Green innovations for sustainable development of China: Analysis based on the nested spatial panel models

Is resource abundance a curse for green economic growth? Evidence from developing countries

Digital financial inclusion and sustainable employment: Evidence from countries along the belt and road

Achieving transport connectivity is a priority in China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”. In order to further understand the impact of railway infrastructure on city-level economic expansion, we set cities with high-speed rail as the treatment group and those without high-speed rail as the control group, and a difference-in-differences (DID) technique was used to estimate the growth impact and heterogeneity of high-speed rail opening on the economic growth of cities along the New Silk Road Economic Belt. The main results are as follows: First, economic growth in cities with operational high-speed rail lines was significantly higher than those without high-speed rail. Second, the impact of high-speed rail on economic growth exhibited distinct heterogeneity. Large cities tend to have a stronger siphoning effect, resulting in more pronounced impact of high-speed rail opening on urban economic growth. Third, cities with higher marketization levels and higher government efficiency were shown to have stronger economic growth effect.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3176/pdf

The Impact of High-Speed Rail Opening on City Economics along the Silk Road Economic Belt

This study attempts to prove that emerging markets could partially improve institutional quality in a specific area and benefit the local economy despite the rest of the area having poor institutions. Interestingly, we observed that despite the presence of institutions of comparative disadvantage, emerging economies continue to constantly attract significant foreign direct investment. Hence, this study focuses on a type of place-based policy in China that provides a standard favorable institutional environment in a specific area. Using data from China’s Annual Survey of Industrial Firms and combining official lists of Chinese special economic zones (SEZs), we obtained a dataset of 2660 SEZs from 1998 to 2018, and a sample of 37,251 from 1998 to 2013. Then, we empirically examined the impact and mechanism of SEZs on foreign investment by using time-varying difference-in-difference specification. After a sequence of validity and robustness checks, we found that the establishment of SEZs significantly enhances foreign entry. We also found that partial institutional quality improvement of SEZs is a key mechanism in the location of foreign investment. We conclude that it is beneficial for the government to impose place-based policies such as SEZs that improve partial institutional quality efficiently and promote the local economy.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8409/pdf

Effects of Special Economic Zones on FDI in Emerging Economies: Does Institutional Quality Matter?

To maintain sustainable development, the government’s macro control is very important, but the system construction of the market itself can’t be ignored. From the perspective of aggregate supply, OFDI (outward foreign direct investment) in developing countries can sustainably promote domestic employment through different kind of channels such as human capital, a reverse spillover of the international technology, and marketization processes. Based on 30 provincial panel data from 2005 to 2017, stating from the C–D production function, this article empirically estimates the total effect and regional differences in the effect of OFDI on domestic employment in China by using the main approach of Sys-GMM. The results show that the promotion effect of OFDI on domestic employment has an obvious lag; the faster the marketization process, the more significant the current period’s substitution effect and the lagged period’s promotion effect of OFDI on domestic employment. This means that it is a lagged-period process for OFDI to enhance total factor productivity and realize the effective allocation of labor resources through various channels. Furthermore, whether the domestic promotion effect of OFDI can be effectively exerted is closely related to the process of domestic marketization. A good market system environment can effectively improve the efficiency of labor resources allocation, thus promoting the sustainable development of domestic employment. China’s market-oriented transformation has not yet been completed. The sustainable growth of China’s employment depends on further promoting a market-oriented economy. Therefore, it is suggested to accelerate the improvement of market mechanisms and related system construction, strengthen the role of the government in public service, and promote the coordinated development of OFDI and IFDI (inward foreign direct investment) in various regions to promote the sustainable development of employment.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4101/pdf

Regional Marketization, OFDI, and Sustainable Employment: Empirical Analysis in China

Rural revitalization is an important strategy to promote sustainable development of rural areas in China. Rural revitalization listed companies play an important role in implementing the rural revitalization strategy and developing the agricultural industry. However, the financing problem has always been a bottleneck problem with Chinese listed companies. This study used a two-stage DEA (data envelopment analysis) method to evaluate the funds raising efficiency, funds using efficiency, and overall financing efficiency of 34 rural revitalization listed companies in 2018. The results show that the financing efficiencies of 34 sample companies were low, only six companies have overall efficient financing, and there was much room for improvement. Financing efficiency varied greatly depending on the nature of the company, the industry, and the listing board. The efficiency of funds using of state-owned enterprises was much lower than that of private companies. The average efficiency value of agricultural company funds raising was lower than that of manufacturing. The efficiency of small and middle-size enterprises (SMEs) was lower than that of main board companies, but the growth enterprise market (GEM) companies achieved higher efficiency in the funds using. Further, by using the grey relational analysis (GRA) method, we found that the key factors affecting the financing efficiency of sample companies included capital structure, debt-paying ability, governance structure, company age, and operating ability. To improve financing efficiency, the companies should not only optimize their capital structure and governance structure but also improve their management and innovation capabilities. At the same time, the state also needs to give different policies support according to the characteristics of the companies.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4413/pdf

Zhihua Ruan

Papers

Regional Marketization, OFDI, and Sustainable Employment: Empirical Analysis in China

External Financing Efficiency of Rural Revitalization Listed Companies in China—Based on Two-Stage DEA and Grey Relational Analysis