Research

This study examines China’s EV technology leapfrogging, showing how coordinated policies made it a global leader (58% of 2023 global sales), identifies five key drivers and four policy phases, highlights state coordination, R&D investment, and battery technology as key enablers, and offers guidance for emerging economies pursuing green technology leapfrogging to adopt a phased strategy—demonstration projects, temporary incentives, market-based regulations, and prioritized domestic core component R&D—aligned with national strategic goals.

This study examines science information habits across 68 countries, showing that social media are the main source of science information globally, except in democratic corporatist regions where news media prevail. It finds that collectivist societies are less outspoken about science, lower educated groups are more vocal, and limited digital access is linked to participation in science related protests. GDP per capita and digital media access largely explain cross country differences, suggesting that science communication strategies should be tailored to regional media environments, with strengthened social media outreach in lower income contexts and support for quality science journalism, public science events, and media literacy where traditional news systems remain strong.

This study examines Mab21l2’s function in early limb development using conditional gene knockout models, showing dynamic expression in mouse forelimb buds and a critical window at E9.5–10.5. Deleting Mab21l2 leads to stylopod defects—including humerus shortening and loss of the deltoid tuberosity—and delays endochondral ossification due to reduced chondrocyte proliferation. The findings highlight Mab21l2’s essential role in early skeletal patterning and underscore the importance of targeted developmental gene regulation for proper limb formation.

This study investigates chemosensory changes accompanying the evolution from dioecy to androdioecy in Caenorhabditis, showing that androdioecious males exhibit stronger olfactory habituation and reduced mate seeking, while hermaphrodites emit weaker sex pheromones. Replacing the SRD 1 receptor’s cytoplasmic domain restores ancestral behaviors, underscoring its key role in enabling hermaphroditism. The findings highlight how sensory and behavioral adaptations facilitate major reproductive transitions.

This study examines urban innovation as a strategy for advancing global sustainability goals, defining it as a place based, systemic approach driven by cities. It highlights key policy themes—governance through collaborative and experimental models, scaling solutions beyond pilots, and building data and skills capacity—while noting gaps such as limited Global South representation and undervalued informal or indigenous innovation. The findings emphasize the need for inclusive governance, flexible financing, stronger digital and learning infrastructures, and broader innovation frameworks that integrate grassroots and exnovation practices to support effective, locally grounded sustainability transitions.

This study examines factors shaping willingness to use personalised health apps and share sensitive data in London and Hong Kong, finding that data literacy, granular data control, trust in medical experts, and comfort with sharing health or location data strongly influence adoption. Men and London respondents show higher willingness, while Hong Kong participants are more cautious about government or corporate data access. The findings highlight the need for stronger data protection, clearer standards for AI generated advice, improved digital health literacy, and user empowering privacy features to build trust across diverse contexts.

This study examines how external knowledge absorption shapes SMEs’ adoption of proactive eco innovations in resource intensive EU sectors, finding that public environmental awareness, national economic complexity, and public sector R&D positively influence uptake, while external collaboration and industry agglomeration hinder it. The results highlight significant cross country heterogeneity and emphasize the need for policies that enhance public awareness, expand targeted public R&D, improve knowledge diffusion, and redesign meso level collaboration and agglomeration frameworks to better support proactive eco innovation and circular economy transitions.

This study examines the environmental impacts of power outages in Delhi, showing that outages raise hourly NO₂, NO, and PM10 levels due to reliance on diesel generators. Using spatial DID and event study methods, it confirms that environmental damages exceed private outage costs. The findings highlight significant welfare gains from Delhi’s outage penalty policy when pollution reductions are included, underscoring the need for grid upgrades, cleaner backup energy options, and stricter diesel generator regulations to improve air quality and public welfare.

This study examines how institutional factors influence the role of scientific research in air quality policymaking across the Greater Bay Area, analyzing 687 Chinese- and English language articles. Chinese language studies, with stronger government funding and co authorship, tend to offer more cautious recommendations, while English language studies on Hong Kong propose more new policies but become less critical when funded by mainland or overseas governments. The findings underscore the need for transparent but independent research–government collaboration and improved regional data access to strengthen evidence based air quality governance.

This study examines how institutional factors influence the role of scientific research in air quality policymaking across the Greater Bay Area, analyzing 687 Chinese- and English language articles. Chinese language studies, with stronger government funding and co authorship, tend to offer more cautious recommendations, while English language studies on Hong Kong propose more new policies but become less critical when funded by mainland or overseas governments. The findings underscore the need for transparent but independent research–government collaboration and improved regional data access to strengthen evidence based air quality governance.

