Level Of Technological Innovation Research Articles

An Empirical Study of the Policy of Low-Carbon City Pilot on the Level of Green Technological Innovation

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;">The low-carbon city pilot is an important policy for promoting sustainable development and addressing climate change. The level of green technological innovation is a significant driving force for China's transition to high-quality development and the realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. This essay takes the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2020 as the research sample, regards the number of urban green invention patent applications as a quantifiable indicator of the level of urban green technological innovation, and takes the policy of low-carbon city pilot as a quasi-natural experiment, and uses the difference-in-differences model to test the impact of low-carbon city pilot on the level of urban green technological innovation, and to investigate the mechanism of action within. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The policy of low-carbon city pilot has an outstanding promotion effect on the level of urban technological innovation. (2) Using the mediating effect to analyze, it is found that the low-carbon city pilot policy can improve the level of urban green technological innovation through the development of green finance.</span></p>

The Impact of Capital Market Opening on Enterprise Green Technology Innovation: Insights from the Shanghai–Hong Kong Stock Connect

China’s economy has experienced a period of remarkable growth and entered a stage of high-quality development, necessitating the implementation of innovative eco-friendly practices involving green technology innovation. The capital market environment plays a direct role in influencing the sources and scale of external financing for businesses, thus affecting their green technology innovation activities. The Shanghai–Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHSC) mechanism in China is the first official two-way opening of China’s capital market. Therefore, this paper regards the SHSC policy as a quasi-natural experiment platform for the opening of the capital market and employs a difference-in-difference methodology to investigate the impact of the SHSC policy on enterprise green technology innovation and its influence mechanisms. The overall sample covers Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2012 to 2017. The findings demonstrate that the SHSC policy significantly enhances the level of green technology innovation by enhancing corporate governance and alleviating financing constraints. Non-state-owned enterprises are more affected than state-owned ones, and there is no significant difference in the impact between heavily polluting industries and non-heavily polluting ones.

Analysis of the Spatial Spillover Effect and Impact Transmission Mechanism of China’s Water Network by Constructing a Water Transfer Information Weight Matrix

In China, the water network project plays a pivotal role in optimizing water resources allocation, enhancing regional water resources carrying capacity, and bolstering high-quality economic development. This study is grounded in the spatial interconnection of water resources, serving as the foundation for constructing a spatial measurement model. Leveraging data from 558 panel samples encompassing 31 provinces (including municipalities and districts) in China between 2003 and 2020, this research unveils the inherent correlation between the establishment of the water network and economic as well as social development. The findings indicate the following: (1) Considering inputs, outputs, and nonconsensual outputs, regional disparities in the SBM (slacks-based measure) value of the water network exist, demonstrating an overall increasing trend annually. In 2020, the nationwide average benefit level of input–output in water network construction reached 0.603. (2) Moran’s I test, predicated on the weight matrix of spatial water transfer information, reveals a spatial positive autocorrelation. All tests pass the significance threshold of 5%, affirming the presence of spatial agglomeration due to project construction, operation, and the interconnectedness of water resources. (3) SDM (spatial Durbin model) regression analysis elucidates that per capita GDP, resource endowment, technological innovation level, consumption index, and average wage significantly influence the growth of water network efficiency. Specifically, per capita GDP and the consumption index exert negative influences. Moreover, aspects such as regional resource endowment, technological innovation level, industrial and agricultural water demand, average wage, and other spatial dependencies exhibit a notable positive spatial spillover effect. (4) The SDM model suggests that per capita GDP growth fails to yield a significant spatial spillover effect on neighboring regions. Instead, it highlights a substantial indirect effect and spatial dependence of government attention among regions. These analyses are instrumental in optimizing the water resources allocation network system and enhancing investment efficacy.

Economic policy uncertainty and the inhibitory effect of firms' green technology innovation

Given the potential unforeseen impacts of environmental regulation changes on the innovative activities of micro agents, it is crucial to examine the effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on business development. Several studies have shown that uncertainty acts as a hindrance and can hinder business innovation. This study utilizes data from 807 listed companies spanning from 2007 to 2019 and employs a double fixed-effects model to investigate the influence of EPU on enterprises' green technology innovation activities. The results reveal that EPU decreased firms' green technology innovation. Moreover, EPU inhibits corporate green technology innovation by increasing corporate financing constraints. Thus, financing constraints mediate between EPU and enterprises' level of green technology innovation, with increased market competition reducing the inhibiting effect of EPU on innovation. Furthermore, EPU decreases green technology innovation more among nonstate-owned and low-tech businesses than state-owned and high-tech businesses. This paper reveals the intrinsic mechanism of EPU on firms' innovation, clarifies the technological innovation process, and provides insights into governmental environmental governance from the perspective of EPU.

