Does the "Belt and Road Initiative" benefit the environment? Insight from analysis of intra-industry trade in environment goods.

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.

Increasing ecological sustainability using the combinations of technologies to produce power.

The study attempts to analyze the impact of hybrid energy systems on environmental sustainability in the context of the circular economy network. The hybrid energy sources follow the principle of circular economy, which aims to reduce raw material use and waste which is very fruitful in promoting environmental sustainability. However, the study uses quarterly data from Pakistan from 2011Q1 to 2020Q4 to accomplish the proposed study objective. The study constructs 5 hybrid systems of energy to analyze the impact and applies Auto Regressive Distributive Lag Model (ARDL) to estimate the results. It is found that electricity generation through solar photovoltaic (SPV), wind turbine (WND), hydroelectricity (HYDE) and nuclear power generation (NPG) play a positive role in increasing environment sustainability. The results explain that SPV, NPG, and HYDE contribute 2.29%, 2.04%, and 0.42% to environmental sustainability, respectively. Hybrid systems of energy (Hybrid 1,2,3,4 and 5) positively impact ecological sustainability, but the intensity of each hybrid system in sustaining the environment is different. Among five hybrid systems, the hybrid-5 (SPV-WND-HYDE-NPG) energy system is more environmentally friendly and has the highest contribution towards environmental sustainability. The study suggests incorporating hybrid energy systems provides the means of transition toward a circular economy, ultimately promoting ecological sustainability. The study proposes to the officials of the Pakistani government and policymakers to initiate effective policies to encourage hybrid energy systems because the significance of hybrid systems ensures a low carbon economy and makes a path towards sustainable economic development.

Does believing in different types of religion affect subjective wellbeing? Analysis of the public data of the Taiwan Social Change Survey.

Previous studies have revealed the impact of objective material conditions and psychological factors, such as the influence of religion on subjective well-being, but have disregarded the role played by differences of religious types formed in Asian cultural and historical contexts. Against this background, the present study aims to examine the association between religious type and subjective wellbeing and its mechanisms - the mediating role of frequency of religious activity and the moderating role of urban-rural areas. This study used Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS) 2018 data for researching. The results show that the discrepancy in the frequency of participation in religious activity caused by different types of religious belief will influence personal wellbeing. Respondents who adhere to institutional religion have a higher frequency of participating in religious activities, which has a positive impact on subjective wellbeing. Moreover, further examination shows that urban-rural areas play an important moderating role: respondents living in urban areas are more inclined to participate in religious activities frequently to gain a sense of wellbeing.

Would Financial Development Help China Achieve Carbon Peak Emissions?

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.

Validating LA/AIDS model in the food market of Pakistan.

The study aims to conduct a consumer demand analysis of the food market of Pakistan by estimating its own price and cross-price elasticities. This study also examines expenditure and income elasticities to show the influence of relative change in price, total expenditure, and income on the relative change in demanded quantities of the selected food products. The study takes meat, vegetables, fruits, and pulses as different food baskets and estimates income elasticities, including uncompensated (Marshallian) and compensated (Hicksian) own price and cross-price elasticities. The findings are concluded based on Marshallian elasticity as it provides more accurate images of substitutes and complements compared with Hicksian elasticity. The study applies the Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System model to estimate the results by acquiring data from a household integrated economic survey of Pakistan from 2018 to 2019. The findings of expenditure elasticity (uncompensated own price elasticity) reveal that vegetables and pulses are normal (inelastic) goods, whereas meat and fruits are luxury (elastic) goods. The results of uncompensated cross-price elasticities reveal that vegetables and meat, and vegetables and fruits are substitutable commodities. In addition, pulses and vegetables, and pulses and meat are complementary goods. The study suggests fruitful implications for food policymakers.

Behavioural Psychology of Unique Family Firms Toward R&D Investment in the Digital Era: The Role of Ownership Discrepancy.

This study examines the R&D investment behaviour of different types of family-controlled firms with the moderating role of ownership discrepancy between cash-flow rights and excess voting rights by using the sufficiency conditions' theoretical framework of ability and willingness developed by De Massis. It uses data from family firms that have issued A-shares from 2008 to 2018. They used pooled OLS regression for data analysis and Tobit regression for robustness checks. This study classifies family firm types into two categories, namely, the lone-controller family firms (LCFFs) and the multi-controller family firms (MCFFs), with each being further classified as "excess" or "no excess" voting rights. Both LCFFs without excess voting rights and MCFFs with excess voting rights have the "ability" and "willingness" toward R&D investment. LCFFs with excess voting rights and MCFFs without excess voting rights only have the ability but low willingness to invest in R&D. The study also establishes that Chinese family-controlled firms are heterogeneous toward risky investment. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to differentiate Chinese family firms by their unique ownership structure characteristics in investigating the effect of the family firm structure on R&D investment. The study is a novel attempt to test the willingness and ability framework of LCFFs and MCFFs. Previous studies based on agency theory have tacitly assumed that ability and willingness exist in family-controlled firms. However, this study challenges this implicit assumption.

Evolutionary game analysis on industrial pollution control of local government in China.

The pollution control of local government to industrial enterprises is actually a long-term, complex and dynamic game process. This study develops an evolutionary game model to analyze the operation mechanism of local governments' different expenditure preferences on the production behavior of industrial polluting enterprises, so as to specify the behavioral characteristics and optimal strategy of local environmental governance. The results indicated that whether the relationship between local governments and polluting enterprises in environmental governance becomes cooperative or collusive depends on their game sequence and initial endowment. Under the condition of realizing a steady state of cooperation, polluting enterprises would advance faster toward clean production if local governments distribute more environmental expenditures on cost subsidies for enterprises to implement clean production. The findings of this study provide decision-making basis for local governments to control industrial pollution.