RETRACTED: Ai et al. The Effects of Environmental Regulations on Medical Expenses: Evidence from China. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2022, 19, 7567.

The authors and journal retract the following article: "The Effects of Environmental Regulations on Medical Expenses: Evidence from China" [...].

Environmental regulation and corporate financialization: insight from Blue Sky Protection Campaign in China.

Environmental regulation restricts corporate pollution emissions and affects corporate investment decisions and asset allocation. Based on the data of A-share listed enterprises in China from 2013 to 2021 and the difference in differences (DID) model, this paper identifies the impact of environmental regulation on corporate financialization with the help of the "Blue Sky Protection Campaign (2018-2020)" (BSPC) of China. The results indicate that environmental regulation has a crowding-out effect on corporate financialization. Enterprises with stricter financing constraints receive more significant crowding-out effects. This paper provides a new perspective on the "Porter hypothesis." Under the constraint of financial resources and high environmental protection costs, enterprises carry out innovative activities and environmental protection investments by consuming financial assets to reduce the risk of environmental violations. The government's environmental regulation is an effective way to guide the financial development of enterprises, control environmental pollution, and promote enterprise innovation.

The long-run effects of fetal PM2.5 exposure on mental health: evidence from China.

This paper investigates the long-run effects of PM2.5 exposure in utero on the mental health of adolescents. Using nationally representative survey data from China, we instrument the PM2.5 exposure with wind speed to tackle the possible endogeneity problem. Our results show that mothers' PM2.5 exposure during their pregnancy negatively affects the mental health of their children aged between 10 and 15 years. A 1 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure in utero increases the probability of having a severe mental illness for adolescents by 0.6%. Our evidence supports the "fetal origins" hypothesis. We also find that fetal PM2.5 exposure leads adolescents to be more likely to be absent from school and quarrel with their parents, implying that fetal PM2.5 exposure may affect individuals' behavior when they grow up.

Temperature and Migration Intention: Evidence from the Unified National Graduate Entrance Examination in China.

This paper estimates the impact of destination cities' temperature on the migration intentions of highly educated talents. Using a unique manually collected dataset of applicants for the Unified National Graduate Entrance Examination (UNGEE) of double first-class universities in China, we find that both hot (over 25 °C) and cold (below 5 °C) days in the previous 3 months before the registration date significantly decrease the number of applicants for the UNGEE of double first-class universities, relative to a moderate (20-25 °C) day. Heterogeneity analysis shows that such effects differ by destination universities' quality and climate regions. We also find that destination cities' income level can mitigate the negative effects of hot days and cold days on the number of applicants. These findings add to the existent literature by examining an understudied relationship between temperature and migration intention.

The Effects of Environmental Regulations on Medical Expenses: Evidence from China.

In this study, we examine the effects of a special period regulation (SPR), implemented in the Chang-Zhu-Tan (Changsha City, Zhuzhou City, and Xiangtan City; CZT) region, regarding medical expenses paid by the Urban and Rural Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URRBMI) and Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) programs, using a difference-in-differences (DID) design. We find that the SPR significantly reduces medical expenses in the CZT region, which appears to be driven by improved air quality. Furthermore, this regulation has a significantly negative and positive impact on medical expenses paid by the UURBMI and UEBMI, respectively. In summary, our results provide empirical evidence for the orderly implementation of command-and-control environmental regulation policies from the perspective of health benefits.

The real economic costs of COVID-19: Insights from electricity consumption data in Hunan Province, China.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused extreme economic fluctuations. However, the magnitude of the economic cost of this extreme event remains challenging to quantify. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy is estimated through firm-level electricity consumption data from Hunan province, China. Specifically, a difference-in-differences (DID) model was employed to estimate the real economic costs. The results indicate that electricity consumption in Hunan Province dropped by 27.8% during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacturing and the transportation industry suffered the most severe declines. Electricity consumption began to recover after the virus was controlled. We suggest that government departments should take full measures to prevent and control COVID-19 outbreaks and associated economic impacts, in conjunction with preparing for economic recovery, deploying targeted measures to support different industries in response to the heterogeneity COVID-19 pandemic impacts. The COVID-19 has changed people's living habits and brought a new direction, the Internet industry, of economic growth. Hunan Province needs to accelerate the digital empowerment of traditional industries, develop the Internet, 5G technology, and new digital infrastructure to offset the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Electricity consumption is an applicable index in estimate the real economic cost of extreme events.

Impact of market misallocations on green TFP: evidence from countries along the Belt and Road.

Based on the idea of a "Community of Human Destiny," the Chinese government proposed the "Belt and Road" initiative, and clearly proposed to promote green development and strengthen ecological environmental protection. However, a considerable number of countries are resource-rich economies with serious market misallocations. Using the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) combined with the directional distance function (DDF) framework, this paper measures the green total factor productivity (GTFP) and its items (i.e., technical change and efficiency change) of 33 countries along the Belt and Road in 1995-2012, and then the impact of market misallocations on GTFP is analyzed. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) The main driving force for GTFP promotion in Asian countries came from technical change, while in European countries, it came from efficiency change. (2) Market misallocations had significantly hindered the GTFP of these economies. Countries with greater market misallocations have smaller GTFP. (3) Results based on counterfactual measures showed that GTFP could be increased by up to 4.04% and the average can be increased by 1.24% after eliminating market misallocations.

Psychological resilience moderates the impact of social support on loneliness of "left-behind" children.

This study examined the moderator effect of psychological resilience on the relationship between social support and loneliness of the "left-behind" children. A total of 200 left-behind girls and 214 left-behind boys completed the measures of psychological resilience, social support, and loneliness. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that psychological resilience moderated the association between social support and loneliness. When left-behind children reported a low level of psychological resilience, those with high social support reported lower scores in loneliness than those with low social support. However, the impact of social support on loneliness was much smaller in the high psychological resilience group, compared with that in low psychological resilience group.

Self-esteem mediates the effect of the parent-adolescent relationship on depression.

There is a trend of rapid growth in both the level and occurrence of depression when people reach adolescence. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of the parent-adolescent relationship on depression in adolescents, and mainly focused on the confirmation of the mediator role of self-esteem. A total of 364 senior middle school students accomplished the Parent-Adolescent Relationship Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale. The results suggested that both parent-adolescent relationship and self-esteem were significantly correlated with depression. Structural equation modeling indicated that self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between parent-adolescent relationship and depression.