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The study estimates the impact of cluster commercial credit on manufacturing total factor productivity from the perspective of county-level clusters. The data were collected from 1998 to 2015 from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database. Various econometrics methods were used to approach the study objectives. The study found that cluster commercial credit can significantly increase the total factor productivity of manufacturing. Through the analysis of the theoretical mechanism, it was found that improving the level of innovation and improving the efficiency of the capital allocation are important ways for cluster commercial credit to positively promote the total factor productivity of the manufacturing sector. The analysis of heterogeneity found that cluster commercial credit promoted the total factor productivity of state-owned enterprises, large-scale enterprises, capital-intensive industries, high-tech industries, and enterprises in coastal areas to a great extent. By constructing a quasi-natural experiment, using the method of multi-period double difference and PSM-DID to solve the problem of cluster commercial credit endogeneity, it passed the parallel trend, placebo, and other tests. Finally, this article further describes the relationship between corporate commercial credit and corporate total factor productivity from the enterprise-to-enterprise level and found that the use of commercial credit by enterprises has a significant and positive role in promoting corporate total factor productivity. The research results of this paper provide a reference for promoting the high-quality development of the country’s economy from the perspective of informal finance.

Evaluating the impact of health insurance always remains a methodologically challenging endeavor due to the absence of sample randomization. This paper evaluates the impact of health insurance on the health status of children in Pakistan using the data of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) for Punjab, Pakistan, from 2017 to 2018. The study adopted the propensity score matching (PSM) method to address the sample selection bias. The sample is matched on potential covariates such as mother characteristics (education level), household head characteristics (gender, age, and education), and other household conditions (such as home dwelling, internet access, wealth index, migration member, number of children residing in the home, as child illness, etc.). The findings revealed that children with insurance have considerably better health than non-insured, at a 1% significance level. The results confirm that health insurance is not a luxury but a need that improves children's overall health. In this regard, governments should enhance and expand programs related to health insurance, especially for children. Health insurance programs will not only help poor people but also improve the overall infrastructure of health services in the country.

Addressing global climate change is the responsibility of all mankind, and original green technology innovation is the key to achieving the goal of “carbon neutrality”. Under the target of “carbon neutrality”, it remains to be seen whether China’s special economic zones can promote the green technology innovation of enterprises, which is very important for achieving green and high-quality development. This study examines the impact of special economic zones (SEZs) on enterprises’ green technology innovation by constructing a quasi-natural experiment using data of Chinese listed companies (collected from 2000 to 2017) and green patent applications. The empirical results showed that the SEZ program significantly promoted the green technology innovation of enterprises. The number of green patent applications of enterprises in zones has increased by 17.02%. The promotion effect was more significant on enterprises in provincial development zones, those that are owned by the central state, and those in central and eastern regions. In the short term, the green innovation promotion effect is mainly derived from the effect of preferential policy subsidies, while in the long run, the role of the agglomeration effect gradually emerged. This study provides empirical evidence for green and high-quality development. This study also provides a new policy reference for achieving a win–win situation between industrial agglomeration and ecological environment.

Sustainable development is crucial to the survival and healthy development of enterprises, which is closely related to their financing situation. Supply chain finance is an effective way to improve and enhance the financing situation by easing financing constraints and reducing financing costs. As an important source of supply chain short-term financing, trade credit plays an important role in enterprise production and circulation. Taking Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2020 as samples, this paper studied the impact of trade credit on sustainable growth and its internal mechanism. Furthermore, we analyzed the moderating effect of digital finance development on the influence of trade credit on sustainable growth. It is found that receiving trade credit benefited firms’ sustainable growth. Furthermore, study found that receiving trade credit has a greater positive impact on the sustainable growth of enterprises in regions with higher levels of financial development, high-tech industries, state-owned enterprises and small enterprises. Whereas, the provision of trade credit had an obvious inhibiting effect on the sustainable growth of enterprises in the regions with low level of financial development, non-high-tech industries, private enterprises and small enterprises. The results of the influencing mechanism showed that receiving trade credit promoted firm’s sustainable growth by “agency cost reducing effect,” while providing trade credit inhibited firm’s sustainable growth by “forcing effect.” In addition, the development of digital finance weakens the positive impact of trade credit financing on enterprises’ sustainable growth but strengthens the negative impact of providing trade credit on sustainable growth. From the perspective of sustainable growth, this paper explained the role of trade credit financing in alleviating the financing dilemma of enterprises, which is urgently needed by most emerging economies pursuing high-quality development. Therefore, in order to give full play to the role of trade credit financing, the government should actively create a good credit environment. At the same time, the government should vigorously develop digital finance to enhance its ability to serve the real economy.