Inter-provincial Panel Data Research Articles

The impact of internet development on the health of Chinese residents: Transmission mechanisms and empirical tests

The development of internet information technology has promoted the integration of modern information technology with medical treatment. Chinese interprovincial panel data from 2006 to 2017 are used to study the impact of internet development on the health of Chinese residents. Specifically, this paper builds a system for evaluating four dimensions of internet development (internet popularity, internet infrastructure, internet information resources, and internet applications) and uses the entropy method to calculate and analyze China's internet development level. The OLS, FGLS and IV models are used to analyze the impact of internet development on the health of Chinese residents. The regional heterogeneity of the impact of internet development on the health of Chinese residents is studied in the three major regions, i.e., eastern, central and western China. The transmission mechanisms through which internet development affects residents' health were also investigated. Study results show that the development of the Internet significantly suppresses the mortality rate and improves residents' health. In addition, the development of the Internet can further reduce the mortality rate by promoting the development of science and technology, education, medicine, urbanization and openness.

The Effect Evaluation of China’s Energy-Consuming Right Trading Policy: Empirical Analysis Based on PSM-DID

Identifying the policy effect of Energy-Consuming Right Trading (ECRT), clarifying its mechanism of energy conservation and consumption reduction, is beneficial to realize the win–win situation of economic growth and emission reduction in China. This study first builds a Propensity Score Matching–Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) model and empirically tests the impact of Energy-Consuming Right Trading policy on energy intensity in pilot areas based on inter-provincial panel data from 2010 to 2019. Then the policy mechanism was analyzed by further regression, and the spatial effects of the policy were explored by the Spatial Difference-in-Differences (SDID) model. The results show that: (1) The policy can reduce energy intensity by 6.4% to 10.2% in the pilot area. (2) The policy mainly achieves energy consumption reduction by optimizing the industrial structure and promoting scientific and technological input, while the resource tax intensity and the proportion of coal consumption also have synergistic and hindering effects on the policy. (3) There is a significant spatial spillover effect of the policy; it can reduce the energy intensity of the adjacent areas of the pilot by 5.3% and the areas with a high economic association with the pilot by 12%. The conclusion is that China’s Energy-Consuming Right Trading policy can effectively control energy consumption, and the policy shows an excellent positive external effect, worth nationwide implementation. Finally, some policy suggestions are put forward according to the results of the empirical analysis.

Endogenous Economic Growth Model of Energy Depletion and Pollution Control Based on Empirical Analysis of Inter provincial Panel Data

Endogenous Economic Growth Model of Energy Depletion and Pollution Control Based on Empirical Analysis of Inter provincial Panel Data

Can environmental regulations break down domestic market segmentation? Evidence from China.

While local protectionism and market segmentation owing to fiscal decentralization are not conducive to broad economic development, they may be rational choices on a local scale. Based on a spatial Durbin model, we analyzed the relationship between environmental regulations and market segmentation in China using interprovincial panel data for 2004-2018. The results indicated that the "beggar-thy-neighbor" phenomenon persists in China; environmental regulations have a U-shaped impact on market segmentation, i.e., in most regions, environmental regulation can break down market segmentation. Regions with greater decentralization are better able to promote local market integration through environmental regulation, suggesting that local governments are better able to compensate for market failures when vested with greater power. Hence, we propose that the central government should improve performance evaluation indicators for local governments and grant them greater autonomy; additionally, local governments should increase the intensity of environmental regulations as appropriate, thereby promoting both environmental protection and the unification of domestic markets.

Analysis of the dependence of economic growth on electric power input and its influencing factors in China

To realize the “Green” economic development, China has to transform the extensive mode of growth with the power factor inputs being the main driving force gradually into an intensive one. It's important to quantitatively analyze the relationship between the power factor input and economic growth and understand the core factors that affect the coordinated development between them. We introduce the concept of “power dependence,” based on the counter-factual method, use “growth drag” to reflect the dependence of China's economic growth on the power factor input. Based on the measurement of national power dependence, the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is used to develop an empirical analysis of its influencing factors, and the robustness of the findings is tested by using the inter-provincial panel data. The findings show that China's economic growth has depended on the power factor input to some extent. According to the results, we propose suggestions from the aspects of promoting economic development, improving the pricing mechanism, adjusting the power generation structure, reasonably regulating the introduction of the foreign direct investment and research and development investment, and optimizing industrial structure to find an effective means to reduce the dependence of China's economic growth on the power factor input.

