Promoting the development of new quality productive forces through institutional innovation in administrative reform

The emergence and eventual prevalence of the household responsibility system, which replaces the production team system as the unit of production and income distribution, has brought about dramatic changes in China's rural areas since 1979. This institutional change has resulted in remarkable growth in agricultural productivity.' However, in the literature on collective farms, a theory that is capable of explaining the causes and effects of this change is yet to be developed. The formal theory about collective economies developed so far by Ward, Domar, Sen, Oi and Clayton, Bradley, Maurice and Ferguson, Cameron, Bonin, Chinn, Israelsen, Putterman, and others suggests that the allocation of resources in a collective farm is efficient at least in

China has achieved rapid economic growth since the market-oriented reform in 1978 and became the second largest economy in the world in 2010. However, the growth model in China is still extensive in nature and may be characterized with high energy consumption and heavy environmental pollutions etc. In fact, China has successively become the largest carbon emitter since 2007 and the largest energy consumer since 2009 in the world. This book endeavors to analyze whether such energy driven and environment restricted economic growth can be sustainable in China in the long run. The book describes the basic situations of energy consumption and environmental pollution in China from the dimensions of industries, regions and energy-types. It also introduces the evolution of energy and environmental policies implemented in China. In particular, this book makes use of the environmental activity analysis model to assess the sustainable transformation of economic model in Chinese industries and regions. This model captures the negative externalities of pollutants and estimates the environmental total factor productivity accurately. The possibilities of win-win development and double dividend are also forecasted. This book proposes new methods to measure the environmental total factor productivity, evaluate the process of low carbon transformation, quantify the structural bonus, estimate the abating cost and forecast the win-win development and so on. Researchers may find these methodologies useful for measuring other pollutants and for analysis in other countries.

Environmental implications of economic transformation in China's Pearl River Delta region: Dynamics at four nested geographical scales over 1987–2017

The heterogeneous impacts of environmental regulation on China's low‐carbon economic transformation has attracted much attention. This paper uses the provincial panel data of China as the sample, by constructing a dynamic intermediary effect model, this paper empirically tests the intermediary effect and path difference of different environmental regulation policies on carbon dioxide emission reduction. The study found that whether China's environmental regulatory policies can influence the intensity of carbon emissions through mediation effects is closely related to the type of policy. China's ordered environmental regulation policy can force technological innovation to indirectly curb carbon emissions, but a high carbon industry structure indirectly promotes carbon emissions. Carbon trading pilots have a negative intermediary effect on carbon emissions through industrial structure and technological innovation. The eastern mainly directly suppress carbon emissions through the market incentive policy, the central mainly relies on the command‐controlled environmental policy to achieve backward emission reduction, the western produces a green paradox. The Chinese government must fully consider the heterogeneity of environmental policies constantly improve and optimize the combination of environmental regulation policies. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The start of energy reformation in China has introduced a huge opportunity for the improvement and reorganization of the energy structure. As the reformation of energy system is going further, there are currently different views on the future energy structure and “Internet + energy”. In this article, a review is presented on the development history from the smart energy system to Energy Internet at home and abroad. The current status of the development of the Energy Internet is also interpreted. Then authors demonstrate their own understanding on Energy Internet and the importance of energy system reformation. In the future, the energy structure will be consisted of basic Energy Internet and higher levels of Energy Internet, with spirits of more openness, equality, interactivity and sharing. Human oriented is the original point of Energy Internet. Internet will provide tools to optimize all segments of energy system and finally benefits every customer with “best” energy service. More renewable energy is expected to be accommodated in the Energy Internet, with the important assistance from distributed energy on modulating and backup. The role of distributed energy systems will be highlighted for their important function in the future energy structure. As representing advanced productivity, the Energy Internet is expected to solve current energy problems, create a new field of energy service and help with the economic transformation in China.

