Imbalance Of Regional Development Research Articles

Research on the Path of Digital Economy Empowering the Green Transformation and Upgrading of Jiangsu’s Manufacturing Industry

In the era of digital economy, digital technology has become an important force in promoting industrial upgrading. As a pillar industry in Jiangsu, manufacturing plays an important role in promoting Jiangsu's economic development. With the proposal of the "dual carbon" goal, how to enable the digital economy to empower the green transformation and upgrading of Jiangsu's manufacturing industry has become a common concern in the industry. In view of a series of problems currently existing in Jiangsu's manufacturing industry, including the imbalance of regional digital economic development, low integration of digital economy and manufacturing, and "stuck" key core technologies, it is proposed to increase financial investment support, enhance digital innovation, and Strengthening the research and development of key core technologies will be the path to comprehensively enhance the green manufacturing capabilities of Jiangsu's manufacturing industry and deepen digital technology empowerment.

Optimizing policy mixes for promoting prefabricated construction in developing countries: an fsQCA approach

PurposePrefabricated construction (PC) is increasingly recognized for its sustainability and is being vigorously promoted worldwide. However, its adoption in developing countries remains suboptimal, with existing studies predominantly focusing on policy frameworks or the impact of a single policy instrument. This study addresses this research gap by optimizing the path of PC promotion from the perspective of policy mixes.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in conjunction with necessary condition analysis, to explore effective policy configurations for PC promotion. A comprehensive collection of 171 PC-related policies issued by the Chinese government was analyzed using text mining to identify antecedent conditions of configuration. Data were further obtained through a questionnaire survey involving 263 valid responses, with fsQCA used to derive the optimal policy configurations.FindingsThe analysis identified six distinct combination paths for effective policy configurations. Land supply and governmental procurement were found to be core conditions, while fiscal and taxation financial measures emerged as marginal conditions prevalent across all paths. These findings suggest that land supply policies are particularly suitable for regions with limited land resources, such as Shanghai, while government procurement is more effective in regions like Xinjiang, where PC awareness is still developing.Practical implicationsIn practice, the conclusions enable policymakers to clearly understand policy instruments, thereby finding differentiated pathways for promoting PC with comparable effects. The proposed recommendations help advance PC development effectively while reducing financial burden and minimizing resource waste. This provides important guidance for PC development across different regions or stages, helps address regional imbalances in PC development, and ultimately contributes to the broader goal of sustainable urban development.Originality/valueThis study significantly enriches the research on PC policy combinations by utilizing more comprehensive and robust data, thereby enhancing the universal applicability of the findings. The results provide valuable references for policymakers in different regions, helping to address regional imbalances in PC development and facilitating the construction industry’s transition towards greater intelligence and sustainability.

Changes and Solutions in the Education Market -- Economic Research Based on Era of Negative Population Growth in China

Abstract: Faced with the current negative population growth in China, the education market will face new challenges and changes. The top priority of the economic downturn in the education market is, first and foremost, to solve the problem of a decrease in the number of students. Based on the reduction of student sources, the supply-demand imbalance in the education market can be analyzed first, followed by several direct reasons, such as social pressure and government fiscal deficits. After identifying the problem, the root cause of the school's student population can be solved based on the problem, or corresponding measures can be taken to alleviate the surplus of teaching staff caused by negative population growth, such as providing no age-limitation or establishing international enrollment, adjusting regional development imbalance in the education field, adjusting teacher resources and the nature of work, and reallocating learning resources. These measures can promote the reform of the Chinese education market, alleviate the financial crisis caused by the decrease in enrollment in Chinese schools, and make the Chinese education market constantly full of vitality and vigor.

