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Balancing Regional Economic Development and Environmental Impact in the Context of Globalization

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (21 November 2023) | Viewed by 3507

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
China Institute of Development Strategy and Planning, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Interests: economy development; regional economics; global value chains

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Guest Editor
Business School, Hubei University, Wuhan, China
Interests: economy development; regional economics; global value chains

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the twentieth century, regional economic development was often regarded as the polar opposite of environmental effect, placing humans in the position of having to make tough choices between the two. However, the problem appears to be unnecessary in the case of China, which demonstrates that environmental impact may be efficiently applied with regional economic growth. China is witnessing an energy transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy, which is not only cutting costs and pollution but also spawning new technologies, markets, and job opportunities. Regional economic growth and environmental effect are not mutually exclusive in the context of globalisation; rather, they coexist in a win-win situation. Indeed, environmental preservation has the ability to increase environmental quality, industrial upgrading, and a variety of other advantages. Low-carbon-emitting industry contributes to the green transition of regional economic structures by facilitating clean production, encouraging green innovation, accelerating the growth of low-carbon industry, fostering new edges in renewable energy, green manufacturing, carbon capture, utilisation, and storage, and so on, thereby improving global competitiveness in industry and economy.

To achieve high-end and sustainable growth in the regional economy, a detailed awareness of the problems and possibilities, as well as their link to the continuing process of addressing environmental change, is urgently required. All of these factors inspired the idea for this Special Issue, which attempts to compile empirical investigations and theoretical contributions on the balance between regional economic growth and environmental effect in the context of globalisation. We invite submissions that include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Regional economy, environmental science, and urban studies.
  • Economic development quality under environmental restrictions.
  • Regional economic growth and environmental control.
  • Carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions.
  • Environmental policy evaluation.
  • Economic stability.
  • Environmental impact.
  • Economic and environmental growth must be coordinated.

Prof. Dr. Yongming Huang
Prof. Dr. Chunjiao Yu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • regional economic development
  • environmental impact
  • ecological footprint
  • globalization

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 438 KiB  
Article
Foreign Ownership and State-Owned Enterprises’ Innovation: The Mediating Role of Host Country’s Innovation Level and the Moderating Effect of Government Innovation Subsidies
by Chong Wu, Mengyao Yue, Fang Huang and Songqiao Wu
Sustainability 2024, 16(1), 405; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010405 - 02 Jan 2024
Viewed by 831
Abstract
From the perspectives of ownership dispersion degree after the entry of foreign shareholder and the foreign ownership participation level, respectively, this paper takes Chinese hybrid OFDI state-owned listed industrial companies from 2007 to 2019 as samples, using 3799 observations, to study the impact [...] Read more.
From the perspectives of ownership dispersion degree after the entry of foreign shareholder and the foreign ownership participation level, respectively, this paper takes Chinese hybrid OFDI state-owned listed industrial companies from 2007 to 2019 as samples, using 3799 observations, to study the impact of foreign ownership on the innovation of OFDI SOEs. We find that compared to the ownership dispersion degree after the entry of foreign shareholder, the foreign ownership participation level plays a more active role in the innovation of OFDI SOE. This positive effect is stronger for non-state-holding enterprises and high-pollution industries. Further analysis reveals that the relationship between foreign ownership and the innovation of SOE is mediated and moderated by the host country’s innovation level and government innovation subsidies, respectively. In addition, in comparison with the ownership dispersion degree after the entry of foreign shareholders, the mediating effect of the host country’s innovation level and the moderating effects of government innovation subsidies are significantly enhanced by the foreign ownership participation level. These findings can promote the study of the relationship between mixed-ownership reform and the innovation of Chinese OFDI SOEs. By verifying the impact of foreign ownership on the effectiveness of OFDI SOE innovation, this paper provides a new perspective on the study of mixed-ownership reform. This paper aims to expand the research field on the relationship between mixed-ownership reform and OFDI SOE innovation, providing theoretical implications and facilitating the policy design of promoting SOE reverse technology spillovers through their governance structural reform. Full article
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20 pages, 558 KiB  
Article
Does the Green Development of Cities Need High-Level Opening Up? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on China’s Pilot Free Trade Zone
by Bei Wang, Hong Chen, Ruiqi Chen, Weiting Zeng and Lechuan Ye
Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 5810; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075810 - 27 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1789
Abstract
The contradiction between urban open development and the environmental pollution of cities becomes increasingly serious. People begin to pay attention to the green development effect of Free Trade Zones. Based on 278 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2019, we use the [...] Read more.
The contradiction between urban open development and the environmental pollution of cities becomes increasingly serious. People begin to pay attention to the green development effect of Free Trade Zones. Based on 278 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2019, we use the time-varying DID method with the implementation of PFTZ establishment policy as a quasi-natural experiment to explore whether the green development of Chinese cities needs high-level opening up. The main findings of this paper are as follows: (i) Compared with cities without PFTZs, the environmental pollution composite index (EPI) of cities with PFTZs decreases significantly by 5.278% on average; that is, the establishment of PFTZs significantly improves the green development level of those cities. (ii) After the establishment of PFTZs, the green development level of Chinese coastal cities will be enhanced to a greater extent than that of inland cities. In addition, the higher Chinese cities are in the urban hierarchy, the more they can grasp the development opportunities from the establishment of PFTZs. (iii) The establishment of PFTZs effectively reduces the EPI and significantly improves the green development level of cities through three paths: the scale effect, the structure effect and the technology effect. This paper provides micro-empirical evidence for literature related to the environmental benefits and green development of PFTZ construction and provides a reference for most developing countries to learn from China’s experience. Full article
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