An Empirical Study of the Relationship among Population Mobility, Industrial Structure Upgrading, and Economic Growth – Based on the SPVAR Model

Based on the inter-provincial panel data for 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2019, and incorporating geospatial factors, a spatial panel vector autoregressive (SPVAR) model consisting of population mobility, industrial structure upgrading, and economic growth is constructed. The space-time impulse response function is used to analyze the space-time conduction of exogenous variables on the impact of three endogenous variables. The study found that first, the population influx barely benefited the industrial structure upgrading and economic growth. Second, the upgrading of the industrial structure would aggravate the population mobility in the province, causing low-level laborers to leave the province in short-term, but in long-term, there would be influx of talents. Third, the economic growth in developed regions plays a significant role in promoting the industrial development of their province and population-rich provinces, but it has less impact on provinces with high-level industrial structure. Finally, policy recommendations are provided in regard to the benign interaction among population mobility, industrial structure upgrading, and economic growth in addition to clarifying the idea of economic development, implementing correct population policies, and promoting the coordinated regional development.

Analysis of spillover effects of regional environmental pollution: an interprovincial study in China based on spatiotemporal lag model.

Based on 2004-2017 Chinese interprovincial panel data, we construct the regional environmental pollution indicators, analyze the influencing factors and spillover effects of environmental pollution under the conditions of time lag, spatial lag, and spatiotemporal lag by using the STIRPAT model and dynamic spatial Durbin model, and discuss the spatiotemporal characteristics of regional environmental pollution in China. The results show that the overall regional environmental pollution in China is on the decline. Environmental pollution has strengthened the characteristics of strong in the East and weak in the West, and the characteristics of strong in the South and weak in the North began to appear. Population scale, economic growth, and industrial scale will increase environmental pollution in the region, and the environmental regulation intensity and pollution control investment will reduce environmental pollution in the region. The spillover effects of the influencing factors of regional environmental pollution in China are different. In the short term, the influencing factors have a greater impact on the neighboring areas, while in the long term, they have a greater impact on the region. Hence, the critical approach to achieving sustainable development is to give full play to the factors which can reduce environmental pollution and to effectively control the factors which will promote environmental pollution.

The evolution of renewable energy and its impact on carbon reduction in China

China is facing unprecedented pressure to control its carbon emissions as it is the biggest emitter across the world. The Chinese central government has shown its ambition to reduce carbon emissions by proposing to change the current energy structure by encouraging the use of renewable energy. To identify how this development can help China improve its emissions reductions, we measure the influence of renewable energy generation in China on its carbon emissions through a quantile regression model and path analysis of inter-provincial panel data from 2008 to 2017. The results indicate that, first, renewable energy development has an inhibitory influence on carbon emission intensity; for every 1% increase in renewable energy development, carbon emission intensity decreases in the range of 0.028%–0.043%. Second, based on the results of the quantile regression, the development of renewable energy at different levels has an inhibitory effect on carbon emissions. Third, the development of renewable energy has a less direct effect on carbon emissions, although its indirect effect is relatively large; specifically, two indicators, energy intensity and GDP per capita, have an inhibitory influence on carbon emissions.

Impact of green credit on high-efficiency utilization of energy in China considering environmental constraints

Maintaining steady economic growth while considering environmental protection and achieving high-efficiency energy utilization is a challenge that China is' increasingly facing in the new normal. This study employs the super-efficiency data envelopment analysis and spatial econometric model to analyze energy utilization efficiency against the backdrop of environmental constraints. It uses China's inter-provincial panel data from 2007 to 2017 to examine the impact of green finance on high-efficiency utilization of energy. China's energy efficiency utilization shows an upward trend overall, but the utilization level is low. Energy efficiency utilization levels in the east, middle, and west show a declining gradient change. Green credit, credit scale, environmental regulation, technological progress, and industrial structure have a significant role in promoting high-efficiency utilization of energy. China's regional high-efficiency utilization of energy has an apparent spatial effect. Green credit, environmental regulation, technological progress, and industrial structure have a certain influence on the regional high-efficiency utilization of energy, but the influence of the credit scale is not apparent. Therefore, from the perspective of environmental constraints, green credit has a positive impact on high-efficiency utilization of energy in China.