Regional Coexistence in the Digital Era: Spatial–Temporal Evolution and Sustainable Strategies of the Coupled System in the Yangtze River Basin, China

Against the backdrop of globalization and ecological civilization, this study aims to analyze the patterns of system coupling coordination development in the Yangtze River Basin under the interacting influences of population growth, ecological conservation, energy utilization, and digital economic development. Using a multisource model, this paper explores the state of coordinated development, spatial–temporal evolution characteristics, and influencing factors in the Yangtze River Basin from 2011 to 2020. The results indicate the following: (1) The overall degree of coupling coordination in the Yangtze River Basin shows better performances in the eastern coastal areas compared to the central and western regions. Over time, the spatial autocorrelation of coupling and coordination increases, exhibiting a significant spatial clustering trend. (2) The Moran’s I index increased from 0.327 to 0.370, with high–high clusters primarily distributed in economically developed coastal provinces, while low–low clusters were observed in remote provinces in the central and western regions, revealing regional development imbalance issues. (3) The driving force analysis shows that green coverage and GDP are the core factors influencing the spatial differentiation of coupling coordinated development. Factors such as the urbanization rate, nighttime light index, and energy consumption had significant impacts in certain years but are generally considered minor factors. The results of this study not only contribute to understanding the dynamic mechanisms of regional coupling and development but also provide a scientific basis for formulating regional coordinated development policies, promoting the achievement of win–win goals of economic growth and ecological civilization in the Yangtze River Basin and similar regions.

Quantifying and Zoning Ecological Compensation for Cultivated Land in Intensive Agricultural Areas: A Case Study in Henan Province, China

Cultivated land ecological compensation (CLEC) is an important way to solve regional development imbalance and cultivated land problems, and the scientific quantification of the ecological value of cultivated land is the key to CLEC. This study quantified the total amount and urgency of CLEC in China’s main grain-producing region using the cropland ecological footprint (EF) and ecosystem service value (ESV) methods. Furthermore, this study analyzed the comprehensive zoning of CLEC considering natural and economic development. The results showed that the spatial distribution of EFs and the ecological carrying capacity of cultivated land in Henan Province are similar, presenting the spatial characteristics of being high in the southeast and low in the northwest; the cultivated land in most of the counties and districts is in a state of ecological surplus, and the cultivated land resources are sufficient to support their own consumption needs. Henan Province as a whole is an ecologically compensated region, with a compensation amount of CNY 1.39 billion, and the total amount of compensation is in a positive value of 94.94%. The Southwest Yu and North Yu economic zone of Henan are the areas of high and low values of cultivated land compensation. The priority compensation region is the most extensive and widely distributed type in the five regions of Henan Province, accounting for 55% of the counties and districts. The degree of compensation is most urgent in the Huanghuai, Southwest Yu, and North Yu economic zones. This study’s findings provide new ideas for the development of differentiated ecological compensation policies, and provide references for the participation of multiple market participants and the diversification of compensation forms.

Development of Ecological Low-Carbon Agriculture with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era: Features, Practical Issues, and Pathways

Agriculture is not only the source of carbon emissions, but also an important carbon sink. The development of low-carbon agriculture in China is closely related to achieving the national strategic goal of “dual carbon.” Reducing carbon emissions in China’s agricultural sector and accelerating the development of ecological low-carbon agriculture (ELA) are extremely important and urgent, both from the perspective of the long-term common welfare for mankind and from the perspective of maintaining the sustainable development of agriculture itself. However, ELA is still an emerging concept in China, and its connotation and characteristics are not yet clear. There is a lack of effective paths for orderly and scientific promotion of the development of ELA in China. Based on this, this paper focuses on the emerging concept of ELA and examines ELA with Chinese characteristics from the dimensions of connotation, features, practical issues, and pathways, aiming to provide guidance for the sustainable development of ELA in China. The research results indicate that there are regional development imbalances, low willingness of farmers to participate, insufficient technological reserves, and difficulties in realizing the value of ecological products in China’s ELA. It is necessary to improve the modern agricultural production and operation system, tap into the potential of agricultural emission reduction and carbon sequestration, build a technical system to support the development of ELA, and establish a sound mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products. By continuously improving the regional organizational capacity and performance of ELA, accelerating the advancement of ELA technology and demonstrating its regional promotion, and by establishing and continuously improving the support system for ELA, one can promote the sustainable development of ELA in China. In addition, the research findings of this paper can also provide reference for the ecological low-carbon development of the global agricultural sector, supporting the contribution of the agricultural sector to achieving high-quality global sustainable development goals.

Do regional tax incentive policies improve productivity?