Carbon emission efficiency of land use in urban agglomerations of Yangtze River Economic Belt, China: Based on three-stage SBM-DEA model

Exploring regional differences in land use carbon emission efficiency (LUCE) and the path of collaborative emission reduction in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) are of immense importance to achieve the sustainable regional development. Firstly, based on the estimation method of land use carbon emissions, this paper scientifically calculates the carbon emission of land use of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRD), the middle reaches of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration (MRYR), and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration (CC) from 2010 to 2021 in the YREB. And the carbon emission of land use of each city in urban agglomerations was obtained, which was regarded as the unexpected output in the efficiency evaluation index system. Secondly, the three-stage SBM-DEA model was used to reveal the LUCE and its spatiotemporal characteristics in different regions from a static perspective. The empirical results of the second stage SFA showed that the level of economic development, urbanization rate, industrial structure, non-agricultural conversion rate of agricultural land, the level of scientific and technological innovation and government intervention had significant effects on LUCE. By comparing the efficiency values and their decompositions in the first and third stage of various urban agglomerations, it was found that after eliminating environmental and random factors, the average ranking of comprehensive technical efficiency (TE) of land use carbon emission changed from YRD > MRYR > CC to YRD > CC > MRYR due to the cross influence of pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE). Thirdly, Malmquist index model was used to analyze the change of total factor productivity index (TFPch) and its spatiotemporal pattern from a dynamic perspective. It was found that the TFPch, technological progress index (TC), pure technical efficiency index (PEC) and scale efficiency index (SEC) of land use carbon emission of the three major urban agglomerations all showed varying degrees of increase after adjustment. Finally, to further analyze the impact of technological progress, PTE and SE on LUCE, a regression model was constructed with LUCE of each city in urban agglomeration as the dependent variable, and TC, PEC and SEC as independent variables. It was concluded that technological progress was the main factor to promote the improvement of LUCE in the whole YREB. The trend of changes of LUCE in various urban agglomerations was closely related to its management level, technology level and factor structure adjustment. The above conclusions provide support for the coordinated emission reduction path of urban agglomerations in the YREB from the perspective of land use, which is conducive to actively and steadily promoting the realization of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.

Sustainability of the Food Industry: Ecological Efficiency and Influencing Mechanism of Carbon Emissions Trading Policy in China

As an important factor affecting ecological sustainability, the food industry’s ecological efficiency (EE) deserves great attention and control. In 2013, China implemented a carbon emissions trading policy (CETP) to limit carbon emissions from various industries to promote the optimization of the ecological environment. To explore the ecological sustainability of China’s food industry, identify the factors affecting the EE of the food industry, and study the influence heterogeneity and influencing mechanisms, the impact of the CETP on the food industry, which emits high volumes of greenhouse gasses, requires evaluation. Many scholars have studied the policy’s effect from the perspective of EE, but they have ignored the food industry, which is the main carbon emitting sector, and there is a lack of heterogeneity analyses of the influencing factors. This study reviewed the implementation process and characteristics of the CETP in the past decades. Using provincial panel data from 2003 to 2019, this study measured the EE in the food industry through the difference-in-difference model, evaluated the emission reduction and economic effects of the CETP on the food industry, characterized the heterogeneity of the policy’s effectiveness, and analysed its mechanism using three-stage mediating regression. The results showed that (1) the CETP significantly affected the food industry’s EE, which increased by 38.3% on average in experimental provinces compared with non-experimental provinces. (2) For the food industry, the policy’s effect was most significant in the food manufacturing and tobacco subsectors, and these subsectors in the experimental provinces increased by 66.0% and 39.7%, respectively; meanwhile, the policy’s effect was not significant in agriculture and subsidiary food processing and beverage manufacturing. By industrial area, the policy’s effects were significantly higher in the eastern region compared with the central and western regions. The influence on the food industry’s EE in the eastern region was close to 150%, while in the central and western regions, it was not significant. (3) The CETP promoted the food industry’s EE by improving energy consumption structure and technological innovation. The proportion of coal consumption decreased by 6.34% on average, and the technological innovation level increased by 25.1% on average in the experimental provinces’ food industries. The research findings indicate that the CEPT is a good practice and worth spreading. For food industry enterprises with high carbon emissions, attention should be paid to low-carbon transformation through technological upgrading and management optimization. For policymakers, targeted policies are needed to establish a national unified carbon trading market so that the national carbon emissions can be controlled, and the gap between regional carbon emissions can be narrowed.

