To clearly describe the structural characteristics of China’s rare earth innovation network (REIN), this study used data on China’s rare earth patents since 2001 in the Incopat global patent database to analyze the structural characteristics of China’s REIN from 2001 to 2020 at the provincial and municipal levels using social network analysis. The study finds the following: (1) The overall characteristics of the network show that the connectivity and diversification of China’s REIN is increasing. (2) The network spatial pattern analysis shows that the REIN exhibits a radial spatial pattern centered on Beijing at both the provincial and municipal levels. (3) Research on network nodes shows that the network is dense in eastern regions and sparse in western regions, showing distinct characteristics of coastal and resource agglomeration. Not all regions with high levels of economic development play leading roles in the REIN. Small and medium-sized cities with abundant rare earth resources also play important leading roles due to their high levels of rare earth innovation. At the provincial and municipal levels, the REIN consists of four subgroups, among which there is not significant factional diversity. (4) In terms of influencing factors, economic development level, technology absorptive capacity, innovation output level, infrastructure, and market leadership have significant impacts at the provincial and municipal levels. In addition, government leadership, industrial structure, and education level have significant impacts at the municipal level. The study clarified China’s technological accumulation in the field of rare earths and provided practical guidance for the innovative development of China’s rare earth industry.

Background: Residents’ health plays an important role in economic prosperity and national development.Methods: The research analyzes data from 262 prefecture-level cities in China spanning the period from 2010 to 2021. Utilizing the implementation of green credit policy in China as a quasi-natural experiment, the paper employs the time-varying Differences-in- Differences (DID) model to evaluate the influence of green credit policy on residents’ health.Results: The paper results show that: (1) the green credit policy significantly improves residents’ health, and this conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. (2) Mechanism analysis reveals that the green credit policy affects residents’ health through the improvements of the environment and the elevation of public services standards in demonstration cities. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of green credit policy on residents’ health is more significant in the western cities and resource-based cities than in the central-eastern cities and non-resource-based cities. This paper explains the specific path and realization of green credit policy to enhance residents’ health, which provides a reference for further designing and improving effective green credit policy.Discussion: The deficiencies within the green credit policy has resulted in limited improvements. It is recommended that China should broaden the ambit of the green credit policy and refine the criteria for its execution.