China's Economy Research Articles

Thoughts and Countermeasures on the Development of Digital Economy

With the rapid development of information technology and the deepening of globalization, big data technology and digital economy, as the most important form of technological and economic change, are having a far-reaching impact on China's economic and social development. In view of the problems faced by the development of digital economy in China under the current background of big data, such as lagging institutional construction, lack of human resources, inadequate core technology and unbalanced development of related industries caused by the digital divide, this paper puts forward measures to strengthen the relevant institutional construction, attach importance to the training and introduction of talents, and promote technological innovation. In the past, it provided strategic suggestions for the healthy and stable development of China's digital economy, and also provided some reference for the development of China's digital economy.

Transitioning to a green economy in China: The environmental and economic impacts of green credit.

Economic green transition is the change of economic development mode under environmental constraints; this process will generate huge demand for credit financing. Understanding the connection between credit allocation and environmental performance is crucial for the coordinated development of the economy and environment. Utilizing the Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database, I constructed a city-level green credit index and compiled panel data from 2006 to 2013 for 282 selected cities in China. A spatial model was employed to explore the influence of green credit on the economic green transition. The findings reveal a positive relationship between green credit and economic green transition during the study period. Green credit not only enhances local green total factor productivity but also exerts beneficial impacts on adjacent areas though demonstration effects. Additionally, the reallocation of credit resources and the innovation of clean technologies are identified as key mechanisms through which green credit fosters a greener economy. However, the study also finds that the impact of green credit is moderated by factors such as a high reliance on natural resources, the underdevelopment of market intermediaries, and excessive governmental intervention, which can undermine its effectiveness. Furthermore, the efficacy of green credit exhibits regional heterogeneity; it has a significant positive impact in the eastern regions of China, while its influence appears to be non-significantly positive in the central and western regions. This study enriches the research on the macroeconomic impacts of green credit, offering practical evidence and theoretical support for the implementation of green credit policies by local governments in China.

The Strategic Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on China's Economic Resilience and High-Quality Development Under the New Pattern of Global Capital Flows

The Strategic Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on China's Economic Resilience and High-Quality Development Under the New Pattern of Global Capital Flows

“Flat Surface” as Material Metaphor: “Bad” Cover Design, “Good” Storytelling, and Post-Fordist Sensibility in Chinese Web Novels

The article deploys the material metaphor of “flat surface” to read the unexpected cross-modal affinities between amateurish cover design and professional storytelling in Chinese web novels. Canvassing the ways visual and verbal artifacts put into play metaphoric associations with “flat surface,” this essay interprets the popular fascination with flatness as a symptom of China's alignment with ubiquitous computing in its transition to a post-Fordist cultural economy when the world is increasingly conceived as a flat horizon. The author first exhibits a selection of spoof covers and argues that their willful indulgence in two-dimensionality is an antidote to the uncanny similarity of illusionist covers born out of what Mario Carpo calls “mass customization” in the digital era. Then the author turns to examine the web novel Zhuixu 赘婿 (Matrilocal Son-in-Law) by Fennu de Xiangjiao 愤怒的香蕉 (Angry Banana), a highly acclaimed alternate history fiction with a curiously lousy cover, focusing on how Angry Banana's cover designs and narrative storytelling convey the flattening effect. The author attributes the fascination with flatness to the rise of post-Fordism in China's cultural economy by demonstrating how the protagonist in Zhuixu succeeds in flattening “all under heaven” (tianxia 天下) by way of nonhumanizing his existence and weaponizing an internet of things (IoT) while embracing a post-Fordist network of work, life, and governance. Finally, the author furnishes a few more examples to suggest the broader trends toward flatness in Chinese web novels and concludes by discussing the critical edge of the metaphor of flatness in its applicability to post-Fordist cultural analysis.

