Can regional collaborative innovation improve innovation efficiency? An empirical study of Chinese cities

The relationship between collaborative innovation and innovation efficiency has attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. However, few studies have integrated intra-regional and inter-regional collaborative innovations (IRCI) into a unified framework to analyze the overall impact of regional innovation efficiency. To fill this gap, this paper uses an improved Data Envelopment Analysis Model to measure the innovation efficiency of Chinese cities from 2003 to 2016 based on the regional innovation capability. Using the Coupling Coordination Degree Model to measure the degree of intra-regional collaborative innovation, we constructed a Capability Structure Model to measure the degree of IRCI, then used the Spatial Durbin Model to empirically analyze the influence of intra-regional and IRCI on regional innovation efficiency. The results show that: (a) both intra-regional and IRCI promote regional innovation efficiency, but the internal factors are the primary influences on regional innovation efficiency; (b) intra-regional collaborative innovation not only promotes local regional innovation efficiency but also promotes innovation efficiency in other regions effectively, although its driving effect on the local region is higher than on other regions; (c) there is a time lag in promoting regional innovation efficiency through the cooperation and interaction among innovation in knowledge, technological, industrial, and service, and environment capabilities. The regional innovation capacities can result in good collaborative innovation effects only after a certain period of cooperation.     

Do rural migrants benefit from labor market agglomeration economies? Evidence from Chinese cities

We combine the 2005 China Inter-Census Population Survey data and the 2004 China Manufacturing Census to test whether workers, particularly rural migrants, benefit from labor market Marshallian externalities. We find that workers in general, and rural migrants in particular, benefit from labor market pooling effects (measured by total employment in a city-industry cell) and human capital externalities (measured by share of workers with a college degree or above in a city-industry cell). These findings are robust to various sorting bias tests. However, rural migrants benefit much less than do local or urban workers, possibly because rural migrants lack social networks and are discriminated doubly in terms of being both “rural” and “migrants.” Our findings have policy implications on how Chinese cities can become skilled during the rapid urbanization process coupled with global competition.     

Did incentives help municipalities recover from the Great Recession? Evidence from Midwestern cities

This study assesses the impacts of local business incentives in the largest urban areas of Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, three Midwestern states that share similar histories and settings. We assembled a unique dataset combining information on two types of incentives, tax increment financing districts and tax abatements, together with socio‐economic, geographic, fiscal, and spatial competitive characteristics for all of the municipalities in six metropolitan areas. The outcome measures include employment growth, establishment formation, and business relocation. The analysis extends knowledge of the effects of economic development incentives in two ways. First, we improve upon previous research by incorporating key factors in municipal decisions to offer incentives. Second, we add to limited empirical evidence concerning local incentives following the Great Recession. Variation in the use of incentives reflects not only local decision‐making but also differing fiscal capacities and situations of adaptation to adverse economic conditions, with some governments pulling back on incentives and others initiating new approaches to retain or lure businesses.     

Can urban rail transit systems alleviate air pollution? Empirical evidence from Beijing

Improving air quality across mainland China is an urgent policy challenge, while rapidly increasing use of vehicles poses a great menace to the urban population and air quality. Public transportation has received increasing attention as emissions‐ friendly transport options, but whether the urban rail transit system has a significant effect on curbing air pollution has been unclear, and there is a lack of explicit case studies in mainland China. Therefore, the effects of the opening of the Beijing Metro on air pollutants emissions in Beijing were quantified through a regression discontinuity design. Beijing has seen a brisk growth in its rail transit infrastructure and a downward trend of air pollution index since 2005. The regression results show that the operation of the rail transit system was observed to have a significant effect on reducing most of the air pollutants concentrations (PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, and CO) but had little effect on ozone pollution. The results obtained were highly robust across a variety of tests. This study contributes to empirical evidence on the air pollutants associated with the opening of rail transit and traffic‐related pollution control policy making in Beijing.     

How does industrial agglomeration affect regional innovation? A spatial econometric analysis

This study empirically investigates the direct and indirect (spillover) effects of three types of industrial agglomeration with different cognitive distances, namely, industrial specialization, industrial related variety, and industrial unrelated variety, on regional innovation. Accordingly, we applied the concepts of related and unrelated variety and used spatial econometric analysis. Based on panel data of 283 Chinese cities from 2004 to 2016, the empirical results reveal that both industrial specialization and industrial related variety significantly improve regional innovation and produce positive spatial spillover effects on the surrounding regions. However, industrial unrelated variety has a significant negative impact on regional innovation and produces a negative spatial spillover effect on the surrounding regions. Moreover, the direct and indirect effects of the three types of industrial agglomeration on regional innovation between China's coastal and inland cities. The findings have important theoretical and policy implications.     

