Manhong Shen’s research while affiliated with Zhejiang A & F University and other places

A scientific and rational division of environmental management power among governments is an important prerequisite and institutional foundation for solving China's environmental pollution problems and promoting the enhancement of green economic efficiency in industries. Although previous studies have focused on the relationship between Chinese-style decentralisation and green economic efficiency, most of them have focused on green economic efficiency only at the enterprise level or the regional level, while neglecting green economic efficiency at the industry level. This paper adopts Chinese provincial panel data from 2003 to 2022, and measures the green total factor productivity of agriculture, industry, and service industry based on the SBM-GML model in turn, and draws on more scientific spatial econometrics to comprehensively assess the impact and moderating effect of environmental decentralisation on China's industry-level green total factor productivity. The study confirms that the relationship between environmental decentralisation and industry green total factor productivity is generally inverted "U" shape. It is further found that the effect of environmental decentralisation on industry green TFP is consistent with the overall effect in the central region, while in the eastern region the relationship is "U" shaped, and in the western region it is not obvious. The institutional environment is an important moderator of the impact of environmental decentralisation on industry green TFP, which is reflected in the government-market relationship, the development of non-state economy, the development of market intermediary organisations and the legal environment. Taking China as a case study, this paper analyses the heterogeneous impacts of environmental decentralisation on green total factor productivity in agriculture, industry and services, which helps to improve China's environmental decentralisation management system, enhance the efficiency of the green economy in various industries, and then boost China's ecological civilisation and high-quality economic development.

Taking the Yangtze River Delta of China as a case study, the SBM model GML index is used to measure urban green total factor productivity (GTFP), green technical efficiency (EC) and green technological progress (TC) respectively, and the multi-period spatial DID method is applied to empirically demonstrate the long-term heterogeneous effects of the late Qing Dynasty's open port and trade policy on urban green economic efficiency. The study concludes that (1) the late Qing Dynasty's policy of opening ports for trade objectively increased the city's long-term green total factor productivity (GTFP) and green technical efficiency (EC), but had an insignificant effect on green technological progress (TC). (2) The Treaty of Shimonoseki was a watershed in the long-term impact of the port-opening and trading policy on green economic efficiency, with the port-opening and trading policy implemented before 1895 boosting urban GTFP and EC, and the port-opening and trading policy implemented after 1895 having a negative impact on urban GTFP, EC and TC. (3) Long-term GTFP, EC and TC were negatively affected by the opening of ports and trading policies in cities where the governors were based, while opening of ports and trading policies in cities where the governors were not based had a positive effect on long-term GTFP, EC and TC. (4) Western powers following the civil law tradition had a more prominent long-term impact on the green economic efficiency of economically invaded cities than did common law countries. This paper appropriately verifies the long-term impact of open history on a city's green economic efficiency, which is instructive for better understanding, formulating and improving foreign opening policies in the new era.

The Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway is an important facility for the high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. Based on the data of cities along the route in 2006, 2012 and 2020, Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used to analyse the spatial divergence and Based on the data of cities along the route in 2006, 2012 and 2020, Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used to analyse the spatial divergence and evolution structure of green total factor productivity (GTFP) of cities along the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway. that from 2006 to 2020, the GTFP linkages of cities along the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway have been increasing, and a network The study confirms that from 2006 to 2020, the GTFP linkages of cities along the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway have been increasing, and a network structure of green economic efficiency has gradually formed in nine cities; among them, Shanghai and Suzhou have the strongest radiating capacity, The green total factor productivity of cities along the The green total factor productivity of cities along the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou High-speed Railway has experienced an evolutionary path from monocentric to polycentric, basically forming a positive The cohesive subgroups of cities along the route have a certain degree of self-stability, and the cohesive The cohesive subgroups of cities along the route have a certain degree of self-stability, and the cohesive subgroups, mainly in the southern Jiangsu cities of Suzhou, Wuxi and Zhenjiang, are closely linked to each other in terms of green total factor productivity. Accordingly, suggestions are made to accelerate the development of green innovation in cities along the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou Accordingly, suggestions are made to accelerate the development of green innovation in cities along the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway.

