Chinese Cities Research Articles

Technical and economic study of renewable-energy-powered system for a newly constructed city in China

The power and transportation sectors are major carbon emission sources of cities in China, meanwhile, urbanization and industrialization remain the most important impetus for the Chinese economy. Thus, urban-level carbon mitigation is critical for China to realize a low carbon development strategy. This study designs two renewable-energy power-generation dominated power systems for a totally newly built Chinese city, Xiongan, considering emerging technologies, such as vehicle-to-grid as an energy storage facility and geothermal as a local renewable energy resource. The new energy systems are assessed from both economic and carbon emission aspects based on short &long terms power load forecasts. The simulation results shows that the optimal short-term system is a photovoltaic (PV)/geothermal generator/grid purchase/100 Li battery/converter. For the short term, the system's net present cost (NPC) is approximately $8.26B, and the average cost of valuable electrical energy (COE) produced by the system is approximately $0.0942/kWh. The optimal long-term system is a PV/geothermal generator /V2G/ converter, the NPC of the optimal system is approximately $47.7B, and the COE of the system is approximately $0.078/kWh. Energy bill and carbon emissions can both be cut sharply for the city if it adopts these new types of renewable energy dominated systems.

Politicizing, policizing and beyond neoliberalism: Understanding Chinese city branding from the case of Chongqing

This study seeks to explain the Chinese conception of city branding. Given the intricate and multidisciplinary nature of city branding, the article aims to address a gap in the literature and provide a direction to a deeper understanding of city branding from the Chinese socialism context. Taking a case study approach, the article analyses a significant body of discussion resulting from in-depth interviews with branding experts and government officials in Chongqing, the case study city. The analysis focuses on the role of the government and reveals that city branding in China is influenced, and largely controlled, by the national government. The discussion of the agents of Chinese city branding, city branding as a government tool, and the tendency towards policization, which means that city branding is implemented as part of urban policy, contributes to the theoretical growth of current city branding beyond a neoliberal perspective.

Can new urbanization pilot policies promote green technology innovation in cities: Empirical evidence from China.

The development of urbanization has brought new challenges to the ecological environment, and the promotion of green technology innovation and development is widely recognized as an essential method to achieve cities' economic benefits and environmental protection. This paper examines whether the new urbanization pilot policies (NUP) increase green technology innovation (GTI) from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. This paper examines the impact of new urbanization on GTI by analyzing data from 285 cities in China between 2010 and 2021, using the multi-period DID model with the implementation of NUP as an exogenous policy shock. The study results indicate that NUP significantly affects GTI, and the conclusion still holds after the parallel trend test, placebo test, and other robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the NUP significantly enhances GTI in low environmental pollution, non-resource-based, Medium-sized, and Central Region cities. The test of moderating effect shows that NUP has a "linkage effect" with the government's environmental attention, financial investment in innovation, and regional talent pooling. The findings of this paper provide empirical evidence and decision-making reference for promoting NUP and sustainable development of cities.

Evaluating the Effect of Prefabricated Building Incentive Policies Using Structural Equation Modeling: A Chinese Empirical Study

Building production increases energy demand, which raises carbon dioxide emissions and leads to environmental degradation. The use of prefabricated buildings has the potential to play an important role in promoting sustainable development in the construction industry, and prefabricated building incentive policies (PBIP) are an effective means of improving the development level of prefabricated buildings (PBDL). This study investigated the significance of PBIP using a structural equation model (SEM) analysis of the results of 519 questionnaire surveys obtained in 10 prefabricated building demonstration cities in China. The results indicate that policy satisfaction has the most substantial impact on PBDL, with direct funding subsidy policy being the most influential factor. Policy application enthusiasm ranks second according to influence on PBDL, while policy awareness has the most negligible impact on PBDL among the examined factors. This research provides a reference for the government to formulate reasonable and effective prefabricated building incentive policies, and it may be useful for promoting the development of prefabricated buildings.

