Unbalanced Regional Economic Development Research Articles

New Energy Technology Innovation and Industry Carbon Emission Reduction Based on the Perspective of Unbalanced Regional Economic Development

Innovation in new energy technologies is a key driver in China’s efforts to achieve its environmental goals. However, the ability of different regions to develop and utilize new energy technologies may depend on their level of economic development. Based on a two-way fixed-effects panel data model, this paper empirically analyses the industry carbon emission reduction effect of new energy technology innovation and its heterogeneous performance at different stages of economic development, using data from 30 provinces and cities in China from 2000 to 2019. The results show that new energy technology innovation generally promotes CO2 emissions in China. The specific effects are closely related to the characteristics of the industry and the stage of economic development. At the same time, the implementation of environmental regulations will inhibit this positive effect, while the adjustment of the industrial structure may promote this positive effect. This paper discovers the mechanism of heterogeneity in new energy technology innovation among different provinces with different levels of economic development. This finding helps to fully assess the carbon emission reduction capacity and potential of different provinces and facilitates the rational disaggregation and formulation of climate policy goals among regions.

Research of Unbalanced Regional Economic Development and Entrepreneurial Happiness based on CFPS Data

Based on the perspective of happiness economics and using the data of China Family Panel Studies in 2020, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of regional economic development imbalance on entrepreneurial happiness. The results show that regional economic development has a significant negative impact on entrepreneurial happiness on the whole, and it changes with the regional difference and the difference of urban and rural structure. Further research shows that economic development can improve the happiness of urban entrepreneurial groups in economically underdeveloped areas, but it has a significant hindering effect on the happiness of rural entrepreneurial groups in economically developed areas. In addition, this paper studies the mechanism of economic development on entrepreneurial happiness, and finds that each component of entrepreneurial happiness responds differently to economic development. The research results of this paper will provide theoretical basis for the government to formulate more reasonable incentive policies for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Does environmental regulation narrow the north-south economic gap ? - Empirical evidence based on panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities

The economic differentiation between the north and the south of China, as a long-standing phenomenon of unbalanced regional economic development, is aggravating, and has gradually become a resistance to the construction of a new development pattern and regional coordinated development. Most of the existing studies focus on the comparison of differences between the Eastern, Central and Western regions of China, but there is little discussion on the economic gap between China's North-South economy. In addition, through the literature review, no attention has been paid to the environmental regulation factor that leads to the economic gap between the North and the South. In view of this, the study constructs a benchmark regression model and a non-linear regression model based on the balanced panel data of 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2019, explores the role that environmental regulation plays in the widening of China's North-South economy gap. The results show that, firstly, environmental regulation is significantly conducive to narrowing the economic gap between the North and the South; In addition, with the greater intensity of environmental regulation, the economic gap shows a trend of “narrowing first, expanding then”, that is, There exists positive U-shaped nonlinear relationship between them. Finally, the heterogeneity of urban scale leads to significant differences in the position and shape of the positive U-shaped curve, which exists between environmental regulation and China's North-South economy gap. The test results shows that the inflection point level of the U-shaped curve in the North is higher than that in the South. Based on this, the study proposes to adjust environmental policies accordingly under regional differentiated conditions, increase financial investment in improving environmental regulation tools and promote coordinated environmental governance in the North and South regions, to promote regional coordinated and sustainable development, provide empirical evidence and theoretical reference to improve people's livelihood and well-being and ultimately achieve the goal of common prosperity.

Ecological compensation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region based on ecosystem services flow

