To ensure nutritional intake and reduce the occurrence of diet-related diseases, it is urgent to promote a healthy diet. At present, short video apps with information dissemination, social interaction, and online shopping are widely used, which have changed the way people obtain and exchange information, and the way of life and consumption. Exploring whether short video app use can affect food consumption choices offers new insights for promoting dietary transformation among residents. Based on the first-hand micro-survey data of 2,000 rural households across 100 villages in 5 Chinese provinces in 2023, this study examines the effects of short video app use on rural household food consumption. The results show that short video app use can increase households’ per capita food consumption and dietary diversity, mainly by raising consumption of aquatic products, fruits, poultry, pork and soybeans, but it does not improve households’ food health index. Short video app use promotes dietary diversity mainly by improving nutrition awareness. Its positive effect on dietary diversity is stronger among high-income groups. It also improves dietary diversity in villages that have express delivery points, but lack food markets and are remotely located. Short video app use can help improve nutrition awareness and to a certain extent, reduce the impact of location and supporting facilities on food access.

Promoting ecological farms is a critical initiative for greening agriculture and advancing eco-agricultural theory into practice. Although China integrated ecological farm construction into national plans post-2020, its development remains nascent, necessitating objective and quantitative methods to classify farm models and evaluate their performance. This study addresses this gap by applying unsupervised machine learning-specifically Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) clustering-to 2022 declaration data from 678 national ecological farms. Our analysis identified three distinct typologies: National Varieties Fine Management Type (NVFMT, 40.27 %), characterized by small-scale, specialty-crop operations with minimal synthetic inputs; Diversified Business Type (DBT, 33.78 %), integrating vegetable production, agritourism, and high adoption of eco-measures; and Largescale Traditional Type (LTT, 25.96 %), focused on grain cultivation with extensive land use and flood irrigation. Performance evaluation using life cycle assessment, total factor productivity (TFP), and revenue analysis revealed no significant economic differences across types. However, NVFMT and DBT exhibited 48-52 % lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity than LTT, attributable to reduced fertilizer use and diversified practices. DBT also achieved significantly higher TFP (1.18) compared to NVFMT (0.68) and LTT (0.72), linked to operational diversity and technological integration. As the first national-scale application of machine learning to ecological farm typology in China, this research provides an evidence-based framework to guide targeted policies for sustainable agricultural transformation.

This paper quantifies the impact of air pollution on the spatial mobility of rural labor, investigates the underlying mechanisms, and identifies the heterogeneous impacts across labor characteristics. Using panel data for 103,409 rural laborers in China from 2000 to 2015, this study employs a Heckman two-stage model combined with an instrumental variable approach. Key findings indicate that urban air quality act as a significant deterrent at the destination, rather than a push factor at the origin. While hometown pollution does not significantly drive laborers to emigrate, a 10 mu g/m3 increase in a city's PM2.5 concentration is associated with a 4.30% decrease in the probability of rural labor migrating to that city. This mechanism operates through environmental regulations, which inhibit the secondary industry and promote industrial upgrading, thus altering the rural labor demand. Furthermore, the deterrent effect is more pronounced for less-educated rural laborers, particularly those employed in factories. This research offers critical insights into environmental injustice, where urban pollution-induced regulations in destination cities create ecnomic barriers to China's rural labor force. Therefore, future urbanization strategies should integrate environmental protection with inclusive labor market concerns to ensure equitable development.

Avner Greif proposes in The Great Divergence that the historical divergence in the Western world originated from the breakthrough of personalized transactions in medieval trade to achieve-large-scale market expansion, with the key lying in universal property right protection. We refer to this as the “Greif Hypothesis” but it lacks micro-level empirical testing. Taking the development of rural land rental markets in China as an example, we examine the impact of the land right confirmation policy on market structure transformation and find that land right confirmation increases the probability of formal rent by 4%, reduces the probability of informal rent by 1.3%, and promotes the expansion of the rental market. Moreover, formal and informal markets are not interconnected or progressive but rather show a reciprocal relationship of growth and decline.

The Chinese government has implemented Vocational Skills Training through Public Employment Services (VST-PES) to facilitate rural labor’s off-farm employment participation and quality. However, the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these initiatives remains limited. This study investigates the implementation of VST-PES in rural China and assesses its impact on rural labor’s off-farm employment participation rate and quality. Using the 2023 data of 4447 rural labor from a national representative sample across 100 villages in 5 provinces, we employ Probit/OLS regression, Propensity Score Matching method, and Heckman two-step model. The results consistently reveal that VST-PES implementation in rural China suffered from limited coverage, short duration, inadequate incentives, and supply-demand mismatches. While VST-PES significantly increased off-farm employment participation rate, particularly for females and middle-aged rural labor, it had no significant impact on off-farm employment quality. These findings suggest that the Chinese government should enhance the implementation of VST-PES in rural areas to increase the inclusiveness of labor market and pay high attention to improve its effects on off-farm employment quality among rural labor.

