Based on a systematic assessment of changes in external circumstances and their impact on Beijing, this article analyzes the key issues faced by Beijing in several key areas during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, including economic growth, technological innovation, population structure, and the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The article proposes strategies to enhance the diversity of economic growth drivers, improve the agglomeration capacity of resources in the plain areas and their contribution to overall economic growth, establish innovation alliances led by technology-driven enterprises, shift from population size regulation to the adjustment of population structure and distribution, deepen the integration of innovation and industrial chains in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces with the “Innovation Triangle” of Beijing-Tianjin-Xiong'an as the core.

In the context of the global digitalization wave, the integration of digital economy and real economy has emerged as a vital engine for high-quality economic development and a critical pathway for promoting the green transformation of resource-based cities.Using panel data from 115 resource-based cities in China from 2013 to 2022, this paper employs a fixed-effects model to empirically examine the impact of the integration of digital economy and real economy on the green transformation of resource-based cities. Additionally, the TOE framework is introduced to analyze the underlying mechanisms. The study finds that the integration of digital economy and real economy significantly promotes the green transformation of resource-based cities. This impact manifests through technology-driven effects, organizational optimization effects, and environmental catalytic effects. Moreover, the impact of the integration of digital economy and real economy on green transformation exhibits significant heterogeneity, with a stronger promoting effect in declining cities, non-old industrial base cities, and non-environmentally focused cities, while the impact is not significant in growing cities. The conclusions of this study provide valuable insights for resource-based cities in overcoming the “resource curse” and achieving sustainable development.

Digital village construction has a crucial role in promoting the flow of urban-rural factors and narrowing the urban-rural digital divide, examining how it affects the convergence characteristics and change trends of the income gap between urban and rural residents is an important issue in promoting rural revitalization and common prosperity. The entropy method, coefficient of variation and panel threshold model are used to empirically analyze the panel data of 30 provinces (autonomous regions) in China since 1978, and explore the impact mechanism of digital village construction and other driving factors on the convergence of the income gap between urban and rural residents under the dual economic structure. The research results show that: taking 1994 and 2009 as nodes, the income gap between urban and rural residents in China has presented two “U” shaped fluctuation processes since 1978, and is now in a declining stage, whether a third “U” shaped fluctuation process will be formed in the future depends on whether it has convergence at this stage. At present, the income gap between urban and rural residents in China has significant δ and β convergence characteristics. Digital village countryside can improve the convergence speed of the income gap between urban and rural residents, and its impact has stage differences and regional heterogeneity. Economic growth, industrialization, urbanization, informatization and agricultural modernization are important factors affecting the convergence of the income gap between urban and rural residents.

Since the expansion of university enrollment in 1999, Chinese higher education institutions have faced pressure for spatial expansion, leading to the establishment of new campuses across various regions. Concurrently, local governments have aimed to stimulate regional economic growth by attracting these new university campuses. This study employs a localized spatial difference-in-differences (Donuts DiD) method and a convolutional neural network-based counterfactual matching spatial Difference-in-Differences (CNN-Matching Donuts DiD) approach to analyze the impact of establishing “Double First-Class” university campuses on local economic growth from the perspective of location-oriented policies. The findings indicate that the establishment of new campuses has indeed promoted the growth of local economic activities.However, its effect on enhancing the commercial value of surrounding land and housing is relatively limited. The primary reasons are that, although the new campuses have stimulated local knowledge spillover activities, driven the transformation of local industrial structures, and facilitated the agglomeration of high-tech industries, the surrounding areas still lack adequate local commercial services and amenities, making it difficult to further amplify the positive externalities of the new campuses on a larger geographical scale. Additionally, the development model wherein local governments allocate substantial real estate land may also be a significant influencing factor. This research provides empirical support for promoting the coordinated and interactive development of future university campuses and urban regions in China.

This study employs the establishment of the data managment agency as a quasi-natural experiment to construct a theoretical model illustrating how government data governance drives corporate green innovation. Using panel data from listed enterprises from 2010 to 2024 and applying a uble Machine Learning(DML) approach, we empirically find the results as following: Firstly, government data governance significantly enhances enterprise green innovation efficiency. Secondly, the green innovation promotion effect is more pronounced in highly digitalized enterprises, monopolistic industries, and central cities. Thirdly, government data governance improves green innovation efficiency through supporting digital technology R&D, optimizing digital management organizations, and enhancing the digital ecosystem. This study provides practical strategies for governments to manage data elements effectively and offers a theoretical basis for advancing corporate green transformation.

The theory and practice of sub-provincial central cities originated in Hubei Province and subsequently spread nationwide. Based on a review of the theoretical and practical backgrounds and the promotion process of provincial sub-central cities, as well as an analysis of their development motivations, functional characteristics, and policy support mechanisms, this paper proposes policy recommendations for the development and expansion of provincial sub-central cities. Specifically, it suggests seizing opportunities, optimizing the layout of provincial sub-central cities, increasing policy support, granting them greater economic and social management powers, improving infrastructure and service functions, building a modern industrial system, and leveraging sub-central cities as the leaders to construct urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas, thereby enhancing their radiation capabilities and promoting the modernization of provincial governance systems and governance capacities.

