Market segmentation is common across various sectors, particularly evident in China's electricity market. Meanwhile, officials form a variety of geographic networks due to their innate backgrounds ...and acquired social connections. An extensive body of studies providing insights into the important role of officials' network ties in resource allocation, but little attention has been paid to the impact of this dynamic process on energy resources. Given that energy plays a significant role in shaping economic growth, our study complements this body of literature by examining how leaders with hometown ties impact inter-provincial electricity trade in China using a gravity model. The gravity model, which has become the traditional framework for estimating the determinants of trade flows, is applicable to the province pairs data structure in our study. Using data on provincial officials' hometown and inter-provincial electricity transactions for 30 provinces in China between 2007 and 2019, the results reveal that a leader whose hometown is i and current jurisdiction is j significantly increases the probability of electricity flowing from i to j, corresponding to a 53.73 % increase, which indicates that they implement a weaker market segmentation on their hometown. Moreover, the results reveal that this effect only occurs in a leader's tenure, and is particularly pronounced when a leader's hometown and current jurisdiction are on the same regional grid, or at least adjacent to each other, or when the current jurisdiction has higher power load levels. The results of mechanism analysis reveal that China's immature electricity market drives officials to leverage hometown ties for market integration, rather than promotion or rent-seeking. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the broader impact of officials' personal ties. It also provides a valuable insight into the factors facilitating the integration of China's electricity market.
•A gravity model is used to explore how leaders' hometown ties affect power trade.•Hometown ties increase power trade between a leader's hometown and current jurisdiction.•Hometown ties effects show a temporal, spatial and power load heterogeneity.•An immature power market drives officials to utilize hometown ties for market integration.
Coordinating the energy mix transition with environmental protection is essential for reducing climate risks. Long-term fossil fuel exploitation and utilization result in increasing ecological risks ...in energy-rich regions. While ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission is considered a key tool for promoting long-distance energy consumption, its ecological impact has received little attention. Using city-level panel data from 2005 to 2019 in China, this study examines the impact of UHV transmission on eco-environmental quality in energy-rich regions. The empirical results show that UHV transmission reduces eco-environmental quality in energy-rich regions. This effect is particularly pronounced in regions with more abundant fossil energy sources, underdeveloped economies, and weak environmental regulations. Mechanism analysis finds that UHV transmission promotes the expansion of power generation in energy-rich regions, followed by lagging industrial structure, weakening eco-environmental governance and intensifying resource exploitation. These findings suggest that increasing the utilization of renewable energy and strengthening environmental regulation are essential for achieving sustainable development in energy-rich regions.
•This study examines the impact of UHV transmission on eco-environmental quality of energy-rich regions.•UHV transmission reduces eco-environmental quality in energy-rich regions.•Mechanisms include lagging industrial mix, weakening eco-environmental governance, and intensifying resource exploitation.
Administrative officials are often transferred during the course of their careers, yet little attention has been paid to how their transfer might affect energy transactions across regions. By ...employing data on the transfer of provincial leaders between provinces and inter-provincial electricity transactions in China, we examine the impact of local leaders’ transfer on electricity transactions and the underlying mechanisms. The findings show that the transfer of local leaders leads to an increase in inter-regional electricity transactions in the direction of the transfer. This effect disappears when the transferred leaders leave office. The boosts are more accessible when a leader’s previous and current jurisdictions are on the same regional grid, or at least adjacent to each other, or when the current jurisdiction embraces a heavier power load. Based on insights from political economy, these empirical findings can be attributed to the motivation of provincial leaders for career advancement and the absence of a fully competitive electricity market in China. Our study adds empirical evidence in support of the tournament theory of political promotion. It also provides novel insights into how developing countries might achieve a better allocation of their energy resources.
The carbon reduction effects of climate mitigation have received much attention, but less attention has been paid to the co-benefits of climate mitigation such as air pollution reduction and related ...health impacts. This oversight may have led to an underestimation of the broader welfare effects of climate mitigation and thus hindering its progress in implementation. This paper investigates the co-benefits of climate mitigation through focusing on the pollution reduction effects of the implementation of the clean development mechanism (CDM), which is an important climate mitigation mechanism to enhance north-south climate cooperation. Using a unique firm-level dataset with data on China's CDM projects from 1998 to 2012, we show that the CDM implementation reduced sulfur dioxide emissions. Mechanism analyses show that the CDM implementation alleviated firms' financing constraints and promoted fossil energy savings, thereby reducing emissions of air pollutants that usually coexist with greenhouse gases in burning fossil fuels. We also find that the CDM didn't bring about the expected technological progress. These results highlight environmental co-benefits of climate mitigation and provide important implications for international climate cooperation
•On average, the CDM reduced SO2 emissions and production of treated firms by 15.21% and 21.89%, respectively.•The CDM reduced emissions of air pollutants related to greenhouse gases through energy saving.•Co-benefits of the CDM were not redistributed to water pollutants less related to greenhouse gases.•The CDM didn't bring about the expected technological progress.
