Nowadays, the contradiction between strict construction land supply restriction and excessive construction land demand is extremely prominent. Construction land reduction (CLR) is a policy innovation for economically developed regions designed to solve the tight constraints of the construction land quota as urban development continues in China, however, it leads to a lack of spatial justice. In this study, we address a gap in land use regulation literature regarding regional economic development in fast-developing nations by presenting a quantitative investigation of spatial justice in Shanghai, China. We theoretically analyze the connotation of spatial justice in CLR and its influence on residents’ policy acceptance of CLR. Based on theoretical analysis and using household questionnaires from JJ Town in W District, Shanghai, China, we investigate how spatial justice affects residents’ policy acceptance of CLR through an ordered probit model. The results show that (1) spatial justice strengthens residents’ policy acceptance of CLR; (2) both policy familiarity and participation are important influencing factors that contribute to residents’ policy acceptance of CLR; (3) age, education, household income, the contracting land scale and household population structure also affect residents’ policy acceptance of CLR. (4) Robustness tests support the above findings. Thus, in the process of CLR, it is essential to fully consider the realization of spatial justice to ensure the development of remote suburbs, especially the regions experiencing a net reduction in their construction land.

Low-carbon transition is a wide-ranging and deep economic and social transformation. Can we enhance high-quality development of the manufacturing industry (HQDM) during the low-carbon transition process? The enactment of the low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCP) is considered a “quasinatural experiment”. This study initially constructs a theoretical model of the impact of the policy on the high-quality development of a company. A staggered DID approach is then employed to evaluate this impact, using microdata from listed manufacturing enterprises from 2003 to 2021, and a variety of robustness tests, such as PSM-DID and the double machine learning method, are also employed. The main results show that the LCCP led to a significant 9.8% increase in the TFP of the manufacturing industry in the pilot regions. Therefore, the LCCP promoted the HQDM. The impact of the policy has demonstrated a year-by-year upward trend. The influence mechanism test demonstrates that the LCCP resulted in a 14.3% improvement in resource allocation within the manufacturing of the pilot regions but led to a 0.3% decrease in technological innovation. In addition, the LCCP has been more effective in promoting the HQDM in western regions, along with in state-owned enterprises and low-technology manufacturing industries. This paper offers valuable insights into the implementation of differentiated low-carbon policies for manufacturing industries in different regions with different characteristics.

Rapid urbanization raises the issue of protecting development interests in net-incremental reduction regions of construction land (NRRCL). Spatial injustice (SI) is one of the key factors for the smooth implementation of construction land reduction (CLR) policies. This study theoretically analyzes the influence of SI on the economic development in CLR saving quota outflow regions, namely, NRRCL, and conducted empirical tests with the difference-in-differences model. The findings reveal that: (1) regional differences in CLR policy promote the transfer of land development rights from NRRCL to net-incremental increase regions of construction land (NIRCL) in economically developed regions, thus resulting in SI; (2) SI limits the economic development of NRRCL; (3) land-use planning negatively impacts economic development in planning reduced-type regions; (4) the off-site realization of spatial justice in the CLR process in suburbs has comparative advantages; (5) in the process of CLR, it is vital to promote the transfer of population from NRRCL to NIRCL to alleviate the negative impact of SI.

The influential factors of the generation of kitchen solid waste (KSW) are vital to design policies that target effective KSW reductions and achieve sustainable KSW management, but has not been extensively studied. The study aims at the first step of KSW management only, i.e., generation, which is the first KSW analysis survey in Shanghai to comprehensively investigate the characteristics and influential factors of KSW generation (KSWG). The data were collected from August to October 2019, which resulted in a total of 433 usable questionnaires regarding KSWG in Shanghai, China. The average rate of KSWG is 6.038 kg/household/week or 0.265 kg/person/day. The average per-person number of KSWG bags is 0.295. The regression results show that the characteristics of KSWG are related to household size, household income, the habit of ordering takeout, district of residence, and meticulous consumption culture. Some interesting findings are observed in the present study. Firstly, there is a nonlinear relationship between KSWG and household size, which can be explained by “common consumption”. Secondly, there is a nonlinear relationship between KSWG and household income, which can be explained by the Engel coefficient, which also provides supporting evidence for the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Finally, the habit of ordering takeout, district of residence, and meticulous consumption culture are all influential factors of KSWG. The results of the study can improve public awareness and knowledge of KSWG, and suggestions on the minimization of KSWG are put forward, thus will serve as a new reference for the sustainable KSW management of other cities, especially cities in developing countries.