This study introduces the global TISP dataset, based on a 68 country survey of over 71,000 participants, to assess trust in science, science related populism, perceptions of science’s societal role, communication behaviors, and climate attitudes. Incorporating 37 languages and rigorous validation, it offers rare representation of non WEIRD contexts and post COVID insights. The findings highlight the value of using TISP to develop region specific science communication strategies, enhance public engagement with climate policies, and promote open data access to strengthen evidence based science society relations.

This study examines how formal and informal intergovernmental interactions influence Chinese provincial climate policy adoption using panel data from 31 provinces (2003–2018). It finds that formal authority interactions—such as central directives and interdepartmental coordination—strongly promote policy uptake, while informal competitive interactions follow an inverted N shaped pattern that ultimately inhibits adoption and weakens the positive effects of formal mechanisms. The findings highlight the need to strengthen formal coordination, better align competitive incentives with climate goals, and establish structured learning channels to ensure intergovernmental dynamics effectively support climate policymaking.

This study examines how intangible cultural heritage supports climate resilience in UNESCO rice terraces in Ifugao and Bali, showing that community cooperation, shared labor systems, spiritual practices, and strong social networks help farmers cope with droughts and extreme rainfall. These intangible assets shape adaptive capacities rooted in physical, social, and spiritual environments. The findings highlight the need for culturally grounded adaptation strategies that strengthen indigenous knowledge, empower local institutions, improve rural infrastructure, and support community based initiatives to preserve traditional rice farming while enhancing resilience to climate pressures.

This study develops a reflexive framework for selecting green building technologies that integrates technical, economic, environmental, and social criteria while incorporating stakeholder perspectives often overlooked in conventional models. Applying the framework to Hong Kong’s dense, highly regulated, subtropical context shows that context attuned choices improve technical feasibility, social acceptance, and adoption for both retrofits and new builds. The findings highlight the value of stakeholder engagement and locally aligned solutions—such as space efficient insulation and energy efficient HVAC systems—to support more sustainable, user centred decision making and advance Hong Kong’s long term decarbonization goals.

This study examines Hong Kong’s post pandemic grey digital divide using latent profile analysis of 870 adults, identifying three digital engagement groups—Proficient, Intermediate, and Novice—with clear generational and socioeconomic differences. Digital profiles also correlate with the frequency of non family social contact. The findings highlight the need for targeted inclusivity measures, including device subsidies for Novice users, expanded skills training for Intermediate users, and peer coaching roles for tech confident older adults, alongside age friendly design and maintained offline options to support equitable digital participation.

This study examines how urban greenery influences mental well being in the Pearl River Delta, finding that quality of green space matters more than quantity, and that neighborhood ties and place attachment mediate these effects. Less wealthy residents experience greater mental health benefits from greenery, while strong neighborhood ties reduce these benefits for wealthier groups. The findings highlight the need to enhance high quality green spaces, prioritize support for disadvantaged communities, integrate mental health related greenery indicators into urban planning, and tailor green space design—such as providing social and exercise facilities—to meet diverse population needs.

This study examines the emergence and long-term persistence of participatory budgeting in Wenling, China, showing how political, analytical, and operational policy capacities shaped its trajectory over two decades. Strong political capacity enabled PB’s launch, while growing analytical expertise and operational standardization sustained it as political support fluctuated. The findings highlight the need to build political will early on and then invest in stable technical and institutional capacities—such as training, data systems, and standardized procedures—to ensure participatory governance reforms remain resilient in evolving political environments.

This study examines how artificial light at night affects public sentiment across Chinese cities using multispectral satellite data and 4.2 million Weibo posts, showing that emotional impacts depend on spectral composition, distance, season, and time. Simulations reveal that reducing brightness alone cannot mitigate negative sentiment, whereas lowering blue and green wavelengths is crucial. A combined approach—reducing intensity and adjusting color temperature—cuts sentiment risk by about 90%, underscoring the need for multidimensional lighting governance that incorporates spectral standards, targeted controls, public health considerations, and adaptive smart lighting systems.

This study examines how policy design and individuals’ proximity to reform shape public reactions to welfare retrenchment in China, using a survey experiment on medical savings account reform in Guangdong. It finds that even moderate retrenchment generates opposition, and that designs safeguarding personal material interests elicit more support than those emphasizing broader societal benefits. Individuals’ past experiences with health insurance further drive divergent responses. The findings highlight the need for reform designs that protect perceived personal benefits and communication strategies that account for citizens’ varying levels of policy exposure.