This study investigates the impact and underlying mechanisms of digital technology cooperation on urban economic resilience, which is of great significance for bridging the regional digital divide and enhancing economic resilience through the digital economy. Utilizing panel data from 279 cities in China spanning the period from 2007 to 2021, a comprehensive dataset of inter-city digital technology cooperation patents was constructed to reveal the impact and underlying mechanisms of digital technology cooperation on urban economic resilience. Research shows that digital technology cooperation significantly boosts urban economic resilience, which remains robust across various robustness checks. Mechanism analysis indicates that this cooperation enhances urban economic resilience through multiple pathways, including improving innovation quality, curbing resource misallocation, and enhancing human capital. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the positive impact of digital technology cooperation is more pronounced in eastern regions, urban agglomerations, and non-old industrial base cities. Additionally, cities with stronger intellectual property protection, greater high-skilled talent agglomeration, and more advanced digital infrastructure benefit more significantly from such cooperation.

Public data security, as an important issue, plays a crucial role in the construction of resilient cities. Through theoretical deconstruction and comparative analysis, the limitations of the traditional defense-oriented governance model in responding to dynamic risks are revealed. The research results show that the current public data security field is facing multiple challenges such as the resilience paradox, ethical conflicts, and the responsibility dilemma of multi-center governance. It is imperative to enhance the governance efficiency of public data security. By critically reconstructing the cognitive paradigms of ecological resilience and engineering resilience, and taking the concept of data resilience as the core to build dynamic adaptation, elastic recovery, and collaborative integration mechanisms, the public data security protection system can be transformed from a “compliance-based” to a “resilience-based” approach, thereby ensuring the efficient circulation and value release of data under the premise of security, and providing solid support for the construction of resilient cities. The reconstruction of governance solutions should be based on a three-dimensional coordinated path of technology, institutions, and the rule of law: strengthening the resilience foundation, enhancing the resilience of infrastructure; improving resilience mechanisms, establishing a dynamic adaptation system; reinforcing resilience guarantees, and perfecting the legal operation system. Based on the research conclusions, it is suggested that legislation should be deepened and standardization level should be improved, collaborative drill and evaluation mechanisms should be established, innovative models should be explored, and public participation should be expanded, so as to promote the modernization of the urban public data security governance system and governance capacity.

Based on CLDS2016 and multilevel logit modeling, through the development of a situation-connection-participation analytical framework, findings reveal that community heterogeneity predominantly manifests in social rather than physical spaces. The higher levels of disadvantage concentration and hukou segregation within communities appear to facilitate increased participation opportunities, challenging Western assumptions that socioeconomic segregation inevitably results in political exclusion. Conversely, intra-community status heterogeneity and residential mobility exhibit inhibitory effects on participation. The study identifies neighboring connections as a significant mediating factor in the relationship between community heterogeneity and participation. Based on the above findings, policy recommendations are made to activate the potential of immigrants in disadvantaged communities to participate in governance, enhancing neighbor's social connection in mixed community, and speeding up the process of housing supports for rural-urban immigrants.

As the core driving force of a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, the digital economy is profoundly reshaping traditional economic structures and modes of social development. It not only promotes high-quality economic growth but also provides new pathways and momentum for achieving common prosperity.Using the Difference-in-Differences (DID) method, this study systematically examines the causal effects and mechanisms of digital economy and common prosperity based on balanced panel data from 286 cities in China during the period from 2011 to 2021.The research findings indicate that the digital economy is an indispensable driving engine for advancing common prosperity, playing a fundamental, structural, and strategic role. However, risks such as the digital divide and platform monopolies warrant close attention. Based on these findings, targeted policy recommendations are proposed: Expanding digital infrastructure to less developed areas can promote balanced regional development and help the eastern, central, and western regions share the benefits of growth; The inclusive growth characteristics of the digital economy can help narrow income disparities; Institutional development and digital governance capabilities need to be strengthened; A better integration of an effective market and an enabling government should be pursued.

As one of China’s fundamental governance mechanisms, the policy pilot system has been integrated into the broader national strategy for modernizing state governance. From the perspective of vertical-horizontal relations, this study takes the municipal-level social governance modernization pilot in Sichuan Province as an empirical case to reveal the logic and mechanisms of benchmark competition in local governance.The study finds that the municipal pilot program has shifted from the traditional “apply first, accept and award later”model to a new approach of “construct first, apply later.”Evaluation criteria now include not only the absolute performance improvements before and after policy implementation in each locality, but also comparative performance across peer jurisdictions,thereby forming a competitive framework to identify qualified pilot sites.The mechanism involves the following elements:The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission establishes institutional frameworks through benchmark-setting, incentive-driven competition, and relative ranking systems, while local governments achieve effective adoption and dynamic adaptation of central governance objectives through top-down mobilization,bottom-up coordination, and differentiated operational approaches.The concept of benchmark competition offers a novel theoretical lens for understanding the internal logic of China’s policy pilot system. It helps reduce information asymmetries between upper- and lower-level governments, mitigates the institutional fragmentation caused by vertical-horizontal divides, and contributes to the formation of localized governance experiences under therubric of “governing the city to govern the country.”

