Empirical Research on the Relationship between Education Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization—Spatial Panel Simultaneous Equation Model Based on Provincial Panel Data

On the basis of using entropy weight method to measure China’s education poverty alleviation and rural revitalization evaluation indicators, using the panel data of 30 provinces in China (excluding Xizang, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) from 2012 to 2021, a spatial panel simultaneous equation model is constructed based on adjacency matrix, geographical distance matrix and economic geographical distance matrix deeply study the interaction mechanism and spatial spillover effects between education poverty alleviation and rural revitalization through the generalized spatial three-stage least squares method (GS3SLS). The results indicate that there is a significant spatial spillover effect and a positive spatial correlation between education poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, and there is a significant interactive effect between the two variables, while promoting each other positively. Therefore, the government should clarify the deep relationship between education poverty alleviation and rural revitalization based on the current background, and better consolidate and expand the effective connection between the achievements of education poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

Foreign direct investment and environmental pollution:A fiscal decentralization perspective

Based on the panel data of 272 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2017,this study used the comprehensive index of environmental pollution to measure local environmental pollution,and employed the panel simultaneous equation to analyze the relationship between fiscal decentralization,foreign direct investment,and environmental pollution.The results showed that environmental pollution has the characteristics of time inertia and positive spatial spillover;fiscal decentralization and local government competition have a significant“race to bottom”effect on environmental pollution;and with the increase of fiscal decentralization,environmental quality will deteriorate.In the interaction between foreign direct investment and environmental pollution under the system of fiscal decentralization,foreign direct investment aggravates environmental pollution.Meanwhile,if the environmental pollution in a given region is serious,the willingness of foreign investors to invest therein is lessened to a certain extent.Based on the conditions in China,certain policy suggestions are put forward to increase environmental quality,such as building a comprehensive performance assessment mechanism that includes environmental quality,optimizing the decentralization system,and raising the threshold of foreign investment access.

Estimate on spillover effect of environmental pollution between peripheral areas

Interaction of environmental pollution between peripheral areas has become a central topic in the field of resources and environment but little is known about the actual impact on peripheral areas in the current literature.This paper sets out a simultaneous equation model to investigate the spillover effect of environmental pollution between China's peripheral areas utilizing the panel data of 218 cities in China.Making use of indicators for measuring the impact on environmental pollution,it identifies that environmental pollution between cities of China has a significant two-way spillover effect.After standardization of variables,it is found that the spillover effect of peripheral areas on urban environmental pollution cannot be neglected.Nearly,a third of the environmental pollution level in a city is induced by the environmental pollution in peripheral areas.If the indicator of environmental pollution in peripheral areas is missing,wrong conclusions will be drawn.Therefore,government should shift the emphasis of environmental regulation from local to global,and improve the overall environmental quality through coordinated management of regional environment.

Vertical Fiscal Imbalance,Transfer Payment and Local Government Governance

Accelerating the construction of modern fiscal and tax system helps not only free local governments from the shackle of the“competition for growth”development model,but also improve the governance capacity of local governments and realize the good governance of the country in the long term.Firstly,based on the typical fact of Chinese-style fiscal decentralization,this paper theoretically interprets the multiple channels and influencing mechanisms among vertical fiscal imbalance,transfer payment and local government governance.Secondly,it constructs a comprehensive index system to measure the governance capacity of local governments.The result shows that local government governance is relatively low in capacity and slow in improvement,and displays obvious regional heterogeneity.Then,the paper chooses structure and scale of transfer payment as mediator to construct the panel simultaneous equation model,and uses the three-stage least squares estimation(3SLS)for empirical investigation.The study finds that first,both the scale and structure of transfer payment may significantly affect local government governance,but the direction of the effects is opposite;second,the intensified vertical fiscal imbalance and the increase of transfer payment in scale can significantly inhibit local government governance,but the optimization of transfer payment in structure can significantly improve the governance;third,vertical fiscal imbalance not only directly inhibits the improvement of local government governance,but indirectly impedes it through the scale and structure of transfer payment.