Mechanism and Test of the Impact of Lack of Human Capital on Ecological Development in Innovation Sector

Based on the endogenous growth model and scenario simulation, this paper theoretically analyzes the internal mechanism of the impact of the lack of human capital in innovation departments on ecological development. The simulation results show that the lack of human capital in the innovation sector not only has a significant inhibitory effect on ecological development, but this inhibitory effect positively depends on the accumulation effect of R&D stock on knowledge production and the effect of learning-by-doing. On this basis, the empirical test of the above conclusions with the help of interprovincial panel data confirms its correctness, and the empirical results are robust. Therefore, it is recommended that the government builds an appropriate human capital allocation and compensation mechanism to induce human capital to enter the innovation sector, so as to shape a development and innovation efficiency model that is consistent with economic and ecological goals.

Relationship between Industrialization, Urbanization and Industrial Ecology in Western China: A Panel Vector Auto-Regression Model Analysis

As the foundation of modern economic development, industry is the engine of industrialized and urbanized development. Industrial ecology is a high-level form of industry that is achieved after it has reached a certain stage, which guides the coordinated industrial development balancing mankind and nature. The implementation of industrial ecology is an important method and effective approach to realize the sustainable development of industrialization and urbanization. In this article, based on the inter-provincial panel data of western China during 2003-2018, the spatial development trends of industrialization, urbanization and industrial ecology are analyzed, and an empirical method is employed to conduct a robustness test based on the Panel Vector Auto-Regression (PVAR) model to determine the long-term interactions among these three aspects. The results show that it is difficult to manifest the short-term causal relationships among industrialization, urbanization and industrial ecology. After lagging for three periods, they present the Granger causality, the industrial ecology and industrialization have promoted urbanization, and the coefficient for the influence of industrial ecology on urbanization is 0.4612. However, industrialization and urbanization have negative impacts on industrial ecology, and with a 1% increase in industrialization or urbanization, the industrial ecology will decline by 0.2261% or 0.2850%, respectively. With the continuation of the lagging period, industrial ecology will have better interpretability than industrialization and urbanization, and industrialization and eco-friendly development have strong self-accumulation development mechanisms, while the self-accumulation mechanism of urbanization is not obvious, and it might even have a decline. By fulfilling the role of the regional leading industry, the state of unbalanced internal development can be improved, so as to realize mutual promotion between industrialization and urbanization. By improving the utilization rates of resources and energy, efforts should be made to implement green production, significantly promote industrial ecology, and boost high-quality development of both the regional economy and society.

Inward foreign direct investment, outward foreign direct investment, and carbon dioxide emission intensity-threshold regression analysis based on interprovincial panel data.

Based on the panel data of 30 provinces (except for Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) in China from 2005 to 2016, a nonlinear threshold regression model and a carbon emission expansion models were constructed to empirically analyze the threshold effect of inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) and outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on carbon dioxide emission intensity in China. The results show that (1) China's OFDI has increased carbon dioxide emission intensity while the IFDI has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon dioxide emission intensity. (2) The impact of the OFDI on carbon dioxide emission intensity gets influenced by the threshold effect of population size, economic development level, technology level, and environmental regulation. (3) The impact of the IFDI on carbon dioxide emission intensity also has threshold characteristics affected by population size, economic development level, and technological level. Hence, China should introduce more IFDI, optimize the structure of the OFDI, and exert its environmental improvement effect to satisfy the carbon emission reduction goal earlier.