Is Waste Material from Urban Ruins Valuable to the Landscape?

With the adjustment of urban industrial structure,a large number of ruins have emerged in cities,and the waste materials left by these ruins not only occupy urban space resources,but also seriously damage the ecological environment.How to identify the value of waste materials through landscape thinking and how to rationally reuse these waste materials through landscape methods is the focus of this paper.     

Does carbon emission trading contribute to reducing infectious diseases? Evidence from China

Research at the biophysical level constitutes the main approach to study the path through which climate influences infectious diseases, but the influence of socioeconomic factors on climate change and the spread of infectious diseases also cannot be ignored. In the current context, with its emphasis on carbon emission reduction, countries have begun to adopt “total control and trading” methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This paper is based on the monthly relevant data of various provinces and cities from 2015 to 2019, adds the moderating variable of “carbon emission trading volume” based on current research results, establishes a static model of unbalanced panel fixed effects and a dynamic panel model, and deeply analyzes the impact of climate change on infectious disease popularity and the moderating effect of the carbon trading market. The study found that climate warming, frequent precipitation, and shortened sunshine duration will lead to an increase in the number of infectious disease cases and that the “carbon emission trading volume” variable plays a negative role in the positive correlation between climate change (temperature/precipitation) and the number of infectious disease cases. There are seasonal differences, and the moderating effect in summer/autumn is more obvious than that in winter/spring.     

Does venture capital spur innovation or the other way around? Evidence on the significance of investment timing from China

This paper explores the interaction between venture capital and innovation in China. We focus on the difference between early, development, and expansion stages of innovation firms when they receive their first installment of venture capital. Using ordinary least squares (OLS), switching regression model and counterfactual comparison, we find that selection effect exists in all three stages, suggesting that established innovation capacity increases the possibility of innovation firms to receive venture capital. Further, the selection effect is most profound in the development stage. The treatment effect, the combined effect of financial role and value‐added service, plays an important role in promoting innovation in all three stages. However, the mechanisms of the effect vary greatly across the early, development, and expansion stages. The financial role of venture capital does not influence innovation in the early stage, but promotes innovation in the development stage, and restrains innovation in the expansion stage. Value‐added service promotes innovation in the early and expansion stages, and whether it influences innovation in the development stage needs further study.     

What drives university students to practice social distancing? Evidence from South Korea and Vietnam

As COVID-19 has caused unprecedented social change, governments are implementing several social measures to control transmission. Among them, social distancing is being enforced in almost all countries and is effective in preventing infection. Based on the importance of social distancing, this study identifies factors influencing the intention towards social distancing. The research model was developed by introducing risk perception in the theory of planned behaviour. To examine the proposed model, a survey was conducted with 339 university students from two countries, South Korea and Vietnam. The data were analysed using the partial least squares method. The results show that social distancing attitude and perceived behavioural control significantly influence social distancing intention. The findings indicate that both affective risk perception and cognitive risk perception serve as imperative factors in the formation of social distancing attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. However, subjective norms and nationality do not affect social distancing intention. Based on the results, suggestions are made for policymakers to establish effective social measures.     

Is ASEAN ready to move to multilateral cross-border electricity trade?

This paper reviews progress towards the establishment of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Power Grid (APG) and the key barriers to multilateral cross-border electricity trade in ASEAN. An analysis across political, technical, institutional, economic, environmental, social and time dimensions is employed. Using a policy sequencing framework, the paper concludes it remains premature for ASEAN to pursue a strong form of power sector market integration on account of the sizeable barriers that currently remain, especially economic and institutional barriers. Focusing on bilateral power purchase agreements and large-scale investments in solar and wind power over 2022–2030 would help to develop stronger foundations for ASEAN to make steps towards deeper regional integration in the electricity sector in subsequent years, while also being consistent with renewables adoption goals.     

Do Houses of Worship Affect Housing Prices? Evidence from Germany

Using hedonic pricing models, this paper analyzes the impact of houses of worship (HoWs) on the prices of adjacent condominiums in Hamburg, Germany. It addresses the questions of whether this impact differs between Islamic and Christian religious centers, whether potential effects persist even after the house of worship has been deconsecrated, and whether church bells affect residential property prices. This is one of the first studies on this subject to have been conducted outside the U.S. Controlling for spatial dependence and by using potentiality variables, positive externalities of HoWs within a radius of 1,000 m were identified. Compared with properties beyond this threshold, price premiums of 4.6 percent were detected for condominiums at distances of 100–200 m to the next house of worship. The results also show that the positive externalities near mosques do not differ from those of HoWs of other religions and that the positive effect of churches continues to be felt even after they have been deconsecrated. The influence of church bell ringing on the prices of surrounding residential properties, however, could not be substantiated.     

