Impact of an official accountability audit on industrial structure adjustment:a case study of environmental regulation in China

As a unique environmental regulation in China,the official accountability audit was piloted in 2014.With a focus on prioritizing the ecological environment,officials in pilot districts have implemented economic construction,adjusted industrial structures,and promoted coordinated development between the economy and environment.The effects of implementation have garnered widespread attention from society.However,there is limited research on the impact of an accountability audit on industrial structure adjustments.Using the“Accountability Audit of Officials for Natural Resource Assets(Trial)”released in 2015 as a quasi-natural experiment,this study collected panel data from 279 cities between 2013 and 2017.It then empirically analyzed the impact mechanism and effects of the accountability audit on industrial structure adjustment using the Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Differences model.The research findings indicate that the accountability audit directly impacted industrial structure adjustment,promoting the upgrading of the primary industry to the secondary industry and restricting the development of the tertiary industry.In addition,the audit is beneficial for enterprise entry,but not conducive to technological innovation,and has no significant impact on foreign direct investment.This conclusion fills a gap in the existing research and provides valuable insights for policymakers.

Are cities greener because of innovation?Independent innovation policy and green economic efficiency

The national independent innovation demonstration zone(NIIDZ)is an independent innovation policy that plays a crucial role in implementing strategies.Given the importance of the NIIDZ,this study uses panel data of 278 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2020 and empirically examines the effect and internal mechanism of the NIIDZ on green economic efficiency(GEE)using the difference-in-difference model(DID).The results show that the NIIDZ effectively enhances the growth of GEE,and the results remain valid through several robustness tests,such as year-by-year propensity score matching.The transmission mechanism suggests that the NIIDZ indirectly drives GEE by accelerating scientific and technological investment,promoting talent concentration,and optimizing the industrial structure.Moreover,heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotion effect of the NIIDZ on GEE is more prominent in the eastern region and high green development level areas.The study’s findings can serve as a reference for China to further utilize the policy effectiveness of the NIIDZ and accelerate the high-quality development of the green economy in the future.

The heterogeneous impact of China-Europe railway express on the efficiency of logistics industry in node cities

Purpose-The spatiotemporal compression effect of China-Europe Railway Express(CR-Express)can reduce the filow costs of resources between China's node cities.Additionally,it can break through the limitations of low-added-value marine products,significantly impacting the logistics industry efficiency.However,there are few literature verifying and analyzing its heterogeneity.This study explores the impact of CR-Express on the efficiency of logistics industry in node cities and analyzes the heterogeneity.Design/methodology/approach-First,this study uses panel data to measure the efficiency of node city logistics industry.Secondiy,this study discusses the impact of the opening of CR-Express on the efficiency of logistics industry in node cities based on the multi-period differential model.Finally,according to the node city difference,the sample city experimental group is grouped for heterogeneity analysis.Findings-The results show that CR-Express can promote the urban logistics industry efficiency,with an average effect of 4.55%.According to the urban characteristics classification,the heterogeneity analysis shows that the efficiency improvement effect of logistics industry in inland cities is more obvious.The improvement effect of node cities and central cities in central and western China is stronger,especially in the sample of megacities and type I big cities.Compared with non-value chain industrial products,the CR-Express has significant promotion effects on the logistics efficiency of the cities where main goods are value chain products.Originality/value-Under the background of double cycle development,this paper can provide a scientific basis for the investment benefit evaluation of CR-Express construction and the follow-up route planning.

The Effects of Infrastructure Projects on House Prices and Rents:Evidence from the HS2 Extension Cancellation in the UK

This paper uses the HS2 extension cancellation in November 2021 as a quasi-experiment to study its impact on house prices and rents in Leeds.Using a DiD approach on repeat sales and monthly rents,I compare property values near the HS2 station and proposed construction site before and after the announcement.Results show a 3.6%decrease in house prices and a 3.9%decline in rents near the station,while properties near the construction site experienced a 2.4%increase in prices and a 2.1%rise in rents.This is the first paper to analyse the HS2 cancellation effect using panel data methods.