The difficulty in transforming old industrial areas constitutes a significant factor contributing to regional development imbalances. Can regional tax incentives, as a crucial component of regional policies, polish the "rust belt" regions? This study leverages the inaugural Value-Added Tax (VAT) reform in China as an opportunity to explore the potential of regional tax incentives in achieving sustainable development in traditional industrial areas. Drawing upon a comprehensive industrial enterprise database, we employ a Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) approach to examine the efficacy of these tax incentives. Our findings reveal that: (1) Regional tax incentives primarily enhance firms productivity by stimulating investment in enterprises, yet they do not contribute to improved investment efficiency or spur innovation within firms. (2) Regional tax incentives have alleviated financing constraints for enterprises in old industrial bases, significantly enhancing the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of firms with higher financing constraints. This policy has had an even stronger impact on improving the TFP of state-owned and monopolistic enterprises. (3) Regional tax incentives have impeded productivity growth by preventing the exit of low-efficiency firms and the entry of high-efficiency ones. These incentives also increased the likelihood of "zombie firms" forming and failed to promote endogenous economic growth in the Northeast region. Additionally, they have distorted the allocation of resources towards capital and technology-intensive industries in that area. In China's old industrial bases, regional tax incentives should be coordinated with market-oriented reforms; these regional tax incentive policies should also be further enriched.

Dynamic trends and regional differences of economic effects of ultra-high-voltage transmission projects

This study on the economic effects of ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission projects in China provides valuable insights into the dynamic trends and regional differences of UHV transmission projects on county economic growth. By employing quasi-natural experiments and constructing a counterfactual control group, this study overcomes the endogeneity problem associated with UHV transmission project construction. The findings indicate that the construction of UHV transmission projects has indeed promoted the county economic development in China. However, it is observed that the employment and investment effects are significant only in the short term, while long-term economic growth primarily depends on the continuous upgrading of the industrial structure and integrating electricity market. Furthermore, this paper highlights the limited impact of UHV transmission projects on energy-rich areas, which may exacerbate regional development imbalances. It suggests that increasing investment in county's human capital may help stimulate the positive effects of UHV transmission projects in energy-rich areas. Additionally, this research preliminarily confirms that UHV transmission projects can help reduce environmental pollution, but energy-rich areas may face potential trade-offs between economic growth and environmental protection. The policy recommendations derived from the research findings can serve as valuable references for other developing countries aiming to develop transmission infrastructure.

An empirical analysis of the development of China’s rural market economy system

ABSTRACT This paper presents a comprehensive study conducted from 2000 to 2021, utilizing a 14-indicator index to measure China’s rural Marketization economic development. The indicators encompass four dimensions: rural market subjects, rural market systems, rural land property rights, and government macroeconomic regulation and control. The research covers national and regional levels, providing insights into the following key findings: Firstly, China has witnessed a consistent improvement in the level of rural market economic development across national, regional, and provincial tiers. This progress can be predominantly attributed to advancements in rural land property rights, characterized by enhanced land tenure security and a significant reduction in land disputes. Secondly, Western China has maintained a synchronized development pace with central and eastern regions, resulting in relatively minor developmental disparities. Nevertheless, the progression of rural market subjects in western China remains a limiting factor in further enhancing rural market economic development. Simultaneously, government macroeconomic regulation and control act as a constraining element in driving nationwide rural market economic development. Given the persistent imbalance in regional development, concerted efforts should be made to gradually narrow the developmental gap among the western, central, and eastern regions at both the rural market entity and government macro-control levels.

The impact of radio on the construction of smart cities

In the process of smart cities, radio technology has played an increasingly important role. With the continuous acceleration of the global urbanization process, cities are facing many challenges. Driven by the governments vigorous support and business promotion, wireless communication technology has developed rapidly, and new wireless communication technology has continued to emerge, providing more choices and possibilities for smart city construction. This article reviews and analyzes the actual case analysis, studies the impact of radio technology on the construction of smart cities, while explaining the importance of radio security management. The results showed that the application of radio technology enabled smart cities to achieve functions such as intelligent traffic management, intelligent communication, and intelligent energy management, but there were also problems such as leakage privacy, signal interference, and imbalance in regional development. In the process of future smart city construction, it is necessary to further optimize the safety and popularity of radio, promote the use of radio, narrow the gap between the use of different regions and cities, and enhance the radio management, so that it can better serve the construction of smart cities.