Impact of urban-rural development and its industrial elements on regional economic growth: An analysis based on provincial panel data in China

Urban-rural development is an important driving force for regional economic growth. The existing researches have studied this issue from various perspectives, but they ignore the impact of big data on the economy. In the post pandemic era, big data, as an emerging production factor, has a significant indicative effect in promoting urban-rural economic recovery and fostering new business forms. Therefore, fully considering the factor of big data can help reveal its impact mechanism on urban-rural economic growth in the post-epidemic period. Based on the data of 30 provinces and cities in China, this paper introduced big data on the basis of traditional models and constructed a multi-dimensional factor indicator system. At the same time, the panel regression model was established by using unit root test, Hausman test and precision test. Through benchmark regression and heterogeneity analysis, the impact of urban-rural development factors on economic growth was discussed. The results showed that the panel model passed all tests, and its regression error was stable below 5 %. Transportation, technology, and the three major industries can all promote positive economic growth, with a significance of 1 %. The three industries' contribution to economic growth ranks the third, second and first industries in order. In addition, the good ecological environment contributes to the benign economic growth during the study period. A 1 % increase in forest cover would drive economic growth by 0.215 %. But the impact of public's attention on the overall economy was an indirect effect manifested through its physical industries.The regional heterogeneity indicated that each element had different effects on economic development in eastern, central and western regions. Based on its results, this paper proposed suggestions for each region. In addition, this study found that the Internet attention reflected by big data did not directly drive economic growth, but affected economic growth through indirect channels such as information flow and resource allocation of real industries. This study provided data support for the existing theoretical review, and provided policy reference for the rational planning and industrial layout of China's regional economy.

Under the "Dual-carbon" Goal: Green Credit Policy and High-quality Enterprise Development in China

Given the context of "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality" goals, advancing the growth of green finance stands as a crucial agenda to bolster the high-quality advancement of China's economy in the contemporary epoch. Green credit is a remarkable milestone in pursuing the "Dual-carbon" emissions reduction objective and promoting high-quality development. Empirically, scant information exists regarding the correlation between GCP and the high-quality development of heavily polluting enterprises (HPEs). Using panel data from Chinese Lushan A-share listed enterprises spanning 2005 to 2022, this study employs the difference-in-difference model to evaluate the impact of the green credit policy (GCP) on HPEs. Our results show that after the implementation of GCP, the high-quality development of HPEs increased by 9.08% compared to non-HPEs. Despite considering multiple potential confounding factors, the conclusion remains unchanged. The positive effect is particularly pronounced among non-state-owned enterprises characterized by high carbon emissions and in the eastern region. The mechanism analysis indicates that GCP plays a role in influencing the high-quality development of enterprises by promoting low-carbon technological progress. This study establishes a foundation for making informed decisions in optimizing the green financial policy system to effectively enhance the high-quality development of enterprises in China and other developing countries.

Research on water resources collaborative utilization based on complex networks: A case study of the Han River Basin

As China's social economy grows and the demand for water resources increases, the Han River Basin faces intensified supply-demand conflicts, reducing water resource utilization efficiency and threatening regional development. To address this, a network evolutionary game model based on complex network and evolutionary game theory was developed for collaborative water resource utilization. The study identified key dynamic factors influencing the game in the Han River Basin and analyzed its evolutionary rules. Simulations revealed that the profit-loss ratio and profit distribution rate significantly affect cooperative behavior. Furthermore, the network's topology exhibits small-world characteristics, and factors such as economic preferences, income distribution, and reward-punishment coefficients critically influence cooperation. Considering the current state of water resources and economic development, it is projected that comprehensive cooperation in the basin may take around 11 years to establish.

Can the digital economy development limit the size of the informal economy? A nonlinear analysis based on China's provincial panel data

This paper investigates whether and how digital economy (especially digital platforms and digital finance) restrains the informal economic activities in China measured by the MIMIC (multiple indicators multiple causes) model. Using Chinese provincial panel data from 1995 to 2020, we find that the average size of China's provincial informal economy displays a five-stage fluctuation, ranging from 13.63 % to 17.53 %. More importantly, we uncover a robust “inverted U-shaped” nonlinear relationship between the digital platform development and the informal economy, with a turning point of 0.4189. Initially, the development of digital platforms increases informal economic activities by disrupting traditional sectors, causing new types of tax evasion, challenging regulators and raising digital crime. However, beyond a certain threshold, digital platforms can overcome these problems through more job creations and improved regulation. Meanwhile, the digital financial development is proved to have a negative impact on the informal economy because it can offer much more advantages in addressing informality such as making payments transparent, easing credit constraints, raising total income, helping governments reach people and businesses. Our study provides convincing evidence and valuable advice for policymakers when developing digital economy to curb the informal economy.

