Spatial differentiation of urban economic resilience and its influencing factors: evidence from Baidu migration big data

Under the development pattern of the "double cycle”, optimizing urban economic resilience is tremendously meaningful to improving a city's affordability and the adaptability of the economy and to promoting the Chinese economy to develop with high quality. Based on Baidu migration big data perspective, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and multi-scale geographical weighted regression (MGWR) model were used to analyze the spatial characteristics and driving factors of economic resilience in 287 Chinese cities in 2019. The results show that (1) the number of low-level economically resilient cities is the largest and distributed continuously, while the number of high-level economically resilient cities is the lowest and distributed in clusters and blocks;(2) compared with the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta, the population accumulation characteristic of the Beijing- Tianjin-Hebei region is relatively slow;(3) Both net inflow of population after spring festival and daily flow scale are significantly correlated with urban economic resilience, and the former will affect urban economic resilience;and (4) the spatial heterogeneity of each factor driving is significant, and they have different impact scales. The impact intensity is as follows: net population inflow > innovation ability > public financial expenditure > financial efficiency > urban size.

Deregulation and green innovation: Does cultural reform pilot project matter

Green innovation is an important driving force for sustainable development. However China often imposes a wide variety of government regulations on green innovation One important reason behind these government regulations is the confinement of the cultural market. However, does this confinement actually affect the green innovation in China? By employing a 278 Chinese cities' dataset, we examine the effect of cultural reform pilot project on green innovation. Through the spatial difference-in-difference approach with the time trend, our results show that cultural reform pilot project (CRPP) is a significant determinist affecting the green innovation in China. Specifically, implementing CRPP promote green innovation in pilot cities which resulting from labour productivity exaltation, marketization rate increasing. The CRPP also have a spatial ripple effect which resulting from economic density promotion. Furthermore, the green innovation promotion is greater in cities which participating into World Technopolis Association, being included in the National Historical and Cultural Cities List and having high political hierarchy. Our conclusions still robustness after adopting a series of tests and alternative analyses. This paper not only provide evidence for the further implementation of cultural reform pilot project nationwide, but also provide policy implications on sustainable development in the post Covid-19 era. © 2023 Economic Society of Australia, Queensland

The Effect of Proximity to Universities on House Prices after the COVID Outbreak

COVID-19 has made virtual interactions an integral part of learning modes. This made it possible for college students to live further away from school than before, which might change the house price neighboring universities. This article studies the effect of proximity to school on house prices after the COVID-19 outbreak using a non-parametric difference-in-differences approach with property-level transaction data surrounding 128 universities in the U.S. The results show that house prices within 0.5 miles of universities experienced a maximum decrease of approximately 7% after three months of the outbreak. The effects vary for universities that implemented different teaching modes of in-person, hybrid, and online. Since house prices are important indicators for local economic conditions, the results help local homeowners, investors, and governments in their decision-making processes. © 2023 by the author.

Spatial Effect of Digital Economy on Particulate Matter 2.5 in the Process of Smart Cities: Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities in China.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital economy has developed rapidly. The airborne nature of COVID-19 viruses has attracted worldwide attention. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyze the impact of the digital economy on particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) emissions. The research sample of this paper include 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019 in China. Spatial Durbin model was adopted to explore the spatial spillover effect of digital economy on PM2.5 emissions. In addition, considering the impact of smart city pilot (SCP) policy, a spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model was used to analyze policy effects. The estimation results indicated that (1) the development of the digital economy significantly reduces PM2.5 emissions. (2) The spatial spillover effect of the digital economy significantly reduces PM2.5 emissions in neighboring cities. (3) Smart city construction increases PM2.5 emissions in neighboring cities. (4) The reduction effect of the digital economy on PM2.5 is more pronounced in the sample of eastern cities and urban agglomerations.

Ecological Civilization Demonstration Zone, Air Pollution Reduction, and Political Promotion Tournament in China: Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment.

Using the ecological civilization demonstration zone as a quasi-natural experiment, this study has explored the effect of it on air pollution in China by employing the difference-in-differences model and the spatial difference-in-differences model, and further tested the political promotion tournament in China by employing the binary logit model. The results show that the ecological civilization demonstration zone has basically and effectively reduced air pollution, except for carbon monoxide and ozone. In addition, the spatial spillover effects of the ecological civilization demonstration zone on air pollution are not only basically supported among the treated cities, but also extremely established in the untreated cities neighboring the treated cities. Furthermore, no clear evidence supports the establishment of the political promotion tournament in China, while local cadres tend to cope with the assessment of higher officials passively rather than actively. Overall, this study sheds light on the coordination of economic development and ecological civilization from the perspective of the career concerns of local cadres.

The Covid-19 containment effects of public health measures: A spatial difference-in-differences approach.

The paper studies the containment effects of public health measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020 in Germany. To identify the effects of six compound sets of public health measures, we employ a spatial difference-in-differences approach. We find that contact restrictions, mandatory wearing of face masks and closure of schools substantially contributed to flattening the infection curve. The significance of the impact of restaurant closure does not prove to be robust. No incremental effect is evidenced for closure of establishments and the shutdown of nonessential retail stores.