Weidong Huo

This paper takes the quasi-natural experiment from the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone (NBDCPZ) in China as an example to examine the impact of market-oriented allocation of data elements on enhancing enterprises’ New Quality Productive Forces (NQPF). Based on panel data from China’s A-share listed enterprises on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges between 2011 and 2022, this study employs a robust policy evaluation method, the multi-way fixed effects staggered difference-in-differences (MWFE Staggered DID) method, to analyze the impact of the NBDCPZ on NQPF comprehensively. The key findings are threefold: First, the NBDCPZ significantly boosts enterprises’ NQPF within their jurisdictions. Second, the NBDCPZ enhances NQPF by accelerating enterprise digital transformation, and the digital talent can amplify the promotional effect of the NBDCPZ on enterprise digital transformation. Third, the NQPF-enhancing effects are more pronounced for privately owned enterprises (POEs), foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), and smaller enterprises, whereas they exhibit an inhibitory impact on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and large enterprises. Fourth, the promotional effect of the NBDCPZ on enterprises’ NQPF varies across different industries. Furthermore, regional (city-level) digital infrastructure and financial development levels amplify the NQPF-enhancing effects of the NBDCPZ.

Research background: The effect of the green economy on green bond market development with the moderating role of institutional quality receives no attention in empirical studies. The cognizance of this effect is necessary for the investors and government as it helps them gain advantages from investing in green bonds. The institutional quality creates a strong relationship between the green economy and green bond market development as the higher institutional quality promotes the green bond market. Purpose of the article: This research mainly aims to estimate the effect of the green economy on green bond market development with the moderating role of institutional quality using data from the USA from 2009Q1 to 2021Q2. Methods: The data are analyzed using an appropriate and comprehensive econometric method: the “Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model.” Findings & value added: The study found a significant moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between the green economy and green bond market development. This research outlines the benefits of the green economy in relation to the green bond market development and its determining factors for the USA. By doing this, the key concerns that must be considered for the issuance of future green bonds are emphasized. The influential factors of green bond market development are green economic growth, green innovation, green trade, environmental tax, and institutional quality. Institutional quality is emphasized as the most crucial determinant. Thus, the results in the USA context add up to the available knowledge on the green bond market development. The insights of this study are fruitful for green bond market development and further development of the literature on green bonds within the state and across the world.

The expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has raised a wide range of concerns about its environmental impact. Therefore, from the perspective of environmental impacts, this study used the two-way fixed effect staggered differences in differences (TWFE Staggered DID) method to examine the impact of the BRI on the Environment Goods (EGs) intra-industry trade (IIT) between China and other Belt and Road (B&R) countries, including a sample of 191 countries, covering the period from 2010 to 2019 for eliminating the impact of COVID-19 and the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Because only 135 countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding between 2010 and 2019, this study treated these B&R countries as the study group, and the other 73 countries (non-B&R countries) as the control group. This study described EGs using the 54 6-digit code Environment Goods in Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System listed in the “APEC LIST OF ENVIRONMENT GOODS” published by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in 2012, and used the intra-industry trade index proposed by Grubel and Lloyd in 1971 to measuring dependent variable. The research results indicated that the BRI has significantly promoted bilateral EGs IIT. The mechanism test implied that, in addition to direct impacts, the BRI also has indirect impacts by boosting the energy restructuring of B&R countries. These results prove that the BRI has positive impacts on the environment. The heterogeneity test showed that there is a heterogeneous impact depending on the type of IIT, product categorization, B&R countries’ income levels, and geographic environment. This study not only gives theoretical and empirical evidence of the positive environmental impacts of the BRI, but also provides practical guidance for the development of EGS IIT between China and B&R countries, thereby contributing to global carbon emissions reduction and environmental governance to some degree.

Facing the rising global temperature, China, the largest annual carbon emitter, is constantly fulfilling its obligations and acting to inject Chinese impetus into global climate action. Under this background, this paper uses an IV-TSLS regression model to empirically explore the impact of China’s Environment Goods Export (CEGE) on the Carbon Emission Intensity of Importing Countries (CEIIC), including a sample of 187 countries, covering the period from 2012 to 2020. We find that the CEGE can reduce the CEIIC by changing the energy mix of importing countries. All five categories of environment goods classified by their protection functions can significantly reduce the CEIIC. Among them, the goods used for the disposal and recycling of waste and pollutants, emission monitoring, and renewable energy projects have the most powerful inhibition effect. The inhibition effect of the CEGE on the Carbon Emission Intensity (CEI) in South America is the greatest, followed by Africa, Oceania, and Asia, while this effect is insignificant in European and North American countries. The CEGE has a stronger inhibition effect on the CEI of non-APEC countries than APEC countries. The CEGE has a far greater inhibition effect on the CEI of six economic corridor countries than the other countries.

China has committed to reaching carbon peak before 2030. To realize the carbon peak goal, financial development plays an essential role in developing a green economy. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019, this paper explores the impact of financial development on carbon intensity both theoretically and empirically. A financial development index system is constructed and computed using the entropy method. A spatial lag panel data model is employed to empirically test the interaction effect of financial development on carbon intensity. Moreover, the mediating effects of industrial upgrading and technological innovation are further investigated. The results show that: first, carbon intensity generates strong spatial spillover effects between provinces in China. Second, financial development significantly reduces carbon intensity, and is most pronounced in central China, followed by western and eastern China. Third, industrial upgrading and technological innovation are important channels to assist financial development in cutting down carbon intensity, and both produce positive spatial spillover effects. These findings suggest that inter-regional cooperation and coordination on financial development, industrial upgrading, and technological innovation are conducive to achieving low-carbon development targets. This research not only has practical significance to China, but also provides global reference value to other countries.