Public Attitudes and Sentiments toward Common Prosperity in China: A Text Mining Analysis Based on Social Media

Since 2021, China’s promotion of common prosperity has captured global attention and sparked considerable debate. Yet, scholarly examination of the Chinese public’s attitudes toward this policy, which is crucial for guiding China’s strategic directions, remains limited. To address this gap, this paper collects 256,233 Sina Weibo posts from 2021 to 2023 and utilizes text mining methods such as temporal and trend analysis, keyword analysis, topic analysis, and sentiment analysis to investigate the attitudes and emotions of the Chinese people towards common prosperity. The posts holding negative sentiments are also analyzed, so as to uncover the underlying reasons for the dissatisfaction among Chinese citizens regarding common prosperity. Our analysis reveals that China’s strategy for promoting common prosperity is primarily focused on economic development rather than wealth redistribution. Emphasis is placed on enhancing education, achieving regional balance, implementing market-oriented reforms, and improving livelihoods. Notably, there is increasing public dissatisfaction, particularly with issues such as irregularities in financial and real estate markets, growing wealth inequality, exploitation by capital, generation of illicit income, and regional development imbalances. These challenges necessitate urgent and effective policy interventions.

Study on the Coupling and Coordinated Development Mechanism and Implementation Path of Digital Economy Drive and Rural E-Commerce

The rural revitalization strategy is taken as an important measure to solve the problem of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and a powerful starting point for realizing this strategy is agricultural e-commerce. The vigorous development of agriculturale-commerce helps farmers eliminatepoverty, increase income, and promote agricultural industrialization. While bringing new development opportunities, it is also faced with new challenges, mainly including the lag of related supporting construction, the imbalance of regional development, and the unsustainability of development structure. With the rapid development of the digital economy, using digital technology to promote the reform of agricultural e-commerceis particularly critical, which plays an important role in promoting the digital transformation process of the agricultural economy and accelerating rural revitalization.Therefore, China should actively use a variety of digital technologies, take digital agricultural e-commerce as the core, and focus on optimizing and implementing the construction of relevant supporting facilities, innovating the development mode of agricultural e-commerce, and constructing a sustainable chain development system, thus providing new ideas and directions for the development of agricultural e-commerce and better promoting the revitalization of digital rural areas.

Spatial Network Analysis of Coupling Coordination between Digital Financial Inclusion and Common Prosperity in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Digital financial inclusion and common prosperity are pivotal elements in promoting the sustainable socioeconomic development of China. This study introduces a novel Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method to evaluate the Common Prosperity Index (CPI). Using this index, alongside the Digital Financial Inclusion Index (DFII) released by Peking University, it examines the evolution of the coupling coordination relationship between digital financial inclusion and common prosperity within the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) urban agglomeration from 2011 to 2021. By integrating gravity models and social network analysis, in this paper, we thoroughly investigate the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of the spatial network of this coupling coordination relationship. The results indicate that both the DFII and CPI generally exhibit an upward trend, but the decline in the coupling degree reflects a weakened interaction strength between them. Specifically, Anhui significantly lags behind Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai in the development of digital financial inclusion and common prosperity, indicating regional development imbalances. Furthermore, the strength of spatial connections in city coupling coordination has significantly increased, with Nanjing’s siphon effect on cities in Anhui becoming markedly stronger, and the number of core cities in the network increasing, which demonstrates a geographical proximity feature in network development. Additionally, the overall network characteristics are transitioning towards higher density and “small-world” properties, suggesting a trend toward network stabilization. The disparity in centrality among cities has decreased, with an overall enhancement in centrality, where the spatial spillover effects from core areas such as Hangzhou-Ningbo, Nanjing-Changzhou, and Shanghai-Suzhou-Wuxi significantly promote the development of peripheral cities. Based on these findings, this paper proposes policy recommendations for the sustainable development of digital financial inclusion and common prosperity in the YRD region.