Can industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition both lead to carbon lock-in mitigation? The case of China.

The optimization and transition of the industrial structure help improve the quality of the economy, moving it toward low-carbon development. By using the Instrumental Variable Generalized Method of Moments model and a city-level dataset covering the period 2006-2019, this paper explores the carbon lock-in mitigation effects of industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition, respectively. The heterogeneity and the synthetic industrial structure adjustment effect are detected, and the potential impact mechanism is also explored. Some findings have been generated. (1) Both industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition realize carbon lock-in eradication. (2) Industrial structure optimization and transition are more effective in inhibiting carbon lock-in in cities with a higher level of economic background. (3) By generating an interaction term of industrial structure optimization and transition and examining the impact of the interaction term on carbon lock-in, this paper detects that industrial structure optimization and transition have a synthetic impact on carbon lock-in, showing a "1 + 1 > 2" effect. (4) Industrial structure optimization and transition both affect carbon lock-in by improving technological innovation level, which is the impact mechanism. Some policy implications, such as sectoral diversification and promoting research and development, are put forward for better industrial structure development and carbon unlocking.

The inferiors imitate the superiors: the government’s low-carbon concerns and the renewable energy technology of firms

AbstractExisting research has focused mainly on the technological effects of rigid constraints such as low-carbon policies, but there has been little exploration of flexible constraints such as the government’s low-carbon concerns. To explore the role of flexible low-carbon constraints and effective paths for achieving low-carbon development, this paper theoretically and empirically investigates the influence of the government’s low-carbon concerns on local firms’ innovation in renewable energy technology and the underlying mechanism. Benchmark analysis shows that the government’s low-carbon concerns can improve renewable energy technology among firms in an area. Mechanism analysis reveals that low-carbon concerns promote firms’ renewable energy technology adoption by increasing the amount of research and development (R&D) investment and government subsidies and energy use costs of firms in the area. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that heterogeneity exists across technologies, firms, industries and locations in terms of the incentive impact of the government’s low-carbon concerns on the level of renewable energy technology innovation. Extensive analysis indicates that the government’s low-carbon concerns have a long-term incentive impact on the renewable energy technology of local firms and a positive demonstration impact on the renewable energy technology of neighboring firms. This study is helpful in that it explores the major driving factors behind the creation of a low-carbon economy and the achievement of climate targets.

Entrepreneurial spirit: A catalyst on the road to green and sustainable development——A theoretical analysis based on dynamic games and empirical tests from Chinese data

Environmental protection and sustainable development are now profoundly ingrained in the public consciousness in the modern era of the global green revolution. First, this paper uses an evolutionary game model to theoretically analyse the impact of environmental regulation and green finance on enterprises by dissecting the game behaviour between local governments, banks and enterprises. Then, we incorporate entrepreneurial spirit into the model to determine whether entrepreneurial spirit accelerates the achievement of green sustainability objectives. Environmental regulation and green finance are found to contribute substantially to the innovation of green technologies by local enterprises, while entrepreneurial spirit accelerates this process. Finally, we empirically test the findings based on a prefecture-level panel dataset from 2007 to 2020. We find that green finance has a positive impact in Central and Western cities of China, while Eastern cities are in greater need for government environmental regulation controls. For entrepreneurial spirit, the incentive effect of entrepreneurial spirit on the level of green technology innovation is more significant in Central and Western regions of China. This paper enriches the field of research on entrepreneurial spirit and regional green sustainable development by providing empirical evidence for the evaluation of environmental regulatory and green financing policy impacts.

