The emergence of youth development-oriented cities originates from the intersection of common urban development issues and specific youth development challenges in China. Urban spatial structure, whether agglomerated or dispersed, directly influences the agglomeration of young talent and the allocation efficiency of innovation factors. Based on LandScan Global Population Database from 2008 to 2022, the impact of the spatial structure of youth development-oriented cities on innovation factor misallocation was empirically analyzed. It was found that the degree of spatial dispersion in these cities lies on the left side of the "U-shaped" structure of innovation factor misallocation, with a further trend toward agglomeration. Further analysis of the dynamic flow mechanism reveals that the spatial structure alleviates innovation factor misallocation through the bidirectional flow of innovation capital and innovators, particularly with the flow of innovators benefiting surrounding cities. Static mechanism analysis indicates that the environment for innovative factor allocation optimizes resource allocation by mitigating innovation capital misallocation under the agglomeration trend in youth development-oriented cities. The research supports the adoption of reasonable spatial dispersion strategies in youth development-oriented city planning to optimize the allocation of innovation factors, and corresponding policy recommendations are proposed.

A sound and unimpeded innovation value chain is the basic guarantee for National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone (NIIDZ) to lead high-level scientific and technological self-reliance, and shaping the efficiency advantage throughout the entire innovation process is an important starting point to drive the high-end climb of the innovation value chain. Based on the innovation panel data of 23 NIIDZs in China, a transformation efficiency evaluation system composed of three stages of creative generation, transformation and diffusion as well as innovation activities in the corresponding stages was constructed, and the transformation efficiency performance types were divided according to the locked state discrimination criteria. ArcGIS and spatial Markov chain were used to analyze the temporal and spatial change and transition characteristics of the locked state. The results show that there is still a gap between the transformation power and efficiency of the whole stage of NIIDZs compared with the frontier level, and the transformation efficiency of product and process innovation power and commercialization to scale is prominent. The locked state of NIIDZs in the developed coastal areas is volatile and cross-level transition is frequent, while the locked state of NIIDZs in the inland areas is seriously polarized, and the probability of the innovation value chain tends to be locked is greater than the probability of unlocking. The transition of locked state of innovation value chain of NIIDZs is spatially dependent, and the locked state of the adjacent zone will have a differentiated effect on the transition probability of locked state.

Based on the balanced panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2018, the impact of the opening of high-speed rail on the city's attraction of highly educated entrepreneurial talents was explored. The results show that the opening of high-speed rail significantly enhances the city's attractiveness to highly educated entrepreneurial talents. Mechanism analysis shows that the opening of high-speed rail significantly improves the level of capital environment, innovation and commodity factor flow in the city, and then improves the city's attractiveness to highly educated entrepreneurial talents. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there is a significant positive correlation between the opening of high-speed rail in southern cities and the attraction of cities to entrepreneurial talents with college and bachelor's degrees, the opening of high-speed rail in inland cities and the attraction of cities to entrepreneurial talents with college degrees, and the opening of high-speed rail in non-(new) first-tier cities and the attraction of cities to entrepreneurial talents with college degrees. It is helpful to comprehensively understand the micro mechanism and differential impact of urban high-speed rail on the flow of highly educated entrepreneurial talents, and provide references for the government to adjust the rational flow of human resources between regions. With the current new round of technological and industrial revolution advancing deeply, the construction of new types of transportation infrastructure represented by high-speed rail has become one of the core national strategies for promoting high-quality economic development in China. In this background, how local governments attract and gather high-quality human capital to drive regional innovation and economic growth has become an important issue that urgently needs to be explored.

Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism, while new quality productive forces serve as a powerful driver of high-quality development. Exploring the common prosperity effect of new quality productive forces has become a significant issue in advancing Chinese modernization. The panel data from 31 provincial-level regions (Due to the lack of data, the statistical data mentioned here do not include the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province) from 2008 to 2022 was utilized to empirically examine the impact of new quality productive forces on common prosperity and its underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that new quality productive forces significantly promote common prosperity, with a stronger effect on the dimension of "commonality" than on "prosperity". Mechanism analysis indicates that new quality productive forces contribute to common prosperity through technological innovation effects, factor allocation effects, and industrial structure upgrading effects. Heterogeneity tests show that the promoting effect of new quality productive forces on common prosperity is stronger in the central region compared to the western and eastern regions, while in the northeastern region, new quality productive forces do not exhibit a positive impact. Threshold effect analysis reveals that the influence of new quality productive forces on common prosperity is subject to a threshold effect related to the marketization of data factors. The conclusions help clarify the mechanism through which new quality productive forces drive common prosperity and provide decision-making references for achieving common prosperity.

Based on the development level of digital economy in each province from 2011 to 2021, social network analysis was conducted to build an inter provincial digital economy network, the characteristics of digital economy network was analyzed, and the impact of digital economy development level and digital economy network status on spatial carbon emissions were further explored. Research finds that the digital economy network in China developed rapidly, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shandong occupy a central position in the network. The development of the internet is characterized by the diffusion from the center to the surrounding areas and then to the periphery. The digital economy network can significantly affect carbon emissions. The higher the level of development of the local digital economy network, the more conducive it is to promoting carbon reduction, while the lower the status of the digital economy network, the less conducive it is to promoting carbon reduction. Economic development and energy intensity are important indirect channels through which the digital economy network affects carbon emissions. Therefore, the formulation of relevant policies should attach great importance to the differences of regional digital economy by means of the measures like information sharing, technology spillover, and resource allocation. The network effect of the digital economy should be leveraged to achieve coordinated development among regions in the digital economy and effectively promote carbon reduction.

In the context of the dual carbon goals, achieving low-carbon development is a necessary path for high carbon emitting enterprises to achieve high-quality growth in China. Carbon resilience was introduced as a new concept. It is argued that carbon resilience, as a special dynamic capability for enterprises to cope with the impact of the "dual carbon" goals, can help high carbon emitting enterprises achieve growth. Digital transformation is identified as a vital mechanism through which carbon resilience affects the growth of high carbon emitting enterprises. Based on the dynamic capabilities theory, the nonlinear impact of carbon resilience on the growth performance of high carbon emitting enterprises and its mechanism of action were empirically analyzed. The impact of the heterogeneity of digital transformation stages on high carbon emitting enterprises is further explored. The results show that carbon resilience has a "U-shaped" impact on the growth performance of high carbon emitting enterprises. As the level of carbon resilience increases, its impact on the growth performance of high carbon emitting enterprises first decreases and then increases in a nonlinear manner. The digital transformation strategy plays a mediating role between carbon resilience and the growth performance of high carbon emitting enterprises. Further research finds that for high carbon emitting enterprises in the digital transformation stages of single-point deepening and comprehensive integration and reconstruction, the "U-shaped" relationship is more pronounced. The conclusions deepen the understanding of the relationship between carbon resilience and the growth performance of high carbon emitting enterprises. They provide important references for the growth of high carbon emitting enterprises and offer new ideas for guiding these enterprises to effectively enhance the effectiveness of their digital transformation.

The impact of integration into multinational supply chains on the performance of Chinese domestic firms was investigated, using supplier-customer transaction data from Chinese listed companies between 2011 and 2022. A multiple-period difference-in-differences methodology was employed. It is found that participation in multinational supply chains significantly enhances firm performance. This results is robust across various robustness checks. Positive performance effects are observed across manufacturing and service industries, firms of different ownership types, and multinational corporations headquartered in high-income and upper-middle-income countries. Further research identifies two mechanisms underlying these effects: knowledge spillovers and signaling. Collaboration with multinational corporations fosters firms' innovation capabilities by facilitating the adoption of advanced technologies and management practices. Additionally, such partnerships enhance firms' reputation and ease financial constraints, further driving performance improvements. Notably, even firms indirectly supplying multinationals benefit significantly, underscoring the broad positive impact of supply chain networks beyond direct supplier relationships. These findings highlight the importance of multinational supply chain integration in promoting firm development in China, offering fresh insights into strategies for enhancing innovation and financial strength.