Decoupling of Economic Growth to Industrial Wastewater Discharge in the Yangtze River Delta

Based on inter-provincial panel data from 2010 to 2018, the author conducted quantitative analysis on the decoupling of economic growth and industrial wastewater discharge as well as its driving factors in the Yangtze River Delta. The research shows during the study period, a high level of decoupling between economic growth and industrial wastewater discharge could be seen in the Yangtze River Delta, mainly in the form of strong decoupling, while at the same time, undesirable conditions such as growth linkages and expansive negative decoupling, still existed in a few years and certain regions. Among the studied regions, Anhui Province, Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province all share a similar decoupling pattern with a rather stable overall performance. Shanghai, however, performed poorly among the Yangtze River Delta, with undesirable decoupling states detected in a few years. In terms of driving factors, technology is the core factor that drives the decoupling of economic development to industrial wastewater discharge of the region. The structural effect, on the other hand, is another element worth paying attention to as the technology in the region gradually becomes saturated.

Has ICT Contributed to Increased Carbon Productivity in Industry?

Enhancing industrial carbon productivity is the key to China's sustainable economic development. Along with the application and development of new-generation network information technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing, etc., information communication technology (ICT) has become an essential means to improve national innovation, productivity and strengthen industrial competitiveness, and plays a crucial role in promoting industrial carbon productivity enhancement. Based on China's interprovincial panel data from 2009-2017, this study measured the ICT level through Projection Pursuit improved by an accelerated genetic algorithm and adopted a non-linear threshold regression model to investigate the non-linear impact and its Spatio-temporal heterogeneity of ICT on China's industrial carbon productivity improvement from the perspective of science and technology(S&T) human capital accumulation. The study shows that the overall level of ICT in China is high. There is a digital divide between regions; in general, ICT plays a positive role in enhancing industrial carbon productivity, but there are significant heterogeneous threshold characteristics of science and technology human capital accumulation accumulation. Once the accumulation of science and technology human resource accumulation breaks through the critical scale, the positive effect of ICT on industrial carbon productivity will gradually appear and show a strengthening trend. The temporal and spatial distribution of the threshold for accumulating science and technology human capital accumulation is different.

Research on the Influence of Population Structure on Economic Growth: Based on the Provincial Panel Data Model

In recent years, the international environment and conditions of China’s economic development have undergone profound and complex changes, but in the middle and long term, China’s economy has been maintaining a stable medium-high speed development. It is remarkable that population changes bring about changes in economic development; especially the aging of the population has a particularly significant impact on economic growth. Therefore, based on the inter-provincial panel data of 31 provinces and municipalities from 2011 to 2019, this paper mainly studies the impact of population change on economic growth by establishing a solid fixed effect model. The results show that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between population structure and economic growth, and population structure has a significant positive impact on economic development. In addition, there are regional differences in the positive and significant relationship between the two.

Technology Import and China's Innovation Capability: Does Institutional Quality Matter?

With the rapid growth of China's economy, technology import plays a crucial role in enhancing regional innovation capability. Based on inter-provincial panel data from 2007 to 2016, this paper uses three benchmark linear regression models of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Difference-Generalized Method of Moments (DIFF-GMM), and System-Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM) to explore the improvement of China's regional innovation capability by technology import. Then, the regional institutional quality level is measured from the three dimensions of politics, economy, and law, and the two-step difference GMM threshold panel model is used to analyze the effect of technology import on regional innovation capability under different institutional quality conditions. The results show that: (1) In the benchmark linear regression model, technology import has a significant role in promoting regional innovation capability. (2) With the rise of regional corruption, the quality of political institution declines, and the promotion effect of technology import on regional innovation ability is weakened. (3) The improvement of the marketization level and intellectual property protection level strengthen the role of technology introduction in promoting regional innovation capability. On the contrary, in regions with low economic and legal institutional quality, technology import has no significant impact on regional innovation capability.