Does innovative city pilot policy promote urban green growth in China?An analysis of green total factor productivity,2005-2020

The innovative city pilot policy(ICPP)is an essential manifestation of China’s construction of an innovative and green-driven development country.We incorporated urban green total factor productivity(GTFP)growth into the evaluation of ICPP.Based on the panel data of 223 cities in China from 2005 to 2020,we used the difference-in-differences model to empirically assess the influence and mechanism of the ICPP on urban GTFP growth.The main results show that(i)The ICPP has maintained an effectively fluctuating promotion on urban GTFP growth,mainly manifested in the urban green technological progress improvement.(ii)The ICPP has urban heterogeneity in promoting GTFP growth in pilot cities,mainly affecting key cities such as provincial capitals.(iii)The interaction between the agglomeration of producer services and the ICPP inhibits GTFP growth in pilot cities.

The Effect of Urban Agglomeration Expansion on PM_(2.5) Concentrations: Evidence from a Quasi-natural Experiment

This study constructs a quasi-natural experiment based on the expansion of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration(YRDUA) of China in 2010 to investigate the impact and inner mechanism of urban agglomeration expansion on fine particulate matter(PM_(2.5)) concentrations through propensity scores in difference-in-differences models(PSM-DID) using panel data from 286 prefecturelevel cities in China from 2003 to 2016. The results show that 1) urban agglomeration expansion contributes to an overall decrease in PM_(2.5)concentration, which is mainly achieved from the original cities. For the new cities, on the other hand, the expansion significantly increases the local PM_(2.5)concentration. 2) In the long term, the significant influence of urban agglomeration expansion on PM_(2.5)concentration lasts for three years and gradually decreases. A series of robustness tests confirm the applicability of the PSM-DID model.3) Cities with weaker government regulation, a better educated population and higher per capita income present stronger PM_(2.5)reduction effects. 4) Urban agglomeration expansion affects the PM_(2.5)concentration mainly through industrial transfer and population migration, which cause a decrease in the PM_(2.5)concentration in the original cities and an increase in the PM_(2.5)concentration in the new cities.Corresponding policy suggestions are proposed based on the conclusions.

Promoting or inhibiting? Green fiscal policy and urban green innovation

Can green fiscal policy(GFP)incentivize the proliferation of urban green innovation(GI)and be a novel cata‐lyst for energy conservation and emission reduction within the“dual-carbon”framework?This paper explores GFP ramifications for GI by implementing a difference-in-differences model in a natural experiment centered on the“Comprehensive Demonstration City of Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Fiscal Policies”.The em‐pirical analysis reveals several key findings:(1)GFP exhibits significant augmentation at the GI level,with an observable evolutionary trend of increasing marginal impact.Importantly,these outcomes withstand rigorous robustness tests,including propensity score matching.(2)A mechanism analysis elucidates the dual impact of GFP on GI growth.GFP directly fosters GI advancement indirectly by promoting talent aggregation,expanding scientific and technological investment,and attracting external financial resources.(3)A heterogeneity analy‐sis demonstrates that GFP enhancement of GI is closely associated with the patent category,manifesting a dis‐tinct pattern of“eastern region>other regions”and“non-resource cities>resource cities”.The study’s em‐pirical findings offer crucial real-world insights to guide the Chinese government in formulating a more effi‐cient GFP and facilitating the expansion of innovative endeavors while contributing to environmentally sus‐tainable and high-value development.

