Search Results (7)

The Chinese government’s rural rejuvenation program depends on improving the national Rural Emergency Management Capability (REMC). To increase the resilience of Chinese rural areas against external dangers, REMC and its driving elements must be effectively categorized and evaluated. This study examines the variations in REMC levels and driving factors across different cities and regions, revealing the spatial distribution patterns and underlying mechanisms. To improve REMC in Chinese rural areas, this research employs the Projection Pursuit Method to assess REMC in 280 cities from 2006 to 2020. Additionally, we identify 22 driving factors and use the Random Forest algorithm from machine learning to analyze their impact on REMC. The analysis is conducted at both national and city levels to compare the influence of various driving factors in different regions. The findings show that China’s REMC levels have improved over time, driven by economic growth and the formation of urban clusters. Notably, some underdeveloped regions demonstrate higher REMC levels than more developed areas. The four most significant driving factors identified are rural road density, rural Internet penetration, per capita investment in fixed assets, and the density of township health centers. At the city level, rural Internet penetration and the e-commerce turnover of agricultural products have particularly strong driving effects. Moreover, the importance of driving factors varies across regions due to local conditions. This study offers valuable insights for the Chinese government to enhance REMC through region-specific strategies tailored to local circumstances. Full article

The e-commerce-oriented transformation of cities is an important measure to enhance the vitality of economic development, improve the efficiency of resource allocation, and provide a new boost to the green and high-quality development of regions. Taking the quasi-natural experiment of national e-commerce demonstration city construction as the starting point, using the panel data of 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2021, we measure the green total factor productivity of cities by using the super-efficient SBM model with non-expected outputs and the global reference GML index method, and use the multi-period propensity score matching double-difference method to examine the impact of urban e-commerce-oriented transformation on the green total factor productivity of the city and the intrinsic mechanism of the effect. The results show that the urban e-commerce transformation policy can significantly promote regional green total factor productivity, and this result still holds after a series of robustness tests, such as changing the time point of the policy, randomly selecting the placebo proposal for the treatment group, and changing the matching method; the effect is regionally heterogeneous, and is more pronounced in large cities, non-provincial capitals, eastern cities, central cities, and non-resource-based cities; the urban e-commerce transformation mainly promotes the improvement of urban green total factor productivity through three channels: the industrial structure upgrading effect, the economic agglomeration effect, and the green technology innovation effect. Full article

Green technology innovation (GTI) is critical for economic development and environmental protection. This paper investigates the influence of the National E-commerce Demonstration Cities (NEDC) policy on GTI using a multi-period Difference-in-Difference (DID) model and data from prefecture-level Chinese cities. The findings indicate that the NEDC policy considerably facilitates GTI in China. The conclusion withstands a comprehensive set of robustness tests and remains valid even after considering potential endogeneity issues. A dynamic analysis reveals an increasing influence of the NEDC policy on GTI over time. The paper identifies producer services agglomeration, internet development, and financial support as channels through which the NEDC policy affects GTI. A heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the NEDC policy’s influence on GTI is more pronounced in larger cities with a higher degree of marketization and increased levels of human capital. Moreover, the NEDC policy exhibits spatial spillover effects, supporting GTI advancement in both local cities and neighboring regions. This study provides insights into how emerging market economies can leverage e-commerce for green development. Full article

This study provides a viable path to save energy by means of e-commerce development. Taking the national e-commerce demonstration cities (NEDC) pilots policy implemented in China as a quasi-natural experiment, based on the city panel data from 2006 to 2019, this study applies the multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) method to evaluate the effect of NEDC on energy saving in pilot cities. The empirical results suggest that the NEDC policy obviously contributes to energy conservation. The treated cities reduced energy consumption by 14.2% as a result of the implementation of NEDC, relative to the untreated cities. The conclusions remain valid after conducting robustness tests such as placebo test, instrumental variables regression, propensity score matching-difference-in-difference (PSM-DID), and synthetic difference-in-difference (SDID). The NEDC achieves energy-saving effects through technological innovation, industrial restructuring, and economic agglomeration. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that, in cities with high levels of human capital, well-developed information infrastructure, non-resource-based cities, and favorable business environments, the impact of NEDC on energy saving is more significant. Analysis of spatial effects shows that the implementation of NEDC has negative externalities, increasing energy consumption in the surrounding area. In the context of the digital economy, this paper presents new insights on the relationship between e-commerce and energy consumption and provides policy direction for countries looking for energy-saving solutions. Full article

