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.

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.

Against the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization, green technology innovation plays an important role in promoting the energy total factor productivity (TFP). This study verifies the impact of green technology innovation on energy TFP in a complete sample and the subsamples by region, by constructing a panel threshold model, and analyzes its influence mechanism on the basis of the mediating effect test based on annual provincial data of mainland China from 2005 to 2018. The empirical results reveal the following: first, with the level of economic development as the threshold variable, there is a threshold effect in the impact of green technology innovation on the energy TFP; second, green technology innovation has an impact on the energy TFP through industrial structure upgrading; that is, industrial structure has a mediating effect in the influence mechanism; and third, there is heterogeneity in the impact of green technology innovation on the energy TFP among different regions in China, and the threshold effect only exists in the western region, since the central and eastern regions have crossed a certain developmental stage.

The spatial relationship between high-tech industrial agglomeration and urban ecological efficiency has been a widespread concern. This study empirically analyzed the bidirectional influence relationship between high-tech industrial agglomeration and urban ecological efficiency and its spatial spillover effect by constructing a spatial simultaneous equation model, and based on the classification of urban resource endowment, this paper studies the heterogeneity of spatial spillover effects between high-tech industrial agglomeration and urban ecological efficiency based on the sample data of 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2017. The empirical results reveal the following: first, there is a two-way promoting effect between high-tech industrial agglomeration and urban ecological efficiency; second, there is a significant spatial spillover effect of urban ecological efficiency, that is, the urban ecological efficiency in this region is significantly positively correlated with the urban ecological efficiency in neighboring regions; third, there is a significant difference in the regional interaction between high-tech industry agglomeration and urban eco-efficiency, that is, the urban eco-efficiency in the neighboring areas has a significant negative impact on the regional high-tech industry agglomeration, while the high-tech industry agglomeration in the neighboring areas has a negative but not significant impact on the regional urban eco-efficiency; fourth, the spatial interaction spillover effects between high-tech industrial agglomeration and urban ecological efficiency are heterogeneous in terms of regional resources, and the results of regional interaction and spatial spillover effects are better in the sample study.