Xiucheng Dong’s research while affiliated with University of International Business and Economics and other places

Digital technology innovation has become essential to China's sustainable, low-carbon social development strategy. However, its spatial impact on carbon reduction and efficiency is unclear. This study innovatively utilizes patent search to define digital technology innovation and spatial econometric modeling to assess its association with total-factor carbon emission efficiency (TCEE) in 286 Chinese cities. There are some exciting research findings: (1) Digital technology innovation effectively accelerates local TCEE and contributes to TCEE in surrounding cities through spatial spillover effects. (2) The heterogeneous results show that digital technology innovation increases the local TCEE in the western region, inhibits the local TCEE in the eastern and northeastern areas, and shows apparent positive spillover effects in both the eastern and western areas; the positive effects of digital technology innovation on TCEE in non-resource cities and small cities are all-encompassing. (3) Both industrial structure upgrading and optimization can enhance the spatial spillover effect of digital technology innovation on TCEE; both formal and informal environmental regulations (ER) can effectively accelerate the TCEE enhancement effect of digital technology innovation on local and surrounding cities. (4) Digital technology innovation affects the TCEE of trading partners through domestic bilateral trade. This manuscript provides an actionable reference for measuring digital technology innovation and China's path to achieving an efficient low-carbon pathway.

This study explores the global impact of climate finance on wealth and income inequality, utilizing the IV-GMM model to capture nuanced relationships. Key findings indicate that climate finance effectively reduces both forms of inequality, benefiting low-income populations and suggesting it as a viable tool for inequality reduction. Notably, the impact of climate finance is asymmetric: countries with lower initial inequality levels experience more pronounced benefits, while the effect lessens as inequality increases. Additionally, climate risks-represented by natural disasters-worsen inequality, underscoring climate finance's dual role in directly reducing inequality and indirectly mitigating disaster impacts. These insights offer valuable policy implications, highlighting climate finance as a means to promote equity and alleviate poverty in the face of escalating climate challenges.

China has been actively promoting the development of smart cities as part of its national agenda, which is seen as a way to enhance urban management and high-quality development. This paper intends to empirically investigate the impact of smart city policy on export technology sophistication, based on the prefectural-level dataset in China’s 285 cities during the period 2005-2018. We also conduct a series of robustness tests including the parallel trend test and the placebo test. We then also investigate their heterogeneous nexus, and the potential impact mechanisms. The main findings are as follows. First, baseline results reveal the positive relationship between smart city policy and export technology sophistication, which highlights that smart city policy plays a significant role in accelerating export technology sophistication in China’s cities. Second, we analyze their heterogeneity from the perspectives of the characteristics and endowments of the sample cities. Smart city policy shows a more effective promoting effect on export technology sophistication in the capital cities, large-and-medium cities, as well as resource-based cities. Third, the mechanism discussions indicate that environmental regulation and technological progress are two significant mediators, which means that smart city policy affects export technology sophistication by stimulating environmental regulation and technological progress. Our findings are of both theoretical and practical significance for realizing export upgrading.

Energy vulnerability is gaining attention in light of global economic, social, and political conflicts. The digital economy has the potential to become a vital tool in addressing current issues. This paper explores the relationship , mechanisms, and heterogeneity between the digital economy and energy vulnerability for 110 economies by using a generalized method of moments (GMM) model. Our key findings are as follows: (1) The digital economy effectively reduces energy vulnerability, with digital infrastructure and social impact as the main contributors to this effect. (2) The digital economy helps upgrade the industrial structure and the level of financial development, thereby reducing energy vulnerability. (3) Heterogeneity results show that the negative impact of the digital economy on energy vulnerability is more significant in regions with higher income levels, particularly Europe and North America. (4) The level of economic development acts as a practical threshold variable, with the digital economy having a more pronounced negative impact on energy vulnerability at higher threshold levels. These findings provide new development ideas for improving global energy security and energy efficiency, and reducing energy vulnerability.

The inclusive development index provides a comprehensive assessment of a country’s wealth and wellbeing, and recognizes that economic development should not come at the expense of depleting natural resources or neglecting human welfare. Although inclusive development assessment in China has advanced significantly at the national level, there is a noticeable absence of similar assessments at the city level. To address this gap, the inclusive development index framework is enhanced based on a dataset of 285 cities (in both urban area and rural areas) in China during 2000–2019, and the role of green finance in promoting inclusive development is empirically investigated. The asymmetric, direct, and indirect impact mechanisms of the relationship between these two variables are also investigated. The primary findings suggest that the city-level inclusive development index is constantly increasing, and green finance is positively associated with inclusive development. Second, green finance exerts an asymmetric effect on inclusive development, as it has a higher promotion effect in cities with lower levels of inclusive development. Third, six aspects of green finance, namely, green credit, green investment, green insurance, green bonds, green funds, and green trading, all contribute to increased inclusive development. Finally, green finance affects inclusive development by improving human capital and the innovation level, which are two indispensable impact mechanisms.