Based on the China City Commercial Credit Environment Index (CEI), a more scientific spatial DID model was used to examine the long-term impact of the opening of ports and trading in the late Qing Dynasty on the urban commercial credit environment, taking cities above the prefecture level in the Yangtze River Delta as a sample. The study confirms that: (1) the opening of ports and commerce in the late Qing Dynasty had a significant contribution to the urban commercial credit environment, which was conducive to the transformation of production methods and interpersonal relationships from traditional to modern, and to the improvement of the urban commercial credit environment. (2) Before the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the local forces of the late Qing Dynasty were resistant to the economic aggression of the Great Powers, and the positive impact of the opening of ports and trading on the commercial credit environment of port cities was more significant, but the impact was not obvious after the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. (3) From the history of the opening of ports for trade in the late Qing Dynasty, the economic aggression of the Western powers against the non-patronage areas by means of the buying class objectively strengthened the concept of rule of law and credit awareness in the local market and exerted a long-term influence on the commercial credit environment of the cities, but the impact of the opening of ports for trade on the commercial credit environment of the patronage areas was not prominent. (4) Cities located in the sphere of influence of the common law powers had a more pronounced impact on the commercial credit environment as their institutions and concepts were more easily transplanted, while the impact of the opening of ports and trading on the commercial credit environment of cities in the sphere of influence of the civil law powers was not significant. Policy Insights: (1) Enhance the ability to negotiate with foreign countries on economic and trade matters from a level-headed world perspective, and be bold and adept at fighting unreasonable rules, standards and requirements in order to better optimise the business credit environment; (2) Regulate the use of administrative resources and avoid undue administrative intervention, which is an important prerequisite for improving the basic system of the market economy to enhance the business credit environment; (3) Emphasise both connotative development to follow a Chinese style modernisation path, and (3) emphasising selective cooperation to promote outward development, promoting the interaction, convergence and matching of domestic and foreign regulations, and continuously improving the regional commercial credit environment.

In regions where the development of formal finance is relatively lagging behind, commercial credit has partially replaced the role of formal finance and facilitated the development of the private economy and even the country, thus making commercial credit an important entry point for understanding and promoting sustainable economic development. Taking the Hangzhou Bay Greater Bay Area as a case study, based on the City Business Credit Environment Index (CEI) from 2015 to 2019, we examine the characteristics of business credit networks using social network analysis and discuss the impact of business credit on urban green economy efficiency heterogeneity by drawing on spatial econometrics. The study confirms that the structure of business credit networks in the Hangzhou Bay Greater Bay Area tends to be dense, the network density and number of connections show growth, the spatial network structure is taking shape, and the strength of spatial connections among cities has increased. Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jiaxing and Shanghai are at the centre of the network and play a radiation-driven role. The business credit network in the Hangzhou Bay Greater Bay Area is characterised by self-stability and has evolved from a multi-centre to a single centre. Business credit is negatively correlated with the efficiency of the green economy in the Hangzhou Bay Area, which is a departure from the Chinese "financial development paradox". In terms of heterogeneity, the relationship remains consistent for port cities and open coastal cities in general, while the effect is less pronounced for cities above sub-provincial level. The study concludes that, with the high-quality economic development of the Hangzhou Bay Greater Bay Area, the Chinese "financial development paradox" does not exist in the region at this stage, which also highlights the need to accelerate the construction of a Chinese-style modernisation theory and practice system.

As an important part of China’s ecological civilization, the impact of the Central Inspections of Environmental Protection (CIEP) on the development of a green economy has been widely recognized. This article uses the first round of the Central Inspections of Environmental Protection (CIEP) and the “look-back” in cities above the prefecture level in China’s Yangtze River Delta as a quasi-natural experiment to construct more scientific green economic efficiency indicators based on OH (2010), and employs a multi-period spatial DID (difference-in-differences) model to empirically investigate the impact of the CIEP on the urban green economic efficiency. This study confirms that: (1) The Central Inspections of Environmental Protection have a significant contribution to the green economic efficiency of cities, and the “look-back” is of great significance to the long-term green development of cities. (2) The Central Inspections of Environmental Protection have had a positive impact on the building of a pro-clear government–business relationship in coastal and riverine areas, promoting the application of green technology research and development, and, thus, improving the green economic efficiency of cities. (3) Under the constraints of the central environmental protection inspection system, the southern Jiangsu region has been effective in promoting the green transformation of enterprises to enhance the efficiency of the city’s green economy due to its location endowment and historical tradition of opening ports and trading in the late Qing Dynasty. (4) Under the pressure of environmental regulation, some enterprises chose to relocate their production to non-inspected areas, which had a negative spillover effect on the green economic efficiency of the cities they moved into. Policy Implications: The impact of central environmental inspections on the efficiency of urban green economies varies from time to time and place to place, and it is important to regulate the use of administrative resources and strengthen inter-provincial coordination to promote synergy and cooperation across provincial environmental inspection systems. This paper provides ideas for understanding the logical starting point for the implementation of the central environmental inspection system, and for better promoting the green transformation and high-quality development of regional economies based on national characteristics.

A more scientific green economy efficiency indicator is constructed based on OH (2010), and a multiperiod spatial DID model is used to examine the impact of national credit demonstration policies on urban green economy efficiency in a sample of cities above the prefecture level in the Yangtze River Delta. The study confirms the following: (1) The national credit demonstration policy makes a significant contribution to the green economic efficiency of cities, and it is conducive to strengthening awareness of the rule of law in the market to regulate market order. (2) The demand for credit regulation in coastal areas has increased under the new development pattern, and the national credit demonstration policy has effectively enhanced green economy efficiency through institutional supply. (3) Under the national credit demonstration policy, the subprovincial level and above can mobilise more resources for policy refinement and support, reducing transaction costs and improving the efficiency of the green economy. (4) The impact of the national credit demonstration policy on the efficiency of Zhejiang’s green economy is more obvious; but, under the overall framework of the Yangtze River Delta, the policy has a more prominent role in promoting green economy efficiency in other provinces. Policy insights are as follows: (1) Different cities have different degrees of impact on the efficiency of the green economy from the national credit demonstration policy, and they should implement differentiated measures based on regional heterogeneity; (2) regulating the use of administrative resources and avoiding undue administrative intervention are important prerequisites for promoting regional integration to enhance the efficiency of the green economy; and (3) strengthening interprovincial credit policy synergies can help to alleviate administrative distortions of policy implementation and enhance the efficiency of the regional green economy.

As regional interaction increases in an open economy, a region’s green total factor productivity in agriculture must be considered alongside relationships with other regions. In this study, the slack-based model (SBM) global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index is used to measure the green total factor productivity of agriculture in each province of China, and the social network analysis (SNA) and vector autoregressive model (VAR) impulse response function (IRF) are used to examine the spatial network structure and regional interactivity. The research confirms that the absolute value and concentration of agricultural green total factor productivity are generally higher in the south than in the north of China, but the peak is lower in the south than in the north. The network density of agricultural green total factor productivity in China from 2008 to 2019 shows an increase, with the cut-off values of mean, 10, 50, and 100 treated as 4.97%, 2.57%, 3.30%, and 2.43%, respectively. From 2008 to 2019, the central potentials of network entry and network exit of green total factor productivity in China’s agriculture show a “V”-shaped and inverted “V”-shaped evolution path, respectively, with the density of cohesive subgroups growing, which demonstrates that the spatial structure of green total factor productivity in Chinese agriculture has experienced an evolutionary path from polycentric to monocentric to polycentric conditions. The spatial interaction of different cohesive subgroups is intensifying and has a certain degree of self-stability. In terms of regional interaction, the siphon effect of the east on the green development of agriculture in the central and western regions is significant, but the trickle-down effect is not obvious, and the interaction between the central and western regions has a catalytic effect on the efficiency of the green economy of agriculture in both regions. It is recommended that targeted policies be introduced to support the flow of agricultural factors and industrial division of labour between the central and western regions and the south and north, taking into account the actual situation. The novelty of this paper is that it focuses on the green total factor productivity of Chinese agriculture and combines the innovative use of the social network analysis paradigm to analyse the green development of agriculture in a country from a spatial dynamic evolutionary perspective. A limitation of the research methodology in this paper is its poor applicability to closed economy analysis.