Search results

The purpose of this study is to regard winter heating as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the possible causal effects of winter heating on population mobility. However, there are scant research studies examining the effect of atmospheric quality on population mobility. There also exists some relevant research studies on the relationship between population mobility and environmental degradation (Lu et al., 2018; Reis et al., 2018; Shen et al., 2018), and these studies exist still some deficiencies.

The notorious atmospheric quality problems caused by coal-fired heating in winter of northern China have an aroused widespread concern. However, the quantitative study on the effects on population mobility of winter heating is still rare. In this study, the authors regard the winter heating as a quasi-natural experiment, based on the of daily panel data of 58 cities of Tencent location Big Data in China from August 13 to December 30 in 2016 and August 16 to December 30 in 2017, and examine the impacts of winter heating on population mobility by utilizing a regression discontinuity method.

The findings are as follows, in general, winter heating significantly aggravates regional population mobility, but the impacts on population mobility among different cities are heterogeneous. Specifically, the effects of winter heating on population mobility is greater for cities with relatively good air quality, and the effects is also more obvious for big and medium-sized cities than that in small cities. In addition, different robustness tests, including continuity test, different bandwidth tests and alternative empirical model, are adopted to ensure the reliability of the conclusion. Finally, the authors put forward corresponding policy suggestions from the three dimensions of government, enterprises and residents.

First, regarding winter heating as a quasi-natural experiment, a regression discontinuity design method is introduced to investigate the relationship between winter heating and population mobility, which is helpful to avoid the estimation error caused by endogeneity. Second, the authors use the passenger travel “big data” based on the website of Tencent Location Big Data, which can effectively capture the daily characteristics of China's population mobility. Third, this study discusses the population mobility from the perspective of winter heating and researches population mobility before and after winter heating, which is helpful in enriching the research on population mobility.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of high-speed railway (HSR) on industrial pollution emissions using the data for 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2016.

The research method used in this paper is the multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model, which is an effective policy effect assessment method. To further address the issue of endogeneity, the DID integrated with the propensity score matching (PSM-DID) approach is employed to eliminate the potential self-selection bias.

The results show that the HSR has significantly reduced industrial pollution emissions, which is validated by several robustness tests. Compared with peripheral cities, HSR exerts a greater impact on industrial pollution emissions in central cities. In addition, the mechanism test reveals that the optimised allocation of inter-city industries is an important channel for HSR to mitigate industrial pollution emissions, and this is closely related to the location of HSR stations.

Previous studies have paid more attention to evaluating the economic effects of HSR, however, most of these studies overlook its environmental effects. Consequently, the impact of HSR on industrial pollution emissions is led by using multi-period DID models in this paper, in which the environmental effects are measured. The results of this paper can provide a reference for the pollution reduction policies and also the coordinated development of economic growth and environmental quality.

Rural credit cooperatives (RCCs) have long dominated China’s rural credit market and met most of agricultural credit demands while the existing literature seldom examines their contribution to agricultural sector. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the contribution of RCCs to agricultural growth, using China’s provincial panel data from 1997 to 2014.

Both static fixed effects models and two-step generalized method of moment dynamic panel data models, which control the endogeneity, are employed to identify the causality from RCC credit to agricultural growth in China.

The results show that the credit from RCCs increases the agricultural output significantly. A 1 percent increase in RCC credit leads to agricultural growth of about 0.08 percent, which is robust to various empirical specifications. Further study shows that the contribution of RCC credit to agricultural growth decreases from the most developed eastern region to the least developed western region and increases over time.

The results imply that RCC credit is critical in financing agricultural activities by relaxing rural credit constraints and intense competition strengthens the contribution of RCCs to agricultural growth by improving managerial efficiency and developing diversified financial products to meet better rural credit demands.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is first empirical study on the effect of RCC credit on agricultural growth despite of many on the role of financial development in agricultural growth.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to examine the effects of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on service quality, satisfaction and repurchase intention; second, to investigate the mediating (unique and serial) effects of service quality and satisfaction; and third, to determine the moderating effects of consumer rights awareness (CRA) on the relationship between perceived CSR and consumer responses.

Survey data was collected from a sample of 604 customers of the 4 major mobile telecommunications companies in Nigeria. The partial least squares structural equation modeling approach was used to test the hypothesized model.

Research findings indicate that perceived CSR has direct and positive effects on service quality, satisfaction and repurchase intention. Also, service quality and satisfaction mediates (uniquely and in sequence) the effect of perceived CSR on repurchase intention. In addition, CRA moderates perceived CSR’s effect on service quality perceptions and repurchase intention.

The findings confirm the complementary relationships between CSR, service quality and satisfaction in influencing consumers’ repurchase intention. Managers should imbibe CSR as an intangible attribute that complements high-quality services, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions. The findings also suggest that CRA enhances perceived CSR’s effect on service quality perceptions and repurchase intentions. Thus, managers should take proactive steps to inform consumers of their rights, and also show efforts at protecting the same.

This study has overcome the limitation observed in previous studies by testing the sequential mediating effects of service quality and customer satisfaction in the perceived CSR–consumer response relationships. Also, this study represents a pioneering effort at empirically confirming the role of CRA in enhancing perceived CSR’s influence on consumer responses. In addition, the findings also provide insights on the impact of CSR on consumer behavior from a developing country’s perspective.

Proposes that decisions on reward distribution are affected by preferences for various distributive principles and by the social context within which distribution takes place. Using a Chinese sample this relationship is tested. Identifies that the strength of preference for a particular distributive principle was a major predictor for a corresponding decision, however such influences were neutralised by secondary preferences for competing principles. Provides some insight into the Chinese psychology.