Abstract:In the past 30 years, China's economy has experienced rapid development, which led to a vast increase in energy consumption and serious environmental pollution. Among the different types of pollution, heavy metal pollution has become one of the major environmental issues in China. A number of studies show that high level of heavy metal exposure is a frequent cause of permanent intellectual and developmental disabilities. In recent years, some traditional pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, have been put under control in China. However, heavy metal pollution, which poses even greater risks to public health and sustainable development, has yet to gain policymakers' attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore effective countermeasures for heavy metal pollution in China. The present study reviews the current status of China's heavy metal pollution and analyzes related public policies and countermeasures against that pollution. It also presents a few recommendations and measures for prevention of heavy metal pollution.

Studies on tourists crowding are developed to explore the perception of crowding, and these studies indicate crowding influence on sustainable development of tourist destinations. This study aims to reveal the influential factors of tourists' perceived crowding. We obtained data from interviewing over 400 tourists and five senior tourism officials in Xi'an, China. This study firstly applies factor analysis to identify the constructed variables of tourists' motivations from the principle component analysis. It then examines the correlation between nationality and perceived crowding. Consequently, a multiple regression is used to identify the connection between motivations and perceived crowding. The results of the study indicate nationality and motivation as two significant influential factors to perceived crowding management. This study also shows that management in tourist destinations would benefit from provision of the authentic travel experience integrated with zoning the travel destination.

In studies on the effects of climate disasters, positive aspects are often overlooked. However it is important to accurately estimate the long-run impact of these disasters. This study presents the first attempt to investigate the innovative response to climate disasters in modern and historical China. For modern China, using panel data of up to 31 provinces from 2005 to 2013 and the Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) technique, this study suggests that past climate disasters have led to an increase in the number of disaster-mitigating patents. These patents also boost innovations in other fields, which indicate that there exists a spillover effect in technological progress. The 2 paper further investigates five major province groups in modern China and finds that disaster-mitigating patents not only respond to local disasters but serve as feedback to disasters occurring in neighboring provinces as well. Additionally, this study creatively uses the time-series data from 11 A.D. to 1910 A.D. to analyze the historical case with the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method. The results show that climate disasters only spurred innovations in disaster mitigation fields and not in others, meaning that innovation spillovers did not exist in historical China. This study provides practical implications for policymakers and governments. They should introduce incentives to encourage and increase investment in research and technological development sectors after climate disasters.

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) contribute to the economic development of most developing countries. However, the economic performance of the MSMEs is often restricted by several obstacles. This paper reports on a study of the impacts of public sector corruption on employment growth in MSMEs, as perceived by their managers/owners. The data originated from a nationwide survey that involved MSMEs managers/owners in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that were selected by a stratified random sampling technic. The data was analyzed using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression model. The results show that MSME managers/owners perceive that corruption in the public sector is generally linked to an increase in employment growth in their firms. Medium-size enterprises benefit most from corruption in the public sector, whereas small-size firms appear not to benefit. The findings indicate that other than corruption, there might be failures in the public institutions that are hampering the competitiveness, innovations and efficiency in MSMEs. Corrupt practices can precipitate the loss of revenue that would have accrued to the government from tax that could be used to provide facilities required by the public institutions. Corruption in the public institutions of developing countries such as PNG can be tackled by implementing strategies that promote zero-tolerance for corruption. These include promoting public awareness of the cost of corruption to the country’s economy, improvement in the quality of governance, and expanding the capacity of government agencies for effective and efficient service delivery. Increasing the penalty for engaging in corrupt practices could also be considered, while people who engage in practices that discourage corruption should be rewarded. The findings contribute to a potential strategy that could be used to promote ease of doing business in a country by considering the obstacles that MSMEs face.

Abstract:China is the largest non-metallic mineral producer in the world and one of the key consumers of four major non-metallic mineral products, including cement, refractories, plate glass and ceramics. The non-metallic mineral products industry's rapid growth has brought about a large demand for energy. The present study provides an overview of China's non-metallic mineral products industry in terms of production, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In this industry, the energy efficiency is relatively low and the level of carbon dioxide emission is much higher than developed countries' average. This study interprets the effects of some newly issued policies and analyses the influential factors in achieving energy conservation and emission reduction goals. It also discusses the prospects for saving energy and emission reduction in the industry. Retrofitting facilities and using new production technologies is imperative. Additionally, implementing market-based policies, promoting industrial transformation and effective international cooperation would help decrease carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption.