Research on the Digital Economy's Impact on China's Economic Growth:Based on the Variations in Urbanization Levels Across China's Eastern,Central,and Western Regions and Sectoral Heterogeneity

This paper uses inter-provincial panel data from 2011 to 2017,a linear regression model,and a threshold model to conduct empirical analyses of the impact of the digital economy on China's overall economic growth and the three main sectors of industry.The paper then investigates the impact and effects the digital economy has had on the economic growth of the three main sectors of industry in China's eastern,central,and western regions.Finally,the paper investigates the most significant differences among the various regions and the threshold effects of urbanization levels on the relationship between the digital economy and economic growth.The findings indicate a significantly positive correlation between the digital economy and regional economic growth.Moreover,geographical factors notably influence this correlation.The digital economy exerts a positive effect on all sectors of industry.It may not substantially impact industrial development in regions with highly developed infrastructure.Regarding the other regions,the digital economy exhibits varying degrees of impact due to the differences in the specific indicators.The conclusion drawn by the threshold model is that the magnitude of the threshold effect correlates with geographic factors.No threshold effect was observed in the eastern region,while the threshold effect occurred in the central region when the urbanization levels for the provinces were below 0.6645.Similarly,the threshold effect was noted in the western region when the urbanization level was below 0.3931.Considering all of this,the study also offers policy recommendations that will help balance the regional development of digital economies,accelerate the digital transformation of traditional industries,enhance digital infrastructure construction,refine the formulation and implementation of data policy,and establish relevant incentive mechanisms.

Can environmental sustainability be decoupled from economic growth? Empirical evidence from Eastern Europe using the common correlated effect mean group test

The European Union(EU) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) aim to develop long-term policies for their respective member countries. Having observed increasing dangers to the environment posed by rising economic growth, they are seeking pathways to enable policy action on economic growth and environmental sustainability. Given the facts in theoretical and empirical studies, this study assessed the validity of the decoupling hypothesis by investigating asymmetricity in the relationship between environmental sustainability and economic growth in nine Eastern European countries from 1998 to 2017 using the cross-section augmented Dickey-Fuller(CADF) unit root, panel corrected standard error(PCSE), common correlated effect mean group(CCEMG), and Dumitrescu Hurlin causality approaches. Both population growth and drinking water are used as controlled variables. The outcomes establish strong cointegration among all the variables of interest. According to the results of CCEMG test, economic growth exerts short-term environmental degradation but has long-term environmental benefits in Eastern Europe;and population growth and drinking water exert a positive effect on environmental sustainability in both the short-and long-run. The results of Dumitrescu Hurlin causality test indicate that environmental sustainability is unidirectionally affected by economic growth. Based on these outcomes, we suggest the following policies:(1) the EU and OECD should implement member-targeted policies on economic growth and fossil-fuel use towards regulating industrial pollution, water use, and population control;and(2) the EU and OECD member countries should invest in environmental technologies through green research and development(R&D) to transform their dirty industrial processes and ensure productive energy use.

Transformation power or development pressure:economic growth targets and urban carbon productivity

Maintaining moderate economic growth targets(EGTs)is the key for local governments to effectively implement the“carbon peak and carbon neutrality”goals under the refreshed development pattern.Utilizing panel data of 276 prefecture-level cities in China's Mainland from 2010 to 2020,and employing methods such as intermediary and threshold models,this study empirically analyzes the internal mechanism of EGT’s impact on urban carbon productivity(UCP).Our findings demonstrate that:①The overall EGT during the analyzed period is not conducive to improving UCP.This conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests.This effect is more pronounced in the central region and resource-based cities than in the east-west region and non resource-based cities.②EGT not only directly suppresses UCP but also exerts indirect negative impacts on UCP from three aspects:delaying the digital economy(DE),constraining financial expansion(FE),and hindering green technology innovation(GTI).This negative indirect effect is similar to or even surpasses the direct effect,suggesting that the internal relationship between EGT and“dual-carbon”goals should be re-evaluated from a new compound perspective.③EGT not only has a simple linear impact on UCP but also significantly exhibits a dynamic evolution pattern in inverted“U”shape.That is,as EGT continuously upgrades,a nonlinear impact on UCP emerges in the form of“promoting first,suppressing later”.This indicates that surpassing the“degree”limit for EGT will be detrimental to the improvement of UCP.This study broadens the scope of carbon productivity analysis by introducing a new perspective centered on EGT.The insights gleaned from this research offer valuable guidance for local governments to effectively manage economic growth expectations and promote the synchronized achievement of dual-carbon objectives.