The impact of innovation-driven policies on employment in developing countries deserves due attention. This study systematically assesses the impact of innovative city pilot (ICP) policy on urban employment in China. Theoretical analyses suggest that the total effects of innovation-driven policies on employment depend on the relative magnitude of the job-creation effects versus the job-substitution effects. We construct time-varying Differences-inDifferences (DID) models using data on 280 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2017. It is found that total employment of ICP cities was increased by about 10.22% after the policy shock. Namely, we confirm that ICP policy's job-creation effects are larger than the job-substitution effects. These results remain robust to the exclusion of heterogeneous treatment effects, the effects of other relevant policies, selection bias issues, and other unobservable random factors. Furthermore, impact mechanisms tests reveal that the science expenditure channel and industrial structure upgrading channel partially transmitted the ICP policy's effects on urban employment. Moreover, in the heterogeneity analysis section, we find that the employment dividend of ICP policy varies significantly across regions and industries. Finally, we came up with some policy implications on how to mitigate the regional and sectoral inequalities of ICP policy's employment effects.

Against the background of global warming, the low-carbon energy transition (LCET) has become one of the top concerns of governments around the world. Artificial intelligence (AI) is serving an increasingly relevant role in the energy sector by facilitating the development of cleaner energy. Thus, based on the panel data of 44 countries from 2000 to 2022, this study employs the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) methods to explore the impact of AI technology innovation on LCET. Moreover, we explore the moderating and spatial spillover effects between AI technology innovation and LCET. The main results show that: (1) AI technology innovation significantly promotes LCET. A 1% increase in the AI technology innovation index causes a 0.176% increase in the level of LCET using the AMG method, and a 0.198% increase using the CCEMG method. (2) Financial incentives and energy efficiency effectively amplify the positive influence of AI technology innovation on LCET. (3) AI technology innovation generates discernible spillover effects on LCET through bilateral trade influence, particularly in countries with closer “trade distances.” This study recommends that countries adequately strengthen AI technology resources to realize new situations for the synergistic development of technology and green energy.

Mineral resources play a crucial role in the development of renewable energy sources, yet they also bring about environmental burdens such as pollution, carbon emissions, and resource depletion. Considering this dual impact, it is imperative to further elucidate the influence of mineral consumption (including both metallic and non-metallic minerals) on the transition to renewable energy. This work aims to address this gap. To achieve this objective, we conduct empirical examinations employing a balanced panel dataset encompassing 55 countries worldwide from 2000 to 2020 and explore potential heterogeneity and mechanisms. The empirical results reveal that both metallic and non-metallic mineral consumption act as inhibitory factors on renewable energy transition , with metallic minerals exhibiting a more significant influence. Furthermore, this impact is not consistent; it becomes more pronounced in samples with lower government quality, and the effect gradually intensifies as the quantile increases. We also identify the critical moderating roles played by financial development, human capital, and industrial structure upgrading in the relationship. However, their effects on metallic and non-metallic mineral consumption exhibit variations. This study contributes by recognizing the relationship between mineral consumption and energy transition under the environmental impact of mineral extraction. The verified evidence assists policymakers in developing and adjusting mineral-related strategic decisions.

The continuous growth of global electricity penetration has provided sufficient modern energy for alleviating energy poverty; however, its impact on the carbon neutrality has received little attention from studies. In this research, whether and how global energy poverty influences carbon emissions from the electricity dimension is evaluated. In addition, this study also investigates the regional heterogeneity as well as its internal mechanism. The analysis suggests that: (1) the clean electricity that can provide modern energy to help global energy poverty reduction is mostly generated by traditional fossil energy and renewable energy, which produces a substantially positive influence on the greenhouse effect; (2) electricity promotion cannot help inhibit carbon emissions in Belt and Road Initiative (B&RI) nations, while along non-B&RI nations, eradicating energy poverty from the perspective of electricity can effectively alleviate greenhouse effect; and (3) even though energy poverty erad-ication increases carbon emissions through economic activities and alleviates greenhouse effect through improved energy efficiency in both B&RI and non-B&RI nations, the bias of promoting electricity toward clean industries in non-B&RI nations can lead to a net mitigation effect of eradicating energy poverty on carbon emissions.

Shanxi Province is one of the regions with the highest concentration of resource-based cities in China. For a long time, its economic development relied on coal mining. To implement the low-carbon development strategy, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) established Shanxi Province as a Comprehensive Supporting Reform Pilot Zone for Resource-based Economy (CSRPZRE). This study aimed to make cost-benefit analyses of the CSRPZRE policy. We collected data of 284 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2017. DID models were utilized to estimate treatment effects of the CSRPZRE policy on CO 2 emissions and employment. We further investigated mechanisms and heterogeneity of the CSRPZRE policy's impacts on employment. The study found that: (1) Due to the policy shock, both CO 2 emissions and employment in Shanxi Province decreased by about 10%. (2) Industrial structure adjustment and foreign direct investment (FDI) utilization partially transmitted impacts of the CSRPZRE policy on employment. (3) Local governments' fiscal independence moderated treatment effects of the CSRPZRE policy on employment. (4) We confirmed that CSRPZRE policy reallocated workers from secondary and tertiary sectors to primary sectors. Finally, this paper summarized 3 experiences learned from the CSRPZRE policy pilot.