Integrating functional zones and administrative regions is crucial to improving the national governance system and capacity, promoting high-quality regional economic development, and fostering new productive forces. Based on the quasi-administrative region theory, this study constructs an analytical framework encompassing“constituent elements-institutional deficiencies-problem manifestations-spatial functions-optimization and enhancement.” Using the Z New District of H City as a case study, the research examines the integration path between urban new districts and administrative regions. The findings indicate that the informal and flexible characteristics of urban new district components lead to institutional deficiencies, resulting in ambiguous legal status for governing entities, incomplete institutional functions, and difficulties in coordinating with local administrative regions. To ensure the effective realization of urban new district spatial functions, this study proposes reform recommendations from power scale, functional domains, and external coordination.

To reveal the internal mechanism of City Walk in optimizing space utilization, expanding demand and promoting consumption, based on the complex network analysis approach, and according to the trajectory data of City Walk tourists in Hong Kong, a City Walk network model containing four levels, namely sightseeing and entertainment, functional activation, catering facilities, and shopping facilities, is constructed. The research finds that: The network structure characteristics of various nodes are significantly different. Among them, traditional nodes such as the Avenue of Stars dominate the global network; activated nodes such as Tai Kwun realize interactive associations across all-level networks; consumption nodes such as Central Market gather intra-layer networks. The tourism flow presents the characteristics of a high traffic proportion in the core-peripheral area and balanced diffusion, effectively weakening the polarization effect dominated by traditional scenic spots, and providing a traffic penetration path for the urban secondary space through the formed “consumption-exploration” community. Moreover, The City Walk network has a synergy mechanism, including the structural complementarity, traffic predictability, and redundancy and anti-interference. The above results show that City Walk can effectively promote the multi-dimensional utilization of urban resources and the re-balance of space functions. Based on this, it is suggested that urban planning administrators should focus on City Walk models with high economic vitality and resilience levels, and promote the sustainable development of urban tourism by means of exploring local cultural resources and activating secondary consumption spaces.

Based on Actor-Network Theory and employing a dynamic Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this study explores a mechanism and analytical framework for modern maritime city building and identifies the phases and pathways of that process. The findings show that,within the actor network of modern maritime city construction, the government occupies the central coordinating position.By setting phased “obligatory passage points,” it clarifies the common goals for all actors and, through translation mechanisms such as interest translation, enrolment and mobilization, aligns human actors (government, firms, research institutes) with non-human actors (ports, marine environments) into a dynamically linked organic network. The construction process generally exhibits the characteristic of goal-oriented multi-stage evolution. Pathway 1 is an “Economy & Finance—Science & Education—International Cooperation” configuration; Pathway 2 is a “Marine Industry—Science & Education—Environment-absent” configuration. Science and Education emerge as a necessary condition in both pathways, while Economy & Finance, International Cooperation, and Marine Industry serve as different supportive elements. Cities with different endowments display a clear pattern of pathway matching. Economically internationalized cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, leveraging their economic base and openness, predominantly rely on Path 1 and constitute the mainstream development model. Cities with strong marine-industry foundations—Qingdao, Fuzhou and Dalian—initially relied on Path 2 to achieve high construction levels.

The development direction of future city should shift from an environment-centered sustainable city to humanity-oriented LOHAS city, with the integration of “industry-city-people” serving as the necessary pathway toward LOHAS city. This study constructs a LOHAS city index, which emphasizes bottleneck constraints, along three dimensions: industrial promotion, population attraction, and the pursuit of comfort. The index is applied to evaluate the current status of LOHAS city construction in 252 domestic cities. The evaluation results reveal that significant disparities exist in LOHAS city construction levels, with approximately 70% of cities experiencing various bottleneck constraints. Based on the evaluation results, the 252 cities are categorized into five types: industry-urban integration, public service, emerging industry, lifestyle consumption, and lagging industry-urban integration. Furthermore, the lagging industry-urban integration type is subdivided into six subcategories: nascent industry-urban integration, public service deficiency, industrial development deficiency, commercial and industrial deficiency, combined industrial and public service deficiency, and industry-city-people deficiency. This study finds that economic development, population mobility, and the LOHAS city construction level interact with each other, and both the LOHAS city construction level and economic development jointly contribute to enhancing urban population attractiveness.