The market-driven economic transformation in China has made the rule of law increasingly important in labor relations. In the past three decades, the state has actively legislated on labor issues, passing three major laws: the Labor Law in 1994, the Trade Union Law in 2002 and the Labor Contract Law in 2008. These have laid down the legal foundation for labor relations, not only by defining workers’ rights, but also by stipulating procedures for labor disputes. Procedural systematization and the promulgation of labor laws have raised workers’ awareness of their legal rights, resulting in an exponential growth in labor disputes. This has brought courts to the forefront of labor dispute resolution. Scholars have focused on the role of the judicial process in settling labor disputes. They have examined how legal procedures have opened up new opportunities for workers to air their grievances and press for redress, and how legal and institutional changes have shaped legal mobilization. Laws have been viewed as “weapons” allowing discontented workers—mainly as individual litigators—to seek justice, or giving trade unions a role in legal aid, while the courts process workers’ individual claims. Nevertheless, the courts do not encounter only individual labor disputes. The past two decades have witnessed a growing number of collective labor

Does the application of ICTs facilitate rural economic transformation in China? Empirical evidence from the use of smartphones among farmers

Developing countries are constantly facing the problem of environmental degradation. Environmental degradation is caused by the consumption of non-renewable energy for economic growth, but the consequences of environmental degradation cannot be ignored. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between three variables (i.e., energy use greenization, CO2 emission, and economic growth) in the case of China using simultaneous equation modeling techniques and data for the period 2000–2018. The results indicate that (1) there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between energy use greenization, carbon emissions, and economic growth in China. Energy use greenization not only reduces carbon dioxide emissions but also promotes sustainable economic growth in China. (2) Carbon emissions and economic growth have promoted energy use greenization, indicating that the pressures of environmental climate and economic transformation in China have forced energy use greenization to a certain extent. (3) The contribution rate of energy use greenization to economic growth shows an inverted U-shaped trend that rises first and then decreases subsequently, while carbon emissions have a relatively large contribution rate to green energy use and economic growth. These results have far-reaching policy directions for the environmental sustainability goals of the Chinese economy.

With the development of economy, China’s tourism industry has made great progress in recent years, various types of tourism industry emerge in endlessly, and in this context, the innovation of the tourism industry is very important. However, there is an obvious imbalance between the urban and rural economic development in China. In order to improve the economic development difference caused by the inherent urban-rural dual structure, it is necessary to formulate effective measures to promote economic transformation. In this paper, the study of rural tourism industry analysis, targeted solutions against the bottleneck link, based on an intelligent SVM classification algorithm analysis of urban and rural development and the trend of the economic transformation in China.

The high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) plays a crucial role in economic transformation in China. Climate change, rapid population growth, and increased urbanization have contributed towards increased pressures on the water, energy, food (WEF) nexus system of YREB. Thus, there is an imperative need to improve the efficiency of WEF in YREB. However, few studies have conducted spatial-temporal heterogeneity exploration of YREB about the input-output efficiency of WEF (IOE-WEF). Using panel data from 2008–2017, a super slack based model (SSBM), combined with the spatial autocorrelation and spatial econometric method, were proposed to calculate the IOE-WEF of YREB’s 11 provinces, the results indicated that: (1) From the perspective of time, the IOE-WEF in YREB was relatively low and displayed a fluctuating downward pattern while considering the undesirable outputs. (2) From the perspective of space, the spatial distribution of IOE-WEF in YREB was uneven. The efficiency values of the three sub-regions of YREB were “the lower reaches > the middle reaches > the upper reaches”. The IOE-WEF of YREB had a prominent positive spatial correlation and also had a spatial spillover effect. (3) The spatial aggregation effect of IOE-WEF of YREB is gradually weakening. The spatial aggregation types of IOE-WEF in YREB were “high-high” cluster areas in lower reaches and “low-low” cluster areas in upper reaches. (4) From the perspective of driving forces, environmental regulation and technological innovation promoted the improvement of IOE-WEF of YREB, while the industrial structure and mechanization level inhibited the improvement of IOE-WEF of YREB. Furthermore, the role of government support of IOE-WEF of YREB was not obvious. The improvement of IOE-WEF in adjacent regions also had a notable positive spatial spillover effect on the region.

The logistics industry is a comprehensive service industry integrating transportation, warehousing, freight and other industries. The development of the logistics industry provides an important support for the development of regional economy and economic transformation in China. Taking Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (JingJinJi) as the research object, the structure of the coupling system between express logistics industry and regional economy is analyzed, and the evaluation index system of the coupling between express logistics industry and regional economy is established. Combining with the evaluation index system, the coupling and coordination relationship between JingJinJi express logistics industry and regional economy is evaluated. The results show that affected by the adjustment of industrial structure, the comprehensive development level of regional economic sub-systems in Tianjin has shown a sudden drop trend, returning to slight imbalance from the original primary coordination; And the coupling and coordinated development level of logistics industry subsystem and the regional economic subsystem in Beijing and Hebei province has experienced a leap from imbalance to coordination. On the whole, however, the level of coupling and coordination between the logistics industry and the regional economy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is still at the middle level.

Rural industrialization is one of the core drivers of urban and rural spatial evolution and economic transformation in China. Given the background of stock and reduction planning, the development of rural industrial land, which has long relied on land inputs to increase production and inefficient expansion, is facing severe constraints and challenges. How to improve the spatial performance of rural industrial land and promote industrial upgrading and intensive land use have become vital issues for the healthy development of rural areas. This paper draws upon smart shrinkage theory to provide an analytical framework for the intensive-use-oriented performance evaluation of rural industrial land, unlike the evaluation method of efficiency orientation for industrial land, which emphasizes the core goal of the input and output of production factors per unit area. Based on the analysis framework, this study explored the parcel-microscale performance evaluation methods for rural industrial land, and the evaluation index system construction covers the four dimensions of economic performance, social performance, ecological performance, and land use structure performance. Wujiang District of Suzhou City was used as a case study to carry out a comprehensive performance evaluation and analyze the differences in RILP in space and industry. Based on the evaluation results, the key problems of rural industrial land were identified, and corresponding optimization strategies for rural industrial land are proposed from the aspects of land use control, spatial agglomeration, and industrial upgrading. This study intended to address the current major national strategic needs and solve the real dilemmas faced in the process of rural industrial land development. It is hoped that the study will provide a theoretical reference for the transformation of rural industrial land and policy-making for rural revitalization.

Along with unprecedented urbanization in the last few decades, cities have experienced rapid social and economic transformation in China. A major challenge facing urban authorities in the immediate future is how to plan and govern cities such that they can serve as inclusive systems where everyone is enabled and empowered to fully participate in and contribute to socioeconomic life. A first step towards realizing this is to conceptualize an integrated framework that allows analysts and decision-makers to delineate, evaluate, and guide the development of these cities towards inclusiveness. In this study, we conducted a conceptual analysis of urban inclusiveness and then proposed a multidimensional framework for the evaluation of inclusive development. This is followed by the presentation of the case of Xiong’an, for which inclusive development indicators (IDIs) were selected. By comparing the state before the establishment of Xiong’an with its current development progress, and analyzing the area’s management structure and policy measures, the inclusive development challenges are identified. Subsequently, suggestions are given on how to direct Xiong’an toward higher levels of inclusiveness, including offering equal access to public services and employment opportunities, preserving environmental health and sustainable use of natural resources through waste recycling, and encouraging public participation in decision-making to bring higher levels of inclusion within reach.

Index system to assess implementation of strategic land use plans in China

Digital finance development has an important role in promoting economic transformation and has become a new engine leading the development of the real economy, while green innovation is an important goal of the current economic transformation to a green and sustainable one. Based on the panel data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2018, this paper finds that digital finance has a significant promoting effect on the green innovation of new energy enterprises through panel data fixed effects regression model. Furthermore, through sub-sample regression, it is found that the promotion effect of digital finance on new energy enterprises is heterogeneous, and the promotion effect is more significant for state-owned enterprises and enterprises with more decentralized power. The above findings of this paper have important implications for the current economic transformation in China.