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We seek to quantify the relationship between urbanization and economic growth in China using recent advances in econometric techniques.

This study adopts a smoothed instrumental variables quantile regression (SIVQR) estimator to obtain consistent estimates of the effects of urbanization on economic growth in China. Our approach accounts for the differential impacts of urbanization across the conditional distribution of economic growth while allowing for an identification strategy that addresses the endogeneity of urbanization. Our main findings reveal that ignoring urbanization endogeneity leads to inconsistent estimates of urbanization effects. Further, we find a positive relationship between urbanization and growth resembling an inverted U-shape. This supports the hypothesis that the beneficial effects of urbanization intensify at initial stages while diminishing beyond a certain threshold, due perhaps to weakening scale economies.

Our main results indicate that the individual productivity gains brought by urbanization outweigh the negative effects thereof that impede productivity, thus contributing to the economic growth in China. Further, we find that ignoring differential impacts of urbanization underestimates the beneficial effects of urbanization for provinces whose quality of governance is in the vicinity of the center of quality distribution. Ignoring the endogeneity of urbanization generates inconsistent estimates of the elasticity of economic growth with respect to urbanization. Finally, we estimate an inverted U-shape resembling relationship between urbanization and growth.

First, future studies would benefit from incorporating more data as provinces further east on the mainland become more urbanized and urbanization runs its course. Second, controlling the barriers to rural-urban mobility would contribute to the robustness of the estimated relationship between urbanization and growth once such data became available. Unveiling the impact of government-imposed barriers is key to designing optimal policies that help fuel economic growth in the country. Finally, future research could benefit from information on urbanization sources not considered here such as inter-provincial migration, as such data become publicly available.

Quantifying the beneficial effects of urbanization on economic growth can help guide the government in China to further fuel the growth through a set of relevant policy tools that promote urbanization.

Rural-urban migration in China lays the groundwork for economic advancement in recipient cities and economies, as it may induce scale economies. This can benefit both the economy at large and the migrants.

The SIVQR estimator accounts for potential heterogeneous effects of urbanization across the entire conditional distribution of growth while allowing for an identification strategy that addresses the endogeneity of urbanization. An additional distinguishing feature of the current study is our use of the most recent novel, provincial-level data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Our focus on a single country allows sidestepping issues arising from the inconsistency of the definition of urban across different countries while accounting for intra-country urbanization drivers intrinsic to China, such as natural features and geographic characteristics. Therefore, our approach has the potential to sidestep the bias resulting from the differences in mechanisms behind urbanization-growth relationships across different countries.

This chapter on animal ethics, animal rights, and animal welfare is a logical sequence to and ontological consequence of the arguments in earlier chapters. By respecting Mother Nature in all her ecosystems and biodiversity levels, especially by recognizing animal rights and their uniqueness, autonomy, and intrinsicality, we actively contribute to natural sustainability and animal welfare. Our anthropocentric economic models that are profoundly insensitive to the complex interdependencies between human and nonhuman behavior systems and their irreversible environmental challenges endanger both animal rights and global sustainability. Philosophically, we confront epistemological and anthropocentric structures that uncritically privilege humans disproportionately to nonhumans and unwittingly rationalize, moralize, and commodify meat production and consumption such that animal rights and welfare get seriously compromised. To achieve animal welfare, however, we need to seriously rescale Nature's hierarchies first by dethroning ourselves from self-appointed and self-serving, uncontested and critically unexamined presumed human superiority over the nonhuman world and restoring global equality of being an opportunity for all.

This chapter draws from bibliometric data and secondary sources to explore the interrelation between sustainable development and organic agricultural practices. The study contends that the adoption of organic farming methods holds the potential to address multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thereby contributing to the well-being of all living organisms. The analysis of current trends in organic agriculture research has revealed prevalent themes pursued by academics. Notably, themes such as biotechnology, biodegradation, soil conversion, soil restoration, environmental sustainability, health, alternative agriculture and community development emerge as significant and burgeoning areas of study within the field. Additionally, other themes have come to the forefront in the findings, including agricultural emissions, cultivation practices, environmental regulations, erosion control, agricultural policy and sustainable agriculture. These themes present vital areas for further investigation and exploration, indicating areas where more research is warranted. This qualitative piece through content analysis provides a deep insight on the fact that organic farming in relation to sustainability is a very under researched area. Researchers and practitioners can explore this area as a tool to achieve the goals of sustainability in diverse dimensions. The study suggests some under-researched areas as future research agendas which include supply chain and distribution management, market development and consumer behaviour in relation to organic farming, investigating and creating novel commercial strategies for organic farming, financial and investment mechanisms in the field of organic farming, technological developments in organic agriculture, analysing rules and regulations to see how they affect the development and sustainability of organic farming and social impact and stakeholder engagement for organic farming as tool to promote sustainability.

The paper starts from an observation of a discrepancy between the ambitions for sustainable change in the agro-industry and the actual changes being implemented. We offer one possible explanation by investigating the organizational structures conditioning change in this industry.

We apply a case study methodology, focusing on the Danish pig industry and its organizational conditions for change. Based on interviews and document analysis, and building on systems theory, we develop the concept of change structures, understood as decision premises that guide the change of further decision premises.

The analysis suggests that the pig industry’s change structures predominantly enable changes that cut costs and optimize the production, which may conflict with and possibly foreclose the changes needed to realize the industry’s sustainable ambitions. This conflict and its implications are not acknowledged by the industry.