What does the character of urban technology reveals about convergence versus divergence of innovation in China?—A technical lens to evaluate regional economic development

Regional technology characters (TCs) are studied in this paper to find whether innovation in Chinese cities leads to technology converging, or technology divergence, in both the intra-city and inter-city scales, with which regional economic development strength may be better explained. Based on a literature review on the subject, a two-dimensional research framework and relevant technical lens are designed to clarify TC in cities composed of parameters on Technology Strength (TS) versus Technology Angle (TA). By applying Principle Component Analysis, a technical lens is made possible based on extracted parameters on three integrated technology dimensions for measuring TSs and TAs over 117 Chinese sample cities with invention patent data covering 21 technology field between 2005/2006 and 2015/2016. Technology convergence versus divergence are examined for 28/24 sample cities beyond average score, and the research findings indicate that technology divergence in Chinese cities can be confirmed at the inter-city level, even partially at the intra-city level. This finding holds for most sample cities with fairly large and modest TSs, while intra-city technology converging is significant, especially for larger sized TS samples, however they also differ on different dimensions. This may imply that urban economic development in China is technical based and differentiated.     

Is environmental regulation a blessing or a curse for China's urban land use efficiency? Evidence from a threshold effect model

Severe land shortage causes a higher demand for domestic and foreign land‐intensive products. As a result, resource utilization, and related environmental issues, will increase in urban areas. To this respect, the analysis of the impact of environmental regulation on urban land use efficiency helps to identify potential points for interventions designed to ensure sustainable land use. This study first introduces a theoretical framework to investigate the micro‐transmission mechanism of environmental regulation on urban land use efficiency. Our profit decision‐making model concludes that the impact of environmental regulation on urban land use efficiency is influenced by changes in the industrial structure. Empirically, our preliminary analysis suggests that in addition to population density, both formal and informal environmental regulation can promote urban land use efficiency, with a significant spatial heterogeneity across the sample regions. Further, this study shows a remarkable double‐threshold relationship between formal environmental regulation and urban land use efficiency in China. We clarify and confirm that environmental regulation promoted urban land use efficiency only when regulation intensity was higher than 0.8612. Environmental regulation increased urban land use efficiency in high‐level industrial rationalization areas, whereas it had the opposite effect in low‐level ones. Furthermore, there was a clear marginal diminishing effect of the impact of environmental regulation on urban land use efficiency when the optimization of the industrial structure was set as a threshold variable.     

Who leads regional industrial dynamics? “New industry creators” in Chinese regions

Recent evolutionary economic geography studies have argued that regional diversification emerges as a path‐dependent process, as regions often branch into industries that are related to its industrial structure. However, it is less clear who are creating new industries and under what regional conditions. This research seeks to fill this gap and identify “new industry creators” in regional industrial diversification. We differentiate two types of new industry formation—path‐breaking and path‐dependent—and examine whether some new industry creators are more path‐breaking than others, by incorporating two factors that have been largely overlooked in recent literature on technological relatedness—firm heterogeneity and regional institutions. Based on a firm‐level data set of China’s manufacturing industries, this paper shows that path‐breaking and path‐dependence coexist. Empirical results confirm that firm heterogeneity and regional institutions not only affect the firms’ capabilities in creating new industries, but also encourage/discourage firms to be adventurous and path‐breaking. This research implies that lagging regions can catch up with developed regions by coordinating regional resources and adjusting local institutional arrangements to attract more path‐breaking firms.     

The role of national settings in the economic resilience of regions—Evidence from recessionary shocks in Europe from 1990 to 2014

This paper focuses on the particular role of the national setting for the economic resilience of regions during the resistance and recovery phase. Our empirical set-up introduces a spatial hierarchy of 249 NUTS-2 regions nested in 22 European countries while it includes numerous recessionary shocks from 1990 to 2014. Our results suggest that the impact of the national setting is strongest during the resistance phase when the national level accounts for up to 44.9% of the variance in regional GDP development. During recovery, however, the national share decreases but still amounts to no less than 22.0%. Apart from the direct effects that originate from, for example, regulatory density and fiscal policy measures, the national impact takes the form of cross-level moderation effects. These indirect effects indicate that the regional patterns of resilience are additionally shaped by the inter-linkages of country-specific institutional factors and regional determinants. Taking all this into account, regional economic resilience is anything but just a matter of regional capacities.     