The dynamic process mechanism of carbon reduction under the digital economy perspective

In order to explore the dynamic influence mechanism of the carbon reduction from the perspective of digital economy, this paper measures the scale index of digital economy, carbon emission intensity and carbon emission efficiency based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2020. On this basis, a model is constructed to explore the impact of digital economy on carbon emission, which provides inspiration for the realization of the carbon reduction promoted by digital economy. It is concluded that the upgrading of industrial structure, the reduction of energy intensity and the improvement of technological innovation level are all the paths for the digital economy to promote the reduction of carbon emissions. Among them, the upgrading of industrial structure and the improvement of technological innovation level play a weak intermediary role, while the reduction of energy intensity plays a strong intermediary role. The impact of digital economy on carbon emissions has spatial spillover between adjacent regions. The significance of this paper is to give a complete measurement model of digital economy and carbon emission under the framework of inter-provincial and inter-annual. After considering the mediating effect of variable influence, the transmission mechanism and spatial spillover effect of digital economy on carbon emission are analyzed.

Can Green Credit Improve the Innovation of Enterprise Green Technology: Evidence from 271 Cities in China

With the promotion of the “carbon neutrality” and “carbon peak” initiatives, green credit plays an important role in helping enterprises to change their high-pollution, high-energy-consumption production methods and establishing a sound green, low-carbon, and circular economic system. This study used spatial correlation analysis and a fixed effects SDM model to examine the spatiotemporal and causal relationship between green credit levels and enterprise green technology innovation in 271 prefecture level cities in China from 2013 to 2021. It found that (1) green credit and green technology innovation levels are both highest in the eastern region, followed by the central region, and exhibit spatial correlation characteristics. The main types of agglomeration are high–high and low–low agglomeration. (2) Green credit has a significant enhancing effect on green technology innovation in enterprises, and this conclusion still holds after robustness and endogeneity tests. (3) There is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of green credit on green technology innovation, mainly concentrated in the central and western regions. (4) Green credit can significantly increase enterprise R&D investment and enhance the level of green technology innovation through this channel. Finally, some policy implications are provided to the decision-making departments that can be used for reference.

The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Technological Innovation of Enterprises: Based on Empirical Evidences of the Implementation of Pollution Charges in China

Abstract Environmental protection is closely related to high-quality economic developments. Based on the matching of micro-databases from 2000 to 2008, this study used the “Regulations on the Collection and Use of Pollution Fees” policy implemented in China in 2003 as the exogenous impact to construct the intensity Difference in Differences model in order to investigate the effects of pollutant discharge fee on technological innovation of enterprises and the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that governmental environmental regulations significantly improved the level of technological innovation of enterprises, and the conclusion was still valid after a series of robustness tests. The results of the parallel trend verified the rationality of the differential setting and the dynamic effects showed that the pollutant discharge fees had a continuous promoting effect on the technological innovation of enterprises. The results of the placebo tests rejected the original hypothesis of the mistaken model. The mechanism verifications revealed that the strengthening of environmental regulation by the government acted on the innovation level of enterprises through the two mechanisms, i.e., the promotion of enterprises’ fixed asset investments and government subsidies, and finally improved the enterprises’ technological innovation levels.

Evaluation of China’s provincial eco-efficiency with the explainable boosting machine (EBM) model and Tobit regression

The explainable boosting machine (EBM) model measures China’s provincial eco-efficiency, and the Tobit regression model reveals internal driving factors to provide consultation for promoting China’s green development based on the panel data of 30 provinces from 2000 to 2018. The findings of this article are as follows: provincial-level regional ecological efficiency is low, growth is slow, regional differentiation is significant, and development still has a trend of incoordination and multi-polarization. From the perspective of global autocorrelation, the Moran index is significantly positive, and the province eco-efficiency of the first grade presents a positive spatial correlation and has the characteristics of spatial agglomeration. The regression analysis results show that the economic level, the FDI, the level of technological innovation, and the level of human capital are the main influencing factors of eco-efficiency, and there are spatial differences. Relevant suggestions are based on the status and influencing factors of the unbalanced development heterogeneity of provincial eco-efficiency in China.

The impact of market-based environmental regulation on corporate ESG performance: A quasi-natural experiment based on China's carbon emission trading scheme

At present, there are few studies exploring the impact of market-based environmental regulation on ESG performance based on the perspective of carbon emission trading scheme (CETS). This paper aims to supplement this research field through empirical analysis. Taking Shanghai-Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2022 as the research object, this paper studies the impact of CETS, a market-based environmental regulation tool, on the ESG performance of enterprises by constructing a time-varying DID model and examines the mediating roles of green technology innovation, agency cost and analyst attention. The results show that the implementation of CETS can significantly boost ESG performance, and green technology innovation, agency cost, and analyst attention play a partial intermediary role between the two, while the mediating effects of green total factor productivity and green total factor energy efficiency are not significant. In terms of heterogeneity analysis, the study shows that CETS implementation has a more substantial promotion effect on ESG performance in non-state-owned enterprises, non-politically connected enterprises and non-high-tech enterprises. In this paper, the robustness test was carried out through PSM-DID, placebo test and replacement of explained variables, and the test results further supported the hypothesis in this paper. This study enriched the research on the impact of market-based environmental regulation on ESG from the perspective of CETS. It provided enlightenment for enterprises to improve ESG performance to a strategic level, improve the level of green technology innovation, and the government to implement differentiated environmental governance policies.