The adjustment of dietary structure is considered to be one way to promote carbon reduction and benefit human health. Carbon tax is an effective tool to promote the adjustment of dietary structure, but its comprehensive effect needs to be evaluated. Based on the micro survey data of rural China in 2019, three tax scenarios and two carbon prices were deployed to examine the effect of tax. The results show that when the carbon price is & YEN;48/t CO2e, the carbon footprint reduction rate of the ALL-FOOD (Tax on all kinds of food), MEAT-EGG (Tax on meat and eggs only), and INTEGRATED (Tax and subsidy considering the dietary guidelines) scenarios is 0.86%, 0.50% and 0.40%, respectively. When the carbon price increases to & YEN;323/t CO2e, the reduction rate of the three scenarios will increase to 5.78%, 3.36% and 2.59%, respectively. The ALL-FOOD and MEAT-EGG scenarios both slightly reduce the intake of various nutrients, but the INTEGRATED scenario promote an increase in the dietary structure score without reducing consumer welfare. The results imply the effectiveness of carbon tax in shaping dietary structure, with the results only applicable to the short term and the demand side.

Two-thirds of the journey to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has passed. However, insights into country-specific progress covering pre-and post-SDG and the prospects remain limited. Here, we compare the progress of 117 SDG indicators for 167 countries and project the achievements by 2030. Our results reveal the progress of the SDGs across the world varies depending on the initial SDG scores of the indicators in 2015. For indicators with low scores (0 to 50%), the proportion of countries showing advancement is greater than that demonstrating regression (25 vs. 16%). Countries that foster scientific research and promote manufacturing industry (SDG9) have the best performances. For indicators with high scores (70 to 90%), the proportion showing regression is greater than that with advancement (16 vs.10%). The increased coverage of immunization vaccines and prevention of infectious diseases (SDG3) have the worst performances. For indicators with moderate scores (50 to 70%), the proportion showing regression is slightly greater than that showing advancement (11 vs. 9%). When the score was low and high, the impact of the pandemic was significantly greater than that for moderate scores. By 2030, the global SDG score will reach approximately 63%, with a SD of 8%. Overall, 78 countries will reach the moderate score (60 to 70%), and 12 countries will remain with a low score (40 to 50%). Countries need to achieve an annual growth rate of 4% to meet the overall SDGs by 2030. Our comprehensive long-term assessment provides essential knowledge on global SDG progress, complementing UN reports.

This paper estimates the long-term benefits of kindergarten and preschool on postcompulsory educational attainment in rural China. Drawing on the data from the 2016 China Rural Development Survey (CRDS) with a nationally representative sample covering 2,000 rural households at 100 villages in 5 provinces, we employed family fixed effects model (FFE) and instrumental variable (IV) approaches to overcome the endogeneity of ECE experience. The results show that rural people with any ECE experience (including kindergarten and preschool) were 12.5 percentage points more likely to be enrolled in academic senior high school. Further analysis reveals that these effects are primarily attributable to kindergarten experience rather than preschool experience. We do not find any heterogeneous effects by gender, age, birth order, or mother's education. The results from the instrumental variable approach remain substantially the same. These findings imply that investing in rural kindergarten education contributes to rural human capital accumulation at the post-compulsory level.

Women in Asia countries are often characterized by high participation but limited decision-making in agricultural activities, despite their critical role in achieving the synergistic benefits of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). This study examines the association between women's intra-household decision-making regarding crop choice and household dietary diversity and its underlying mechanism mediated by crop diversity. Using primary data collected from 1133 households in vulnerable areas across five Asian countries, this study finds that both the proportion of women's independent intra-household decision-making regarding crop choice and household dietary diversity score (HDDS) are low in these areas. Poisson regression and Inverse Probability-Weighted Regression-Adjustment method reveal that the households with women's independent decision-making regarding crop choice have 0.250 points higher household dietary diversity score than those with men's independent decision-making. The results from the mediating effect model show that the diversity of vegetable species-rather than other crops-plays a partially mediating role (12%) in this association. These findings indicate that enhancing women's intra-household decision-making regarding crop choice can be a lever to trigger co-benefits among SDG 2, SDG 5, and SDG 15 in the vulnerable areas of Asia.