Under a background of unbalanced regional economic development and ecological environments, the accurate identification of ecological compensation (EC) areas and the determination of compensation standards have become research key and hotspots. Their aim is to improve the long-term mechanisms of interregional EC. In this study, ecosystem services value (ESV) in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH) in 2000, 2010 and 2019 are calculated using modelling and ecological economics methods. The region is divided into ecological output and input areas according to ecosystem services supply and demand. The breakpoint formula and field strength model are introduced to reveal the characteristics of ecosystem services flow (ESF) from output areas to input areas. By integrating a transfer correction coefficient system of natural, economic and social factors, an EC model based on ESF is constructed, and EC amounts for the BTH are calculated. The results are as follows: (1) The ESV of the BTH shows an increasing trend, with little change in spatial distribution characteristics. The high-value areas are distributed in the Taihang and Yanshan Mountains and Bashang Plateau in the northwest, while the low-value areas are concentrated in the Southeast Hebei Plain. (2) ESF mainly occurs in the western and northern regions of the BTH. Output areas are mainly distributed in the Taihang and Yanshan Mountains and Bashang Plateau, and their number is increasing. The flow radius, flow intensity and ESV transfer amounts also show increasing trends. (3) The ratio of EC paid by Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei is 1:0.2:2.56, the EC amounts are all provided to the Hebei Province, and the funds mainly flow to Chengde City, Zhangjiakou City and Baoding City. The proposed EC model based on ESF provides a basis and reference for the construction of an inter-regional EC mechanism in the BTH.

Analysis of Influencing Factors of Unbalanced Regional Economic Development and Countermeasures

Xi Jinping pointed out in the Party's Report to the 20th CPC National Congress that Chinese-style modernization is a modernization in which all people are prosperous together, and common prosperity is still our unremitting pursuit. Although China has built a well-off society in an all-round way in 2020, today's well-off society is still incomplete. The uncoordinated development of regional economy and the unbalanced development within the region still restrict the realization of the goal of common prosperity. For this reason, this paper divides the influencing factors of regional economy into three aspects: policy governance factors, regional endowment factors and capital investment factors. Regional economy is based on capital investment and regional endowment factors, and is restricted and guided by policy governance factors. The three factors are in unity of opposites and form an organic whole together, so we can specifically analyze regional economic situations in different time and space on this basis. At the same time, from these three aspects, this paper puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions for developing regional economy, such as constructing multi-level and all-round cooperation pattern, consolidating resource endowment, promoting the optimization and upgrading of regional industrial structure, and promoting the construction of regional innovation system, so as to gradually realize common prosperity under the coordinated development of regional economy and the continuous compensation of development differences between and within regions.

The Impact of Environmental Pollution on Residents’ Income Caused by the Imbalance of Regional Economic Development Based on Artificial Intelligence

Regional economy is a human economic activity in a geographical region, a prominent and sustainable economy with distinctive regional characteristics. Regional economy is characterized by its integrity, relativity, relative independence, and spatial difference. With the increasing development of science and technology and big data, it has become a normal trend to use artificial intelligence technology to solve current social problems. In this paper, the social problems caused by the imbalance of regional economy are analyzed based on artificial intelligence. Through the application of KNN-SVM algorithm optimization, it is found that AI has relatively little impact on the development of the income level of the population under the age of 25 in each region. Compared with previous studies, the quality is compared with the innovation of this document, which is the development of a conceptual framework approach, an environmental pollution analysis mechanism, and income inequality analysis. The empirical research results show that under the strategic background of improving people’s livelihood, accelerating the reform of ecological civilization and promoting the construction of the health system, the relationship between environmental pollution and population income caused by unbalanced regional economic development can be re-analyzed through the best KNN-SVM algorithm. The implementation of the healthy China strategy has important theoretical and practical significance.

The Influence of Capital Deepening on Regional Economic Development Gap: The Intermediary Effect of the Labor Income Share

At the same time as economic development, the imbalance problem in regional economic development is prominent, which hinders sustainable economic development, especially in China. Explaining the causes of unbalanced regional economic development is an important scientific problem in current economic research. Here, this study takes China as the empirical research area and uses China’s inter-provincial panel data to deeply analyze the impact of capital deepening on the regional economic development gap. As indicated by this study, after a series of potential factors (e.g., industrial proportion, foreign direct investment, and per capita GDP) of the regional development gap are controlled, the capital deepening measured using perpetual inventory can have a strong explanatory power for the regional development gap, i.e., the greater the value of capital deepening, the more significant the regional development gap will be. According to the above conclusion, the effect arising from capital deepening on the regional development gap is still significant, even after the Soviet Aid Project is employed as the current instrumental variable of capital deepening, as well as after the data from the world sample are estimated The study further finds that capital deepening does not directly affect the regional development gap but indirectly affects the regional development gap by affecting the labor income share. Therefore, a higher labor share can narrow the regional development gap.

