Regional integration is a key strategy for enhancing competitiveness and promoting innovation, and regional education integration has become an important part of regional integration. At the same time, university-industry-research (UIR) collaborative innovation is also a key link in building a national innovation system. This study empirically analyzes the impact of China’s Yangtze River Delta regional education integration policy on UIR innovation cooperation by using a difference in difference model. The results show that the regional education integration policy significantly promotes UIR innovation cooperation, especially in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, which have a stronger economic base and richer educational resources. In addition, the policy has an extraordinarily prominent role in promoting invention patents with higher innovation intensity. The mechanism analysis finds that human capital, economic capital, government support and social stability play an important mediating role. Finally, policy recommendations are made based on the empirical results.

Since China’s reform and opening up, the country’s rapid marketization process has been accompanied by the rapid growth of inequality, which has been significant for all classes of society. In terms of its impact, housing inequality is particularly noticeable. In this paper, we discuss the influence of real-estate purchase time, organization, human capital, and political capital on the value of real estate and the appreciation of real estate in China by using a conditional mean model and a quantile regression model. The differences in the degree of influence of these factors on different quantile levels are also investigated. We found that, after adding the time factor, the prior possession of resources in the early stage of market transformation will benefit the long-term marketization process. Organizations that can penetrate “market-redistribution” and professions that directly participate in the distribution of real-estate resources also have significant advantages in this regard.

Universities play a critical role in knowledge creation and technological innovation, serving as key drivers of regional development. However, existing research has paid limited attention to the mechanisms through which university innovation inputs translate into firm-level performance, particularly in the context of science and technology corridors in emerging economies. This study investigates how university innovation resources affect enterprise performance in the G60 Science and Technology Corridor within China’s Yangtze River Delta, one of the country’s most dynamic innovation regions. Using a panel dataset of 55 universities across nine cities from 2008 to 2017, we employ spatial analysis and fixed-effects panel regression models to examine the relationship between university innovation inputs and firm performance and further explore the mediating roles of local human capital and firm R&D investment. The results show that university innovation inputs significantly enhance enterprise performance, although excessive human resource inputs exhibit a negative effect on both short-term and long-term outcomes. Local human capital and firm R&D investment serve as key mediating mechanisms, with input and output resources influencing enterprise performance through distinct pathways. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that non-state-owned enterprises and small- and medium-sized enterprises derive greater long-term benefits from university resources. These findings contribute to the literature by clarifying the conceptual distinction between university innovation inputs and outputs, and by demonstrating the micro-level mechanisms—R&D investment and human capital—through which university-generated knowledge affects firm performance. The results also provide empirical evidence from an emerging economic context, extending the applicability of knowledge spillover and absorptive capacity theories. Policy implications include optimizing university human resource allocation, strengthening university–enterprise collaboration, and providing targeted support for non-state-owned enterprises and SMEs. Future research may extend the analysis to include institutional factors and university heterogeneity.