Does access to internet promote innovation? A look at the U.S. broadband industry

Access to the Internet is an essential determinant of innovation, which has received little attention in the literature. This paper emphasizes the role of Internet accessibility in lowering information costs and therefore boosting regional innovation activity. We construct a simple theoretical model to illustrate the positive impact of decreased discovery costs, proxied by the accessibility of the Internet, on innovation. To test this hypothesis, we exploit a county‐level data set in the U.S. and run three types of regression with and without instruments: OLS, negative binomial, and Poisson. Within each method, we employ four levels of download speeds. We find a positive relationship between the access to the Internet and the number of patents filed in that specific county. This effect is particularly strong in the case of access to download speeds of 10 Mbps. Our analysis suggests that access to the Internet lowers information disseminating costs and therefore encourages more patents filed in the county. The results also indicate that access to the Internet matters more than faster Internet speed for innovation. Policy implications for these results suggest that if there were a minimum Internet access initiative, there could potentially be a significant increase in innovation by the U.S.     

Is it possible to forecast the grain quality and yield of different varieties of winter wheat from Minolta SPAD meter measurements?

To optimize wheat segregation for the various markets, it is necessary to add to genotype segregation, a prediction before harvest of the values of yield and grain protein concentration (GPC) for the different fields of the collecting area. Different tools allowing a prediction of crop production exist. Among them, the evaluation of nitrogen concentration by a chlorophyll meter (Soil–Plant Analysis Development (SPAD) readings), classically used to adapt the nitrogen fertilizer application, has been used in few works to foresee grain yield and grain protein concentration. But the relationships between N crop status and SPAD measurements varies among varieties and this genotypic effect has rarely been incorporated in models of forecasting grain quality.This paper compares several models to forecast yield, nitrogen uptake in grain (NUG) and grain protein concentration from trials carried out in 2001 and 2002 at the INRA experiment station of Grignon (West of Paris). Trials crossed nine varieties by four (2002) or five (2001) nitrogen rates. Input variables of those models are mainly chlorophyll meter measurements (SPAD) on the penultimate leaf at GS65 and on the flag leaf at GS71 Zadoks growth stages and ear number per square meter (NE).A square root model of yield based on NE × SPAD gave the best fit (RMSE = 0.6 t ha⁻¹ for both stages) if considering three different groups of genotypes. Based on the same variable, NE × SPAD, a quadratic model for NUG without significant effect of genotypes gave the best fit (RMSE, between 21 and 30 kg ha⁻¹ depending of the growth stage). And, for GPC, considering the same three groups of genotypes, the slope of the linear model with the ratio of predicted grain nitrogen concentration to predicted yield, is the same at both stages and very close to the standard value used to calculate protein concentration from nitrogen concentration (5.7), but the predictive quality of the model is more than 10% higher at GS71 (R² of 0.77) than at flowering (R² of 0.64). Finally, the sensibility of the models to delay in the stage of measurement is discussed.     

How does financial agglomeration affect green development? Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta of China

An extensive economic growth mode leads to resource depletion and environmental degradation. Green development is the best way to solve this problem. We analyzed the sample data of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta of China from 2007 to 2019. We used the spatial Durbin model and interaction term model to study the effects of regional financial agglomeration (FA) on green development and the moderating role of green technology innovation. The results show that FA promotes local green development but inhibits the green development of neighboring areas. Because the polarization effect of the growth pole is greater than its dispersion effect, cities with high levels of FA have a strong “siphon effect” on the surrounding areas. Green technology innovation positively moderates the promoting effect of FA on green development; the higher the level of green technology innovation and the degree of emphasis on it, the stronger the promoting effect. The government should encourage green finance to promote green technology innovation and promote the green development of the regional economy. These findings provide new insights for developing countries to achieve sustainable development under environmental constraints.     

Do Geographic Concentration and Vertically Related Variety Foster Firm Productivity? Micro‐Evidence from Italy

Using a large unbalanced panel dataset of more than 12,000 Italian manufacturing firms for the period 1999–2007, this paper investigates the role of geographic concentration and related variety on firms' total factor productivity (TFP). The main idea is that diversification—captured by a measure of vertically related variety—promotes firm innovativeness and, consequently, productivity, but when the technology has been consolidated, firms join specialized clusters that enhance efficiency. Our results suggest that the effect on firms' TFP of geographic concentration is stronger than that of related variety. We also confirm previous findings on the relevance of agglomeration forces for small firms compared with medium and large firms, where these agglomerative forces do not seem to influence TFP.