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As digital technologies rapidly transform global economies, the digital financial inclusion index (DFII) has emerged as a critical driver of economic growth, particularly in developing regions. In the context of China, where regional economic disparities persist, the expansion of digital financial services offers a promising avenue to boost regional development, promote inclusive growth, and enhance environmental sustainability. This study looks into how digital financial inclusion affects regional economic growth (GRP) in China’s provinces. It does this by using a panel threshold autoregressive model (PTAR) and a panel smooth transition autoregressive model (PSTAR) to see if the relationship is not always linear. Drawing on data from 31 Chinese provinces between 2003 and 2022, the analysis uncovers significant threshold effects, revealing distinct phases where digital financial inclusion’s influence on economic growth intensifies as financial inclusion increases. Furthermore, digital financial services empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual entrepreneurs to invest in eco-friendly innovations and low-emission technologies. By lowering barriers to funding, digital financial inclusion encourages the adoption of cleaner production processes and efficient resource management, which can significantly decrease emissions and improve air quality. Additionally, enhanced financial literacy and access to information through digital platforms enable consumers to make environmentally conscious choices, further contributing to reduced pollution levels. These findings provide empirical evidence of the transformative role of digital finance in both regional development and environmental sustainability, underscoring the need for policy interventions that enhance financial inclusion to drive economic growth.

Over the past few years a new buzzword has entered academic, political and public discourse: the notion of resilience, a term invoked to describe how an entity or system responds to shocks and disturbances. Although the concept has been used for some time in ecology and psychology, it is now invoked in diverse contexts, both as a perceived (and typically positive) attribute of an object, entity or system and, more normatively, as a desired feature that should somehow be promoted or fostered. As part of this development, the notion of resilience is rapidly becoming part of the conceptual and analytical lexicon of regional and local economic studies: there is increasing interest in the resilience of regional, local and urban economies. Further, resilience is rapidly emerging as an idea ‘whose time has come’ in policy debates: a new imperative of ‘constructing’ or ‘building’ regional and urban economic resilience is gaining currency. However, this rush to use the idea of regional and local economic resilience in policy circles has arguably run somewhat ahead of our understanding of the concept. There is still considerable ambiguity about what, precisely, is meant by the notion of regional economic resilience, about how it should be conceptualized and measured, what its determinants are, and how it links to patterns of long-run regional growth. The aim of this article is to address these and related questions on the meaning and explanation of regional economic resilience and thereby to outline the directions of a research agenda.

This study empirically analyzes the determinants of regional labor migration in Japan, where small towns are disappearing due to the shortage of labor. Using spatial models of origin–destination flows and considering network effects of labor and economic structures, we obtain results more consistent with the standard migration theory, compared to previous studies. In particular, we find that migration decisions are based on economic motivations and that high (low) unemployment rates in origin (destination) regions and low income in origin regions are important determinants of labor migration flows. Second, we report that network effects, which help reduce migration costs, play a significant role in the relocation of labor. Finally, considering different definitions of spatial weights based on distance, the volume of traded goods, and economic structures, we show that regional dependence is most appropriately defined by the similarity in economic structures. In other words, migration patterns are similar between regions that rely on analogous economic activities.

This study examines the upper basin of the Citarum River in West Java, Indonesia, to analyze the optimal environmental policy and issues affecting the balance between economic activities and water environment conservation, for example, controlling water quality while maximizing economic activities in the region. The quantitative results derived using model simulation analysis clarifies the study’s issues. An integrated model linking two sub-models describing socio-economic activities and the dynamics of water pollutants was simulated. The model incorporates government subsidies for sewerage system maintenance and septic tank installation as economic policy variables for water quality control. Further, the optimal amount of these subsidies and changes in local economic activities according to water pollution load constraints are derived in a time-series structure for each region from 2015 to 2030. The gross regional product (GRP) maximization problem is solved under the inflow constraints of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and chemical oxygen demand into the river. The results showed that the most favorable balance between water environment conservation and local economic activities can be achieved by setting the inflow constraint for 2030 at +3% of the 2015 level and the maximum annual cost of the measures at 10 times the current environmental budget of the West Java Province.

Recently, cross-laminated timber (CLT) has attracted attention as a civil engineering material in Japan. In particular, the use of CLT floor slabs for bridge repair is expected to have regional economic impacts throughout their life cycle, but their economic impacts have not been evaluated. In this study, the life cycle regional economic impacts of using non-waterproofed CLT, waterproofed CLT, and reinforced concrete (RC) floor slabs for bridge repair in Akita Prefecture, Japan, were compared. Using past-to-present input–output tables, we quantitatively evaluated the economic impacts over the life cycle of floor slabs by estimating the future input–output tables for construction, maintenance, and disposal. The results showed that the construction and maintenance costs (final demand increase) of CLT floor slabs are higher than those of RC slabs, but the regional economic impact is larger. In addition, the non-waterproofed CLT must be renewed every time it is maintained. Therefore, the demand for CLT production in the prefecture will increase, and the economic impact will be larger than that of the other two floor slabs. This demand for CLT production will not only redound to the benefit of the forestry and wood industry but also the revitalization of regional economies.