Does the Environmental Supervision System Improve Air Quality in China?An Empirical Study using the Difference-in-Differences Model

To effectively solve the problem of environmental pollution,the Chinese government has implemented an environmental supervision system since 2002.The environmental supervision system mainly uses the four functions of supervision,investigation,coordination,and emergency response to strengthen environmental protection supervision and law enforcement,respond to environmental emergencies,and coordinate cross-regional pollution disputes.As an important system design for China to control environmental pollution and promote the ecological transformation of economic development,the policy effect of the environmental supervision system deserves attention.This paper uses the difference-in-differences method to investigate the impact of the top-down environmental supervision system on air quality based on the 2000-2016 data for 285 prefecture-level cities in China.The results indicate that the annual average concentration of PM_(2.5)decreased significantly after the implementation of the environmental supervision system.The dynamic analysis shows that PM_(2.5)decreased most markedly in the first year after the implementation of the policy,and then the effect gradually weakened.Mechanism analysis suggests that the environmental supervision system can break the collusion between government and enterprise,encourage enterprises to carry out technological innovation,change pollutant discharge behavior and push local governments to adjust the industrial structure,enhance environmental protection awareness to reduce the PM_(2.5)concentration,and improve air quality.Comparing different regions,the PM_(2.5)in East China,North China and Northeast China are relatively high,and the pressure for air pollution control is great.Meanwhile,we find that the environmental supervision system has a significant station effect.Compared with other cities,the cities where the environmental supervision centers are located are more deterred by the environmental supervision,and their air quality has improved to a significantly greater degree.In the future,we should further strengthen the environmental supervision of high-pollution areas and non-station cities,and pay more attention to improving the long-term effect of the environmental supervision system.

Research on Fossil Fuel Related Carbon Emissions Reduction Scheme Effects

There is a worldwide consensus that excessive anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions will lead to global warming and other environmental problems.Supports from regulations and policies have gradually implemented in this area.As one of the most discussed policies,the carbon emissions trading schemes(CETS)has an advantage in its price-oriented and cost-saving characteristics.In this paper,we analyze and assess the CETS effect from static and dynamic perspectives by applying provincial panel data covering a period ranging from 2004 to 2017.The CETS policy has a significant constraining effect on both carbon emissions and primary energy consumption.Compared to the other two uncertainties,namely the energy price uncertainty and the technology uncertainty,the carbon permit price uncertainty has a relatively smooth impact on the economy,which is being pursued consistently by the policymakers.

Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on environmental quality in countries along the routes

China has adhered to the concept of green development since the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013.However,as the initiative continues to advance,speculations have been raised on the possibility of its reduction of the environmental quality of the countries along the routes.So,has the seven-year-old Belt and Road Initiative reduced the environmental quality of these countries and how does it affect the environmental quality?To address these issues,this study conducted a quasi-natural experiment,based on the WDI 2005-2017 data,the human development index database of the World Bank and the OECD(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)database.A country-year panel data was constructed using the difference-in-differences model to assess the countries along the‘area’initiative for environmental effects,and to further examine the heterogeneity and the policy effect mechanism.The main conclusions were as follows:①The Belt and Road Initiative had significantly improved the environmental quality of countries along the routes.The conclusions remained robust after the introduction of the placebo test,the use of instrumental variables to alleviate possible endogenous problems and a series of other robustness tests.②The results of heterogeneity analysis showed that the Belt and Road Initiative exerted a greater effect on the countries with lower environmental quality than those with higher quality in terms of environmental improvements.③Mechanism analysis showed that the Belt and Road Initiative improved the environmental quality of countries along the routes by promoting technological progress and strengthening environmental regulation,but it failed to significantly improve the environmental quality of these countries by promoting clean energy structure and industrial structure and increasing the scale effect.Therefore,China should continue to vigorously promote the concept of developing a green Belt and Road,expand the coverage of the green Belt and Road,improve the level of clean energy structure of the Belt and Road countries through investment and cooperation,and promote the clean transformation of their industrial structure.These findings provide empirical evidence and implications for the better promotion of the green Belt and Road Initiative,and have certain reference value for the follow-up implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.

