Objectives: The effectiveness of telemedicine in rural areas with low-quality primary care remains unclear. This study examined the relationship of telemedicine adoption with life satisfaction and satisfaction with care in rural China. It also investigated the association of telemedicine with health-seeking behaviour, healthcare utilisation and heterogeneity in the type of telemedicine collaboration and the quality of healthcare workforce.Methods: Data were retrieved from the China Livelihood Survey, a nationally representative multi-level survey conducted in 2021. Ordinary least-squares regression models were employed to analyse the relationship between telemedicine adoption at the village level and rural households' life satisfaction and satisfaction with healthcare. Propensity score matching was used to address the potential selection bias.Results: A total of 4638 households were included in the analysis. The results show that telemedicine adoption in village clinics was associated with higher levels of life satisfaction and satisfaction with healthcare among rural households. This improvement was primarily attributed to an increased likelihood of seeking care at primary care facilities, rather than a reduction in healthcare expenditures. The association was stronger when village clinics collaborated with township health centres in telemedicine initiatives, compared to those partnering with higher-level hospitals. Moreover, the association was more pronounced in villages with lower-quality healthcare workers compared to those with higher-quality staff.Conclusion: These findings highlight telemedicine as an effective tool for improving rural residents' satisfaction. Strategies such as promoting strengthened telemedicine collaboration at local levels and targeting telemedicine resources to remote areas with deficient primary care workforces are recommended to optimise telemedicine adoption in primary care in China and other developing countries.

Objective:The scarcity of healthcare resources and inadequate access to medical services in rural and remote areas are pervasive challenges many countries face, particularly in the developing world. Telemedicine, with its capacity to overcome geographical barriers and provide patients with real-time medical services, has shown considerable potential in addressing these issues, attracting widespread attention. Compact medical communities and family doctor systems play important roles in improving healthcare accessibility. However, despite the critical nature of patients' perceptions of healthcare accessibility, research in this domain is sparse. This study aimed to explore the impact of telemedicine on rural residents' perceived healthcare accessibility in China, analyze the mechanisms underpinning this relationship, and elucidate the roles of compact medical communities and the family doctor system. Methods:Survey data from 3311 rural residents were analyzed using a probit model, instrumental variables, and subgroup regression analyses to ascertain causal effects, perform heterogeneity analysis, examine mechanisms, and ascertain the robustness of the findings. Results:Telemedicine significantly enhanced rural residents' perceived healthcare accessibility, with particularly notable benefits for those in sparsely populated areas, regions with high-speed internet access, within the purview of compact healthcare consortiums, and those with access to family doctor services. Furthermore, telemedicine improved rural residents' perceived healthcare accessibility by encouraging the use of primary care services. Conclusion:Telemedicine in China has played a significant role in improving the perceived healthcare accessibility among rural residents and aiding in the reduction of disparities in accessibility across different demographic groups. This is consistent with the broader objective of achieving universal health coverage. However, the efficacy of telemedicine in enhancing healthcare accessibility is contingent upon certain preconditions. Policymakers must confront local infrastructure challenges, particularly regarding internet connectivity, when expanding telemedicine services to ensure their effective operation. The synergistic interaction observed between telemedicine, the family doctor system, and compact medical communities highlights the importance of integrating telemedicine into existing healthcare systems. Such integration could enhance collaboration with current healthcare frameworks, ensuring the provision of safe, accessible, and affordable healthcare services, and promoting the health and well-being of local populations.

Reducing air pollution is a major goal of digital infrastructure construction, which is the embodiment of the “new infrastructure construction” strategy in the era of smart economy. This paper systematically summarizes the mechanism by which digital infrastructure construction affects air pollution and empirically analyzes the impact of digital infrastructure construction on air pollution based on Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2023. The study finds that the digital infrastructure construction can exert a significant inhibitory effect on air pollution. The analysis of the moderating effect indicates that environmental policies and regulations positively moderate the relationship between digital infrastructure construction and air pollution. The mechanism analysis shows that digital infrastructure reduces air pollution by promoting technological innovation and driving industrial upgrading. The heterogeneous analysis indicates that the emission reduction effect of digital platform construction is more significant. Meanwhile, the construction of digital infrastructure in central and western regions, resource-based regions, and regions with high environmental regulation intensity has a stronger inhibitory effect on air pollution. Further analysis shows that the construction of digital infrastructure not only improves local air quality, but also has a significant mitigating effect on air pollution in neighboring areas. Meanwhile, digital talents reinforce this spatial impact. Finally, according to the research conclusions, the corresponding policy suggestions are put forward.