Based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework, the environmental impacts of data factor marketization are deconstructed into three dimensions: scale effect, structural effect, and technological effect. Using the panel data of 266 cities in China from 2011 to 2023, this paper quantifies the data factor marketization through the entropy method. This paper examines the bilateral effects of this marketization on pollution reduction and carbon mitigation of cities. The results show that the data factor marketization exacerbates pollution and carbon emissions by expanding industrial productions and regional GDP (scale effect), which represent the positive effect. Conversely, it reduces pollution and carbon emissions by promoting green technological innovation (technological effect) and advancing industrial upgrading, improving energy efficiency, and strengthening green credit development (structural effect), which together represent the negative effect. Further analysis reveals that the structural and technological effects outweigh the scale effect, resulting in a significant overall reduction in pollution and carbon emissions, thus contributing to pollution reduction and carbon mitigation. These findings not only provide a new theoretical perspective for revealing the environmental regulatory function of the market-oriented construction of data elements, but also provide evidence for the government to promote the deep integration of digital economy and green development through institutional innovation.

The digital governance platform, as an important carrier for bridging online and offline collaborative actions in the context of digital transformation, is an essential part of the Digital China initiative. As a significant measure to enhance the collaborative efficiency of social governance, the digital social governance platform focuses on “governance resource integration” and “governance goal coordination” as its key objectives. Through the study of the digital social governance platform in X City, it was found that by utilizing the digital platform for information aggregation and risk identification, the overall control of the governance scenario can be achieved. Additionally, through standardized information management and targeted task scheduling, dynamic collaboration of governance actions can be realized. Relying on digital technology and organizational arrangements, it enables relevant participants to have an online “virtual presence” and offline “network construction” structure within the governance field. These two elements together support the platform’s internal operational logic. However, due to the hindrance caused by the contradictions in the communication relationships during platform operations, the overall collaborative effect still has room for further improvement.

Based on the person-environment (P-E) fit theory, this study uses data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey in 2020 to construct multidimensional P-E fit indices. Using multilevel multinomial logistic models and moderation effect analysis, we examine how urban older adults’ P-E fit affects their intentions for old-age support. We also examine the moderating role of economic resources. The results show that the aging-in-place group is characterized by high P-E fit and low financial expenditure, the family-based care group exhibits low fit and limited assets, and the institutional care group shows low fit and high expenditure. The intention for old-age support is significantly shaped by the degree of P-E fit. Greater facility and service fit significantly increases older adults’ intention to age in place. Economic resources play a significant moderating role in how P-E fit influences elderly care preferences. Lack of property ownership weakens the positive effect of high facility and service fit on aging-in-place preference, while high expenditure levels strengthen the impact of service misfit on institutional care preference. This study reveals the heterogeneous needs of different elderly groups towards the neighborhood environment and their impact on old-age support intentions. Based on empirical findings, this paper discusses policy implications to contribute to the scientific foundation and practical strategies for building age-friendly cities.

Many high-tech clusters have become the main driver of urban innovation, among which the role of universities cannot be ignored. To explore how National University Science and Technology Parks (NUSTP) contribute to enhancing urban innovation, this paper examines the current status and mechanisms of the NUSTP policy in China. Drawing on macro-level data on NUSTP and related examples, this study finds that NUSTPs in China effectively strengthen urban innovation capacity. This is primarily achieved by accelerating university knowledge spillovers, fostering industry-university-research collaborations, optimizing the supply of innovation services and improving the efficiency of urban innovation factor allocation. However, NUSTPs still face challenges, including limited policy scope and insufficient efforts to convert university research outcomes into innovative productivity. Based on these findings, the paper offers policy recommendations in three areas: park development, incentive mechanisms for NUSTPs, and enhancing the functional roles of the parks.

Industrial carbon emissions constitute the primary source of urban carbon emissions in China, thus carbon reduction policies in the industrial sector hold significant strategic importance for cities to achieve green and low-carbon transformations. As a new digital low-carbon governance tool, “carbon account” is gradually being applied in various production and living scenarios. Quzhou City has innovative ely launched an industrial carbon account policy, becoming an important innovative measure in the industrial field's low-carbon governance nationwide. This paper delves into the operational mechanism of Quzhou's industrial carbon account policy and uses Difference-In-Differences Model to study the impact of Quzhou City's carbon account policy on industrial carbon emissions. The empirical study demonstrates t hat the implementation of the industrial carbon account policy has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon emissions of industrial enterprises in Quzhou. Finally, this paper proposes policy recommendations for the development of urban industrial carbon accounts, offering decision-making references for industrial carbon reduction nationwide.

Adopting a holistic perspective encompassing external contextual factors and internal drivers, this study employs a mixed-methods approach combining Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to investigate the influence mechanism and configuration paths of resident co-production in public safety governance within megacity communities. The analysis utilizes 1,974 sample data points from community public safety services in Wuhan. The study shows that policy narrative, social norms, and community crisis learning all exert significant positive effects on resident co-production, with community crisis learning demonstrating the strongest impact. Cooperative attitudes significantly mediate the relationship between social norms and resident co-production. Risk perception positively moderates the effects of perceived behavioral control and cooperative attitudes on resident co-production. Further configurational analysis reveals three pathways driving high co-production, including Community Crisis-Responsive Pathway, Policy-Oriented Pathway and Internal Driver Pathway. Conversely, low co-production is characterized by an “Absence of External-Internal Drivers” pathway. This research provides theoretical explanations and empirical evidence for “resident mobilization” in public safety governance within megacities.

