Analysis of the Influence Mechanism of New Urbanization on High-Quality Economic Development in Northeast China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript explores the effect of new urbanization on high-quality economic development in 34 Chinese cities. The paper is interesting and overall well-written. Below some comments to further raise its quality.
In introduction the Authors should stress more the relevance of the topic under investigation as well as the gap in the literature they intend to fill. Also, I suggest to end the section with a short remainder of the paper. Finally please check the consistency of the verbs used throughout the section (see, for instance, line 46 “At present, the Northeast region has initially” or line 55 “The 14th FYP of China in 2021 will focus”).
Urbanisation is often the result of migration form the rural areas. Accordingly, I believe that the Authors should shortly discuss the push and pull factors that lead to urbanisation through migration (see the suggested references below). These can also contribute to support some indicators included in the new urbanization index system discussed later in the manuscript.
There is no need, in my opinion, to split section 3.4 into two sub-sections since both of them are very short. However, a more in-depth discussion about the model and the variables used can be of help. For instance, which estimator did the Authors use to estimate models (11)-(14)? This information should also be reported in table 5 and in the subsequent tables. Moreover, how were the variables measured? Finally, although already specified in other parts of the manuscript, information about the time span covered by data should also be reported here.
In the conclusions, the Authors should discuss the limitations of their study and propose further lines of research.
Suggested references:
“China: Internal migration”. The encyclopedia of global human migration, 2013, pp. 1-15.
“Local amenities and life-cycle migration: Do people move for jobs or fun?” Journal of Urban Economics, 2008, 64 (3), pp. 519-537
“Globalization and internal migration: evidence from inter-provincial mobility in Vietnam”. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 2023, 10(1), pp. 1–19
“Jobs or Amenities? Location choices of interprovincial skilled migrants in China, 2000-2005”. Population, Space and Place, 2014, 20 (7), pp. 592-605
Author Response
Responses to Reviewer Comments and Suggestions
Dear Reviewer:
On behalf of all the contributing authors, I would like to express our sincere appreciation of your letter and reviewers’ constructive comments concerning our article entitled " Analysis on The Influence Mechanism of New Urbanization on High-quality Economic Development in Northeast China" (Manuscript No: 2290743). These comments are all valuable and helpful for improving our article. According to the reviewers’ comments, We have made modifications to our manuscript and supplemented extra data to make our results convincing. For your convenience, we have annotated the reviewer's comments in blue font and answered each of the comments. In addition, the red font in the resubmission manuscript shows the changes we made based on different review comments. The main corrections in the paper and theresponds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Comment 1: In introduction the Authors should stress more the relevance of the topic under investigation as well as the gap in the literature they intend to fill. Also, I suggest to end the section with a short remainder of the paper. Finally please check the consistency of the verbs used throughout the section (see, for instance, line 46 “At present, the Northeast region has initially” or line 55 “The 14th FYP of China in 2021 will focus”).
Response 1：We realized that the Introduction section of this paper still has some problems. We have revised this section.(1) The introduction section of this paper gives too much description of the current status and trends of urban development in the Northeast. It fails to focus on the issues of the study. It fails to clarify the possible marginal contributions of the study. In response, we have revisited and reorganized the logic of the introduction and adjusted its content. First, we retained part of the description of the current situation in the Northeast, which is necessary for the reader to understand the article. Second, we reorganized and added relevant literature, aiming to focus on the relationship between new urbanization and economic development and analyze the mechanism of action. It is found that the literature generally agrees on the positive effects of new urbanization on economic development, but the mechanisms of their effects are unclear and there are regional differences. Therefore, this paper examines our problem from the perspective of new urbanization in Northeast China. Third, in the introduction section of the article, we add the chapter arrangement of the study, a short research conclusion, and possible marginal contributions, which help readers to quickly understand what we have studied. (Page 2; Lines 74-91)(2) The problem of verb inconsistency in the paper. First, we have carefully proofread and edited the article. Secondly, the article was revised by a third-party professional agency to ensure accuracy in the language presentation.