Policy implications for synergistic management of PM2.5 and O3 pollution from a pattern-process-sustainability perspective in China

In recent years, the pattern of air pollution in China has changed profoundly, and PM2.5 and surface ozone (O3) have become the main air pollutants affecting the air quality of cities and regions in China. The synergistic control of the two has become the key to the sustainable improvement of air quality in China. In this study, we investigated and analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution patterns, exposure health risks, key drivers, and sustainable characteristics of PM2.5 and O3 concentrations in China from 2013 to 2022 at the national and city cluster scales by combining methodological models such as spatial statistics, trend analysis, exposure-response function, Hurst index, and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model. Ultimately, a synergistic management system for PM2.5 and O3 pollution was proposed. The results showed that: (1) The PM2.5 concentration decreased at a rate of 1.45 μg/m3 per year (p < 0.05), while the O3 concentration increased at a rate of 2.54 μg/m3 per year (p < 0.05). The trends of the two concentrations showed significant differences in spatial distribution. (2) Population exposure risks to pollutants showed an increasing trend, with PM2.5 and O3 increasing by 55.1 % and 42.7 %, respectively. The annual deaths associated with exposure to PM2.5 and O3 demonstrated a decreasing and inverted U-shaped trend, respectively, with annual average deaths of 1.312 million and 98,000. Significant regional disparities in health risks from these pollutants were influenced by socio-economic factors such as industrial activities and population density. In the future, it is expected that more than half of China's regions will be exposed to rising risks of PM2.5 and O3 population exposure. (3) Key drivers of regional exacerbation in PM2.5 and O3 levels include the number of industrial enterprises above designated size (NSIE) and population agglomeration (PA), while the disposable income of urban residents (URDI), technological innovation (TI), and government attention level (GAL) emerged as primary factors in controlling pollution hotspots, ranked in order of influence from greatest to least as TI > GAL > URDI. Overall, this study sheds light on the current status of air pollution and health risk sustainability in China and enhances the understanding of future air pollution dynamics in China. The results of the study may help to develop effective targeted control measures to synergize the management of PM2.5 and O3 in different regions.

Non-State Shareholder Participation and Technological Innovation in State-Owned Enterprises

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee established mixed ownership system as the main policy of SOE reform, and as the main form of SOE "mixed reform", can non-state shareholders' participation promote the technological innovation of SOE? Based on the research samples of China's A-share state-owned listed companies from 2010 to 2017, this paper finds that the participation of non-state shareholders promotes the technological innovation of SOE, and this result is more robust when the participation of non-state shareholders exceeds 10%, i.e., when the participation of non-state major shareholders is more robust. The results of the mediation effect model show that non-state shareholders' equity participation plays a positive role in the level of state-owned technological innovation by improving the incentive channel for executive compensation, while the results of the mediation effect test of the financial assets investment channel are not verified. This paper provides theoretical and empirical support for the rationality and effectiveness of mixed ownership reform from the dimension of technological innovation.

The dynamic mechanism of scientific and technological innovation in China’s marine biomedical industry

As one of the important forces promoting the development of the marine economy, the marine biomedical industry (MBI) shows typical knowledge and technology-intensive characteristics. It is of great significance to explore the industrial innovation dynamic mechanism for breaking through the bottleneck of innovative development as well as achieving high-quality development. This paper constructed a system dynamics model for scientific and technological innovation (STI) in the MBI and then explored the dynamic mechanism of STI in the industry through simulation. The study found that, in the innovation environment subsystem, the two factors of the intellectual property protection intensity and the government’s scientific research funding input had the most significant positive driving effects on STI of the MBI; the promotion of government education funding input showed a significant strengthening trend over time, while the marine environmental regulation intensity had comparatively little effect on the level of STI. In the subsystem of innovation input, both innovation funding input and innovation personnel input were the direct driving forces for the improvement of the STI level. And enterprises played a dominant role in STI because the STI level of the MBI was more sensitive to the changes in enterprise innovation input. Compared with the individual factor input, the synergistic promotion effect of multiple factors is more significant. In addition, it was found that there was a low conversion rate of scientific research achievements in China’s MBI by analyzing the influence of various factors changing on technological output and economic output. Based on the research results, this paper puts forward corresponding policy suggestions in order to provide theoretical support and a practical basis for promoting the technological innovation level of China’s MBI as well as references for other countries.