The role of digitalization and ecological approaches in fostering green technological innovation is a pivotal issue in the context of low-carbon development. By leveraging panel data from 278 prefecture-level cities in China over the period 2006 to 2019, this study quantifies energy-saving technological progress and employs a multi-period DID method to evaluate the impact of dual-pilot policies that integrate the smart cities and National Eco-industrial Park. The findings indicate that dual-pilot policies significantly surpass single-policy interventions in promoting energy efficiency innovations, with the underlying mechanism attributed to industrial co-agglomeration between manufacturing and producer/consumer services. Although firms in dual-pilot cities encounter heightened financing constraints, they demonstrate increased proactive adoption of environmental responsibilities. Moderating effect analysis further reveals that policy effectiveness is enhanced in regions characterized by strong policy incentives, stringent environmental regulations, and advanced financial infrastructure. The study concludes that enhancing corporate awareness of low-carbon practices and exploring integrated digital and ecological industrial development models represent effective strategies for achieving the “dual carbon” goals.

Based on the experience and facts of the reasonable degree of the size, density and intensity of the international megacities, the reasonable interval standards of people, space and ecology derived from the theory of human needs for a comfortable living environment, the urban size density and intensity interval standards derived from this, combined with the national conditions of China, such as large population and small construction land, to determine the reasonable interval of the size, density and intensity of high-quality development of China's megacities. To benchmark the development facts of China's megacities, find the problems of their size, density and intensity and their adverse effects on high-quality and healthy development, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions for building China's high-quality megacities.

The central-local relationship has always been the focus of research on territorial spatial governance, but existing studies have focused on exploring the antagonistic dichotomy between the central and the local, neglecting the behavioral mechanisms of provincial governments in the synergy of central-local games. Based on the perspective of principal-agent and soft budget constraint theory, this paper innovatively constructs a systematic framework of “three stages + three levels” to analyze the “two-way soft constraint” vertical inter-governmental interaction mechanism of provincial governments in territorial spatial governance from the perspective of provincial governments’ behaviors. By tracking the implementation of land binding quota policy in Province F, it is found that the upward and downward soft constraint behaviors at the provincial level affect the implementation of the quota policy through target adaptation and autonomous power expansion, respectively, and that when the central government adopts an institutional design that decentralizes land control and strengthens accountability constraints, it helps to push provincial governments to play a coordinating role in the central-local relationship. In response to this, reforms in territorial space governance should be promoted through selective centralization, institutionalized decentralization, and improvements in the governance capability of provincial government.

This study analyzes the progress, development trends, key challenges, and implementation pathways of new-type urbanization through data analytics and field investigations. The findings reveal that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the new-type urbanization strategy has been steadily implemented with historic achievements. At present, urbanization has entered a pivotal phase characterized by moderated growth rates and quality enhancement, with increased emphasis on people-centered development. Emerging trends include: heightened prominence of citizenization, untapped potential for proximity-based urbanization in central and western regions, and accelerated population clustering in metropolitan areas. However, new-type urbanization still faces problems, such as inadequate quality of citizenization, weak industrial carrying capacity, insufficient metropolitan integration, and deficiencies in urban safety resilience. Accordingly, this study proposes leveraging the current window of strong urbanization momentum to prioritize people -centered development, strengthen industrial foundations, optimize spatial configurations, and address systemic vulnerabilities. Specifically, it is recommended to accelerate four major initiatives: citizenization of rural migrant populations, urbanization upgrading in high-potential regions, cultivation of modern metropolitan clusters, and urban renewal with enhanced safety resilience. These measures aim to systematically improve urbanization quality and ensure equitable sharing of modernization dividends among all residents.

Promoting the sustainable development of human settlements is an essential requirement for achieving economic growth, protecting biodiversity, and preserving cultural diversity in the northwest Yunnan region. This paper reviews the 1998 research process on sustainable human settlement planning in the area, which focused on ecological conservation and human settlement development. Utilizing an integrated and coherent research methodology, the study systematically analyzed key challenges faced by the region, including lagging regional development, ecological degradation, frequent natural disasters, loss of cultural diversity, insufficient infrastructure, and continuous decline in human settlement quality. It proposed that the region should coordinate ecological conservation with socio-economic development, promote step-by-step development of eco-tourism and cultural tourism, advance systematic development of urban and rural human settlements, and thereby drive high-quality regional growth. Action plans were formulated focusing on national park system development, infrastructure improvement, and county-level development pilot programs, with particular attention to the visionary planning of the “City of Shangri-La” in Zhongdian County (now Shangri-La City), Diqing Prefecture. Building on this foundation, the paper provides forward-looking perspectives on sustainable human settlement development in northwest Yunnan. Future recommendations emphasize continuing tourism optimization to establish the region as a “Healthy Living Destination,” strengthening transportation connectivity and cultural tourism industry development, and facilitating high-quality regional transformation.