Comment 2: Urbanisation is often the result of migration form the rural areas. Accordingly, I believe that the Authors should shortly discuss the push and pull factors that lead to urbanisation through migration (see the suggested references below). These can also contribute to support some indicators included in the new urbanization index system discussed later in the manuscript.
Response 2：We have added a shortly discuss to the manuscript, drawing on the ideas and literature provided by the experts. For details, please refer to the article Section 2:" Theory and Mechanism Analysis ".The push and pull factors that lead to urbanisation through migration It is not clearly expressed in our article. We argue that population migration and agglomeration are always at the core of urbanization. It is mentioned in related studies that population migration is influenced by quality of life, business environments, educational attainment, employment opportunities, foreign direct investment, and globalization processes, etc. The migration of people from the Tohoku region is the result of a combination of these factors. The ecological environment of the current human settlement in the Northeast is poor. The level of business environment is low due to industrial and institutional influences. Many young people with higher education are reluctant to stay in the Northeast. These factors will have a serious impact on the high-quality development of the regional economy. And consider adding relevant evaluation criteria to the index construction. (Page 3; Lines 98-116)
Comment 3: There is no need, in my opinion, to split section 3.4 into two sub-sections since both of them are very short. However, a more in-depth discussion about the model and the variables used can be of help. For instance, which estimator did the Authors use to estimate models (11)-(14)? This information should also be reported in table 5 and in the subsequent tables. Moreover, how were the variables measured? Finally, although already specified in other parts of the manuscript, information about the time span covered by data should also be reported here.
Response 3：(1) We have reorganized section 3.4 and removed two sub-sections to make the article more concise. For details, please see pages 12-13 of the paper. (Page 12-13).(2) It is our neglect that the regression model construction is not clearly addressed. We follow the expert opinion for a more in-depth discussion about the model and the variables used. First, about the measurement of the variables in the model. We calculated the main variables in the text using the entropy method, using the Stata15 software, from the base indicators obtained from the Yearbook. Second, the estimation of models (11)-(14). Considering the existence of both cross-sectional and time series in the panel data, we adopt the GLS model to analyze and test the data. In fact, the GLS model is able to solve the autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity problems well and ensures the quality of the analysis. The estimation methods of the model are also annotated in the regression results in Tables 5 and 7, For details, please see pages 14 and 17 of the paper. (Page 14-17)(3) To make the data analysis more detailed, we added information about the time span covered by the data, choosing a sample of 34 cities in the Northeast region from 2000 to 2020 (a time span of 20 years). For details, please see pages 13 of the paper. (Page 13)
Comment 4: In the conclusions, the Authors should discuss the limitations of their study and propose further lines of research.
Response 4：We are grateful to the experts for this comment and realize that the limitations of this paper and ideas for further research may not be reflected in the submitted manuscript. In response, we have revised the original manuscript. Please refer to Section 5 Conclusions and Suggestions. In the study of this paper, we have empirically demonstrated the mechanisms of action between new urbanization and high-quality economic development. However, for one of the mechanisms, there is still a need for in-depth research. For example, there are differences in the individual regression results of each moderating variable on the mediating variable, and there may be lag period and scale effects between the mediator and the moderating variable. We should further analyze the possible reasons for the differences. When using Stata for data analysis, we also found that investment, as a mediating variable, has a differential impact on the quality development of the economy when a squared term is used. This implies that there may be a threshold effect or a non-linear feature of this impact mechanism. Including the reference to population migration factors in your recommended literature, these are propositions that we need to discuss further.( Page 19; Lines 716-730)
We tried our best to improve the manuscript and made some changes marked in revised paper which will not influence the content and framework of the paper. We appreciate for Reviewers’ warm work earnestly, and hope the correction will meet with approval. Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.
Best Regards
Yours Sincerely,
Dongchao Zhang, Fangyi Jiao, Xiyue Zheng, Jianing Pang
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
Thank you for submitting your manuscript titled "Analysis on The Influence Mechanism of New Urbanization on High-quality Economic Development in Northeast China" to the Sustainability Journal for potential publication consideration. Please, see below my feedback and comments after reading through the manuscript. I hope this helps in improving the quality of the paper.