To accelerate global green and low-carbon development, China has proposed a “double carbon” target. It is particularly important to explore the carbon reduction effects of e-commerce transformation in cities to achieve sustainable development. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the National E-Commerce Demonstration City (NEDC) pilot, 263 cities from 2008 to 2017 were selected as samples, and the propensity score matching difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) method was used to investigate the influence of NEDCs on urban carbon emissions in China and its underlying mechanism. The results show that NEDCs can significantly reduce urban carbon emissions; the carbon emission level of pilot cities was reduced by 9.45%. After passing a series of robustness tests, this conclusion remains valid. The policy effects of NEDCs on carbon emissions are heterogeneous across different regions and types of cities, with the policy effect being more significant in central and western cities and in resource-based cities. Further mechanism analysis shows that the NEDC policy reduces urban carbon emissions mainly through two channels, namely, green technology innovation and industrial structure upgrading. This study provides important policy implications for the implementation of e-commerce demonstration city construction according to local conditions and the realization of urban sustainable development under the double carbon goal. Full article

Combining technology with finance is the focus of supporting economic structure adjustment, and environmental benefits are also the proper meaning of the policy. Using the panel data of 274 cities in China from 2006 to 2017, this paper examines the impact of the Science and Technology Finance Policy (STFP) on carbon emission intensity in pilot cities and the transmission mechanisms through the difference-in-differences method and further explores the impact of STFP on the carbon emission intensity in neighboring cities. The results show that (1) STFP has significantly reduced carbon emission intensity in pilot cities and has dynamic effects, which gradually increase over time. There is significant heterogeneity in the carbon emission reduction effect of STFP, which produces stronger policy effects in first and second-tier cities and cities with higher information levels. (2) STFP achieves carbon emission reduction effects through three main pathways: the total factor productivity improvement effect, innovative elements agglomeration effect, and industrial structure optimization effect. (3) The STFP and national e-commerce demonstration policy have an interactive effect, and the two jointly contribute to the reduction in carbon emission intensity. From the perspective of a spatial effect, STFP has a radiation effect; that is, STFP not only reduces local carbon emission intensity but also curbs the carbon emission intensity in neighboring areas. Full article

Green innovation precisely reflects China’s new development concept and is the general trend for urban development in the future. In addition, e-commerce might become an important breakthrough platform to promote urban green innovation. In order to explore the impact of the construction of national e-commerce demonstration cities on urban green innovation, this paper aimed to theoretically analyze the potential relationship between the two and the transmission mechanism. At the same time, we have examined the panel data from 297 prefecture level cities in China from 2005 to 2018 to explore the implementation effect of the pilot policies by using difference-in-differences and carried out a series of robustness tests. The results showed that: (i) The pilot policy of e-commerce demonstration cities exhibited a significant promotion effect on the green innovation capacity of the different cities, and in general, the promotion effect of the pilot policy is dynamically sustainable. (ii) Analysis of the further influence mechanism showed that the pilot policy could effectively promote the development of urban green innovation capacity by enhancing the level of urban informatization, thereby attracting the concentration of scientific and technological talents. This in turn can facilitate urban innovation and the entrepreneurship environment, among which the boosting effect of optimizing the urban innovation and entrepreneurship environment was the greatest. (iii) In terms of heterogeneity, the pilot policies showed significant positive effects on all the regions to which the cities belong, while the boosting effects were more significant for cities with large populations, non-central cities, and the general science and education cities. The findings of this study not only enrich the research results in the field of urban green innovation, but also have clear policy implications, which can provide useful guidance and reference value for the work of relevant departments. Full article