Based on the matching data of land plot transactions from China Land Market Network and the data of Chin's listed A-share enterprises from 2005 to 2022, using two-way fixed-effect model, this paper empirically examines the impact mechanism of urban land resource allocation on the share of labor income of enterprises from the perspective of factor misallocation. The study finds that the allocation mode of local governments selling industrial land at low prices and restrictive transfer of commercial and residential land at high prices has caused the distortion of the land factor market and the misallocation of resources, and significantly reduces the share of labor income of enterprises. The mechanism analysis shows that the misallocation of land resources on the share of labor income of enterprises is mainly realized through the effect of industrial structure, the allocation of labor factors and the agglomeration effect. Further analysis shows that the misallocation of land resources not only crowds out the share of labor income of enterprises in local cities, but also may further aggravate the income distribution imbalance between cities. The implementation of exit audits of natural resource assets of local governments can help to alleviate the negative impact of land resources misallocation on the share of labor income of enterprises. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the inhibition effect of land resources misallocation on the share of labor income of enterprises is more significant in labor-intensive industries, eastern regions, and large cities of type II and above. The conclusions of this study can provide policy enlightenment for promoting the optimal allocation of urban construction land, increasing the share of labor income, and improving the income distribution pattern.

Under the binding constraints of the dual carbon goals (carbon peaking and carbon neutrality), the imperative to achieve coordinated economic-ecological development through innovation-driven strategies has emerged as a critical policy challenge. This study employs a reflective iteration methodology to construct a city-level economic complexity index, systematically investigating its impact on urban green development and underlying mechanisms. Key findings reveal: Enhanced economic complexity significantly promotes urban green economic development, with marginal effects exhibiting an increasing trend as complexity elevates. These results remain robust after addressing endogeneity through instrumental variable approaches, controlling policy interventions, and conducting multi-dimensional sensitivity analyses. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that the green effect of economic complexity originates from structural upgrading of urban innovation capacity, transmitted through a four-dimensional pathway: “innovation input intensification → output greening → value chain deepening → efficiency enhancement”, with effect intensity following a nonlinearly increasing pattern. Heterogeneity analysis identifies asymmetric marginal green effects across industrial sectors,and reveals stronger complexity-driven green upgrading effects in cities characterized by abundant venture capital, superior resource endowments, and intensive innovation-entrepreneurship policies. This research provides theoretical foundations and policy insights for optimizing urban innovation ecosystems, overcoming path dependence in green transition, and advancing high-quality development under the dual carbon paradigm.

This paper investigates the potential impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on urban inclusive green growth and its mechanism, using panel-matched data from 248 prefecture-level cities and listed enterprises of 2011-2022. The findings reveal that CSR promotes urban inclusive green growth, which is statistically and economically significant. CSR promotes urban green technology innovation and the formation of a healthy labour market, thereby greatly contributing to urban inclusive green growth. Government-enterprise value co-creation substantially expands the boundaries and effectiveness of CSR for urban inclusive green growth, providing insights into correctly resolving the trade-offs between economic, environmental, and social systems. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of CSR on urban inclusive green growth varies with the willingness of enterprises to disclose social responsibility information, property rights nature and manager traits, etc. Moreover, the higher the media attention of enterprises and the marketisation level of the cities they are in, the more significant the promoting effect of CSR on urban inclusive green growth. Based on this, a series of countermeasures and suggestions are proposed from the aspects of improving corporate governance, strengthening government enterprise collaboration, attaching importance to external environmental factors, and coordinating market development.

Based on the theory of externalities, this study employs two-way fixed effects model and panel threshold model to empirically analyze panel data from 258 prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2023, using the SARS epidemic, global financial crisis, and China-US trade friction as shock events. The findings reveal that technological diversification significantly enhances urban economic resilience, with a more pronounced effect during economic shocks. Technological innovation and industrial structure optimization serve as the primary mechanisms through which technological diversification improves economic resilience, while market size and information network development can further strengthen this effect. Extended analysis indicates that diversified technological structures contribute more to urban economic resilience in high-tech and medium-high-tech sectors, whereas specialized structures prove more effective in traditional technology domains. Eastern and central regions, as well as large, megacities, are more suited for a diversified structure, while western regions, along with small and medium-sized cities, benefit more from specialization. Additionally, the enhancement effect of technological diversification on urban economic resilience exhibits a threshold effect. These conclusions provides theoretical references and practical foundations for cities to formulate tailored technological development strategies according to their local conditions.

Stimulating the vitality of market entities is a key pathway to building a new development pattern and advancing high-quality growth. Using a difference-in-differences model and nationwide business registration data from 2005 to 2021, this paper examines the impact of the Innovative Industry Clusters Policy on new firm entry in both high-tech and non-high-tech industries, as well as its underlying mechanisms. The results show that the policy significantly promotes new firm entry across both sectors. Mechanism analysis reveals that the policy encourages high-tech firm entry by reducing institutional entry barriers, as well as innovation-specific and general factor entry costs. For non-high-tech industries, the positive effect mainly arises through the reduction of general factor entry costs. Further heterogeneity analysis indicates that policy effects are more pronounced in regions with a stronger high-tech industrial base and a more favorable business environment, underscoring the importance of factor endowments and institutional conditions in shaping policy outcomes.Based on these findings, the paper offers policy recommendations aimed at supporting more balanced development and maximizing the benefits of innovation policy across diverse economic contexts.