Carbon Emission Reduction Cost Assessment Using Multiregional Computable General Equilibrium Model: Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area

Carbon emissions reduction is an urgent global call to action, and for China, the nation with the largest carbon dioxide emissions, the task is especially arduous. For a country like China with many provinces and cities and unbalanced regional economic development, how to balance carbon emission reduction targets with economic development goals has become a social concern. Estimating the emission reduction costs of economic entities at all levels and reasonably allocating emission reduction tasks are the basic prerequisites for sustainable urban development. Based on an input–output (IO) table analysis of the socioeconomic data of Guangdong Province from 2017, this paper uses RAS and other data reconciliation methods to decompose various statistical data based on cities and industries. A multiregional IO table of nine cities in Guangdong Province in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is obtained, and a multiregional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of Guangdong Province is established. Using this model, this paper explores city-level differences in carbon emissions reduction costs while accounting for differences in economic development under industry-wide coverage. A scientific basis for the allocation of urban carbon quotas is provided, which is particularly important for the sustainable development of cities. First, the carbon emissions reduction cost (carbon price) of each city is related to the intensity of emissions reduction and the present carbon intensity, both of which are affected by cities’ industrial and trade structures. Second, under neoclassical closure conditions, carbon emissions reduction is found to have less impact on the overall gross domestic product (GDP). At the industrial level, the high-carbon sectors are the most affected, whereas the low-carbon sectors are less affected. Notably, some industries become beneficiary sectors. Under Keynesian closure conditions, carbon emissions reduction has a greater impact on overall GDP, and all cities and industries are generally affected, especially those that are currently carbon- and trade-intensive. Third, to ensure the achievement of emissions reduction targets and minimize negative economic impacts, it is determined that the direct and opportunity costs of carbon emissions reduction must be fully considered when allocating carbon allowances, and optimal solutions should be derived from the combined perspective of fairness and efficiency.

The Analysis of Carbon Emission’s Characteristics and Dynamic Evolution Based on the Strategy of Unbalanced Regional Economic Development in China

Analyzing the evolution law of carbon emissions is particularly important for the designation of policies on energy conservation and emission reduction. Based on the regional division of China, this paper uses a spatial panel model to find the causes of the differences in carbon emission, and the non-parametric model, logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) model and the extended STIRPAT model to analyze the relevant influencing factors in detail. From the studies in this paper, there come the following conclusions: (1) The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the eastern region resembles the national EKC, demonstrating the same “N” pattern. However, the “upside-down U” pattern in the middle and western regions not only confirms the assumption of EKC in some Chinese regions but also demonstrates the effective restraint in high energy consumption and high emission levels when narrowing down the gaps between the central and western regions and the eastern regions. (2) In addition, good education can effectively suppress the increase in carbon emission, and every 1% increase in the proportion of educated people (college and above) results in emission reduction, respectively, by 0.22%, 0.51% and 0.44% in the eastern, central and western regions of China. (3) Significantly, the effect of tertiary industry structure on carbon emissions is positive, reflecting the trend of “deterioration” of China’s industrial structure over long time scales. This study functions positively in understanding the evolutionary pattern of regional carbon emissions and proposing differentiated policies on emission reduction.

Assessment of Jiangsu Regional Logistics Space Nonequilibrium Situation by Boosting and Bagging Algorithms

This study aims to solve the problem of unbalanced regional economic development in Jiangsu and deeply excavates the relevant theories of regional logistics and the unbalanced spatial situation. The classification of regional logistics and spatial disequilibrium and the dimensions involved are studied. At present, the development status of Jiangsu logistics has locked the main reason for the unbalanced situation of the regional logistics space in Jiangsu. The basic principles, application scope, and methods of Bagging and Boosting algorithms are deeply studied. Then, the Jiangsu logistics space nonequilibrium situation assessment model is established based on the Bagging and Boosting algorithms, and the input data is sorted and summarized. Finally, the results are obtained through experiments evaluating the model and analyzed and summarized. The core issues, the factors affecting development, and the uneven development situation have been comprehensively assessed. The conclusion drawn is as follows: the imbalance of the logistics productivity of various regions in Jiangsu will inevitably lead to the imbalance of the regional logistics space in Jiangsu, which affects the coordinated and healthy development of the regional logistics in Jiangsu. These conclusions are significant to the inherent causes and effects of regional logistics spatial disequilibrium and can promote the coordination, synergy, and common development of Jiangsu logistics regions.

