This paper applies a spatial econometric model to measure the impact of environmental regulation on urban innovation capacity from a spatial interaction perspective by using panel data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2009 to 2018. The study findings are as follows: first, environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on urban innovation capacity and a significant positive spatial spillover effect; second, innovation capacity has significant positive spatial dependence; third, city informatization level, government expenditures on science and technology, city economic scale, and industrial development level all positively affect the innovation capacity of neighboring cities and all have positive spatial spillover effects on the innovation capacity of neighboring cities; and finally, city expansion reduces the innovation capacity of a city and has negative spatial spillover effects on the innovation capacity of neighboring cities.

This paper reviews the long-term impact of public investments on irrigation and agricultural research and development along with other control variables, including physical capital, irrigated area, fertilizer consumption, level of mechanization, and CO₂ emissions on China’s agricultural output from 1986 to 2017. This study applied various econometric methods such as the ARDL bound-testing approach and Johansen co-integration procedure to determine the long-term co-integrating connection amid the variables. The empirical outcomes from the ARDL bound-testing method confirm a long-term co-integrating connection among the variables. The long-run results demonstrated that public investment in agricultural research and development and irrigation have a substantial positive effect on agricultural productivity. Furthermore, results revealed that physical capital and fertilizer consumption also have a significant positive effect on agricultural output; however, CO₂ emissions have a substantial negative effect on agricultural production. These findings therefore suggest that the policy makers of China should initiate more effective policies to increase irrigation and agricultural research and development investments. Increasing irrigation and agricultural research and development investments will enhance agricultural productivity by ensuring food security in the country.