This study analyzes how policy synergies across China’s “three medical collaborations” influence personal out of pocket medical spending by linking 460,000 municipal policy documents with CFPS survey data. It finds that coordinated expansion and constraint oriented medical insurance policies, along with cross system collaboration among insurance, services, and pharmaceuticals, significantly reduce individual expenses, while isolated insurance expansion without supporting policies increases costs. The findings underscore the need for holistic governance and strengthened multi stakeholder coordination to enhance system-wide synergy and improve the equity and effectiveness of medical reform outcomes.

This study examines why China’s urban Dibao program has contracted, using a principal–agent framework and DID analysis of 274 cities (2009–2019). It finds that upper level discipline inspections significantly reduce Dibao coverage, especially where local anti corruption pressure is high, prompting local governments to engage in blame avoidant “defensive administration” that tightens eligibility checks and pushes eligible recipients out. The findings highlight the need to strengthen informational capacity, reduce central–local asymmetry, and avoid campaign style enforcement to ensure Dibao delivers equitable, targeted social assistance.

This study compares health financing models across six East Asian societies using simulated lung cancer catastrophic spending, finding that Taiwan and Hong Kong’s inclusive systems offer the strongest financial protection for low income groups, while mainland China’s minimalist model leaves near poor households at high risk. The results highlight the need to expand and strengthen MFA benefits and improve coordination between SHI and MFA to better protect vulnerable populations and promote more equitable health financing.

This study examines factors shaping interprofessional interaction in multidisciplinary teams providing case management for older adults in Hong Kong, using Lejano and Kan’s relational theory as an analytical framework. It identifies professional training gaps and institutional barriers that hinder effective coordination among social workers, nurses, and PT/OT specialists. The findings underscore the need for strengthened in service training on interprofessional practices and enhanced organizational support structures to improve collaboration and service integration in geriatric care.

This introduction traces the evolution of health messaging in the Philippines from colonial-era “medical propaganda” to contemporary pandemic responses, showing how visual strategies and simplified narratives have long served both public health aims and political legitimation. It highlights continuities across colonial, postcolonial, and digital eras, where messaging often obscures structural inequalities while shaping public perceptions of health and authority. The findings underscore the need for communication approaches that move beyond spectacle, address historical power dynamics, and strengthen critical health literacy to build trust and support more equitable, transparent public health governance.

This study examines how the Nutribun, a USAID-developed nutritional product, became politically repurposed by the Marcos family, turning a public health intervention into a nostalgic symbol that reframed authoritarian rule as an era of prosperity. By tracing shifting political and emotional meanings of the Nutribun, the study shows how nostalgic health messaging can obscure structural problems and shape collective memory. The findings highlight the need for transparent, non politicized nutrition programs and public health communication that promotes critical historical literacy to prevent the manipulation of health narratives for partisan ends.

This study analyzes whether India’s emergence as the world’s most populous country will translate into economic overtaking of China, using multidimensional demographic projections and a productivity weighted labor force measure. It finds China will maintain an economic advantage for decades due to higher education levels and greater female labor force participation, while India’s prospects hinge on improving these areas. The findings highlight the importance of expanding education and women’s employment in India, and of China adapting to population aging through continued educational gains, delayed retirement, and automation—underscoring human capital as the key driver of long term growth.

This study uses a fuzzy regression discontinuity design based on China’s 1980 one child policy to examine whether being an only child lowers fertility ideals in urban China. Analyzing Chinese General Social Survey data, it finds that only child individuals express significantly lower ideal family size and are less likely to desire two or more children, supporting the low fertility trap hypothesis. The findings highlight the need for policymakers to move beyond short term fertility incentives and instead pursue structural reforms—such as hukou and pension changes—and holistic support that addresses young people’s barriers to family formation.

This study examines China’s state led urbanization through skyscraper development from 2006 to 2014, showing that local governments provided average land price discounts of 40% to developers, driven by political career incentives and monetary easing. While unsubsidized skyscrapers generated positive spillovers such as higher land prices and business formation, subsidized projects delivered minimal long term economic benefits due to poor locations, weak developers, and inadequate infrastructure. The findings highlight the need to reduce reliance on subsidies, strengthen project oversight, and ensure that skyscraper development aligns with local conditions and complementary public investment to achieve sustainable urban growth.

This study examines the long term effects of China’s Imperial Examination System using Jinshi density as a proxy and 2SLS estimation, finding that historically higher examination success significantly increases modern wages through enhanced human and social capital. The impacts are strongest in labor intensive and high tech firms and extend to better fringe benefits and public services. The findings highlight the value of leveraging the cultural legacy of education by investing in training, educational infrastructure, and social welfare in historically advantaged regions to amplify enduring productivity and development gains.