared to the east.

Currently, sustainable development has emerged as the prevailing agreement at the national level and serves as the overarching principle driving the social and economic progress of all nations. The optimisation and modification of industrial structure is the central focus of China's green finance development, which plays a crucial role in attaining sustainable development. This study examines the relationship between "green finance" and the "upgrading and optimisation of industrial structure". It considers "technological progress" as a mediator and "openness level, government intervention, human resources, environmental supervision, and urbanisation rate" as control variables. The study aims to investigate the impact mechanism and degree of green finance on the optimisation and upgrading of industrial structure. This study presents specific recommendations based on the findings of the empirical analysis. The aim is to provide guidance for the government in formulating policies and regulations, making institutional decisions, and improving China's industrial structure. These recommendations also aim to promote sustainable and high-quality economic development.

Optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, for a country or region's economic development, social progress, the promotion of regional economic competitiveness and economic and social sustainable development, has a very important practical significance. Optimization and upgrading of industrial structure is an important prerequisite for accelerating economic development, and an important way to enhance regional economic competitiveness, and it is the inevitable choice of sustainable development of economy and society. This paper studies the Practice and Experience in the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure in Korea, which has a certain theoretical and practical significance for the optimization and upgrading of regional industrial structure in China.

Determinants and regional contributions of industrial CO2 emissions inequality: A consumption-based perspective

This paper measures the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure from two aspects of rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure, and empirically analyzes the impact of environmental regulation on industrial structure transformation and upgrading by using data of 29 provinces in China from 2004 to 2015. It was found that there is a significant nonlinear effect between environmental regulation and the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure. Specifically, environmental regulation is not conducive to the rational development of industrial structure, but with the continuous improvement of economic development level and human capital level, the inhibitory effect of environmental regulation on the rationalization of industrial structure is gradually weakened. The influence coefficient of environmental regulation on the rationalization of industrial structure is 0.0619~0.2648. Moreover, environmental regulation effectively drives the upgrading of industrial structure, and when the level of economic development and human capital are higher than the threshold, the role of environmental regulation in promoting the high development of industrial structure is gradually enhanced. The influence coefficient of environmental regulation on the upgrading of industrial structure is 0.0540~0.5626. Therefore, it is of great significance to formulate appropriate environmental regulation policies according to local conditions in the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure.

In the stage of high-quality development, higher vocational education is an important force to promote the optimization and upgrading of China's industrial structure. This paper selects provincial panel data and uses spatial Dubin model to explore the spatial effect of fiscal expenditure on Higher Vocational Education on the upgrading of industrial structure. The results show that: first, the fiscal expenditure of higher vocational education and the upgrading of industrial structure have spatial autocorrelation, mainly manifested in the phenomenon of high agglomeration and low agglomeration; Secondly, the fiscal expenditure of higher vocational education has an inhibitory effect on the upgrading of industrial structure and a negative spatial spillover effect on the surrounding areas; Thirdly, regionally, the fiscal expenditure on Higher Vocational Education in the eastern region has no obvious impact on the upgrading of industrial structure in the region, but it will hinder the upgrading of industrial structure in the surrounding areas; Fiscal expenditure on Higher Vocational Education in the central region can neither promote the upgrading of local industrial structure nor promote the upgrading of industrial structure in neighboring regions; Increasing fiscal expenditure on Higher Vocational Education in the western region has no obvious impact on the upgrading of industrial structure in the region, and can promote the upgrading of industrial structure in the surrounding areas. Finally, some suggestions are put forward: pay attention to the investment in connotation construction and speed up the training of high-level skilled talents; Strengthen the integration of industry and education to ensure the docking of talent supply and industrial demand; Pay attention to regional differences, promote the coordinated development of higher vocational education, and help upgrade the industrial structure.