Jianyuan Huang

With the development of science and technology and society, people’s demand for a healthy living environment is increasing, and the expression “low carbon” has become a daily feature of people’s lives. The emergence of a low-carbon economy, the impact on the traditional industrial structure and the formation of a new economic landscape make China, a developing country, eager to seize this opportunity to enhance its international competitiveness. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish a low-carbon concept, to actively restructure industrial and develop low-carbon industries; only in this way can we take advantage of the new round of industrial restructuring and grasp the initiative of development. Therefore, this paper selects data from enterprises in the emerging low-carbon industry, and uses a SVAR model to conduct a dynamic interaction analysis between government subsidy intensity, enterprise profitability, asset growth capacity and enterprise size. The results of the study show that the intensity of government subsidies in the first period has a certain positive effect on a company’s current profitability and asset growth, the improvement being most significant on its profitability. Among the larger companies, asset growth and profitability in the first period had a significant positive impact on current earnings, and the contribution of profitability to the company’s own performance was much larger than the average; among the smaller companies, asset growth and profitability in the first period had a significant positive impact on current earnings, and the contribution of asset growth to the company’s own performance was much larger than the average. The intensity of prior government subsidies in the Highs group has a significant positive relationship with the intensity of current government subsidies, the firm’s asset growth capacity and profitability; the intensity of prior government subsidies in the Lows group only has a significant positive impact on the asset growth capacity in the current period. In addition, the interaction between the three core variables in the Highs group is also significantly higher than that in the Lows group. This indicates that the government should implement differential policies and financial subsidies according to the actual needs of enterprises to maximize the effect of capital use and promote the development and growth of emerging enterprises.

Green spaces play an important role in improving the health and quality of life of urban residents, and environmental justice has become one of the most debated topics for scholars and governments in China. The accessibility of green space has been recognized as an effective method for the assessment of environmental justice. Population and green space are the two basic elements for evaluating green space accessibility. However, high-precision population data are difficult to obtain. To address this issue, we propose a straightforward method to assess green space accessibility using urban artificial building data and investigate how green space distribution is correlated with the population. Our analysis uses urban artificial building data and green space data from 2018 in Nanjing, China. The results show that the overall amount of green space, is not only very low, but also unevenly distributed. From the urban center to the city outskirts, the green space changed representing an M-shaped pattern, while the population sharply declined. Given the serious mismatch between the population and green space, only about 26.4% and 51.8% of Nanjing residents could access green space within 400 and 800 m, respectively, which was far below that in cities in developed countries. For residents’ wellbeing, governments must consider increasing green space provision and promoting equal access.

Family policy involves a combination of policies enacted to address various family problems and improve the sustainable development of families. Evaluating family policy by considering policy instruments is conducive to optimizing policy allocation and promoting this sustainable development. This study constructs a two-dimensional analysis framework of policy instruments and policy themes and employs content analysis to conduct a quantitative analysis of 112 family policy texts issued by the Chinese government. The results show that the policy instruments used in China are not effective. The study also shows that environmental policy instruments are most frequently used, but the internal structure is unbalanced; supply-side policy instruments are moderately used; and the use of demand-side policy instruments is obviously limited. Policy themes focus excessively on “safeguard measures” and pay less attention to “parental welfare and protection”. Overall, China’s family policy is still in its infancy, as it focuses mainly on assistance and remains incomplete. Therefore, the parties responsible for the formulation of family policy should adjust and optimize the combinations of policy instruments that are employed are required to consider “general welfare”, and promote the two-dimensional integration of policy instruments and policy themes.

Rural China is experiencing a rapid aging process caused by low fertility and large-scale rural-to-urban migration, which will place an increasing payment burden on the rural pension plan. To allay the negative impact of the aging transition, China has recently carried out a demographic policy reform, replacing the famous one-child policy with the two-child policy. This paper evaluates the impacts of the demographic policy reform on the financial sustainability of China’s New Rural Pension Plan (NRPP). By applying the cohort component population projection method and building actuarial models, the solvency sustainability of the NRPP between 2019 and 2080 is estimated under six demographic policy scenarios, followed by sensitivity analysis. The simulation results show that under the one-child policy, the current and the accumulated pension fund would run deficits in 2030 and 2042, and then the pension deficits would expand rapidly. The two-child policy would relieve the pension pressure moderately before 2075, but thereafter, the pension deficits would become much worse. Sensitivity analysis of a series of demographics and pension parameters on the financial sustainability of the NRPP are displayed. On average, the long-term pension gap may not be avoided for the NRPP, regardless of raising the contribution rate, delaying the retirement age, or encouraging people to have more children.

Population aging is creating serious challenges for the sustainability of China’s pension system. To mitigate the adverse impact of the demographic shift, China has recently introduced fertility and retirement policy reforms. The research presented in this paper primarily evaluates the impacts of recent reforms on the financial sustainability of China’s Urban Employees’ Pension Plan (UEPP). By using the Leslie matrix and actuarial models, the financial sustainability of the UEPP from 2019 to 2070 is projected and evaluated under a set of assumed policy reform scenarios. The results indicate that an imbalance in the pension fund would occur in the early 2020s and then expand under existing policies. Fertility adjustment, retirement delay, or combination reforms would not fundamentally solve this financial crisis in the long term. When 100% of couples have a second child and the retirement age is increased to 65, the current and accumulated pension deficits would drop by 50.05–67.56% and 35.88–54.23% between 2040 and 2070, respectively. Supplementary policy measures should be designed to encourage childbearing and retirement delay, including family support policies and top-designed pension system reform policies.