The analysis indicates that the industry may be locked in its current form of organizational change. We suggest a way to overcome the lock-in by fostering organizational mechanisms that enable alternative interpretations to emerge internally. Without this, achieving the required sustainable change in the industry may hinge on stronger external regulation and support.

Conceptually, the notion of change structures supplements actor-oriented analytical approaches that focus on change agents and sense-making. Empirically, we contribute with an analysis of the conditions of possibility for sustainable change in an important yet understudied industry in organization studies; namely, the conventional agro-industry.

This was an explorative study, the purpose of which was to understand how Chinese flexitarians were motivated to reduce their animal-based food consumption and specifically to explore why and what was behind these changes. Further, this study provides insights into how a transition towards a more plant-based diet might occur.

This study conducted 30 in-depth online interviews with Chinese flexitarians from two major Chinese cities. Interview transcripts were analysed through the lens of the Food Choice Process Model.

Participants adopted flexitarian diets due to health (n = 22), sustainability (n = 5) or ethical (n = 3) concerns. Many participants stated that they still enjoyed animal-sourced foods, were uncomfortable talking about their dietary transition and needed more social support. Consequently, most participants were unlikely to progress to vegetarian or vegan diets. While there are some commonalities between these findings and the results of similar studies with Western consumers, the many culturally and context-specific results revealed herein make an important contribution to the sustainability literature.

This is the first study exploring Chinese consumers’ flexitarianism experiences. These findings can be used by the food industry and interested business actors to improve communication and promotional strategies that encourage consumers to make healthier and more sustainable food choices.

Farmers in developing countries are used to recycling and purchasing seeds of old and low-yielding varieties, leading to low seed and varietal replacement rates. Seed companies in Nepal have started to conduct traders' meetings (TMs) to promote new rice varieties. This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of this approach in promoting new rice varieties.

The authors assess the effectiveness of TMs by surveying 238 agrodealers from 7 districts of Nepal. The authors used the binary logit model to study the determinants of participation in TM and an instrumental variable approach to estimate the impact of TMs on sales of the promoted rice varieties.

Results indicate that the TM significantly influences traders' knowledge and increases the probability of selling new rice varieties promoted. However, TMs did not significantly increase the overall sales of promoted rice varieties.

The study is based on cross-section data; thus, unobserved fixed effects could not be accounted for. The study finds only one relevant and valid instrumental variable and therefore could not conduct any exogeneity test.

Seed companies in Nepal started to conduct TMs to promote new rice varieties since 2019. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the usefulness of TMs and the impact of these events in changing traders' attitudes toward domestic rice seed varieties or in business performance (annual sales of the promoted varieties) have not been assessed. Therefore, the study findings will help to promote the market-driven seed system and increase the seed replacement rate.

High levels of child obesity alongside rising stunting and the absence of a coherent food policy have deemed UK’s food system to be broken. The National Food Strategy (NFS) was debated intensely in media, with discussions on how and who should fix the food system.

Using a mixed methods approach, the authors conduct framing analysis on traditional media and sentiment analysis of twitter reactions to the NFS to identify frames used to shape food system policy interventions.

The study finds evidence that the media coverage of the NFS often utilised the tropes of “culture wars” shaping the debate of who is responsible to fix the food system – the government, the public or the industry. NFS recommendations were portrayed as issues of free choice to shift the debate away from government action correcting for market failure. In contrast, the industry was showcased as equipped to intervene on its own accord. Dietary recommendations made by the NFS were depicted as hurting the poor, painting a picture of helplessness and loss of control, while their voices were omitted and not represented in traditional media.

British media’s alignment with free market economic thinking has implications for food systems reform, as it deters the government from acting and relies on the invisible hand of the market to fix the system. Media firms should move beyond tropes of culture wars to discuss interventions that reform the structural causes of the UK’s broken food systems.

As traditional media coverage struggles to capture the diversity of public perception; the authors supplement framing analysis with sentiment analysis of Twitter data. To the best of our knowledge, no such media (and social media) analysis of the NFS has been conducted. The paper is also original as it extends our understanding of how media alignment with free market economic thinking has implications for food systems reform, as it deters the government from acting and relies on the invisible hand of the market to fix the system.

In recent decades, with China's “Go Global” and “Belt and Road” strategies, Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) have been provided with a new development direction. This chapter aims to identify the features of the entry of Chinese multinationals into Kazakhstan and analyze their characteristics in terms of investment attractiveness and location advantages. The basic method for evaluating the characteristics of the development of Chinese MNCs in Kazakhstan is a statistical analysis based on UNCTADstat. Based on the analysis, the authors conclude that although China has many MNCs, their rate of transnationality and competitiveness index are far behind those of European and American ones. The number of Chinese multinational companies investing in Kazakhstan (1,234 companies) ranks third in the number of foreign companies in the country. Chinese multinationals investing in Kazakhstan are mainly concentrated in Xinjiang because it borders Kazakhstan and has geographical and cultural advantages. China's direct investment in Kazakhstan covers a wide range of industries, including agriculture, animal husbandry, planting, construction, mining, transportation and communication, hotel and catering industry, trade and auto repair industry, etc. However, most registered enterprises are engaged in developing and utilizing energy fields in Kazakhstan.