Economic Growth:The Fundamental Path to the Realization of Social Security Rights for Migrant Workers

The International Labour Organization seems to only see the aspect of social security promoting economic growth,while neglecting the aspect of economic growth supporting social security.From the standpoint of materialism and the practice of social security,the realization of social security rights for migrant workers fundamentally depends on economic growth.The Belt and Road Initiative has provided a Chinese solution for creating a strong material and technological foundation to meet the social security needs of all people,including migrant workers.

Socio-Economic Inequality and Economic Growth: Measurements for Central and Eastern Europe

The objective of this work is the study of social and economic inequality in the space of Central and Eastern Europe and its impact on economic growth. Our study includes a three-stage methodology:(1) application of a clustering method based on neural network (Self Organising Maps), to the series of panel data in order to divide countries into clusters, corresponding to the degree of economic and social inequality;(2) computing a composed index of economic and social inequality, using Principal Component Analysis and an extension of the method provided by OECD for computing composite indicators;(3) constructing an econometric model to establish the impact of social and economic inequality on economic growth and a VAR model to determine the causality between main determinants to growth and inequality as well as the response to shocks to the dynamics of the variables. The 24 Eastern and Central European countries have been grouped in five clusters, according to 11 attributes. In the results obtained, the third cluster comprises countries with the most equitable income distribution: Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Slovak Republic, Slovenia. To the opposite side is the fifth cluster with the deepest inequality, including only one country, namely Georgia. The second and third steps of our methodology, were applied only for the extreme clusters namely, the clusters with the highest (C5) and lowest (C3) inequality respectively.

Spatial Monetary Economic Growth with Housing and Residential Distribution over the Urban Area

This study introduces space, transportation, and money into an economic growth model. Growth theory neglects the importance of transportation on economic growth and transportation economics fails to properly explain how changes in transportation conditions (such as technological improvement, infrastructure investment, and oil prices) affect long-term economic growth. By proposing a growth model with transportations, we try to explain effects of transportation on economic growth. Our model describes dynamic interactions among capital accumulation, travel time, housing, residential distribution, amenity, and endogenous time distribution among work, travel, and leisure. The study examines effects of inflation policy, transportation conditions, and other conditions on long-term economic growth and economic geography. The paper demonstrates a way to integrating some important models in the literature in economic growth theory, urban economics, and transportation research so that the significance of transportation systems upon economies can be properly analyzed.

Measuring Quality of Economic Growth Incorporating Environment and Social Welfare:a Total Productivity Approach with an Application on China

By extending the traditional productivity theory,a new concept total productivity( TP) is introduced. Using a directional distance function approach,the concept is applied to measuring economic growth of 8 economic regions of China covering an 18 years period( 1997—2014) and test its convergence. Results showed that TP grew at an average rate of 6. 6% per year led mainly by technical change( 6. 5%). When environmental undesirable outputs are included,the Middle Yellow River,Northwest and Southwest regions of China witnessed higher productivity changes. Results of the convergence analysis revealed that China had made progress in reducing regional imbalance in growth. Inclusion of undesirable output showed that the energy-saving emission reduction policies had speed up the convergence rate of TP and environment oriented productivity. However,China's welfare oriented productivity is still very low.

Financial Efficiency and Economic Growth in Thailand

This paper investigates the relationship between financial efficiency and economic growth in Thailand with annual time series during 1991-2015. Financial efficiency measures:(i) bank efficiency in intermediating savings to investment, as measured by the net interest margin (the accounting value of bank’s net interest revenue as a share of its average interest-bearing assets)(IMARGIN) and lending-deposit spread (ISPREAD);and (ii) operational efficiency measures, such as overhead costs to total assets;NONILIA while the percentage change of real GDP per capita (real gross domestic product [RGDP]) represents economic growth. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test (ADF) of the stationary test shows that all data are stationary at the first difference except ISPREAD is stationary at the second difference. Since all variables are not integrated at the same order, there are no short run and long run relationship between financial efficiency variables and economic growth. The pairwise Granger causality result with 1 lagged length selected by Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), shows that no causality between financial efficiency variables and economic growth and vice versa;and supports the “neutral hypothesis”. However, there is a one-way causality linkage between twofinancial efficiency indicators, lending and deposit interest rate spread, and the ratio of overhead costs to total assets. In other words, the banks’ profit from interest spread is used to improve bank efficiency, such as hiring more staff, increase number of branches, and automatic teller machines (ATMs) to improve bank services. Therefore, financial institutions should provide financial services to response customers’ needs as the commercialization and modernization of the economy.