Study on water resources carrying capacity in Zhuanglang River Basin

With the rapid development of China’s social economy, the phenomenon of unbalanced regional economic development is increasingly obvious. The shortage of water resources in northwest China is an important constraint to local development. The study on the water resources carrying capacity of the Zhuanglang River Basin plays an important role in the development of local economy; thus, we evaluate the water resources situation of Zhuanglang River Basin by using hydrology-related calculation method, combining with field investigation, visiting relevant departments, and referring to relevant data. Meanwhile, the water resources carrying capacity of 3 counties and 12 townships in the Zhuanglang River Basin in the current year are studied and analyzed based on methods such as fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model and quantitative calculation. Results indicate that the carrying capacity of water resources in Zhuanglang river basin can mostly meet the needs of township, but it is necessary to further optimize the water resources carrying capacity of the Zhuanglang River Basin from the four systems of water resources, society, economy, and ecology in the future. Besides, the results of quantitative calculation show that the maximum economic scale that water resources can withstand in most areas of the Zhuanglang River Basin is the overall well-off level, that is, the per capita domestic water is 80L/(d· person), and the per capita GDP is 10000 yuan/person. But there is still a certain gap to achieve the level, when the people are well-off in an all-round way, the two indexes are correspondently raised to 120L/(d· person), and the per capita GDP is 30,000 yuan/person.

Analysis of the Impact of Industrial Land Price Distortion on Overcapacity in the Textile Industry and Its Sustainability in China

At present, China is faced with a situation of unbalanced regional economic development. The report of the 19th session of the national congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that we should accelerate the implementation of the strategy of coordinated regional development. However, this study finds that, in the process of “leaving the cage and changing birds”, the number of enterprises in the textile industry in the eastern region has risen again, which, in turn, has led to overcapacity and has seriously affected the sustainable development of the textile industry. The present study finds that the increasingly distorted price of industrial land is the root cause of the “surge phenomenon” of enterprises in the textile industry and overcapacity. Therefore, China’s central government should be fully aware of the negative impact of the distorted price of industrial land on the sustainable development of textile industry. Efforts must be made to solve the problems of the excessive influx of textile enterprises, overcapacity, and unsustainability in the eastern region in three aspects. Specifically, the land transfer procedure should be standardized, the motivation of local governments’ land attracting investment should be curbed, and the introduction of high-quality enterprises should be paid attention to.

Evaluation of Economic Efficiency in Western Regions from a New Perspective ——Empirical Research Based on the Three-stage DEA Model

This paper uses the three-stage DEA analysis method proposed by Fried et al. (2002) to correct the influence of factors such as environmental variables and random disturbances, and conducts an empirical analysis on the economic efficiency of 31 provincial-level regions in my country from 2010 to 2016. By comparing the economic efficiency of the western region with the central and eastern regions, it focuses on the economic development efficiency of the western region under the new perspective. The study found that the overall level of economic efficiency in China is relatively low, the economic efficiency of the eastern part remains leading and stable, and the efficiency of the central and western regions is relatively low and fluctuates greatly. The overall efficiency of the provincial economy in the western region is relatively low, and the overall efficiency of my country's economic development is gradually converging. We should focus on the characteristics of current economic development and increase investment in the economic development of the western region while maintaining stable economic growth in the eastern and central regions, so as to solve the problem of unbalanced regional economic development in our country.

