Improvement of green total factor productivity (GTFP) through environmental regulation is of great practical significance in promoting the high-quality development of urban economies. Based on panel data for 163 cities in China from 2003 to 2016, five indicators were selected to quantify the effects of environmental regulation: the SO₂ removal rate, smoke and dust removal rate, solid waste utilization rate, domestic sewage treatment rate, and waste harmless treatment rate. This study evaluated the impact of environmental regulation on urban GTFP, and analyzed the threshold effect of urban economic development levels. The research results showed that the impact of environmental regulations on GTFP changed as the level of urban economic development increases. When the economic development level was low, environmental regulation had a significant positive effect on GTFP, especially the SO₂ removal rate. When the economy developed to reach a medium level, the impact of environmental regulation on GTFP was negative. When the economic development level was high, the SO₂ removal rate still had a significant positive impact on GTFP. The solid waste utilization rate had a significant negative impact on GTFP. It was concluded that the government should consider the local economic development level when formulating environmental regulation policies.

Based on the pilot ecosystem analysis of Qianjiangyuan National Park, the ecosystem services function value index system was determined; multiple methods such as market value method and shadow engineering method were used to evaluate the four major categories in the years 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2018 of the ecological services of Qianjiangyuan national park which are provision, regulation, culture, and support. Results show that the total value of the pilot ecosystem services in Qianjiangyuan national park had increased to 7430.11 × 10⁶ yuan, 9128.41 × 10⁶ yuan, 12,718.38 × 10⁶ yuan, and 15,539.99 × 10⁶ yuan for each category respectively. The regulation category has always been the core ecosystem services function in the national park, accounting for more than 40% of the value of the total services. The increase in the value of ecosystem services in the park was due to the implementation of ecological measures such as logging bans and people paying more attention to environmental protection.

Based on the panel data of 216 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2016, this study selected five emission-reduction indicators (industrial SO₂ removal rate, soot removal rate, comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste, domestic sewage treatment rate, and harmless treatment of domestic waste rate) to quantify the intensity of urban environmental regulations. Based on the intensity of environmental regulations, the authors further studied the impact of environmental regulations on economic quality (green total factor productivity) and environmental quality (PM2.5). The test results showed that the impact of environmental regulation on PM2.5 is a U-type change that first declines and then rises, while the impact of the implementation of environmental regulation on green total factor productivity is an inverted U-shaped change, which first increases and then decreases. On the one hand, appropriate environmental regulations are conducive to improving environmental quality and improving urban green total factor productivity. On the other hand, excessive environmental regulations have not only failed to improve environmental quality, but also have a negative impact on the improvement of economic quality. In addition, there are regional differences in the impact of environmental regulations, so it is necessary to formulate appropriate and local environmental regulatory policies.

With the increase in labor costs in China and the tremendous changes in the international trade environment, upgrading the total factor productivity of Chinese furniture export enterprises faces a great challenge. Lots of studies have explored the interaction of exports or misallocation on the total factor productivity (TFP) of furniture enterprises, however, there is little knowledge on the impact and interaction of both exports and misallocation on the TFP. Based on panel data of Chinese furniture enterprises, this paper measures the TFP and the distortion of labor and capital resources in Chinese furniture enterprises. A two-way fixed-effects model is used to analyze the impact of exports and misallocation on the TFP of Chinese furniture enterprises. The paper reveals several important findings. First, the TFP of Chinese furniture export enterprises is lower than that of non-export enterprises, this phenomenon is called the “export–productivity paradox”. Chinese furniture export enterprises are processing trade-oriented and labor-intensive enterprises at the low end of the value chain, exports have a negative effect on improving the TFP of furniture enterprises in the short term. Second, the distortion of labor and capital resources in Chinese furniture enterprises promotes improvements to the TFP of furniture enterprises rather than reducing the TFP of furniture enterprises. Last but not the least, we find that misallocation has a positive moderating effect on exports and can weaken the negative impact of exports on TFP by the “forced mechanism”, which is that the higher the distortion of the misallocation, the higher the cost of acquiring capital and labor, and enterprises are forced to enhance their productivity when facing market competition, thus promoting improvements to the TFP of furniture enterprises.

The acceleration of global urbanization has brought the issue of environmental degradation to the forefront. To effectively curtail these issues, cities worldwide are promoting afforestation; however, only a few studies have investigated levels of satisfaction from the perspective of residents, who are the main beneficiaries of these afforestation projects. In this study, we used the Ologit model in conjunction with 1158 survey samples from Beijing to empirically analyze the level of resident satisfaction with the Plain Afforestation Project (PAP). Results showed that (i) landscaping after afforestation, (ii) ecological aspects, and (iii) availability of recreational space significantly improved the overall resident satisfaction with the PAP. Additionally, older people are more likely to be satisfied with the PAP compared to younger residents, and male residents are more likely to be satisfied with the PAP than female residents. Residents with higher education and income levels were less satisfied with the PAP. These results provide a reference for decision-makers to optimize the PAP.