Non-regular Employment of Women,Fertility Rate,and Economic Growth

This study analyzes the interaction between non-regular employment of women and economic growth patterns by an overlapping-generations model.Declining Birthrate White Paper-Cabinet Office(2013)shows the ideal number of children per household is 2.42 compared to the current number of 2.07,which is the lowest so far in Japan.The main reason households do not have the ideal number of children is“the costs burden of childcare and education”and the ratio amounts to 60.4%.In recent years in Japan,households in which both the husband and the wife work are increasing,whereas those in which only the husband works are decreasing.Additionally,although women have same educational background and abilities as men,most women become non-regular employees after marriage and childbirth,which reduces household income.In such a situation,raising the rate of pension insurance will be a big burden for the household and the declining birthrate may be caused by high levels of educational expenditure and pension insurance.The Japanese government has discussed raising the wages of non-regular employees.This paper finds that a rise in the wage rate of non-regular employment is needed under the public pension policy that raises the rate of pension insurance,and it must be at an adequate level.That is,there is a high risk that this policy will have a negative effect on Japan’s economic growth if an adequate level is not achieved.

Environmental Pollution and Economic Growth in China: A Test of the Environmental Kuznets Curve

We apply a two pronged approach to analyze the presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve, EKC, in three types of emissions in the People’s Republic of China from 1994 to 2014: a structural breakpoint analysis and a model based test. We apply it to PM2.5, industrial waste and domestic water pollution time series, and find evidence of EKC in all three types of emissions that require appropriate policy.

Overcoming the contradiction between promoting economic growth and transforming the economic growth pattern

Promoting economic growth has become the first and foremost objective of macro-control since China experienced a drastic economic downturn in the fourth quarter of 2008. Now China is at a special stage of transition characterized by the transformation of the economic growth mode. While promoting economic growth, the government must effectively coordinate the relationship between economic growth and the transformation of growth mode. This is not a task that can be done easily. To promote economic growth, the central government has selected a number of industries and formulated an industrial revitalization plan for each of these them. Revitalizing these industries helps promote economic growth at the present stage but propelling these industries alone still cannot fully meet the requirements for transforming the economic growth pattern. To coordinate the relationship between promoting economic growth and transforming the economic growth pattern, it is currently imperative to adjust China’s industrial upgrading strategy and to pay attention to intra-industrial upgrading, particularly process upgrading.

China’s Foreign Aid,Recipient Countries’Economic Growth,and the Mediating Effect of Aid in Infrastructure

Based on the panel data of China’s foreign aid in 2003-2014 from AidData,this paper empirically investigates the relationship between China’s foreign aid and economic growth in recipient countries.Using the principal component analysis(PCA),the authors propose a variable,i.e.the infrastructure index,to measure the effects of aid on the economic growth of recipient countries.This study shows that aid from China has significantly improved the level of economic growth in recipient countries,which provides a new evidence of China’s aid effectiveness.Through analysis of the ways by which aid in infrastructure induces economic growth,the authors conclude that the improvement of local infrastructure accounts for 55.30%of the aggregate economic growth effect of China’s aid to recipient countries.

The Impact of Chinese Trade and Investment on West African Economic Growth: A Spatial Econometrics Approach

This paper has studied the West African region or Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which includes fifteen countries and its relationship with China. Three countries (Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria) of the fifteen countries which are economically representative in the west African region to represent the overall-region were studied. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the spatial effect of Chinese trade and investment on the economic growth of West Africa. The study focuses on the period from 1960-2014 using the dynamic panel data approach and spatial autoregressive approach for the econometric analysis of this topic. Empirically, the results show that trade openness with China has a positive impact on the neighboring countries of the region, especially for those who share the same border. Chinese investment is vital to the region’s economic growth as the results show that one dollar investment increase from China to the host country increases the economic growth in the neighboring countries by 0.328%.