Research on the impact of colleges’ English education on regional economic development: A case study of Shanghai and Jiangsu province

In the era of globalization of the knowledge economy and significant global population mobility, language serves not only as a tool for acquiring and exchanging information but also as a bridge and conduit for the dissemination and promotion of technology, culture, and knowledge on a global scale. Language can serve as both a tool to acquire other knowledge and skills, forming human capital, and can also be directly used to serve society, bringing about relative economic benefits to both the nation and individuals. The world language, English, with its unique advantages of spanning regions and borders, widely disseminates various technological, cultural, and economic information. With the increasing integration of the global economy and the development of regional economies in China, there is a growing and strong interactive relationship and interdependence between college English education and regional economic development. This paper selects relevant data from Shanghai and Jiangsu Province over the past decade and, through correlation analysis and regression analysis, establishes a significant correlation between colleges English teaching and regional economic development. It proves that college English teaching has become an important factor in promoting sustainable regional economic development. Based on this conclusion, it proposes the concept that colleges of English teaching and regional economic development should support and promote each other, achieving harmonious development and mutual progress.

Why China's Periphery Strategy is so Important in its Overall Foreign Policy

China has the largest number of neighbors in the world, nearly 30 in number. A large number of neighbors present historical, religious, ethnic, political, economic, social, and cultural differences. Throughout its history, China has been involved in war disputes and conflicts with several countries, and to this day there are still border and territorial issues that have not yet been resolved. At the same time, China's neighborhood is also a place where the interests of the world's major powers meet. How to deal with its neighborhood is, therefore, the diplomatic key to China's ability to build a stable and harmonious neighborhood security environment and achieve peaceful development. This article focuses on a brief analysis of China's peripheral strategy and the current international situation and peripheral issues facing China. Through a study of the case of the past Diaoyu Islands incident, it illustrates the importance China has to attach to its peripheral strategy in terms of territorial integrity, security, and economic development, as well as a study of the case of the China-ASEAN Expo, which illustrates the improvement of China's geostrategy, economy, soft power and influence in terms of the development of The numerous benefits that the peripheral strategy has brought to China, and the analysis of the two cases to demonstrate the importance of China's peripheral strategy in its overall foreign policy.

Effective approach toward low-carbon development: Digital economy development enhances carbon efficiency in cities

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposes to accelerate the development of the digital economy and promote “carbon neutrality”. In 2020, China announced a “double carbon” target. In 2022, the size of China's digital economy has reached 7.5 trillion dollars, ranking second in the world. Against this background, this paper takes 211 cities in China from 2011 to 2019 as the research object and tries to sort out the impact of the development of the digital economy on the carbon efficiency of cities in order to find an effective path for cities to realize low-carbon development. The results of the study show that the development of the digital economy significantly improves the carbon efficiency level of Chinese cities. After a series of endogeneity and robustness tests, the conclusion still holds. Public environmental concern and technological innovation are the key mediating paths. In addition, the digital economy has a significant non-linear effect on the carbon efficiency of Chinese cities. On the one hand, the low-carbon effect of the digital economy is only realized when the level of digital economy development is lower than the critical value of 0.040 and higher than the critical value of 0.085; on the other hand, the lower the level of urban carbon efficiency is, the greater the effect of the digital economy on urban carbon efficiency. Further research shows that the digital economy has a significant spatial spillover effect on the improvement of urban carbon efficiency, and the development of the digital economy not only helps to improve the carbon efficiency level of the local city but also positively influences the improvement of the carbon efficiency of neighboring cities through the spatial spillover effect. The heterogeneity study found that in eastern cities and megacities, the digital economy has a more obvious effect on the improvement of carbon efficiency. In the context of the booming digital economy, this paper tries to find an effective new path for urban low-carbon development by means of developing the digital economy.

Does digital economy promote regional green innovation? An empirical study based on the transmission effect and threshold effect of marketization

Exploring the green innovation effect of the digital economy under the condition of socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics is of great contemporary value. In this paper, we incorporate digital economy development, marketization and green innovation into a unified analytical framework. Based on the theoretical analysis of the intrinsic logical relationship among the three, a panel data of 31 provinces in mainland China from 2011 to 2021 is employed to empirically test the effect and mechanism of digital economy development on green innovation under the condition of marketization. The results show that digital economy development is effective in improving the level of regional green innovation; Marketization is an important transmission mechanism for digital economy to release the effectiveness of green innovation. Besides, marketization has a significant double threshold effect on green innovation driven by digital economy. To promote the synergistic development of China's digital economy, market-oriented reform and green innovation in the future, we should focus on promoting the construction of an “enterprise-public-government” community for digital economy and improving the mechanism of market-oriented green innovation.