Individual champion enterprises represent the highest level of global manufacturing sub-sectors and are the pioneers of high-quality development of China's manufacturing industry. Although many achievements have been made, individual champion enterprises still have some problems, such as core technology being restricted by others, low digital level, and insufficient market development. There is a lack of in-depth research on how individual champion enterprises achieve high-quality development. An analytical framework was constructed based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) theoretical framework to explore how the five antecedent conditions of the degree of technological innovation (exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation), the degree of digitalization, the degree of specialization, the degree of internationalization and the government subsidies promote the high-quality development of individual champion enterprises. It is found that no single factor can constitute necessary condition for the high-quality development of individual champion enterprises, but a high degree of digitalization is an important driving factor. The "digitalization and specialization to help dual innovation type" "government-led digital empowerment to help exploratory innovation type" "digitalization and internationalization helped by utilitarian innovation type" and "digitalization and internationalization helped by government subsidies type" are four equivalent paths for the high-quality development of individual champion enterprises. The non-high-quality development of individual champion enterprises shows the typical of "low degree of digitalization-high degree of specialization-low degree of internationalization". It combines theory with practice by listing typical cases, and provides path guidance and experience for the high-quality development of China's champion enterprises.

The development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry in China is a strategic endeavor towards green development. As a technology-intensive industry, innovation is pivotal for the NEV industry to advance its high-quality development. From the innovation value chain perspective, the technological innovation process of the NEV industry was divided into two distinct stages: technology achievement production and technology achievement transformation. By employing the Super-DEA and Malmquist index models, the two-stage innovation efficiency, innovation patterns, and dynamic trends of firms with varying ownership structures from 2016 to 2022 were quantified. The results show that, firstly, the innovation efficiency in both stages of the NEV industry is generally low, with the majority of firms adhering to an extensive innovation model. However, the efficiency in the technology achievement transformation stage significantly is better than that in the production stage. Secondly, there exists notable heterogeneity in technological innovation efficiency across firms with different ownership structures and within distinct segments of the industrial chain. Specifically, non-state-owned enterprises demonstrate higher technology production efficiency compared to state-owned enterprises, albeit with relatively lower technology transformation efficiency. Additionally, there are more pronounced disparities in technology production efficiency among various segments of the industrial chain. Lastly, from a dynamic perspective, total factor productivity (TFP) in both the production and transformation stages exhibits fluctuating trends, with technical efficiency change and technical change serving as the primary catalyst for TFP growth in different stages respectively. The research findings provide theoretical references and policy insights for enhancing the technological innovation efficiency and market competitiveness of the new energy vehicle industry and promoting the high-quality synergistic development of the new energy vehicle industry chain.

The hydrogen energy industry is constrained by large-scale, low-cost hydrogen production and long-distance storage-transport technologies, while liquid hydrogen is expected to be a key technology for low-cost, efficient hydrogen storage and transportation. A levelized cost model was employed to calculate the costs of the four core processes in the liquid hydrogen industry chain, namely hydrogen production, liquefaction, storage and transportation, and refueling. Combined with sensitivity analysis, it identifies the key factors influencing costs in each process. Furthermore, based on regional resource endowments, the cost differences of the industrial chain was analyzed under different technical routes through multiple sets of typical regional scenarios. Results show significant cost gaps between hydrogen production methods: coke oven gas-based production has lower costs, while renewable energy-powered electrolytic production is relatively higher. Liquefaction consumes substantial electricity, with electricity prices and equipment costs as key constraints, and technological progress aiding cost reduction. For storage and transport process, longer distance lowers unit cost; liquid hydrogen tankers suit long-distance transport, with labor and vehicle purchase costs accounting for a large share. In the refueling process, high-pressure gaseous hydrogen stations cost more than liquid hydrogen ones at the same scale, with land and equipment prices impacting costs significantly. Finally, targeted suggestions for each process are proposed to reduce the overall cost of liquid hydrogen industrial chain and promote the development of the hydrogen energy industry.