Decoupling of greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth in Cameroon

Knowledge of decoupling indicators and its determinants is useful for formulating targeted policy recommendations. To this end, the Log-Mean Divisia Index and Tapio models were applied in this paper to study the decoupling relationship among economic growth and GHG emissions in Cameroon over the period 1971-2014. The analyzes were conducted according to the three major periods that marked Cameroon after independence and the decoupling indicators were broken down into seven factors while considering the three main GHGs emitted in this country (i.e. CO2, CH4, and N2O). The results showed that weak decoupling, strong decoupling, and strong negative decoupling occurred in Cameroon during the periods 1971-1984 and 1994-2014 which represent the periods before and after the economic crisis, respectively. In addition to these three decoupling statuses, recessive decoupling only appeared during the economic crisis period (1984-1994). From 1971 to 1984 and between 1994 and 2014, carbon intensity, economic activity, population, and emission factor not only contributed to the increase of Cameroon’s GHG (particularly CO2) emissions but also prevented decoupling. Unlike the period 1984-1994, energy intensity contributed to reducing environmental pollution while promoting decoupling during the periods 1971-1984 and 1994-2014. Although all played an important role in decoupling, we found that after the introduction of natural gas into the country’s energy mix from 2007, the effect of renewable energies on the mitigation of Cameroon’s CO2 emissions remained higher than the substitution of fossil fuels. However, to develop a cleaner economy, Cameroon should maintain modest economic growth and continuously transform economic development pathways, while encouraging the use of renewable energy to further reduce energy intensity per unit of GDP per capita.

Births, economic growth, mortality and murder in a developing country

Background: In 1960, total fertility rate in Jamaica was 5.6 children per woman which declined by 57.5% in 2008. The reduction in fertility is primarily attributable to contraceptive measures;but murder and other selected macroeconomic variables have never been included in the literature. Objectives: This study examines murder, mortality, and selected macroeconomic variables are factors of births, using data for Jamaica from 1989-2009. Methods: The study is a secondary data analysis of statistics on Jamaica from 1989 - 2009 but also includes data on births from 1900s. Find- ings: In the decade of the 1950s, births increased by 79.9% over the decade of 1900s, grew by 22.4% in the 1960s over the previous decade and declined by 17.6% in 2000s compared with the 1990s. Four emerged as statistically significant predictors of lnbirth—inflation, GDP per capita growth, mortality and murder, with an explanatory power of 90.6%—F = 19.291, P s = 0.962), when murder was excluded and replaced by annual exchange rate, the factors influencing lnbirth was exchange rate, inflation, unemployment, GDP per capita growth and mortality—all factors account for 92.2% of the variability in lnbirth—F = 30.572, P < 0.0001. Conclusion: Murder is more that a crime it is a cause of birth decline, suggesting that public health practitioners as well as epidemiologists must take this factor into account as it is a birth determinant.

Does economic growth stimulate energy consumption?New evidence from national and regional levels in China

A detailed investigation of the nexus between economic growth and energy use is imperative for formulating sustainable development policies.In this study,we examine panel cointegration and causality relations among economic growth,energy use,capital stock,and labor in 30 Chinese provinces between 2000-2019.We conduct a comprehensive empirical analysis based on panel modeling and a neoclassical production function.The findings of the second-generation panel unit root and co-integration tests reveal that these variables have long term co-integration linkages.We then perform a panel cointegration estimation using the fully modified ordinary least squares technique and find that total energy consumption,electricity consumption,capital stock,and labor significantly influence economic growth at the national and regional levels in China.Moreover,the outcomes of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test indicate the existence of a two-way causal nexus between economic output and total energy consumption at the national level,but only a causal link from GDP to total energy use in the eastern and central regions.Conversely,a causality from total energy use to economic output is identified in the western region.Finally,we provide policy implications for the sustainable development of both energy and the economy at the national and regional levels.