Urban bias in political tournaments in China: Implications for urban land markets

Urban bias in political tournaments in China: Implications for urban land markets

Digital economy and urban innovation level: A quasi-natural experiment from the strategy of “Digital China”

The digital economy is an essential engine of the innovation-driven development strategy and plays a valuable role in promoting the high-quality development of the regional economy. Based on the panel data of 286 cities in mainland China with the help of the digital economy strategic plans issued by local governments as a quasi-natural experiment, we use the multi-temporal double-difference (DID) method to examine the impact of the digital economy on the urban innovation level. Findings show that the digital economy can significantly improve the urban innovation level. After a series of robustness tests, such as parallel trend test, updating sample and period, and repeated placebo test, the innovation-driving effect generated by the development of the digital economy remains significant. Results of the mechanism analysis indicate that the digital economy enhances the level of innovation through upgrading industrial structures. In addition, we find through the heterogeneity test that the digital economy has a stronger effect on improving the quality of innovation. Meanwhile, the innovation output in the Middle Eastern region is more significantly affected by the “Digital China” strategy than the Western region. Therefore, we should accelerate the implementation of the local digital economy development strategy to realize the high-quality development of the regional economy.

Analysis of Uncertainties and Associated Convective Processes in Simulations of Extreme Precipitation Over Cities With a Regional Earth System Model: A Case Study

AbstractThis study utilizes the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with an atmospheric chemistry model, a multi‐layer urban canopy model (UCM), and a building energy model to simulate the extreme rainfall event influencing the Guangzhou city in South China on 7 May 2017. By employing small variations in the longwave emissivity of buildings within the UCM, 11 convective‐permitting experiments are conducted. The maximal 18‐hr and hourly rainfall accumulation vary from a 2‐year return period to as high as a 20 or 40‐year return period with notable spatial differences. Comparisons between the more accurate group (GOOD) and less accurate group (POOR) simulations highlight that some minor differences in the near‐surface air thermodynamic conditions in urban area could lead to substantial differences in local convection and its impacts on subsequent convective systems. With persistent transportation of warm, moist airflows from the northern South China Sea, formation of a slow‐moving mesoscale outflow boundary to the north of the urban agglomeration leads to the development of a quasi‐stationary, compactly structured meso‐γ‐scale rainstorm in the GOOD simulations. The stronger low‐level to near‐surface convergence and mid‐level cyclonic shear within this system substantially enhance low‐level updrafts, leading to increased microphysical production and stronger horizontal advection of rainwater within the system. These findings offer some process‐based understanding about the uncertainties in simulating urban extreme rainfall and underscore the need to develop ensemble forecasting methods for convection‐permitting numerical models that incorporate increasingly complicated representations of anthropogenic influences.

Chance or challenge? Understanding how the Internet affects the nexus between tourism and urban-rural income inequality

The nexus between tourism and income inequality has received much attention but no consensus emerged. It is of interest to explore how this nexus is affected by the important external condition of the Internet. This study examines the spatial threshold effect of the Internet on the nexus between tourism and urban-rural income inequality by developing a spatial threshold model. Using panel data for 280 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019, the results show that the impact of the Internet is characterised by clear spatial thresholds, and the local and spatial spillover effects of tourism on urban-rural income inequality vary under different regimes of Internet development. Further, by differentiating the Internet’s functions, the inequality-reducing effect of tourism in local and surrounding cities has strengthened significantly as cities’ Internet penetration improves; meanwhile, this effect has increased first and then decreased as cities’ online market penetration deepens, with a relative optimal interval.

Research on Summer Indoor Air Conditioning Design Parameters in Haikou City: A Field Study of Indoor Thermal Perception and Comfort

Escalating global climate change and the intensification of urban heatwaves have led to an increase in summer air conditioning cooling energy consumption. This phenomenon is particularly critical in tropical regions, as it may trigger an energy crisis. The rational setting of indoor thermal design parameters can help conserve energy to the maximum extent while ensuring thermal comfort for occupants. This study selected Haikou City, a unique tropical city in China, as the research location. Indoor environment measurements and a questionnaire survey were conducted with participants, and the outdoor thermal environment sensitivity, population attributes and differences in thermal sensation, thermal neutral temperature, and comfort range were calculated and analyzed. The following results were obtained. Based on the overall population, long-term residence, and temporary residence classification, the indoor thermal comfort needs of residents in tropical cities in Haikou were effectively identified. The actual thermal neutral temperature of the overall population is 25.7 °C, and 90% of the acceptable thermal comfort temperature range is 23.2 °C–28.0 °C. The actual thermal neutral temperature of the regular residents is 27.3 °C, and 90% of the acceptable thermal comfort temperature range is 23.3 °C–31.4 °C. The actual thermal neutral temperature of the temporary population is 25.5 °C, and 90% of the acceptable thermal comfort temperature range is 23.0 °C–28.0 °C. These research results have an important reference value for improving the setting of the temperature of air conditioning in tropical areas in summer and further reducing energy consumption, which is conducive to sustainable development.