A fair distribution and transfer mechanism of forest tourism benefits in China

This study establishes a theoretical model of forest tourism benefit allocation. Empirical testing was carried out based on China's inter-provincial panel data from 2000 to 2016, following the principle of fair allocation, and using an iterative algorithm to distribute forest tourism benefits among different economic entities and regions fairly. The empirical results show that urban residents get more than 40% of these benefits, while rural residents get less than half of that of urban residents. After the tax reform, the distribution ratios of the government and enterprises decreased due to an increase in the distribution ratio of urban residents. The transfer of forest tourism benefits among regions is highly unstable, and the central and western regions obtain more benefits than the eastern regions. Therefore, when constructing forest tourism infrastructure, the central and local governments should consider the transfer ratio of these benefits, which will help optimize the structure and use of capital investments, and continue to strengthen the backward-feeding of the economy from the eastern regions to the central and western regions.

An Empirical Study on Residents' Consumption Changes Based on the Development of Commercial Annuity

The relationship between the level of pension insurance development and the consumption of Chinese residents is a topic of constant debate. However, few scholars have analyzed residents' consumption behavior based on the level of commercial annuity development. Using China's 2010-2018 inter-provincial panel data, this article builds a dynamic panel regression model to explore the impact of the development of commercial annuities on household consumption and its structure. In addition, the paper also compares the impact of the protection levels of basic pension insurance and commercial annuity on household consumption. The results show that the per capita disposable income of residents is still the main factor that promotes residents’ consumption. The improvement of commercial annuity and basic endowment insurance will help to promote residents' consumption, and the effect of commercial annuity's promotion on residents' consumption is more significant. In promoting the optimization and upgrading of consumption structure, commercial annuity insurance plays a more significant role than residents' income level and basic pension insurance. Based on the regression results, this article suggests that efforts should be made to increase the income level of residents and promote consumption from the root cause. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the commercial pension insurance system as soon as possible and steadily promote the coordinated development of the "three pillars" pension insurance system.

Research on Carbon Emission Reduction Effect of China's Carbon Trading Pilot

Carbon emissions trading is one of the important ways to reduce carbon emissions by giving CO2 emission rights a commodity attribute that allows them to trade on the market and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the market mechanisms. Based on the inter-provincial panel data from 1997 to 2016, this paper constructs a basic theoretical analysis framework to analyze the carbon emission reduction effects of carbon trading policies, adopts PSM-DID to study the carbon emission reduction effects of carbon trading pilots. This study finds that: (1) The implementation of the carbon trading pilot can promote carbon emission reduction, but the pilot provinces and municipalities have different economic development levels, industrial structure and supporting measures adopted after the implementation of the carbon trading pilot policy, resulting in differences in carbon emission reduction effects between pilot provinces. (2) For the seller of carbon emission rights, carbon emission reduction is achieved through three effects of "market return-inducing", "technical innovation incentive" and "government support"; for the buyer, carbon emission reduction is achieved through three effects of "enterprise cost pressure", "process innovation motivation" and "market guiding". (4) The results of traditional PSM-DID further prove that the carbon trading pilot can significantly reduce CO2 emissions.

Local Government Competition and Regional Green Development in China: The Mediating Role of Environmental Regulation.

Green development is an important way to meet the challenges of ecological and environmental protection and economic growth, as well as an inevitable choice to realize China’s sustainable development in the new era. The Chinese economic system is such that local government competition has become a key factor affecting regional green development under the current leadership. Based on the inter-provincial panel data of 30 provinces in mainland China from 1997 to 2017, this paper uses the total-factor non-radial directional distance function and slack-based measure data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) to measure the green development efficiency of the provinces. Additionally, it also uses the Malmquist–Luenberger (ML) index to decompose green development efficiency and analyzes its internal driving factors. Finally, taking environmental regulation as a mediating variable, this paper empirically analyzes the influence mechanism of local government competition on green development efficiency from three perspectives including growth competition, fiscal competition and investment competition. The study found that: the green development efficiency of Chinese regions showed a downward trend, with significant regional differences; technological progress is the key factor to improve the efficiency of green development, and its role gradually decreases from eastern to western and central regions; pure technical efficiency has become a bottleneck restricting the improvement of green development efficiency, while scale efficiency shows significant regional differences; the growth competition, fiscal competition and investment competition of local government all have a significant inhibitory effect on the efficiency of green development. This paper puts forward policy suggestions supporting enterprise technology research and development, optimizing energy conservation and emission reduction as well as improving the local government performance evaluation system for green development.