The development of digital financial inclusion has added a new vitality to economic growth, and environmental regulation is an important tool to achieve sustainable economic growth. Therefore, whether there is a synergistic effect between these two factors of economic growth is a topic worth exploring. This paper uses the space econometric model and threshold model to explore the impact of digital financial inclusion and environmental regulation on regional economic growth using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces, collected between 2011 and 2019. The research results prove that the development of digital financial inclusion and the improvement in the intensity of environmental regulation have a significant direct promotion effect and negative spatial spillover effect on regional economic growth. Moreover, the two have a significant synergistic effect on regional economic growth. A panel threshold analysis showed that, with the improvement in the level of digital financial inclusion, the regression coefficient of environmental regulation changed from negative to positive, which played a significant role in promoting regional economic growth. The heterogeneity analysis found that digital inclusive finance in eastern regions of China plays a greater role in promoting the economy, whereas environmental regulation in the central region plays a greater role in promoting the economy. The synergy between the two in the central region greatly promotes economic development. When digital inclusive finance is used as the threshold variable, environmental regulation in eastern and western regions has a single-threshold effect on regional economic development. Based upon these research results, this paper proposes that a coordination mechanism between digital financial inclusion and environmental regulation should be established to give full play to their synergies in sustainable economic growth.

Environmental regulation is a crucial tool for controlling environmental pollution. Digital finance is essential for the development of green finance. The relationship between environmental regulation and digital finance concerning environmental pollution is an issue worth exploring. This paper uses the spatial econometric model and the panel threshold model to empirically analyze the impact of environmental regulation and digital financial inclusion on environmental pollution using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2019. It mainly discusses the independent impact and synergy of environmental regulation and digital inclusive finance on environmental pollution. The research results show that the improvement of the intensity of environmental regulation and the development level of digital-inclusive finance can effectively alleviate the problem of environmental pollution. Moreover, environmental regulation and digital inclusive finance can coordinately control environmental pollution. A panel threshold analysis shows that as the intensity of environmental regulation increases, digital financial inclusion will reflect the function of environmental governance. Similarly, with the development of digital financial inclusion, environmental regulation has shown a significant inhibitory effect on environmental pollution. The results of a heterogeneity analysis show that the intensity of environmental regulation in the eastern region has a significant inhibitory effect on environmental pollution. Digital financial inclusion in the central region shows a strong environmental governance function. The intersection of environmental regulation and digital financial inclusion has shown a significant synergistic governance effect in the eastern region. Therefore, the government gives full play to the functions of environmental regulation and digital inclusive finance environmental governance to achieve coordinated governance of environmental pollution.

The goal of public security and safety under the concept of sustainable development has been transformed into the maximization of the comprehensive goal of economic, environmental, and social security and safety. The polycentric collaborative governance mode is a crucial approach for the reform of government regulation. Social–ecological resilience has become a typical paradigm in the field of risk governance. Polycentric collaborative governance and safety resilience are the foundation and booster of elevator safety governance. In this paper, we expound on the system elements and mechanisms of polycentric collaborative governance and ecological resilience of elevator safety under the guidance of sustainable development by using a conceptual framework method. On this basis, we explore the influence degree and mechanism of elevator safety polycentric collaborative governance on elevator safety ecological resilience under the guidance of sustainable development by constructing a structural equation model based on micro-survey data. The results show that (1) the polycentric collaborative governance subject composed of the government, business, society, and the public is the key force to enhancing the ecological resilience of elevator safety; (2) enhancing the ecological resilience of elevator safety has a significant direct promoting effect on improving the mitigation, recovery, learning, and coping ability of elevator safety; (3) improving the learning ability has a significant direct promoting effect on improving the mitigation, recovery, and coping ability of elevator safety; (4) improving the coping ability has a significant direct promoting effect on improving the mitigation and recovery ability of elevator safety; (5) improving the mitigation ability has a significant direct promoting effect on improving the recovery ability of elevator safety. Therefore, in the process of elevator safety governance under the guidance of sustainable development, we should not only adhere to the polycentric collaborative governance mode but also attach importance to the ecological resilience governance paradigm of elevator safety, which together can improve the elevator quality and safety level.

As a crucial basic natural resource, water resources are the cornerstone for sustainable national economic development. This paper takes the 2014 pilot water rights trading policy (WRT) as an entry point and uses a difference-in-differences (DID) model to test the policy effect of WRT on water-use efficiency (WUE) based on panel data for 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2021. The study shows that WRT can significantly improve the regional WUE, and these results remain valid after a series of robustness tests, such as the parallel trend test, placebo test, and PSM-DID. Mechanistic analysis revealed that WRT can produce the Porter effect, which affects the WUE through technological innovation. The results of the heterogeneity analysis based on the synthetic control method (SCM) showed that WRT effectively improved WUE in Jiangxi, Henan, Ningxia, Hubei, and Guangdong, but did not achieve the expected effect in Inner Mongolia or Gansu. This paper provides solid empirical support for assessing the effectiveness of WRT and accelerating the process of establishing a unified national WRT market in China by 2025.

The “Internet plus Tourism” mode, which is the coordination of the internet and tourism, has become a new driving force for regional economic growth. In order to investigate the mechanism and superiority of “Internet plus Tourism” in terms of economic growth compared with the independent effects of the internet and tourism on economic growth, this paper uses the DEA model to calculate the tourism efficiency of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019 and three spatial econometric models to comparatively analyze the independent effects of the internet and tourism with the synergized effect of “Internet plus Tourism” on economic growth. The results show that (1) the overall pattern of the internet is that coastal areas are ranked higher; (2) tourism efficiency presents a polarized hierarchical structure; (3) The effect of “Internet plus Tourism” on economic growth is significantly positive and is significantly greater than the independent effects of the internet and tourism on economic growth; (4) the internet, tourism, and “Internet plus Tourism” have different effects on economic growth in different regions. Therefore, the paper suggests that China should accelerate the integration of “Internet plus Tourism” and realize sustainable economic development.