The impact of demographic dynamics on food consumption and its environmental outcomes:Evidence from China

With increasing population and changing demographics,food consumption has experienced a significant transition in quantity and quality.However,a dearth of knowledge remains regarding its environmental impacts and how it responds to demographic dynamics,particularly in emerging economies like China.Using the two-stage Quadratic Almost Demand System(QUAIDS)model,this study empirically examines the impact of demographic dynamics on food consumption and its environmental outcomes based on the provincial data from 2000 to 2020 in China.Under various scenarios,according to changes in demographics,we extend our analysis to project the long-term trend of food consumption and its environmental impacts,including greenhouse gas(GHG)emissions,water footprint(WF),and land appropriation(LA).The results reveal that an increase in the proportion of senior people significantly decreases the consumption of grain and livestock meat and increases the consumption of poultry,egg,and aquatic products,particularly for urban residents.Moreover,an increase in the proportion of males in the population leads to higher consumption of poultry and aquatic products.Correspondingly,in the current scenario of an increased aging population and sex ratio,it is anticipated that GHG emissions,WF,and LA are likely to decrease by 1.37,2.52,and 3.56%,respectively.More importantly,in the scenario adhering to the standards of nutritional intake according to the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents in 2022,GHG emissions,WF,and LA in urban areas would increase by 12.78,20.94,and 18.32%,respectively.Our findings suggest that changing demographics should be considered when designing policies to mitigate the diet-environment-health trilemma and achieve sustainable food consumption.

Tire Road Friction Coefficient Estimation:Review and Research Perspectives

Many surveys on vehicle traffic safety have shown that the tire road friction coefficient(TRFC)is correlated with the probability of an accident.The probability of road accidents increases sharply on slippery road surfaces.Therefore,accurate knowledge of TRFC contributes to the optimization of driver maneuvers for further improving the safety of intelligent vehicles.A large number of researchers have employed different tools and proposed different algorithms to obtain TRFC.This work investigates these different methods that have been widely utilized to estimate TRFC.These methods are divided into three main categories:off-board sensors-based,vehicle dynamics-based,and data-driven-based methods.This review provides a comparative analysis of these methods and describes their strengths and weaknesses.Moreover,some future research directions regarding TRFC estimation are presented.

Do credit constraints affect households'economic vulnerability?Empirical evidence from rural China

Poverty alleviation is still one of the major challenges in developing countries,especially in transitional economy like China.From the perspective of anti-poverty,this paper examines the impact of formal credit constraints(FCCs)and informal credit constraints(IFCCs)on economic vulnerability(EV)using the data from the China Household Income Project(CHIP)survey for 2013(CHIPs 2013)of rural households.The potential endogeneity problem of credit constraints(CCs)is addressed by applying the control function approach within an ordered probit model.The results show that both FCCs and IFCCs have a robust positive and significant impact on the EV of rural households and that the impact of FCCs is greater than that of IFCCs.To identify the potential mechanisms through which CCs affect EV,the seemingly unrelated regressions are used and the potential intercorrelation among these mechanisms is examined.We find that the impact of CCs on EV is partly mediated by health,trust,per capita financial assets and per capita income,whereby health and per capita income contribute to most of the total indirect effect.Thus,policies focus on supply-side and demand-side to improve credit accessibility could reduce rural households'EV,especially through its positive effect on health and per capita income.