A research on measure of regional agricultural economic development level based on Entropy-CRITIC method and K-Means

The continuous promotion of China's rural revitalization strategy has not put forward higher requirements for the development of overall agriculture. However, it is difficult to regulate the status quo of unbalanced regional economic development. Based on this, this paper selects the provinces and cities in Sichuan Province from 2018-2020 as the research object and constructs a regional agricultural economic development level index system, and then uses the entropy value CRITIC method to assign weights and carry out linear weighting to obtain the regional agricultural economic development level index from the consideration of the volatility and conflict of data. Then, K-Mean clustering was used to analyze the level of agricultural economic development in Sichuan Province from two dimensions: geographical and temporal. The empirical results show that: from the time dimension, the comprehensive index of high-quality agricultural economic development in most regions shows a trend of increasing year by year since 2018-2020; from the geographical dimension, it shows the form of strong in the north and weak in the south, and strong in the center and weak in the fourth. Finally, this paper puts forward relevant suggestions for the development of regional agricultural economy in conjunction with the actual situation.

Ecological sustainability and its driving factor of urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt based on three-dimensional ecological footprint analysis

The impact of human activities on regional resources plays an important role in regional sustainable development, especially in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) which has an important strategic position in China. Problems such as uneven distribution of resources and unbalanced regional economic development are severe in the YREB. This study applies a three-dimensional ecological footprint model for investigating ecological sustainability of urban agglomerations in the YREB. An appropriate ecological compensation method is used for supporting the sustainable development of the research areas. Simultaneously, a series of ecological compensation schemes among provinces and the corresponding driving factors can be presented. Results show that the average ecological footprint increases from 2.19 ha/cap in 2000 to 3.38 ha/cap in 2015 with a growth rate of 54.34%, in which the Yangtze River Delta City Group and the Middle Yangtze City Group occupy the most of regional ecological footprint growth. The average ecological carrying capacity decreases from 0.205 ha/cap in 2000 to 0.189 ha/cap in 2015, which is mostly contributed by cropland and forest. The factors associated with per capita gross domestic product and consumption levels of urban and rural residents are the main driving factors affecting the ecological footprint. A small ecological footprint can be obtained from the three-dimensional model compared with the traditional model, but it is more accurately reflects the regional real environmental pressure. In terms of ecological compensation, the Yangtze River Delta City Group (−320.74 billion ¥ RMB) is considered as compensation spender, and the Middle Yangtze City Group (228.35 billion ¥ RMB) and the Chengdu-Chongqing City Group (92.39 billion ¥ RMB) are presented as compensation beneficiaries. The YREB is generally in an ecologically unsustainable state, but it is also limited by two main factors related to the rapid economic development and the improvement of people's living standards. Findings are intended to provide references for other similar areas in the world, which are with the problem of unbalanced development between economy and ecology.

Effect of population migration on spatial carbon emission transfers in China

Large-scale population migration entails changes in productive and consumptive activities, which has enormous implications on the spatial relocation of carbon emissions. This study uses multiple methods to empirically assess the impact of interprovincial population migration of China on its trade-induced carbon transfers from a spatial view over 2002–2012. We constructed two networks of migration and carbon transfers, and based on the analysis of their topological structure, we inferred that carbon flows and migration are complements–larger migration flows typically correlate with larger trade-related carbon flows. Furthermore, we analyzed how migration affects interprovincial carbon transfers; in addition, we explored the geographical factor by dividing Chinese provinces into five subregions. The results illustrated that trade-induced carbon emissions situation in China was shaped partly by interprovincial migration at the national level. While the contribution of migration varies markedly across subregions owing to the unbalanced regional economic development and carbon intensity, migration-focused emission control strategy should be enhanced discriminatively to better understand China's inter-provincial joint energy conservation and emission reduction policy.

The Impact of the Interaction of Financial and Industrial Structure on Economic Growth – Evidence from China

In recent years, China’s economic growth speed has been slowing down, leading to the problems of overcapacity and unbalanced regional economic development, and the mismatch between industrial and financial structure is becoming intense. This paper, starting with the relationship among economic growth, industrial structure and financial structure, summarizes the research by the former scholars. On this basis, by using data of 31 provincial panel data in China from 2007 to 2016, the article aims to find out the relationship between the industrial structure and economic growth, the relationship between the financial structure and economic growth and the relationship between the interaction of financial and industrial structure and economic growth. Finally, the conclusions of this paper are obtained that the interaction between the financial structure and the industrial structure can promote the economic growth significantly. However, the matching effect of the financial structure and industrial structure in China has not been completely formed, and the industrial upgrading should be guided to be structurally reformed through the policy.