Herbicide use is crucial for weed control but raises environmental concerns. Drought, a climate-related disaster, can alter weed-crop interactions and herbicide efficacy. Despite its potential implications, the impact of drought on farmers' herbicide use is underexplored. Based on the 2266 observations of herbicide usage for each crop planted by Chinese rural households in 2022, the study constructs an econometric model to investigate the effect of agricultural drought intensity on herbicide use intensity. The results indicate that agricultural drought intensity has a significant positive effect on herbicide use intensity, with a one-point increase in agricultural drought intensity corresponding to a 143.85 ml(g)/ha increase in herbicide use intensity. The results are robust to statistical test. Notably, the effect is more pronounced for households with lower environmental awareness and less evident among those with higher income or larger farm size. To mitigate this effect, the study recommends promoting drought-resistant crops, improving herbicide application methods, and offering technical training to farmers.

To ensure nutritional intake and reduce the occurrence of diet-related diseases, it is urgent to promote a healthy diet. At present, short video apps with information dissemination, social and shopping functions are widely used, which has changed the way people obtain and exchange information, and the way of life and consumption. Exploring whether the use of short video apps can affect food consumption choices provides new ideas for promoting the dietary transformation of the residents. Based on the first-hand micro-survey data of 2,000 rural households in 100 villages in 5 provinces of China in 2023, the effects of the use of short video apps on rural household food consumption were explored. The results show that the use of short video apps can promote the increase of per capita food consumption and dietary diversity of households, mainly reflected in the increase of consumption of aquatic products, fruits, poultry, pork and soybeans, but cannot improve the food health index of households. The use of short video apps mainly promotes dietary diversity by improving nutrition awareness. Its promotion effect on dietary diversity is more significant in high-income groups, and it can improve the dietary diversity of villages with express delivery points, without food markets and at far distances. The use of short video apps can help improve dietary awareness and reduce the impact of location and supporting facilities on food acquisition to a certain extent.

While information technology (IT) development enhances productivity, it may also negatively affect low-skilled employment by displacing migrant workers through substitution, productivity, and job creation effects. Using data from the 2015-2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) and a double machine learning (DML) model, this study examines the impact of IT development at the province-industry level on migrant workers' overtime work. Results show that IT development significantly increases overtime work, particularly among male, low-skilled, and married workers. This effect operates through reduced hourly wages, higher unemployment risks, and shifts towards self-employment. The findings suggest that IT may exacerbate labour market inequality. Policy responses should include targeted IT training with financial support, improved educational access for migrants' children, and stronger protections for self-employed workers.

Air pollution poses significant health risks and influences migration patterns, making it a global concern with widespread implications. Understanding its effects on where migrants choose to reside can provide insights for addressing environmental and social challenges. Matching micro-survey data of 1.048 million migrants in China with the air quality data of 360 cities (2011-2017), we identified a significant negative impact of air pollution on migrants' willingness to reside. The subgroups of migrants with different household registration (urban and rural Hukou), occupation, education, income, and rent are affected by air pollution. During the observation period, the contribution of air pollution control to migrants' willingness to reside is 77.6% of the contribution of rising wage and exceeds the absolute value of the adverse contribution of rising house price. These findings suggest that air pollution control can promote environmental and socioeconomic progress by attracting more migrants, mitigating environmental injustice, and reducing inequality.

Improving green production efficiency while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential for China’s sustainable agriculture. However, precise measurements of these two indicators at the household and crop levels and the mechanisms underlying their misallocation remain limited. Using two phases of first-hand tracked survey data from rural China (2000 households per phase) and applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method and Super-SBM model, we reveal that between 2018 and 2022, GHG emission intensity (GEI) and green total factor productivity (GTFP) increased by 12.2 % and 7.7 %, respectively. The rise in GEI was primarily driven by increased fertilizer use, while the improvement in GTFP was driven by yield-enhancing effects from higher input levels. Production factor misallocation was evident, particularly in land, capital, and other inputs, whereas labor misallocation was minimal. Achieving simultaneous reductions in GEI and improvements in GTFP require adjustments in crop planting structure and the level of production factor inputs.

This study analyzes the structural transformations of the occupations of all off-farm rural laborers in China over the period 2007–2022. The changes in the rural labor market are mainly reflected in the decrease in the share of routine manual laborers from 66.59 percent to 52.77 percent, and the increases in the shares of non-routine cognitive and non-working laborers by 4.48 and 10.73 percentage points from 2007 to 2022, respectively. By adopting decomposition analysis, which improves the definition of occupational classification based on information on sub-sectors in industries and job contents using a dataset with a nationally representative sample covering 2000 rural households, the results show that both composition effect and propensity effect play important roles in the decrease in routine manual occupations; the composition effect dominates the changes in the non-routine cognitive occupation category, while the propensity effect is the main driver of the increasing trend in the non-working group. The economic model further illustrates the results of decomposition analysis. These findings imply that the government should further improve education in rural areas and pay greater attention to female and low-education-attainment groups among rural laborers. This study provides a reference for policies aimed at promoting the sustainable development of the rural labor market.