Prospects and Trends of Digitalization of Project Management in the Region

Relevance. Digital transformation at the present stage in the Russian Federation seems to be a complex and ambitious task, the successful implementation of which depends on the adaptability of public authorities to digital changes and their restructuring to new decision-making processes. Despite the fact that digital technologies were one of the last to enter the public administration sector, their implementation has made it possible to speed up the process of solving large-scale and operational problems. Improving the efficiency of the state and regional management system can be identified as a key factor in the sustainable development of the economy of the Russian Federation. Its stability is ensured as a result of the formation, legislative consolidation and existence of control over the implementation of government programs. In this regard, the digitalization of project management is of particular relevance, since it is the driving force for regional development and is used to eliminate development imbalances. The purpose is to study the prospects and identify trends in the digitalization of project management in the region.Objectives: to consider the concepts of digitalization and digital transformation, to identify the directions of the digitalization process of public administration at the present stage in the Russian Federation, to form ideas about software products to be implemented in the public administration sector and to propose directions for further development of the process of digitalization of the public administration sector of project activities.Methodology. In the process of studying the topic under consideration, methods such as analysis, synthesis, generalization, logical, and graphic methods of information processing were used.Results. Project management of the region seems to be a promising and effective way to eliminate the imbalance of regional development, therefore the introduction of specialized software products with functionality specific to the needs is a strategic task.Conclusions. In order to improve project management of regional development, a comprehensive software product is proposed for implementation. Further development of regional project management is not possible without the creation of a general information system that allows for unified management of all projects in the region.

Spatio-Temporal Pattern and Vulnerability Assessment of the Human Settlements along the Beibu Gulf Coast of Guangxi, China

Human settlement development is intricately linked to production and life, and development quality is a partial indicator of the local community’s social, economic, cultural, and environmental progress. Furthermore, the human settlements’ vulnerability affects their sustainable development potential. Due to the “One Belt, One Road” initiative and land and sea corridor development in southwestern China, the Beibu Gulf coast in Guangxi is the sole waterway bridgehead used by China for opening trade with ASEAN. By examining the region’s human settlements and its potential for sustainable development, we established a benchmark for the region’s seaward economy and human settlements to achieve synergistic progress, as well as to enhance regional integration. Based on the systematic evaluation of the quality of human settlements along the Beibu Gulf coast in Guangxi, the vulnerability assessment model of human settlement was adopted to analyse the vulnerability and spatial–temporal patterns of nearby human settlements in 2010–2019, while the multiple linear regression model was used to explore their influencing factors. Our findings indicate that the quality of human settlements in the study area has experienced three distinct stages. In the early stage (2010–2012), we noted an overall year-on-year increase in settlement quality. However, in the middle stage (2013–2016), Fangchenggang and Beihai experienced a decline followed by an increase, while Qinzhou demonstrated a steady growth in settlement quality. Qinzhou continued to experience growth, albeit at a slower rate, while Fangchenggang’s rate of increase surpassed that of Beihai. The human settlements’ high-quality centre shifted between Qinzhou and Fangchenggang in the late stage (2017–2019). Additionally, in recent years, the settlements’ high-quality centre has shifted towards the western part of the region. The habitat’s sensitivity has grown slowly, as has the responsiveness index, but the vulnerability index continues to decline, and it is characterised by a spatial differentiation ranging from low to high values in a centre–east–west direction. The region’s human settlement quality is primarily influenced by economic development. The region’s habitat vulnerability is primarily caused by responsibility, and the primary factors affecting responsibility are regional imbalances in social service development, the population’s welfare, and employment and infrastructure.

Analysis of the evolution and drivers of carbon inequality based on a human well-being equity perspective

Regional development imbalances lead to the geographic separation of producers and consumers in interregional trade, thus resulting in an unequal distribution of carbon emissions (CE) and human well-being (HWB). Few studies have analyzed the long-term dynamic evolution and driving factors of interregional carbon inequality from the perspective of HWB equity. This study calculates the changes in embodied CE and HWB and their interregional flows and changes in carbon inequality in 2007, 2012, and 2017 using a multiregional input‒output (MRIO) model, and analyzes the drivers of interregional CE/HWB transfer, and then makes policy implications. The results indicate that carbon inequality in China shows a worsening trend because of the mismatch between the change in CE transfers in carbon-intensive sectors and the change in HWB transfers in economic and social capital. At the national level, CE intensity, HWB intensity, production structure, and per capita consumption have the most significant effects on embodied CE and embodied HWB. The direction of the factor drivers affecting interregional net carbon emissions (NCE) and net human well-being (NWB) transfer depends largely on the resource endowment and the extent of the effects of the different drivers and development status of two regions. This study provides a new perspective for analyzing the evolution of carbon inequality in China and provides important insights for reducing carbon inequality and realizing carbon equity.