The Chinese government implemented a nationwide family doctor policy in 2016 as a component of the Healthy China 2030 plan. Previous studies on the role of family doctors in reducing medical expenditures in China have produced inconsistent results. This study employed large-sample microsurvey data from across China to analyze the effects of family doctor contracts on actual medical and hospitalization expenditures. Utilizing both ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and instrumental variable (IV) regression, we analyzed data from 11,221 participants in the 2021 National China Livelihood Survey. The OLS and IV regression results suggested that engaging with a family doctor enhanced actual medical and hospitalization costs. This study conducted two additional analyses to delve deeper into this finding. The mechanistic analysis indicated that the association between contracting with a family doctor and increased medical spending was mediated by improved medical accessibility, prompt medication adherence, and regular hospital visits. Furthermore, a heterogeneity analysis showed that this increase in medical expenditures was particularly pronounced among residents with an educational level of high school and below, those suffering from chronic diseases, and individuals residing in regions with superior infrastructure and health resource availability. Consequently, our study indicates that contracting with a family doctor, although it raises medical costs for Chinese residents, is also associated with enhancements in health status.

The increase in commuting time due to traffic congestion is a widespread dilemma faced by most major cities worldwide. In addition to its impact on environmental pollution and personal health issues, it can negatively impact the labor supply. Utilizing microdata from China's 1% population census data in 2015, we find that for every additional minute of commuting time, the probability of labor participation among married women decreases by an average of 0.5 percentage points. The variation in commuting time can explain about 40% of the differences in labor participation rates of married women across cities in our sample. Our study also sheds light on the puzzle of declining female labor participation in China over the past decade, specifically in the context of the nation's rapid urban expansion and escalating commuting time.

Using microdata from the sixth census, we estimate the marginal treatment effect of fertility on female labor supply in rural China based on the generalized Roy Model. We find that the decline in childbearing willingness magnifies negative impact of fertility on female labor supply, particularly for women with higher educational attainment. In the context of the universal two-child policy, the policy-relevant treatment effects show that weekly labor supply falls by 7.5-12.3 hours after having a second child. Our research implies that female labor supply should be taken into consideration when introducing certain fertility incentive policies.

The rise of the platform economy has raised concerns about workers’ conditions and job satisfaction. In this study, we examine the relationship between working hours and job satisfaction using unique data from on-demand delivery couriers. Our analysis shows that long working hours negatively affect job satisfaction, particularly among those with prior full-time employment, limited courier experience, third-party recruitment, and marital status. To address endogeneity concerns, we employ an instrumental variable approach, using monthly precipitation and working hours of peers as instruments, which confirms the robustness of our findings. The mechanism analysis further suggests that the negative effect of long working hours is mediated by factors such as physical health status and career identity. Our study highlights the need for regulatory measures to protect platform economy workers from excessive workloads and to enhance job satisfaction.

China promulgated the Compulsory Education Law in 1986, which was subsequently gradually implemented in various provinces. While promoting the development of education in China, whether the implementation of the Compulsory Education Law also has an impact on the fertility rate is an important aspect of understanding the fertility problem in China. This paper examines the marginal treatment effect of education on fertility by using the sampling data of 1 % national population sample survey data in 2015. The empirical study finds that the effect of education on fertility was heterogeneous. For women who face greater difficulties in completing junior high school, education has a greater negative impact on their childbearing. For women who have more opportunities to complete junior high school, the impact of education on childbearing is not significant. The policy simulation results of this paper show that with the increasing completion rate of nine-year compulsory education, education significantly reduces fertility rates in China. The empirical study in this paper has important policy implications. At present, China's fertility policies have turned to incentive-based policies, and the extensive supports of social policies are more critical for the policy goal of improving fertility level.

In accordance with the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan of the National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Vision 2035, we will formulate an action program and implementation plan to achieve common prosperity by 2035 and define the main ways of development in the political, economic, social, cultural, and ecological construction fields.

Environmental degradation, especially air pollution, has been a prevalent problem in China in recent decades. Rather than focus on traditional regulatory policies aimed at enterprises engaged in production activities, this paper studies the effects of the clean heating policy targeting residents in China. Taking the coal-to-gas program as a quasi-natural experiment and using a city-level dataset of daily air quality, we study the effects of the clean heating policy implemented in Beijing and its surrounding areas on air quality with the difference-in-differences method. The results show that the clean heating policy significantly reduced air pollution in coal-to-gas cities, bringing improved economic welfare, with stronger effects in Beijing's neighboring cities. We find no evidence suggesting a decreasing policy effect over time. In addition, we find that increasing subsidies can further enhance the policy's effectiveness. We also test the spatial spillover effects of this policy and calculate its geographical boundary. Changing the energy structure in conjunction with regulating residential emissions is crucial to improving air quality.

Common prosperity is a fundamental goal foreseen by Marxism. In his Economic Manuscripts 1857–1858, Marx pointed out that in the new social system, the development of social productive forces would be so rapid that production would aim at the enrichment of all people. In the modern history of the world, there were decades of socialist practice in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, but this social practice failed around 1990 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe, and all these countries also became class-divided and stratified countries, a great historical regression.

This open access book is a new study and looks into the great significance and world significance of China's realization of common prosperity

From the practice of socialist modernization since the founding of the People's Republic of China, all the people have gained unprecedented improvements in economic and social welfare in the course of the country's economic development at different stages of development, and common prosperity has always been the basic guideline of the Communist Party of China in its governance. However, the way of realizing common prosperity, the degree of its realization and the form of its manifestation have been inherited and varied at different stages of development.