Based on the identification of the emergence of popular cities and the challenges posed by the promotion of comprehensive tourism to the value of scenic spots, taking 51 western cities as examples, the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method is applied to reveal the hybrid dynamic structure of urban and scenic spot elements. The results show that: at present, the combination of scenic spots in the western cities is not good, which makes it difficult to drive the development of tourism in these cities, the hybrid structure of urban and scenic spots is the power source to promote the formation of the joint effect of urban and scenic spots in western cities of China, and the multi-functional aggregation of cities is conducive to the improvement of the joint effect. The combination of urban service functions of “scenic spot occurrence”, “connection + scenic spot occurrence”, “environment + connection + scenic spot occurrence”, “environment + scenic spot spatial distribution”, “environment + connection + scenic spot spatial distribution” and “environment + scenic spot occurrence” can form a higher city-scenic spot joint effect, and the probability increases with the increase of antecedent conditions. Urban functional advantages can dominate the formation of city-scenic joint effects, and improving urban service functions and optimizing the combination of scenic spots are the key indicators to enhance tourism in western cities.

Promoting synergistic efficiency in pollution and carbon reduction is a crucial pathway to achieving the deep integration and harmonious alignment of the “Beautiful China” initiative with the “dual carbon” goals. From the perspective of marginal abatement costs, this study empirically examines the synergistic potential of pollution and carbon reduction of 275 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2022 leveraging duality theory within the DEA framework. Furthermore, it explores the evolution patterns, regional disparities, and driving mechanisms of these synergistic effects using the spatial Markov chain, Dagum Gini coefficient, and QAP methods. The findings are as follows: Synergistic governance of pollution and carbon reduction can simultaneously reduce the marginal abatement costs of air pollution and CO₂ in China. The synergistic effects are widespread across regions and cities, although challenges such as “pollution reduction impediments” and “carbon mitigation delays” persist. The synergistic effects of pollution and carbon reduction exhibit a relatively stable development trend, with phenomena such as “hierarchical lock-in” and spatial club convergence. Significant spatial disparities are observed, forming a “convex” interregional pattern characterized by “core leadership and peripheral catch-up”. Hyper-variable density and interregional disparities are the principal contributors to the persistent imbalance. Reducing regional disparities in carbon mitigation effects is the fundamental to promoting coordinated regional development in pollution and carbon reduction. The positive impacts of external factors, such as industrial structure, openness, population density, and economic development, on co-benefit disparities gradually diminish. Moreover, the intensity and direction of these driving factors vary across regions, reflecting pronounced regional heterogeneity.

Innovation in grassroots governance is an important part of promoting the modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity. How to enhance the sustainability of grassroots governance innovation has become a core issue in grassroots governance research. Based on the theory of attention allocation, an analytical framework of “attention-driven - social participation - resource support” was constructed. Taking the typical cases of national grassroots governance innovation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2021 as samples, the fsQCA method was adopted to conduct an empirical analysis of the influencing factors of whether grassroots governance innovation is sustainable. The research results show that officials’ attention and public support are the core conditions for the sustainability of grassroots governance innovation, no single condition can alone constitute a necessary condition for the sustainability of grassroots governance innovation. The various factors need to work in coordination and interaction to effectively promote the sustainability of innovation. The paths to the sustainability of governance innovation are respectively Party building-led type, government-society cooperation type, and resource support type. Only through the interaction of multiple factors can the sustainability of innovative behavior be achieved. The ternary dynamic coupling mechanism of attention-driven, social participation and resource support is the internal mechanism for the sustainable development of innovation. To promote the sustainable development of grassroots governance innovation, it is necessary to establish a long-term mechanism for “sustained attention”. Continue to strengthen the leading role of Party building and activate the endogenous driving force of “social participation”. Strengthen the foundation of innovation resources at the grassroots level; Strengthen the ternary dynamic coupling mechanism.

Based on the panel data of 276 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2023, this paper uses instrumental variable regression to explore the impact mechanism of different forms of industrial land misallocation on the innovation level of enterprises, and whether fiscal expenditure can optimize these effects. It is found that industrial land price mismatch and supply mode mismatch will inhibit enterprise innovation, while structural mismatch will have a positive impact on enterprise innovation. Further analysis of the optimization effect of government fiscal expenditure shows that when the price of industrial land is mismatched, fiscal expenditure can have a significant positive impact on the level of enterprise innovation. Based on this, it is suggested that in the future policy formulation, the role and boundary of the government and the market should be further clarified, the land price should be dynamically optimized, the land supply structure should be adjusted, the regional differences should be fully considered, the allocation of industrial land resources should be adjusted, the structure of public financial expenditure should be optimized, and the dominant position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation should be strengthened.