This paper aims at studying the consequences of investments in the innovative development for quality of regional entrepreneurship's products and the perspectives of balance of Russia's regional economy. Originality and novelty of this research consist in the following: firstly, it offers a systemic treatment of quality in the integrity of all its manifestations. Secondly, it considers quality as a source of overcoming the underrun of certain regions from other regions and ensuring the balance of regional economy. Thirdly, it offers a tool that is available for internal (corporate) and external (state) quality management - investments in innovations - which allows creating a synergetic effect in the form of systemic improvement of quality's manifestations. Practical significance of the obtained results consists in determination of top -priority manifestations of quality for provision of regional economy in modern Russia - volume of export and share of innovative products in the structure of regional entrepreneurship's products. Empirical value of this research consists in development of applied authors' recommendations (management implications) for provision of the balance of regional economy based on improvement of the practice of investing in innovations in the interests of quality.

Although environmental sustainability provides a foundation for maintaining economic and social sustainability, it is often neglected in favor of economic sustainability. Ameliorating water impairment is costly, and policymakers do not always prioritize this problem because its economic benefits are often intangible. This study explored the potential economic value for Tokyo’s regional economy of past improvements in the water quality of its rivers. Transitioning the rivers from their previous role as sewage drainage pipes to venues for spending leisure time created economic incentives in the local economy. An input-output analysis showed that in 1985, the inland navigation sector in the Sumida River generated 1.5 times the economic output by increasing demand. While this impact decreased to 1.3 times in 2005, the results clearly indicate that the regional economy can generate amenity values by improving the environmental quality. This study provides useful information to guide policymakers in allocating the budget for environmental management. In particular, it allows them to envision possible development plans to promote the livelihood of urban residents as well as understand the linkage between the environment and the economy.

Among the various effects of high-speed rail (HSR), a direct benefit to users has been measured as an increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) by the conventional cost–benefit analysis (CBA), which was institutionalized in the U.K. In recent years, the importance of capturing indirect benefits to non-users has also been broadly discussed. The indirect benefits of HSR can mainly be classified into two perspectives: regional economy and personal quality of life (QOL). In this study, we modeled the mutual enhancement between those effects and analyzed the indirect benefits of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail (MAHSR), which is currently under construction as the first HSR in India, an emerging country with a rapidly growing economy. The indirect benefit to the regional economy along the MAHSR corridor was estimated by industry and by zone. Additionally, the indirect benefit on personal QOL by individuals’ attributes and by zone through the mutual enhancement with the regional economy was also estimated. The personal QOL tends to show greater effects in the middle cities than those in the two metropolitan areas of Mumbai and Ahmedabad. This method can evaluate interregional disparity by identifying the differences in benefits by person, according to age, income, etc., which cannot be evaluated based on a mass measure, e.g., GDP, in the conventional CBA.

This study introduces a database for analyzing COVID-19’s impacts on China’s regional economies. This database contains various sectoral and regional economic outcomes at the weekly and monthly level. In the context of a general equilibrium trade model, we first formulate a mathematical representation of the Chinese regional economy and calibrate the model with China’s multi-regional input-output table. We then utilize the monthly provincial and sectoral value-added and national trade series to estimate COVID-19’s province-by-month labor-productivity impacts from February 2020 to September 2020. As a year-on-year comparison, relative to February 2019 levels, we find an average 39.5% decrease in labor productivity (equivalent to around 305 million jobs) and an average 25.9% decrease in welfare. Labor productivity and welfare quickly returned to the recent high-growth trends for China in the latter half of 2020. By September 2020, relative to September 2019, average labor productivity increased by 12.2% (equivalent to around 94 million jobs) and average welfare increased by 8.2%.HighlightsWe quantify COVID-19’s province-by-month labor productivity and welfare impacts on China’s economies.The analysis is based on a new database and a computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling approach.Labor productivity declined by 39.5% in February 2020 but quickly recovered since April 2020.The recovery patterns are heterogeneous across regions.

Northeast China is an old industrial base and agricultural production base with a long history of industrial and agricultural development. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the contradiction between economic and social development and resource depletion and environmental damage has become increasingly acute due to the long-term extensive development model. Based on a long time-series data set, this paper aims to explore the regional economic development model, environmental problems, and coordination degree between them in Northeast China. The results show that the population in Northeast China presents an increasing trend at first and then a decreasing one, and the population distribution shows an agglomeration in the cities of Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, and Dalian. Urban-related land uses and GDP growth also exhibits agglomerations centered on these large cities. According to the changing trend of regional GDP and environmental investment, the synergistic relationship between the parameters is compared on a temporal scale, and a positive correlation between economic growth and environmental development is observed. We conclude that economic growth is closely correlated with environmental protection. If more attention is likely to be paid to environmental protection, the cities will develop more healthily under the background of urbanization. Based on the current status of the economy and environment, this paper puts forward constructive suggestions on promoting the coordinated development of regional economy and improving the ability of ecological environment governance. Improving the ecological environment’s overall improvement capability through approaches such as adjusting the industrial structure, promoting the use of clean energy, strengthening industrial pollution control, controlling pollutant emissions, and promoting the construction of regional environmental infrastructure are all critical issues that must be resolved quickly to achieve coordinated development.