Research on Teaching Planning and Teacher Evaluation Integrating Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy Concepts

Energy is an essential basis for human survival, social progress and economic development. With the rapid development of China's economy and the acceleration of urbanization, the problem of energy shortage is increasingly serious, and the problem of energy security is prominent. Based on stochastic power flow algorithm, this paper proposes the safety assessment and teaching planning of wind power generation in renewable energy. Firstly, the dynamic safety domain and thermal stability safety domain of wind power systems are proposed in this paper. Within the selected security domain, the key factors that are most likely to lead to the risk of a distribution network are selected by means of entropy-modified analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The incompleteness of the single weighting method is solved, and the total evaluation score of each layer of the index system is calculated from the subjective and objective perspectives to determine the weak link in the occurrence of accidents in the distribution network. The total score is less than 90 points, which is prone to failure risk. Finally, based on the safety index system, PLF is introduced into the uncertainty safety assessment of wind power systems to overcome the inefficiency of traditional uncertainty assessment methods. Methods PLF was used as a means of system state analysis to replace a lot of conventional power flow analysis in uncertain safety assessment, and related safety indexes were defined based on PLF results. The test system ST-PLF is taken as an example to verify the rationality of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method can effectively realize the static security assessment of the system and identify the potentially vulnerable elements of the system. The evaluation time of the proposed method is 0.73 s, while that of the traditional method is 48.54 s. The evaluation speed of the proposed method is greatly improved, and the time is only 1.55% of that of Monte Carlo method.

China's Digital Economy: Examining Its Impact on Inequality Through the Lens of Employment, Income Disparity, Innovation, and Competition

This paper examines the impact of Chinas digital economy on inequality, focusing on employment, income inequality, innovation, and competition. Overall, the digital economy creates inequality in individuals and firms. It exacerbates the income disparity between high-skilled and low-skilled workers, and/or across different regions. It also creates an oligopolistic structure in the digital markets and new industries, where big firms use network effects and incumbency advantage to reduce competition. Therefore, challenges arise for antitrust enforcement due to the dynamic nature of the digital economy and attention platforms. Nevertheless, the digital economy optimizes employment structure, having a net effect of greater creation effect than substitution effect. It also increases innovation efficiency and opportunities for smaller players in the traditional sectors. Therefore, the digital economy has positive implications for economic growth. Overall, it is crucial to encourage equality and stimulate economic growth by implementing certain policies, including measures to enhance labor quality, reduce regional disparities, and strengthen antitrust regulations.

The dynamic effects of oil supply shock on China: Evidence from the TVP-Proxy-VAR approach

This study examines how changes in oil supply impact oil prices and China's macroeconomy. We developed an estimator that uses OPEC's institutional characteristics and high-frequency data to identify an oil supply surprise shock. This oil supply surprise is then incorporated as an exogenous variable into a TVP Proxy VAR model to analyze the effects of oil supply shocks on China's economy. Our findings indicate that negative oil supply shocks lead to higher oil prices, which in turn cause increases in China's interest rates and inflation, a decline in stock prices, a short-term rise in exports, and a long-term decrease in industrial output. When considering time-varying model parameters, we found that periods with larger oil supply shocks have a more pronounced impact on the macroeconomy. Our research provides empirical evidence for a better understanding of the effects of energy supply fluctuations.

The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumers’ Purchase Intention with the Intermediary Variable of Altruistic Attribution

With the rapid development of the current market economy of China, corporate social responsibility had gradually begun to be taken into one of the factors that determine their purchase intention for the consumers when they purchased the products. At present, most of the researchers were about exploring the impact of corporate social responsibility on the final behaviour of the consumers, but the internal mechanism of corporate social responsibility that affected the behaviour of consumers was relatively rare. Based on the attribution theory, the mediation model with moderation to study its internal mechanism had been constructed in this research, also the methods of questionnaire survey were used to the empirical test for the conceptual model in this research. The results of the study showed that the corporate social responsibility had a direct positive impact on the purchase intention of the consumers, also it had an indirect positive impact on the purchase intention of consumers that through the altruistic attribution; The perceived effectiveness of consumer would positively regulate the influence of the corporate social responsibility on altruistic attribution; while the corporate social responsibility-corporate ability beliefs would negatively affect the relationship between altruistic attribution and purchase intention of consumers. Finally, the suggestions had been put forward for the results obtained by the survey in this research, which could be taken as reference for the academic community and the industry.