Producer services are a crucial support for strengthening the real economy and empowering the high-quality development of China’s economy. This paper constructs a multi-city production-consumption model and, utilizing combined data from urban macro-level statistics and micro-level enterprises, examines the impact effects and channels of spatial agglomeration of producer services in city clusters on enterprise Total Factor Productivity (TFP). The study reveals the following conclusions. Firstly,the spatial agglomeration of producer services in city clusters significantly promotes enterprise TFP growth. This conclusion holds after excluding competing explanations, addressing endogeneity issues, and conducting robustness checks.Secondly,the spatial agglomeration of producer services in city clusters drives enterprise TFP growth through such effects as the scale of intermediate service supply, the talent pool effect for high-skilled workers, and knowledge and technology spillovers. Thirdly,the efficiency gains arising from this spatial agglomeration are primarily observed in national-level city clusters, industrial enterprises, and state-controlled enterprises. This research provides important insights for enhancing the overall economic development efficiency of China.

The implementation of human-centered new urbanization is not only a key measure to achieve Chinese-style modernization, but also an important task for national development at this stage. Looking back on the development process, since modern times, China’s urbanization has experienced revolutionary urbanization with the joint force of workers and peasants as the main body, production-oriented urbanization with labor factors as the guide, rapid urbanization driven by economic construction, and governance-oriented urbanization with living needs as the scale. At present, the opportunities and challenges of new urbanization coexist, and there are still some practical problems, such as the superposition of multiple subject characteristics of urbanization and social transformation, the spatial separation of population in the promotion of “ four modernizations synchronization, ” and the relative lag of concept mobilization under the guidance of stress policy. In order to effectively promote the new urbanization with people as the core, it is urgent to give full play to the institutional and organizational advantages of the party’s overall leadership in the main dimension; in terms of value concept, adhere to the essential attributes and core position of the people’s city in the strategy; on the practical path, we actively explore the model innovation and discourse autonomy construction of Chinese-style urbanization construction.

Given that current regional division practices have shifted toward new forms based on industrial and supply chains, relevant studies remain focused on measuring disparities between producer services and manufacturing sectors, which restricts the optimization and updating of inter-city division policies. Taking 12 China’s urban agglomerations as research units and using supply chain data from listed companies (2009-2022), this paper unveils the spatial patterns of functional division within urban agglomerations from the perspective of upstream-downstream relationships and empirically examines its impact on economic performance. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, a decentralized upstream-downstream division significantly enhances the economic performance of urban agglomerations. This effect operates through the optimized allocation of supply chain factors derived from diversified cities participation and the expansion of borrowed market size. Secondly, related variety positively moderates the relationship between functional division and economic performance, indicating that urban agglomerations benefit more economically from inter-city relations among upstream and downstream companies within the same industrial sectors. Thirdly, the economic impact of functional division exhibits heterogeneity across urban agglomerations, with stronger effects observed in coastal and “optimization-upgrading” urban agglomerations compared to inland and “development-growth” urban agglomerations. This underscores the pivotal role of economic foundations and integration levels in shaping division outcomes. This study enriches the theoretical understanding of functional division from a relationship perspective and offers policy implications for regional integration within urban agglomerations.

Based on the innovation agglomeration characteristics of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, using the forward citation data of strategic emerging industries patents from 2003 to 2022, the innovation function indicators of the central cities were constructed to analyze the heterogeneous impact of the improvement of the innovation function of the central cities on the economic growth of the peripheral cities. The research found that the innovation agglomeration trend in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration has strengthened, presenting a clear central-peripheral spatial pattern. The improvement of the innovation function of the central cities in the urban agglomeration significantly inhibits the economic growth of the peripheral cities, and this effect is particularly prominent within a 400-kilometer range. Beyond this range, it shows a positive promoting effect. As a national central city, Shanghai’s negative impact of innovation upgrading is stronger. Mechanism analysis indicates that reducing the level of technological innovation and inhibiting industrial transformation and upgrading are important mechanisms through which the improvement of the innovation function of the central cities in the urban agglomeration affects the economic development of the peripheral cities. Further analysis shows that the central cities can alleviate their inhibitory effect on the peripheral cities by leveraging their talent agglomeration advantages and enhancing the level of industry-university-research cooperation.

Using a quasi-natural experiment of newly opened subway lines and data from 16571 homogeneous 1 square kilometer geographical units in Beijing, this study attempts to examine the impact of subway lines on urban boundaries and spatial structure from a micro perspective. We found that: Adding one subway station can expand the built-up area of the city by 2.741 km²; With the increase of subway lines, the trend of urban decentralization and decentralization has become apparent, and the spatial structure of cities has gradually shifted from “single center cities” to “multi-center cities”; The heterogeneity of location selection between productive service industries and industrial enterprises is an important mechanism leading to the evolution of urban structure. The increase in land prices caused by the addition of new routes leads to the agglomeration of productive service industries towards the central area, and the relocation of industrial areas to peripheral areas. The resulting separation of work and residence promotes the re accumulation of life service industries around the new residential center, thus forming a multi-center structural change trend. Based on the above conclusions, the article provides policy insights for Beijing to further optimize spatial structure and effectively expand urban boundaries through the use of subway lines.