“The Source of Flowing Water”:How Targeted Poverty Alleviation Helps China’s Rural Poor Access Credit

Based on the China Household Finance Survey(CHFS)data of 2011-2017,this paper investigated the effects of China’s targeted poverty alleviation policy on rural credit access and amount using the“difference-in-differences”methodology.This study found that the targeted poverty alleviation policy increased the availability and amount of formal credit to poor households and reduced the proportion and amount of their borrowing through informal channels,and that the effects increased amid the policy’s implementation over time.This paper further found that the policy effects were more significant for China’s western regions,reflecting a positive role of targeted poverty alleviation in coordinating pro-poor finance across regions.Compared with poor counties,poor households from non-poor counties experienced a greater increase in their probability and amount of formal credit access,reflecting China’s approach of reducing regional poverty before targeting more precisely at individual poor households.This paper also uncovered that no significant“elite capture”effect had existed in the allocation of formal agricultural credit under targeted poverty alleviation,but extremely poor households experienced no significant change in their access to formal credit.While the targeted poverty alleviation policy has helped create a sound rural credit market,it should further improve access to formal finance for extremely poor households.

国家行政区划调整下的城市多中心发展——城市空间转型的政策启示

Polycentric urban development has profound impacts on urban development worldwide.Most studies have identified its complex drivers of social economy and natural condition while ignoring the state-led policy factors.In recent years,China has undergone dramatic administrative division adjustment(ADA)during the process of unique state-led urbanization.However,as a crucial government strategy,the impacts of ADA on urban polycentricity remain unclear.This research investigates the relationship between ADA and urban polycentricity through spatial difference-in-differences models.The results reveal that ADA has contributed to the polycentric urban development in China.Specifically,boundary restructuring has more substantial impacts than hierarchy reorganization.In addition,ADA has significantly promoted urban polycentricity in local cities in central China and neighbouring cities in eastern China,while it has no significant effects in western China.Furthermore,ADA reshapes urban polycentricity mainly by the influencing mechanism of construction land and industrial structure.Policymakers should consider the various ADA’s impacts on urban polycentricity with socio-economic conditions.This research provides a deeper insight into urban spatial transformation with state-led drivers.

Green Finance and Green Innovation of Enterprises

Against the backdrop of the carbon neutrality strategy,the key issue remains how green finance can boost enterprise green innovation and social transformation.The paper introduces the policy of Pilot Zones forGreen FinanceReform and Innovations("the PZGFRI Policy")announced in 2017 as a quasi-natural experiment and probes into whether green finance has a significant impact on enterprise green innovation as well as its mechanism based on the green patent data of China's A-share listed companies in the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2019.The paper reaches the conclusion that the PZGFRI Policy has significantly promoted the green innovation of enterprises.In terms of heterogeneity of enterprise characteristics,it generates greater impacts on non-polluting firms,large-scale enterprises,and state-owned companies.For the heterogeneity of the financial environment,the PZGFRI Policy provides more benefits for those in regions with less competitive banks.As for the mechanism,green finance advances enterprise green innovation by increasing the proportion of long-term loans of enterprises and improving their debt structure.However,evidence related to financing cost channels has not yet been found.Continued improvement of the green financial system is preferred.Further,green finance should be encouraged to play an important role in the green transformation of society,the realization of carbon neutrality goals,and long-term ecological conservation.

Can Cultural Affinity Promote Trade ？ HSK Test Data from the Belt and Road Countries

As Chinese culture is ＂going out,＂ more and more non-native Chinese speakers are beginning to study Mandarin and are taking the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi （HSK） test. Mandarin has become a very important trade language for the Belt and Road countries. This paper uses the difference-in-difference model and the Mahalanobis distance and the nearest neighbor distance matching methods to study the internal relationship between culture ＂going out＂ and foreign trade. We find that cultural affinity is an important factor in promoting trade, and that the HSK project has expanded China＇s exports to the Belt and Road countries. Culture ＂s promotion effect in Asia is stronger than that in Europe. Culture ＂s promotion effect shows the characteristics of regional differences, a time-lag and a fluctuating upward trend. Therefore, further enhancing the international influence of its culture would help China to find a new source of export growth.

