The rapid economic development has severely damaged the ecological environment and affected public health. Firms are the main source of pollution; thus, corporate environmental responsibility (CER) has attracted great attention from the government, shareholders and the public. This study used both the fixed effects model and the system GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) model to examine the relationship between environmental pollution, environmental regulations and CER for 30 provinces in China, over the period 2005 to 2015. This study drew the following results: first, mandatory CER disclosure policy can significantly decrease environmental pollution. Second, an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between environmental regulations and environmental pollution. Third, environmental pollution has a positive impact on CER. Fourth, an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between environmental regulations and CER. Therefore, it is necessary to find a balance between environmental regulations affecting environmental pollution and CER so that they can effectively reduce environmental pollution and increase the enthusiasm of firms to carry out environmental responsibility activities.

Studies have shown that land and climate interact in complex ways through multiple biophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks. In this interaction mechanism, the carbon fixation effect among different land-use types and objective conditions among different regions have significant gaps, leading to the heterogeneous impact of land-use on climate change. This study takes temperature change as the observation index to reflect climate change, and analyzes the process of land use type adjustment affecting vegetation cover and climate change. Based on the data of 214 countries from 1990 to 2018, this paper uses the spatial Durbin model with temperature lag to verify the heterogeneous impact of land-use on climate change in two dimensions of land-use type (Agriculture, forestry and their subdivision structure) and region (latitude and land-sea difference). The following conclusions are drawn: 1) The impact of different land-use types on climate change is heterogeneous. The impact of agricultural land on climate change is not significant, but the increase of the forest land proportion will help to restrain the rise of national temperature. 2) The impact of land-use on climate change has regional heterogeneity. There is heterogeneity in the impact on climate change among sample countries of different latitudes. The geographical differences make the mechanism of land-use affecting climate change between island countries and mainland countries also have heterogeneity, mainly in that island countries are not affected by the land-use structure adjustment of neighboring countries. 3) A country’s climate change is affected by both its own land-use structure and the land-use structure of neighboring countries, and the latter is more critical. The conclusions in this study provide helpful supplementary evidence for the importance of international climate cooperation and provide a reference for proposing international initiatives to address climate change or establishing an international convention to address climate change.

The effect of digital financial inclusion on farmers’ income growth is worth theoretical discussion and empirical testing. Based on the sample data of 30 provinces in the Chinese mainland from 2011 to 2019, this paper adopted the spatial Durbin model and the panel threshold model to empirically study the impact of digital financial inclusion on the growth of farmers’ income; furthermore, the heterogeneity of the impact was studied in terms of the difference of provincial economic development level. The results showed that: first, digital financial inclusion can significantly promote farmers’ income growth; second, digital financial inclusion has a positive spatial spillover effect on farmers’ income growth; third, the impact of digital financial inclusion on farmers’ income growth has a double threshold effect: farmers’ income growth increases with the development of digital financial inclusion; and fourth, the impact of digital financial inclusion on farmers’ income growth is heterogeneous in terms of provincial economic development level.

With the full integration of digital information technology and financial services, digital finance has developed rapidly. As there are significant differences in the development level of FinTech and traditional financial sectors in different cities, it is important to evaluate the development level of urban digital finance. This study aimed to compile an index of urban digital finance to present an accurate and in-depth depiction of how urban digital finance has developed in China. Our sample covers 278 cities in China, over the period 2010–2020. This paper firstly constructs the urban digital financial index system from the three dimensions of digital financial services, digital financial technology, and digital financial operating environment, and then adopts a combination of subjective and objective methods to measure the urban digital financial index. This paper study revealed that China's urban digital finance has been on an upward trend from 2010 to 2020, and the digital finance operating environment is an important driving force for the growth of the urban digital finance index. The convergence of China's urban digital finance is decreasing, indicating that the gap in digital financial development between cities is increasing. Urban digital finance has positive spatial agglomeration, but this spatial agglomeration is decreasing.

The impact of high-standard basic farmland construction policies on agricultural eco-efficiency has been extensively considered. Using the Chinese provincial panel data from 2007–2017, we first measure the level of agricultural eco-efficiency in China by employing data envelopment analysis. Then, using difference-in-difference models, we analyze the impact of high-standard basic farmland construction policies on agricultural eco-efficiency and test whether there is heterogeneity of this impact. Finally, we further explore the specific channels through which the polices of high-standard basic farmland construction affect agricultural eco-efficiency. The empirical results indicate that 1) the implementation of high-standard farmland construction policies can significantly improve agricultural eco-efficiency, 2) the heterogeneity of the impact of high-standard farmland construction policies on agricultural eco-efficiency is manifested in both regional and efficiency aspects and 3) high-standard farmland construction policies promote agricultural eco-efficiency through the interaction between the new land scale and the replanting index.