Can new-type infrastructure lead to regional green well-being? Evidence from China.

New-type infrastructure has an increasingly important role to play in realizing green well-being. By employing China's prefecture-level data from 2003 to 2021, we explore the influence of new-type infrastructure on green well-being and its impact mechanism. The results show that new-type infrastructure significantly improves regional green well-being (even under the presence of robustness tests and without policy intervention).

Impact of digital trade policy on regional carbon efficiency: a quasi-experimental study in China.

Digital trade brings opportunities for the region to develop an open economy, and also leads to changes in regional green productivity and progress towards carbon neutrality. This study uses pilot policies of cross-border e-commerce cities as a quasi-experiment to examine how digital trade policies affect regional carbon emission efficiency. It is found that the carbon efficiency of the pilot cities was significantly improved after the intervention policy of digital trade.

Urban climate adaptability and green total-factor productivity: Evidence from double dual machine learning and differences-in-differences techniques.

Climate change has increasingly become a significant challenge to sustainable socio-economic development, and climate adaptation is a key issue that relevant research focuses on regional sustainable development models. By employing panel data between 2007 and 2020 from 284 Chinese prefecture-level cities, this study adopts quasi-experimental methods, including a difference-in-differences design and double dual machine learning model, to study the impact of climate adaptability on green regional sustainable development. Empirical results confirm that the pilot policy of building climate-resilient cities significantly improves urban green total-factor productivity.

The challenges of maturity mismatch in investment and financing for sustainable development of carbon-intensive enterprises.

To contribute to the research on the role of financial activities in corporate development, this study addresses the critical issue of short-term debt financing for long-term investment (SDFLI) and its impact on the sustainable development of carbon-intensive enterprises in China. By analyzing panel data from the A-share listed carbon-intensive enterprises in China spanning from 2010 to 2021, this study aims to shed light on the significance of this phenomenon and its implications. The empirical findings reveal the existence of a maturity mismatch between investment and financing in carbon-intensive enterprises, which exerts a significant negative impact on total factor productivity (TFP) and poses challenges to their sustainable development.

Place-Based Policies and Carbon Emission Efficiency: Quasi-Experiment in China's Old Revolutionary Base Areas.

Regional imbalance is a typical feature of economic and social development in China, and place-based policies aimed at promoting balanced regional development may bring challenges to low-carbon goals. This study uses the panel data of China's prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019 to investigate the impact of place-based policies on carbon emission efficiency using a quasi-experimental method. Results indicate that place-based policies significantly reduce the regional total-factor carbon emission efficiency.

Spatial spillover effect of the synergistic development of inward and outward foreign direct investment on ecological well-being performance in China.

Inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) can promote a country's economic growth, but the effect of inward and outward FDI on regional ecological well-being performance (EWP) is uncertain. Using the data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2019, this study employs the spatial Dubin model to examine the spatial spillover effects of synergistic development of inward and outward FDI on regional ecological well-being performance and their mediating mechanisms. The result shows that the synergistic development of inward and outward FDI can significantly improve regional EWP and imply a positive spatial spillover effect.

Increasing short-term lending for long-term investment under environmental pressure: evidence from China's energy-intensive firms.

To improve environmental quality and reduce pollutant emissions, China enacted the Environmental Protection Tax Law (EPTL) in 2018, leading to increase environmental pressure. Based on the data of energy-intensive firms listed in China's A-share market, this study examines firms' investment and financing behavior, increasing the short-term loans for long-term investment. Using the Difference-In-Differences (DID) method, empirical evidence supports the idea that environmental pressure causes energy-intensive firms to increase short-term lending for long-term investment (SLLI).

Nonlinear and spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on green total factor energy efficiency: evidence from 281 cities in China.

Although the digital economy has become a new driving force for development worldwide, it is still unclear how digital economy development affects green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE). Using panel data from 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2018, this study empirically analyzes the effect of digital economy development on GTFEE by adopting a dynamic panel model, a mediation effect model, a dynamic threshold panel model, and a spatial Durbin model. The empirical results show that digital economy development has a significantly negative direct effect on GTFEE.

The effects of the environmental protection tax law on heavily polluting firms in China.

In 2016, China implemented an environmental protection tax (EPTL2016) to promote the transformation and upgrading of heavily polluting industries through tax leverage. Using panel data of China's listed companies, this study assesses the treatment effects of the EPTL2016 on the transformation and upgrading of heavily polluting firms by incorporating the intermediary role of the financial market. The empirical findings show that the EPTL2016 significantly reduced the innovation investment and productivity of heavily polluting firms but had no significant effect on fixed-asset investment.

Impact of China's waste import policy on the scrap copper recovery pattern and environmental benefits.

The international trade weight of scrap copper has exceeded 6 million tons annually over the past two decades. China introduced the "National Sword" policy in 2017, which brought uncertainty to the international recycling of scrap copper. We use the international scrap copper trade figures from 1998 to 2019 in UN Comtrade, and seek to analyze the impact of China's import ban by setting up a difference-in-differences (DID) model based on the gravity model.

Digitalization and environment: how does ICT affect enterprise environmental performance?

Despite the increasing use of digital technology in industrial production, how industrial digitalization affects the environmental performance of production activities remains unclear. This research contributes to the literature on the relationship between industrial digitalization and enterprise environmental performance by employing a large sample of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Results indicate that the environmental performance of manufacturing enterprises has been significantly improved in the process of industrial digital transformation.

Impact of fiscal decentralization on firm environmental performance: evidence from a county-level fiscal reform in China.

To promote county economic prosperity and social development, China enacted a fiscal reform known as "province governing county" (PGC) in the early 2000s. Using the difference-in-differences (DID) method and a massive sample of enterprises from 2003 to 2011, this study investigates the effect of PGC reform on firm environmental performance. The results show that enterprises in reformed counties have significantly decreased their pollution intensity since the fiscal reform.