Sustainable integration of rubber plantations within agroforestry systems in China: current research and future directions

The integration of rubber plantations with agroforestry systems, or the under-forest economy, represents a pivotal shift towards sustainable agriculture in China. This paper reviews the latest research on agroforestry practices and innovations within China's rubber plantation under-forest economy, with a focus on the balance between economic productivity and environmental sustainability. We explore the adoption of diverse agroforestry models that incorporate rubber trees with other valuable plant species, aiming to enhance ecosystem services, biodiversity, and farmers' livelihoods. The review highlights significant advancements in sustainable management practices, including species selection, planting designs, and soil and water conservation techniques that contribute to the resilience of these systems against environmental stresses. Economic analyses underscore the potential for rubber agroforestry systems to improve income diversification and stability for rural communities while also navigating market challenges. Environmental assessments reveal the positive impacts of these practices on carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation, and soil health, positioning rubber agroforestry as a beneficial strategy for mitigating climate change effects. However, the review also identifies challenges, including the need for supportive policy frameworks, access to knowledge and technology for smallholders, and further research on long-term sustainability outcomes. Future directions for research are proposed, emphasizing the integration of ecological, economic, and social dimensions to fully realize the potential of the rubber under-forest economy in China.

Enterprise rent‐seeking and high‐quality development: A perspective based on institutional deficiencies

AbstractBased on the puzzle of mismatch between China's current innovation environment construction and firms' innovation achievements, this paper uses data of Chinese A‐share listed firms and tries to explore whether rent‐seeking is a strategic choice for firms to achieve high‐quality development in the context of institutional deficiencies. This paper finds that (1) corporate rent‐seeking can significantly increase total factor productivity (TFP), a result that still holds after various robustness tests such as the instrumental variables method. The mechanism test finds that corporate rent‐seeking can significantly incentivize corporate innovation, especially high‐quality innovation. (2) Rent‐seeking has a stronger effect on TFP in high‐tech enterprises, patent‐intensive industries, and non‐overcapacity industries; institutional factors such as the reasonableness of the government‐market relationship and the degree of distortion in the factor market have a significant negative and positive moderating effect on the promotion of TFP by rent‐seeking, respectively. Further sub‐sample tests show that the TFP promotion effect of rent‐seeking in firms with stronger willingness and demand for innovation is more influenced by the institutional environment factors. The above results suggest that rent‐seeking can act as an alternative means for firms to satisfy their innovation needs in the absence of institutions, and thus increase TFP. (3) Industry‐based tests show that rent‐seeking can promote overall technological progress, but it does not have the “lubricant” effect of optimizing the allocation of resources, and rent‐seeking is always a suboptimal choice for the allocation of resources. Unlike previous studies that emphasized the negative consequences of rent‐seeking, we highlight the potential benefits of rent‐seeking in the context of China's transition economy from a total factor productivity (TFP) perspective, which enriches the research in the area of rent‐seeking and TFP.

Measuring The Efficiency of Green Development Enabled by Digital Economy in China's Provinces and Regions - Based on DEA Model and Malmquist Index

Measuring The Efficiency of Green Development Enabled by Digital Economy in China's Provinces and Regions - Based on DEA Model and Malmquist Index

Study on the Measurement and Evaluation of the Domestic Circular Development Level of China's Economy

Since reform and opening up, China has actively promoted the development of the international economic cycle, but there are still some areas that are at a disadvantage in the value and supply chain in long-term international transactions. Although the New Crown epidemic has had a huge impact on the global economy, the domestic economy has gradually recovered and international trade has recovered. Against this background, General Secretary Xi Jinping has proposed to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern “with the domestic cycle as the main body and the domestic and international cycles promoting each other”. This paper takes the demand side of the domestic cycle of China's economy as the entry point, selects the consumption base, consumption willingness, consumption structure and other specific indicators of 31 provinces in China from 2015 to 2020, and adopts the entropy value method to study China's domestic cycle at this stage. The study finds that (1) there are obvious regional differences in China's economic domestic cycle, and the eastern and central regions are important contributors to the domestic cycle; (2) the development of China's economic domestic cycle is in a positive trend after the epidemic; (3) the level of economic exchanges between regions is low, and there is the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development. An in-depth understanding of the role and pattern of China's economic double cycle in the domestic economy will help grasp the actual level of the new development pattern.