Distinct from the existing literature conforming to the Porter hypothesis which emphasizes the technological innovation mechanism, this paper examines the mechanism of technological transformation ...through which environmental technical standards influence the manufacturing industry in reducing emissions and improving efficiency (i.e. green transition). Furthermore, drawing upon enterprise samples from the databases of Chinese Industrial Enterprises and Chinese Industrial Pollution Sources from Major Monitored Enterprises, it empirically validates the results of the theoretical analysis. Overall, our research reveals that environmental technical standards can propel manufacturing enterprises to reduce pollution and increase productivity by following an incremental path of technological transformation, thereby achieving a green transition. Moreover, environmental technical standards indirectly promote green technology innovation in the upstream equipment manufacturing enterprises. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that environmental technical standards have a stronger effect of green transition on those companies with higher pollution emission intensity, lower productivity, slower capital renewal and stronger financing capacity prior to implementing the environmental policies.
Physical-chemical characteristics of the band sawing dusts regarding to recovery of pure silicon from them were investigated.The experimental results show 50vol%-60vol% amorphous phases exist in the ...dusts,which is mostly amorphous silica.The as-received saw dusts are found to form hard agglomerates of larger than 50 microns in diameter.The iron-based inclusions collected by magnets are found to match well with the band saw material in XRD patterns.Weight loss in heating was observed by thermal gravity tests,up to 900 ℃,presumably due to reaction of the amorphous silica with carbon contaminant in the dusts.The saw dusts were variously treated to examine their physical-chemical responses,and the results were also presented.
Aspirin is recommended for secondary stroke prevention in patients with moderate-to-severe ischaemic stroke but can lead to gastrointestinal intolerance and bleeding. Indobufen is used as an ...alternative antiplatelet agent in some countries, despite an absence of large-scale clinical trials for this indication. We tested the hypothesis that indobufen is non-inferior to aspirin in reducing the risk of new stroke at 90 days in patients with moderate-to-severe ischaemic stroke.
We conducted a randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, active control, non-inferiority trial at 163 tertiary and district general hospitals in China. Eligible participants were aged 18–80 years with acute moderate-to-severe ischaemic stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score 4–18). We randomly assigned (1:1) participants within 72 h of the onset of symptoms to receive either indobufen (100 mg tablet twice per day) or aspirin (100 mg tablet once per day) for 90 days. The randomisation sequence was computer generated centrally and stratified by local participating centres. Masked local investigators assigned the random code to patients in ascending order and provided a treatment kit corresponding to the random code. The primary efficacy outcome was new stroke and the primary safety outcome was severe or moderate bleeding, both within 90 days. This primary efficacy outcome was assessed in all randomly assigned and consenting patients and in a per-protocol group (ie, all patients finishing the treatment without major violation of the trial protocol). Safety analyses were done in the safety-analysis population (ie, all patients who received at least one dose of the study drug and had a safety assessment available). We assessed the non-inferiority of indobufen versus aspirin using the one-sided upper limit of the 95% CI of the hazard ratio (HR) with a prespecified non-inferiority margin of 1·25. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03871517).
This trial took place between June 2, 2019, and Nov 28, 2021. Of 84 093 patients screened, 5438 patients were randomly assigned to receive either indobufen (n=2715) or aspirin (n=2723), all of whom were included in the primary analyses. Median age was 64·2 years (IQR 56·1–70·6); 1921 (35·3%) were women and 3517 (64·7%) were men. Stroke occurred within 90 days in 213 (7·9%) patients in the indobufen group versus 175 (6·4%) in the aspirin group (HR 1·23, 95% CI 1·01–1·50; pnon-inferiority=0·44). Moderate or severe bleeding occurred in 18 (0·7%) patients in the indobufen group and in 28 (1·0%) in the aspirin group (0·63, 95% CI 0·35 to 1·15; p=0·13). Adverse events within 90 days occurred in 666 (24·5%) patients in the indobufen group and 679 (24·9%) patients in the aspirin group (p=0·73).
In patients with acute moderate-to-severe ischaemic stroke, indobufen was not non-inferior to aspirin because the upper limit of the 95% CI was greater than 1·25. Furthermore, indobufen seemed to be inferior to aspirin in reducing the risk of recurrent stroke at 90 days because the lower limit of the 95% CI was greater than 1·00. Although moderate or severe bleeding did not differ between groups, these findings do not support the use of indobufen for secondary stroke prevention in patients with moderate-to-severe ischaemic stroke.
Hangzhou Zhongmei Huadong Pharmaceutical and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences.
For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.