A data-driven approach to urban charging facility expansion based on bi-level optimization: A case study in a Chinese city

This paper addresses the optimization of urban charging facilities expansion in response to the growing charging demand and proposes a data-driven bi-level optimization framework. The proposed framework combines a mixed-integer programming model for siting and capacity planning, an improved sparrow search algorithm (ISSA) for hyperparameter optimization of the CNN-BiLSTM model, and the application of Benders decomposition with Lagrangian relaxation using Gurobi for solving the model. The proposed approach is empirically evaluated through a case study conducted in an administrative area of a Chinese city, using comprehensive charging records and other relevant information. The results demonstrate that the ISSA consistently outperforms other algorithms, showing an average improvement of 23.97 % in root mean square error, 19.25 % in average absolute percentage error, and 1.50 % in the determination coefficient. The modified Diebold-Mariano test confirms the significant advantage of ISSA. Based on the model analysis, the study recommends constructing 20 new charging stations in the case city, with more than half equipped with fast chargers. This strategy ensures that 95 % of the area can find a charging station within 5 min while also ensuring the operator's profitability. The research findings provide effective support for investment decisions related to charging facilities.

Study on the Impact of Design Factors of Piloti Forms on the Thermal Environment in Residential Quarters

Study on the Impact of Design Factors of Piloti Forms on the Thermal Environment in Residential Quarters

Green finance and food production: Evidence from cities in China

In the domain of global socio-economic dynamics, the pivotal role of food production (FP) cannot be overstated. It constitutes the bedrock of fundamental human necessities while being inexorably linked with critical aspects such as economic expansion, societal equilibrium, and geopolitical interplays. The multifaceted nature of FP appears through its direct impact on macroeconomic indicators and its latent influence on international relations and policy-making. This critical nexus underscores the imperative for a comprehensive understanding and strategic management of food production processes to sustain and enhance global socio-economic stability and growth. Investigating the nexus between green finance (GF) and FP is pivotal for ensuring national security and promoting sustainable economic development. This research thus paper examines GF's impact on FP in China as outlined in the 2017 green finance policies. It employs the difference-in-differences (DID) method and analyzes a balanced panel dataset comprising 282 cities in China from 2009 to 2020. The results show that GF has an inhibitory effect on FP, and this remains valid after a range of reliability checks, including parallel trend assessments and placebo tests. Further findings of transmission mechanism analysis indicate that non-agricultural factors and financial exclusion are critical for GF's inhibitory effect on FP. Heterogeneity analyses show that GF's inhibitory effect on FP is more pronounced in the main food-producing areas, the main food-marketing areas, and cities with better infrastructure. The empirical results of this paper comprehensively illustrate GF's impact on FP and how it contributes to the achievement of food security objectives.

Does “National Civilized City” policy mitigate air pollution in China? A spatial Durbin difference-in-differences analysis

“National Civilized City” (NCC) is regarded as China’s highest honorary title and most valuable city brand. To win and maintain the “golden city” title, municipal governments must pay close attention to various key appraisal indicators, mainly environmental ones. In this study we verify whether cities with the title are more likely to mitigate SO2 pollution. We adopt the spatial Durbin difference-in-differences (DID) model and use panel data of 283 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2018 to analyze the local (direct) and spillover effects (indirect) of the NCC policy on SO2 pollution. We find that SO2 pollution in Chinese cities is not randomly distributed in geography, suggesting the existence of spatial spillovers and possible biased estimates. Our study treats the NCC policy as a quasi-experiment and incorporates spatial spillovers of NCC policy into a classical DID model to verify this assumption. Our findings show: (1) The spatial distribution of SO2 pollution represents strong spatial spillovers, with the most highly polluted regions mainly situated in the North China Plain. (2) The Moran’s I test results confirms significant spatial autocorrelation. (3) Results of the spatial Durbin DID models reveal that the civilized cities have indeed significantly mitigated SO2 pollution, indicating that cities with the honorary title are acutely aware of the environment in their bid to maintain the golden city brand. As importantly, we notice that the spatial DID term is also significant and negative, implying that neighboring civilized cities have also mitigated their own SO2 pollution. Due to demonstration and competition effects, neighboring cities that won the title ostensibly motivates local officials to adopt stringent policies and measures for lowering SO2 pollution and protecting the environment in competition for the golden title. The spatial autoregressive coefficient was significant and positive, indicating that SO2 pollution of local cities has been deeply affected by neighbors. A series of robustness check tests also confirms our conclusions. Policy recommendations based on the findings for protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development are proposed.

Attention of women's liberation and investor herding behavior

In recent decades, the women's liberation movement is garnering attention on a global scale. To investigate the impact of women's liberation attention on herding behavior among male and female investors in the stock market, we obtain a unique account-level data set of retail investor transactions in the Chinese stock market. Our results document that investors in Chinese cities with higher women's liberation attention demonstrate less herding behavior than other investors. Moreover, by facilitating investors' confidence and risk tolerance, women's liberation attention indirectly reduces herding behaviors. Our results remain solid in robustness tests, and additional tests confirm that women's liberation attention helps narrow the gender gap in herding behavior. Moreover, women's liberation attention is particularly significant in reducing investor herding behavior under volatile market conditions. Our paper contributes to the studies of gender equality in the stock market and provides empirical evidence by using account-level data.

Unlocking Economic Resilience: A New Methodological Approach and Empirical Examination under Digital Transformation

Economic resilience is crucial for urban sustainability as it ensures stability and growth in the face of external shocks, promotes social cohesion and inclusivity, fosters environmental sustainability, and enhances cities’ adaptability to future challenges. This study expands the conventional perspective on economic resilience beyond the context of shocks, focusing on the inherent resilience of regional economic systems. A novel method for quantifying economic resilience is introduced, emphasizing system sensitivity and adaptability. Using Chinese prefecture-level city data and an econometric model, we empirically examine how Fintech, a major digital transition in current urban systems, affects economic resilience. The findings reveal that Fintech has a substantial positive effect on economic resilience, primarily through the upgrading of industrial structures and technological innovation. Furthermore, there is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of Fintech on economic resilience, with more pronounced contributions in the east, central, and western regions of China, as opposed to the northeast. Additionally, the impact of Fintech on economic resilience is more substantial in large-scale cities. The promotion of economic resilience through digital transformation serves as a potent risk prevention measure. Understanding the role of economic resilience in urban systems holds valuable implications for countries worldwide.

The spatial‐temporal evolution of urban development patterns in Chinese cities: Dynamics and interpretations

AbstractThis paper examines the spatial‐temporal evolution of urban spatial structure across 269 Chinese prefectural cities from 2002 to 2019. Our analysis identifies a consistent trend toward a more polycentric configuration in the 25 Chinese mega‐cities during this period, primarily due to population growth and a supportive policy environment. However, the evolutionary pathways of small‐ and medium‐sized cities unfolded in a rather complex and diverse manner, with some becoming more polycentric while the majority adhering to a monocentric trajectory. In these cases, population growth is usually associated with a more monocentric pattern, characterized by rapid expansion of the urban core, while polycentric development is primarily attributed to specific spatial policies that support the emergence of subcenters. We conclude that polycentric development, while potentially suitable for mega‐cities to alleviate diseconomies of scale, may be less appropriate for small‐ and medium‐sized cities as it may constrain growth associated with agglomeration economies. We suggest that the development and implementation of regional spatial policy should be considerate of local historical paths and contextual factors. Finally, we propose a stylized framework to more accurately reflect the diverse and complex nature of urban spatial structure evolution in Chinese prefectural cities.

