No abstract

Under both Chinese-style fiscal decentralization (vertical competition) and promotion tournament systems (horizontal competition), the economic development system used by the government determines whether local government competition significantly influences green total factor productivity (GTFP). Moreover, market segmentation, an important strategic tool for local government competition, will significantly impact GTFP because of the implied changes in production efficiency and blocked factor flows. This study applies GMM and the mediation effect model to explore the relationship between local government competition and GTFP from the market segmentation perspective using statistical data from 30 provinces from 2006 to 2017 in China. Overall, our results demonstrate that local government competition significantly inhibits GTFP promotion. Local government competition also has a negative impact on GTFP by promoting market segmentation. As a mediating variable, the market segmentation coefficient was statistically significant. Considering regional heterogeneity, in the eastern region, local government competition has no significant inhibitory effect on GTFP. Moreover, market segmentation has no intermediary effect. In the central and western regions, GTFP remains significantly inhibited by local government competition, and the mediation effect of market segmentation is significant. Finally, our empirical results are robust.

Research on the vulnerability of tourist cities’ economic systems during COVID-19 can offer insightful implications for tourism recovery and resilience. We built a vulnerability index of tourist cities’ economic systems based on sensitivity and responsiveness amid COVID-19. Taking 46 major tourist cities in China as a case, the vulnerability indices and main vulnerability-induced factors were analyzed using a comprehensive assessment model and a factor identification model. The results revealed several trends. First, after the pandemic emerged, the vulnerability of the economic systems of major tourist cities remained mostly moderate. Vulnerability could be further divided into four types across four city characteristics and four system characteristics. Second, sensitivity had a more pronounced effect on system vulnerability; crisis pressure and inbound tourism reliance exerted key influences on the vulnerability of tourist cities’ economic systems. Cities with high and relatively high vulnerability were subject to tourism reliance sensitivity factors and urban guarantee responsiveness factors. Third, the pandemic’s influence on tourist cities’ economic system vulnerability was mainly reflected in exogenous environmental stress vulnerability (i.e., due to external environmental stress), but was essentially endogenous structural imbalance vulnerability (i.e., due to imbalanced internal structures). Fourth, system vulnerability can be alleviated by reducing system sensitivity, improving system responsiveness, and enhancing the system’s engineering resilience and ecological resilience. This study not only offers an overview of the vulnerability characteristics of tourist cities’ economic systems amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but also highlights the formation mechanisms of vulnerability.

From the perspective of factor market distortion, this paper explores the effect and internal mechanism of local government competition on green total factor productivity (GTFP). A three-stage DEA model was applied to measure the GTFP of 30 provinces from 2008 to 2017. Furthermore, the article analyses local government competition and factor market distortions influence on GTFP using the Spatial SDM model and mediation effect model. The statistical results reveal that the spatial correlation of GTFP is significantly present across Chinese different provinces. The growth of GTFP will be significantly inhibited by local government competition. Local government competition can indirectly restrict the improvement of GTFP through factor market distortion. Regional heterogeneity indicates that, in the eastern and central regions, local government competition does not significantly inhibit the growth of GTFP. Moreover, local government competition failed to restrain the improvement of GTFP through factor market distortion. However, in the western region, local government competition not only inhibited the growth of GTFP, but also inhibited the growth of GTFP by causing factor market distortion.

Limitations in statistical data and differences in accounting methods have hindered the accuracy of tourism carbon emissions accounting. In this research, based on the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) and underpinned by the logic of “accounting basis–key coefficient–accounting objective,” a comprehensive decomposition accounting method is built from a consumption stripping perspective. First, it classifies the tourism industry by the “sector–industry–product” structure into seven sectors, 13 industries, and 22 characteristic products/services. Next, it strips the actual tourism consumption from the tourism industry by constructing two key coefficients. Finally, it transforms tourism consumption data into carbon emissions data by introducing tourism ecological efficiency. Taking Guangdong province of China as an example, its tourism carbon emissions are calculated from 2010 to 2020 using the proposed method. The results reveal the distribution structure of tourism carbon emissions and confirm the scientific and accurate nature of this accounting method.