The Influence and Mechanism Analysis of Environmental Regulation on Green Technology Innovation of Enterprises

By collecting the micro data of China's A-share listed enterprises, this paper studies the impact of environmental regulation on the green technology innovation of heterogeneous enterprises based on the perspective of "Porter hypothesis". It is found that environmental regulation can effectively promote the green technology innovation level of enterprises. And the conclusion remains robust after controlling for endogeneity, replacing the explained variables, and changing the time series. In the heterogeneity analysis, due to the differences in enterprise strength and social responsibility between state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises, environmental regulation has different effects on the green technology innovation effect of enterprises with different features. Due to the good economic foundation and resource endowment in the eastern region and the western region, the environmental regulation has a more obvious effect on the green technology innovation of enterprises in this region. The central region does not have these advantages, the effect is not significant. In the mechanism analysis, the cost mechanism and the compensation of innovation mechanism proposed by the theoretical analysis are verified.

The Relationship Between Green Finance, Sustainable Technological Innovation and Energy Efficiency

Sustainable technological innovation can promote this progress in finance. This optimization and upgrading of energy efficiency can provide a good energy environment for green development. The collaborative innovation of financial enterprises has brought such development to the tertiary industry, driving the upgrading of consumer demand, and thus promoting the development of green finance. At this same time, sustainable technological innovation will increase investment in environmental protection, reduce energy consumption, promote the reduction of carbon emissions in the financial industry, and accelerate the development of green finance. This paper uses the data envelopment analysis method to calculate the Marquis production efficiency index, examines the dynamic generation efficiency of intertemporal energy input and output, and calculates the energy efficiency of green finance. This article measures and deconstructs energy efficiency at the provincial level, and pays attention to its changes. The study depicted the efficiency distribution of 28 provinces in two stages of the survey period. By using random kernel estimation for two periods during the survey period, dynamic distribution three-dimensional maps and density contour maps of total factor energy productivity, energy utilization efficiency, and energy allocation efficiency growth rates were drawn for the two periods. The results show that the transfer probability group of energy efficiency and its decomposition terms mainly falls near the diagonal, indicating that TFP and its decomposition term growth rate have certain transferability. From 2005 to 2015, the energy utilization efficiency of the seven economic regions has been significantly improved, and the energy efficiency differences in different regions have gradually converged. The energy efficiency of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta is the highest and has been continuously improved, followed by the Beijing Delta, the central region, the northeast region and the southwest region are again in terms of energy efficiency. Compared with provinces with relatively poor industrial structures, provinces with better industrial structures do not have significant advantages in energy efficiency, while provinces with higher levels of technological innovation typically have relatively higher energy efficiency.

Scoping review on the link between economic growth, decent work, and early childhood caries

BackgroundEarly Childhood Caries (ECC) is a prevalent chronic non-communicable disease that affects millions of young children globally, with profound implications for their well-being and oral health. This paper explores the associations between ECC and the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8).MethodsThe scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. In July 2023, a search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus using tailored search terms related to economic growth, decent work sustained economic growth, higher levels of productivity and technological innovation, entrepreneurship, job creation, and efforts to eradicate forced labor, slavery, and human trafficking and ECC all of which are the targets of the SDG8. Only English language publications, and publications that were analytical in design were included. Studies that solely examined ECC prevalence without reference to SDG8 goals were excluded.ResultsThe initial search yielded 761 articles. After removing duplicates and ineligible manuscripts, 84 were screened. However, none of the identified studies provided data on the association between decent work, economic growth-related factors, and ECC.ConclusionsThis scoping review found no English publication on the associations between SDG8 and ECC despite the plausibility for this link. This data gap can hinder policymaking and resource allocation for oral health programs. Further research should explore the complex relationship between economic growth, decent work and ECC to provide additional evidence for better policy formulation and ECC control globally.