An analysis on the triadic connection between seaports, inland terminals and hinterland market

ABSTRACT Malaysian seaports face challenges of capacity utilisation due to unbalanced regional economic development. Additionally, the resulting challenge from mega shipping alliances may have effects on Malaysian seaports’ competitiveness in the Southeast Asia region. To improve the existing space capacity, infrastructure and connectivity, seaports have moved forward by developing collaborative networks with other seaports in the same region or beyond the region to facilitate and boost trade without massive investments. Given the fact that Malaysian seaports are adopting co-operative strategies and there is limited academic research in seaport co-operation in the Malaysian context, this paper examines the forms of Malaysian seaport co-operation. It investigates factors driving co-operation in new and existing seaports. This paper firstly reviews relevant literature in order to classify the forms of seaport co-operation in Malaysia. Furthermore, the authors conduct a questionnaire survey of key seaport stakeholders (seaport organisations, shipping lines, shippers, inland port operators and port authorities and government officials) to investigate forms of, and the driving factors for, seaport co-operation. The findings provide an insight into seaport managers and government officials for decision-making related to strategies for seaport co-operation.

Measuring the Energy and Carbon Emission Efficiency of Regional Transportation Systems in China: Chance-Constrained DEA Models

In China, the transportation sector contributes about 18% of the total carbon emissions. This research contributes to measuring the energy and carbon emission efficiency (ECEE) of regional transportation systems (RTS) in China considering uncertain carbon emissions. A radial chance-constrained data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is developed to estimate the overall efficiency, and a nonradial chance-constrained DEA model is presented to evaluate the pure energy efficiency (PEE) and the pure carbon emission efficiency (PCEE). We prove that the proposed chance-constrained DEA models can effectively address the uncertain carbon emissions when measuring efficiency. We find that most of China’s RTS have low ECEE and the inefficiencies are mainly due to the lower gasoline utilization efficiency and the lower kerosene utilization efficiency. In addition, east China performs better than central China, and central China performs better than west China. In China, the unbalanced regional development of the ECEE in transportation corresponds with the unbalanced regional economic development. We provide some valuable suggestions based on the evaluation of the potential cuts in each kind of energy and the potential decreases in carbon emissions.

Complexity theory for the modern Chinese economy from an information entropy perspective: Modeling of economic efficiency and growth potential.

Complexity modelling of economic efficiency and growth potential is increasingly essential for countries and provinces. Evaluating the monetary flows, kinetic energy (efficiency) and potential capacity (resilience) provides crucial information for economic development. In the paper, the authors analyze growth opportunities for the Chinese economy from a system science point of view, using the perspective of information entropy, based on the input-output tables. Over the past four decades of reform and opening-up, China has made remarkable progress in its economic development. In 2007, China’s GDP was at its fastest pace in history at 14.2% growth. However, after the financial crisis in 2008, the global economy experienced a downward trend and China's economic development also settled on a medium-low level of development. The traditional perspective is to rank regional development only based on GDP growth, whereas here, the authors advocate another evaluation method based on efficiency and potential growth. Unbalanced regional economic development has become problematic and has become a barrier for sustainability of China’s economy. The results of the research indicate firstly that China’s regional development in 2007 and 2012 has been unequal between the provinces. Secondly, the authors found that Shandong province had significantly higher indicators for efficiency and potential growth than others in the same circumstances. Authors observe that provinces tend to carry out industrial policies and adjust the structure of industry on a local level. This analysis demonstrates that the spatial imbalance of efficiency and potential of economic development under the perspective of provincial-level regions. From the perspective of industry, it indicates that the supply chain is too short, mainly focusing on the mining and processing of resources and minerals in the original upstream industry chain, while the downstream is not fully utilized. These represent some unique insights yielded through this type of analysis that authors advocate applying more broadly.