Employment and Working Hour Effects of Minimum Wage Increase:Evidence from China

Using a difference-in-differences model, the present paper provides empirical evidence of minimum wage effects on employment and working hours in China. The results show that male employment is not affected by a minimum wage increase, although men ＂s working hours do increase. In contrast, female employment is more likely to be negatively affected by a minimum wage increase, while their working hours remain unchanged. This may lead to women being in a more disadvantaged position in the workforee, and adopting a monthly minimum wage may induce firms to extend men＇s working hours. Therefore, to better protect disadvantaged workers, we suggest that minimum wage regulation should focus on the target group of less-educated women, and that a unified minimum hourly wage needs to be set for both full-time and part-time workers. Meanwhile, the importance of human capital accumulation shouM be addressed in alleviating the negative effects of minimum wage increases.

A dynamic panel data approach and HCW's method:Assessing the effect of China(Shanghai)Free Trade Zone on local GDP

We propose a simple-to-implement dynamic panel data method to evaluate the impacts of place-based policies.The idea is to exploit both the cross sectional dependence and the serial correlation within a panel and implement a semi difference-in-difference decomposition.Different from the method by Hsiao et al.(2012),the proposed model is easy to implement statistical inferences and can incorporate multiple treated groups at different time thresholds.We use the proposed method to explore the effect of the Free Trade Zone(FTZ)policy implemented in Shanghai at the end of 2013 on local GDP growth rate and compare it with that from Hsiao et al.(2012).The empirical results show that the FTZ does have a positive effect on the local GDP growth rate and it adds 1:21:8 percent point to the growth rate of the GDP per capita for Shanghai in 2014 which is about one fourth to one third of the total GDP growth rate per capita.This effect largely comes from the growth of the tertiary sector.The results lend support to the duplication of FTZ policy to other cities and provinces in China.

Can Trade Facilitation Prevent the Formation of Zombie Firms?Evidence from the China Railway Express

Using data on firms listed on Chinese A-share markets from 2009 to 2017,this paperapplies the difference-in-difference model to test the effect of trade facilitation onpreventing the formation of zombie firms.We find that the China Railway Express(CRE)significantly prevented the formation of such firms.Mechanism tests show:(i)the CRE has accelerated the speed of sales,which increased the overseas salesrevenue of firms;(ii)the economies of scale and the capital accumulation effectcaused by the CRE can help increase firms'solvency and development ability.Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effect of the CRE on preventing theformation of zombie firms is mainly reflected in non-state-owned firms,firms inhighly competitive industries,and firms in the eastern region of China.We suggestthat China should continue to promote trade facilitation by expanding the CRE andstrengthening the market's dominant role in preventing the formation of zombie firms.Disadvantaged firms should seize the development opportunities brought by the CRE.

On the Effectiveness and Externalities of the Home Purchase Restriction Policy in China

In order to curb the soaring house prices,the Chinese govemment has been focusing on macro-control of real estate on the demand side.Among them,the Home Purchase Restriction(HPR)is one of the most commonly used policy tools,and its influence has atracted the attention from both the public and the academia.Although many scholars have studied the effectiveness of the home purchase restriction policy,there is n0 universal conclusion and the empirical research on the externalities of this policy is scarce.Based on the daily transaction micro-data of the real estate sales market,the rental market and the land market,this paper uses the difference-in-difference model to evaluate the effectiveness of the HPR more accurately,further integrates the relevance of each market into the analytical framework and explores the externalitics of the HPR on the real estate rental market and the land market.The empirical results show that the HPR lowers the house price by 10.12%,which is higher than the estimation results of previous studies;and increases the rent by 25.09%,while decreases the residential land price by 9.08%,with no significant impact on industrial and commercial land prices.A series of robustness tests and counterfactual analysis,such as PSM-DID,all support the reliability of the empirical results.The extemnalities of the HPR indicates that the policy is not conducive to improving the welfare of pcople with the rigid housing demand,and may tigger the"soft resistance"of the local government.Therefore,the govermment should focus on how to promote the supply-side structural reform on the land market and real estate market on the basis of strengthening the local tax system.