Based on the nationally representative panel data collected in 2000 households in 100 villages of 5 provinces in 2016 and 2019, this study analyzed the impact and potential paths of different types of agricultural socialization services (labor-intensive, technology-intensive, marketing) on farmland rented in from the perspectives of accessibility and diversity of suppliers. The consistent results yielded from OLS, fixed effect models, and instrumental variable methods showed that labor-intensive services had positive and significant effects on renting-in farmland and the size of farmland rented-in and which was much larger for the households without off-farm employment or with rich farmland endowment. However, neither technology-intensive nor marketing services had effects on renting-in farmland and the size of farmland rented-in. The substitution effect of different type of services on labor force, the attributes of service providers, and the characteristics of service buyers contributed to the difference. These findings imply that the government should pay more attention to the development of technology-intensive and marketing services, especially for smallholders, while keeping to encourage and support various suppliers to provide labor-intensive services.

In response to an increasingly dire pollution scenario, the Chinese government initiated the largest and most extensive environmental inspection campaign in history starting in 2016. Numerous polluting enterprises were closed due to environmental concerns in the rural areas. Drawing on two-period panel data from the China Rural Development Survey, this study revealed the inherent mechanism of the polluting enterprises closure on local rural livelihoods using the difference-in-differences method and structural equation model, with reference to the sustainable livelihood framework. Results showed that shuttering polluting enterprises enhanced rural households' livelihood capital, notably in human, natural, and physical aspects, and promoted labor migration. Additional heterogeneous analysis revealed that the enhancements were notably more pronounced in Southern China and among affluent demographics. Based on the findings, we suggested the local government should support the development of sustainable agriculture and green industries and pay more attention to vulnerable populations when making policy decisions. The use of mandatory directives, such as shutting down polluting enterprises, is a common strategy in developing countries. This study presents an analytical framework for understanding the impact of environmental governance on the livelihoods of rural households in developing countries, contributing to a better balance between rural environmental management and livelihood improvement in these regions.

Farmer cooperatives are one of the types of important entities for agricultural production and rural community development in China. This study aims to examine the effects of farmer cooperatives on rural labor employment and explores the mechanisms from the perspective of institutional advantage, factor redistribution, and value chain. Leveraging two-waved panel data from the China Rural Development Survey, a multinomial Logit model and Tobit model with panel data are adopted. The results show that farmer cooperatives significantly boost rural labor employment, with a more pronounced effect on fully farming and part-time farming. These effects are primarily seen through three mechanisms: income augmentation stemming from institutional advantages, factor redistribution by land transferring and technology service/adoption, as well as industrial clusters. The limited value chain extension of farmer cooperatives hinders its role in improving fully non-agricultural employment. The findings suggest that the government should support the high-quality development of farmer cooperatives to facilitate rural labor employment.

Access to off-farm employment has been expected to be a critical approach to ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition, two important targets of achieving Zero Hunger. This study aims to investigate the role of off-farm employment in improving dietary diversity through substitution effect and complementary effect with agricultural production activities and income effect. This study adopts Poisson/Tobit/Probit/OLS regressions and the instrument variable method based on the primary survey data collected among 1,282 households at 12 sites in environmentally and economically vulnerable areas of China, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar in 2019. The results show that off-farm employment is positively associated with household dietary diversity and the consumption of flesh meat, fish and other aquatic animals, fruits, and milk and dairy products, which are rich in protein and micronutrients. The results of mechanism analysis show that off-farm employment contributes to household dietary diversity by improving crop diversity, especially for poor households, boosting the probability of livestock raising for households with the middle one-third disposal income, and increasing household income. The positive association between off-farm employment and household dietary diversity is much higher for households with the bottom one-third disposal income, low illiteracy, and from upper-middle income countries. These findings imply that off-farm employment does play a vital role in achieving multiple benefits of poverty alleviation, malnutrition reduction, and agrobiodiversity conservation in environmentally and economically vulnerable areas. However, it may enlarge the gaps in dietary diversity between households with low human capital and from low and lower-middle income countries and those with high human capital and from middle-high countries.

Rapid advancements in clean energy technologies have spurred a significant surge in China's demand for critical minerals. However, developing clean-energy-critical minerals (CECMs) increasingly threatens China's biodiversity. This study conducts a comprehensive spatial analysis of the impacts of CECMs and fossil energy minerals (FEMs) on China's protected areas (PAs). We found that the impacts of CECMs are exceeding those of FEMs. Within the boundaries of PAs, we identified 1,338 developed mining ore fields, with an additional 618 earmarked for potential mining activities. Approximately 6,307 km2 of PAs directly overlap with ore fields, and 167,551 km2 are indirectly impacted by energy mining activities. Our findings suggest that imposing strict mining restrictions in PAs could mitigate 67% of the mining threat. This study underscores the urgent necessity for proactive conservation strategies to safeguard China's PAs from the escalating risks posed by the expansion of clean energy technology.