Digital Financial Inclusion and Enterprise Technological Innovation

Digital Financial Inclusion and Enterprise Technological Innovation

Regional differences and improvement potential of carbon emission efficiency in China’s power industry: insights from meta-frontier DEA model considering integer constraints

Previous studies on the carbon emission efficiency (CEE) in the power industry have neglected concerns related to regional heterogeneity and the integer character of certain indicators. In response to these issues, this study proposes a meta-frontier DEA model that integrates integer constraints for evaluating the CEE of China’s provincial power industry from 2011 to 2021. This study also proposes to apply the Theil, technology gap ratio, and inefficiency decomposition indexes to analyze regional disparities, technological gaps, and strategies for enhancing CEE within China’s provincial power industry. The research findings highlight several key points. First, China’s power industry exhibits inefficiencies in CEE. The central region mainly contributes to the overall CEE decline, and approximately 70% of provinces demonstrate an average CEE below 0.70. Second, the technological level of the western region is leading, while that of the central region is the worst. Specifically, Ningxia, Hainan, and Jiangsu have the most advanced production technology levels. Third, substantial disparities in CEE within China’s power industry primarily stem from regional imbalances in development. Fourth, technical inefficiency contributed 68.24% of the CEE in the central region, and management inefficiency contributed 96.91% and 65.42% in the western and eastern regions, respectively. Overall, China’s power industry still has 37% potential for improvement.

Analysis of Regional Social–Economic Spatial Pattern and Evolution along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal

With the proposal of the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal Cultural Belt, the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal has become an indispensable component of China’s economic development pattern. Despite relatively high regional-economic-development levels along the canal, there still exists a common imbalance in regional development which will hinder the high-quality collaborative development of the region, highlighting the importance of measuring this disparity. This study adopts the district and county as spatial scales and selects five dimensions: economic growth, livelihood benefits, green ecology, innovation drive, and food guarantee in order to construct a comprehensive socio-economic index. Entropy weight method, Moran index, and Theil index analyses are used to examine the recent ten-year evolution laws in regional socio-economic spatial patterns along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal. Results indicate that socio-economic indicators designed for each dimension effectively measure both individual districts’ and counties’ economic situations as well as those of entire regions. In 2021, limited significance was observed regarding the level of regional economic agglomeration along the Grand Canal region, suggesting a tendency towards fragmented development rather than forming a well-coordinated model. Over the decade from 2011 to 2021, there was an increase in social and economic agglomeration. From a city unit perspective, developmental disparities among districts and counties within cities follow three distinct patterns. Cities at different stages of development can learn from each other’s models to enhance integration cooperation and collectively promote high-quality economic advancements in the Grand Canal region.

Can the Digital Economy Reduce the Rural-Urban Income Gap?

Currently, the Chinese government is considering two major strategies, namely, developing the digital economy and achieving common prosperity, to address regional development imbalances. Using panel data from 276 Chinese cities spanning from 2011 to 2019, the article first employs the entropy method to measure China’s digital economy development, digital fusion application, and Internet accessibility. Subsequently, the paper evaluates the influence of the digital economy on regional development imbalances, focusing on the rural-urban income gap. The results show a significant reduction in the rural-urban income gap due to digital economy development. Notably, digital fusion applications have a greater impact on reducing the rural-urban income gap than Internet accessibility. In addition, a heterogeneity analysis reveals that the influence of the digital economy on the rural-urban income gap is only reflected in the eastern and western regions, with a more substantial effect observed in the western region. This study, to some extent, helps Chinese government officials distinguish the diverse impacts of different dimensions and regional variations in digital economies on the rural-urban income gap. Such insights can guide the government in strategically advancing digital economy development to accelerate the mitigation of regional disparities and achieve sustainable economic development.