The development of rural e-commerce in China is viewed as an opportunity to increase rural income. Using panel data from 592 national-level key poverty-stricken (NLKPS) counties from 2014 to 2020, we confirm that the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration Project (NRECDP), launched by the Chinese government, delivers significant rural income growth for selected counties by providing financial support. Digital inclusive finance has facilitated rural e-commerce development, thereby promoting rural income. Our study uses the endogeneity switching regression (ESR) model to address self-selection bias and finds that NRECDP participation increases rural income by ~12.97%. The determinants of participation in the NRECDP include levels of economic development, e-commerce development, infrastructure development, industry structure, and digital inclusive finance. Additionally, the determinants of rural income include education levels and population density. Moreover, our heterogeneity analysis reveals that the rural income growth effect of NRECDP involvement is more significant for NLKPS counties in non-ethnic regions, central regions, higher industry structures, and the three regions and three prefectures. Additionally, entrepreneurship serves as a potential channel linking NRECDP implementation and rural income growth.

Manufacturing, as an energy-intensive industry, plays a major role in economic growth. Its green growth is the focus of national planning for sustainable development, especially for a country such as Korea, which has a scarcity of fossil energy of its own. While internationalization has brought Korea scarce energy, serious carbon emissions have become a pressing issue. It is still necessary to explore the relationship between globalization and green growth in manufacturing. Thus, our paper aims to observe their relationship by using 24 manufacturing industries from 2011 to 2019. Through the panel Granger non-causality test and the Dumitrescu–Hurlin test, we find that imports and inward foreign direct investment (FDI) causes green growth at the overall manufacturing level, but their causality relationships exist in different industries. The green-growth causality relationship of inward FDI mainly exists in capital-intensive and internationally competitive manufacturing industries (manufacture industries of basic metals; furniture; food products; coke, briquettes, and refined petroleum products; and chemicals and chemical products, except pharmaceuticals and medicinal chemicals). Furthermore, the green-growth causality relationship of imports primarily exists in the fossil-energy-consumption-intensive manufacturing industry (manufacture industries of motor vehicles, trailers, and semitrailers and coke, briquettes, and refined petroleum products). Furthermore, in our regression analysis, we find that only inward FDI robustly promotes the Korean manufacturing sector’s green growth; the positive effect is in the range from 0.005 to 0.009. Though the parameter estimates are positive and significant for FDI, they are close to zero, suggesting very limited positive effects that are close to almost zero. Conversely, imports have no significant impact, which we speculate is related to the import structure of Korea. Hence, the Korean manufacturing development model suggests that developing countries with similar country characteristics need to develop and guide the formation of capital-intensive and competitive industries. Additionally, it is imperative to decarbonize energy-intensive industries and to work on renewable energy development and diffusion. Finally, it is essential to introduce various green monitoring mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions. The government needs to strengthen its support for research and development of innovative technologies to reduce carbon emissions as well as promote the development of environmental and energy-saving related professional service enterprises.

Introduction: Coastal tourism has become an important pillar of economic growth in China's coastal regions, yet no quantitative research has analyzed the relationship between coastal tourism and marine pollution.Methods: This study, within a multivariate framework, comprehensively examines the impact of coastal tourism on marine pollution by employing various econometric techniques and focusing on four different types of marine pollutant discharges: chemical oxygen demand (COD), petroleum (PET), ammonia nitrogen (NHN), and total phosphorus (TP).Results and discussion: Panel cointegration tests confirm a long-term relationship between coastal tourism and these four types of marine pollutant discharges. In the long run, coastal tourism has a significantly negative impact on COD, NHN, and TP. The results of Pooled Mean Group (PMG), Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimators show that for every 1% increase in coastal tourism revenue (TOUR), COD decreases by 0.734%, 0.536%, and 0.952% respectively; NHN decreases by 0.746%, 0.340%, and 1.633%; and TP decreases by 5.169%, 0.899%, and 0.334% respectively. However, the impact of coastal tourism on PET is not significant. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin (D-H) panel causality test results indicate different causality patterns between coastal tourism and various marine pollutant discharges. Specifically, there is a bidirectional causality between coastal tourism and COD, NHN, and a unidirectional causality between coastal tourism and PET, TP. Moreover, heterogeneity analysis reveals that coastal tourism does not significantly reduce all marine pollutant discharges in low-and middle-income coastal regions. Furthermore, compared to the central and southern coastal regions, the coastal tourism of northern regions has not significantly reduced marine pollution. This study can provide policymakers with references for developing coastal tourism and reducing marine pollutant discharges.

Air pollution caused by shipping-related activities has adversely affected public health and environmental quality in port cities. However, applying digital technologies offers new pathways to mitigate such pollution. Based on panel data from 52 coastal port cities in China from 2016 to 2020, this study employs a two-way fixed effects model to analyze the impact of the digital economy on shipping-related PM_2.5 pollution. Additionally, a panel threshold model is used to examine the threshold effect of port size in the relationship between the digital economy and shipping-related pollution. Heterogeneity analysis is further conducted from two dimensions—vessel types and PM_2.5 components—to explore the variations in the digital economy’s emission reduction effects. The results show that the development of the digital economy significantly reduces shipping-related PM_2.5 pollution levels, and this emission reduction effect strengthens as port size expands. Furthermore, there are significant differences in the emission reduction effects across different vessel types and PM_2.5 components. These findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms through which the digital economy mitigates shipping-related pollution and provide a scientific basis and policy support for promoting the green development of port cities and the shipping industry.

This paper investigates the relationship between port productivity and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in port cities. The study initially employs the global Malmquist productivity index (MPI) to measure productivity growth in 16 major inland ports along the Yangtze River, obtaining data on the ports’ total factor productivity (TFP). Through an analysis using the panel data model with two-way fixed effects, we find a positive correlation between the improvement of port TFP and the increase in CO₂ emissions in port cities. Further panel quantile regression analysis reveals the heterogeneity of this impact, especially in cities with medium and higher CO₂ emissions, where the positive effects of TFP on carbon emissions are particularly significant. The study also indicates a threshold effect of port size in the relationship between TFP and CO₂ emissions: in smaller ports, the impact of TFP improvement on CO₂ emissions is less significant; however, once the port size exceeds a certain threshold, the growth in TFP significantly promotes an increase in CO₂ emissions. These findings provide theoretical justification and decision-making references for policymakers to adopt effective measures to mitigate the growth of CO₂ emissions while promoting the efficiency of port production.

Container shipping drives the development of international trade, yet previous studies have not fully appreciated the possible bidirectional causal relationship between container freight rates and international trade. In the context of the “twenty‐first Century Maritime Silk Road,” we use data on export container freight rates and import/export data from Shanghai to ASEAN‐6 countries (Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia) from February 2017 to January 2020 and apply a panel VAR to explore the relationship between maritime transport costs and international trade in the container shipping market. We use the freight rate data are from the Southeast Asia Freight Index, which is used for the first time in an empirical study. The quality and reliability of the freight rate data allow this paper to better identify causal relationships. The results of the panel Granger causality test and the orthogonal impulse response function suggest a bidirectional causal relationship between freight rates and export trade; to further explain, an increase in export trade lowers export freight rates, but an increase in export freight rates hinders export trade, and a growth in import trade unidirectionally raises export freight rates. We believe that international trade may impact freight rates through economies of scale and trade imbalances.