City level water withdrawal and scarcity accounts of China

In the context of China’s freshwater crisis high-resolution data are critical for sustainable water management and economic growth. Yet there is a dearth of data on water withdrawal and scarcity regardless of whether total or subsector amount, for prefectural cities. In administrative and territorial scope, we accounted for water withdrawal of all 63 economic-socio-environmental sectors for all 343 prefectural cities in China, based on a general framework and 2015 data. Spatial and economic-sector resolution is improved compared with previous studies by partitioning general sectors into industrial and agricultural sub-sectors. Construction of these datasets was based on selection of 16 driving forces. We connected a size indicator with corresponding water-withdrawal efficiency. We further accounted for total blue-water withdrawal and quantitative water scarcity status. Then we compared different scopes and methods of official accounts and statistics from various water datasets. These disaggregated and complete data could be used in input-output models for municipal design and governmental planning to help gain in-depth insights into subsector water-saving priorities from local economic activities.

Investigating the Effects of Control Strategies of Urban Bus Systems during the early outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic in China: a Survey of 211 cities

Whether large-scale COVID-19 tightening policies related to public transit contribute to slower rises in COVID-19 infection rates remains debatable. Therefore, this article extracted text data on urban bus control strategies in 211 Chinese cities and recorded active confirmed cases per million persons per day in each city. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA test (K samples) and accompanying pairwise comparisons were conducted using SPSS. Analysis shows that there are noticeable regional differences in the northern and southern parts of China during the pandemic in the control of public transit. Furthermore, based on the economic scale of the same population level, a comparison was made between all cities with high control intensity and some with low control intensity. We find no significant differences in the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 between the two pairs of some of the compared cities, indicating that the public transport control strategies of some cities are overly strict and questionable. The heat maps of pairwise comparisons show that city pairs with no significant differences in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases account for many city clusters in the same interval. Additionally, in the comparative analysis of cities with the same population base, the proportion of no significant difference in the statistical analysis results of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased with the decrease of the economic level of the cities. This pattern reflects the overly strict bus control strategies of some less economically developed cities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, in the face of large-scale epidemics in the future, policies should formulate control strategies based on reality.

The Mist of corporate innovation

This study investigates the impact of air pollution on corporate innovation. Using the satellite generated Particulate Matter 2.5 concentration data in 390 cities in China over the period of 2000–2015, we find that severe air pollution (haze pollution) in a region may deteriorate the innovative performance of companies in the same region. Our results are robust to different air pollution and innovation measures. We employ both difference in differences and instrumental variable approaches to alleviate potential endogeneity concerns. In addition, we identify two possible mechanisms, reduced funds availability and loss of innovative talents, to explain the negative impact of air pollution on innovation.

How medical insurance payment systems affect the physicians’ provision behavior in China—based on experimental economics

BackgroundIt introduced an artefactual field experiment to analyze the influence of incentives from fee-for-service (FFS) and diagnosis-intervention package (DIP) payments on physicians’ provision of medical services.MethodsThis study recruited 32 physicians from a national pilot city in China and utilized an artefactual field experiment to examine medical services provided to patients with different health status.ResultsIn general, the average quantities of medical services provided by physicians under the FFS payment were higher than the optimal quantities, the difference was statistically significant. While the average quantities of medical services provided by physicians under the DIP payment were very close to the optimal quantities, the difference was not statistically significant. Physicians provided 24.49, 14.31 and 5.68% more medical services to patients with good, moderate and bad health status under the FFS payment than under the DIP payment. Patients with good, moderate and bad health status experienced corresponding losses of 5.70, 8.10 and 9.42% in benefits respectively under the DIP payment, the corresponding reductions in profits for physicians were 10.85, 20.85 and 35.51%.ConclusionIt found patients are overserved under the FFS payment, but patients in bad health status can receive more adequate treatment. Physicians’ provision behavior can be regulated to a certain extent under the DIP payment and the DIP payment is suitable for the treatment of patients in relatively good health status. Doctors sometimes have violations under DIP payment, such as inadequate service and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to innovate the supervision of physicians’ provision behavior under the DIP payment. It showed both medical insurance payment systems and patients with difference health status can influence physicians’ provision behavior.