Nexus between CO2 Emissions and Economic Growth, Industrial Production, and Foreign Direct Investment in Vietnam: Symmetric ARDL Approach

Vietnam’s economy has been developing strongly in recent years;however, it is necessary to examine the impact of its economic activities on environmental quality. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth, industrial production, and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam. The ARDL estimation was used to process the dataset from World Bank. Results showed that economic growth, industrial production, and FDI have an impact on CO2 emissions in the long run in Vietnam. Granger Causality test also indicated that there is a causal relationship between economic growth, industrial production, and CO2 emissions in Vietnam from 1990 to 2018, at 5% statistical significance level. Proposed solutions to reduce CO2 emissions but still promote economic growth toward the green growth orientation and zero carbon target attainment are as follows: 1) reduce the use of fossil energy in industrial manufacturing and replace it by renewable energy sources;2) use modern technology for all production sectors in economy;and 3) develop a legal framework for FDI projects selection and choose foreign investors with modern and low carbon emission technology.

Reassessing the Empirical Relationship between Health Expenditure,Governance and Economic Growth in Africa:Analysis of Nigerian

As an aspect of human capital,a positive association exists amongst health,productivity,and growth in output per capita.On the other hand,social infrastructure defined by the institution of governance has a direct effect on the environment upon which productive activities take place to determine outcomes.Nigeria like most African countries is bedevilled by the high prevalence of inadequate health financing and poor governance.Health financing for Nigeria consistently has fallen short of the AU health funding commitment of 15%of annual budgetary allocation to the health sector.Secondly,poor governance conditions available resources and shape the state of infrastructure,particularly health infrastructure and socioeconomic conditions.In turn,this determines individuals’level of exposure to health risks and their capacity to actively contribute to productive activity for growth stimulation and sustainability.Against this backdrop,this study added to the existing literature in the context of Nigeria,by theoretically applying the Solow augmented Mankiw-Romer-Weil structural model in the examination of the impact of government size and governance quality in the health sector,on economic growth.Autoregressive Distributed Lag(ARDL)model was adopted in the estimation.Findings show that governance quality adversely affects growth and this reduces the capacity of health spending to stimulate growth by an almost equal margin.As a result,this study recommends legislative backing to the AU health funding commitment in Nigeria.

Assessing the Contribution of Ecotourism to Economic Growth and Rural Development Offered by Wildlife Resources to People Living in Communities around Matusadonha National Park

Ecotourism is one of the major drivers of economic growth and rural development in many countries involved in wildlife resource management.The objective was to assess the contribution of ecotourism to economic growth and rural development offered to people living in communities around Matusadonha National Park.A total of 140 participants were interviewed and questionnaires were administered to the same number of people.Data were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods.Results show that the majority of participants(57%)were females.Safari operations were the major(54.7%)ecotourism activity in Matusadonha National Park.Above half(58.8%)of participants indicated that ecotourism contributed toward economic growth in communities around Matusadonha National Park.Most people(343)were employed on a part-time basis from 2000 to 2022.Participants indicated that the standard of living in most communities increased by more than 50%.Above 50%of participants were satisfied with the contribution of ecotourism towards rural development.It can be concluded that ecotourism has the potential to improve economic growth and rural development if close monitoring and accountability of funds are monitored closely.Local people should be included in the accountability of funds and management of wildlife resources to improve economic benefits to local people.

Nonlinear Differential Equation of Macroeconomic Dynamics for Long-Term Forecasting of Economic Development

In this article we derive a general differential equation that describes long-term economic growth in terms of cyclical and trend components. Equation is based on the model of non-linear accelerator of induced investment. A scheme is proposed for obtaining approximate solutions of nonlinear differential equation by splitting solution into the rapidly oscillating business cycles and slowly varying trend using Krylov-Bogoliubov-Mitropolsky averaging. Simplest modes of the economic system are described. Characteristics of the bifurcation point are found and bifurcation phenomenon is interpreted as loss of stability making the economic system available to structural change and accepting innovations. System being in a nonequilibrium state has a dynamics with self-sustained undamped oscillations. The model is verified with economic development of the US during the fifth Kondratieff cycle (1982-2010). Model adequately describes real process of economic growth in both quantitative and qualitative aspects. It is one of major results that the model gives a rough estimation of critical points of system stability loss and falling into a crisis recession. The model is used to forecast the macroeconomic dynamics of the US during the sixth Kondratieff cycle (2018-2050). For this forecast we use fixed production capital functional dependence on a long-term Kondratieff cycle and medium-term Juglar and Kuznets cycles. More accurate estimations of the time of crisis and recession are based on the model of accelerating log-periodic oscillations. The explosive growth of the prices of highly liquid commodities such as gold and oil is taken as real predictors of the global financial crisis. The second wave of crisis is expected to come in June 2011.