1. The abstract refers to the study as an essay instead of an empirical research study.
2. There needs to be more compelling evidence from the literature supporting the need for the proposed study presented in the introductory section. The focus of the study, which is to explore "the theoretical and practical significance to clarify the relationship between urbanization and economic development at the intercity scale in the northeastern region, " must be clearly justified within the introductory section.
3. Figure 1 should be placed close to where it was first referenced on page 2 instead of page 4. Besides, no clear and appropriate discussion and critique is presented in establishing the links between the different themes presented in the framework.
4. The study has used an inferential statistical method to test the different hypotheses that lack appropriate literature foundations. It is common to present the literature with supporting articles that are the foundation for the study's proposed hypotheses stating the relationship between variables (what we already know supports what you believe your hypothesized results will be). This needs to be addressed in the manuscript's sections leading to the methodology section.
5. While an attempt was made to present some relevant study findings, no attempt was made to discuss and contrast the findings against the findings of current and existing studies. Thus, making it difficult to understand how the study has progressed current knowledge in the area or how it has contributed to theory and practice. This point is an after-effect of points two and four above. Besides, it was unclear how the study measured or determined "high-quality" economic development.
6. The different sub-sections of the manuscript, such as the literature review and methodology, are overly descriptive. There is a need for a proper discussion and critique of the literature. The methodology should be presented to allow easy replication for future studies. Likewise, the literature review should contrast the opinions and views of what scholars have done in the chosen study area and not merely list their findings.
General comment(s):
Thoughts and ideas are difficult for the reader to understand due to unnecessarily long sentences and poor presentation within and between paragraphs. There is a need to proofread the manuscript for grammatical errors.
Author Response
Responses to Reviewer Comments and Suggestions
Dear Reviewer:
On behalf of all the contributing authors, I would like to express our sincere appreciation of your letter and reviewers’ constructive comments concerning our article entitled " Analysis on The Influence Mechanism of New Urbanization on High-quality Economic Development in Northeast China" (Manuscript No: 2290743). These comments are all valuable and helpful for improving our article. According to the reviewers’ comments, We have made modifications to our manuscript and supplemented extra data to make our results convincing. For your convenience, we have annotated the reviewer's comments in blue font and answered each of the comments. In addition, the red font in the resubmission manuscript shows the changes we made based on different review comments. The main corrections in the paper and theresponds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Comment 1: The abstract refers to the study as an essay instead of an empirical research study.
Response 1:We thank the reviewers for their careful reading, and we apologize for the irregular presentation in the abstract. Based on your suggestions, corrections have been made in our resubmitted manuscript, and we thank you for your corrections. (Page 1; Lines 10-22)
Comment 2: There needs to be more compelling evidence from the literature supporting the need for the proposed study presented in the introductory section. The focus of the study, which is to explore "the theoretical and practical significance to clarify the relationship between urbanization and economic development at the intercity scale in the northeastern region, " must be clearly justified within the introductory section.
Response 2：We have reorganized the logic of the introduction. First, the purpose of our study is established from the current situation and problems in the Northeast. Second, the research gaps in the existing research literature are reviewed, and the research framework of this article is established based on relevant theories. Finally, the significance and possible marginal contribution of the article research. There are many problems in the economic development of Northeast China, such as industry, population, resource endowment, ecological environment, and so on. In the national context, it has special characteristics. This is the reason why we selected Northeast China as the research object. The study has practical implications for the construction of new urbanization and economic development in Northeast China. From the existing research literature, the relationship between new urbanization and economic development is close. There are more mechanisms of the two roles, but they have failed to form a system. The existing studies are also more macroscopic, and most of them agree that there are regional differences in the mechanisms of action between new urbanization and economic development. To this end, we start from the new urbanization construction in Northeast China to study our problem, expecting to make new explanations from the theoretical point of view. (Page 2; Lines 47-90)
Comment 3: Figure 1 should be placed close to where it was first referenced on page 2 instead of page 4. Besides, no clear and appropriate discussion and critique is presented in establishing the links between the different themes presented in the framework.
Response 3：
(1) We have moved the position of Figure 1 to page 3(Resubmitted manuscripts), where it was first referenced for easier reading.
(2) We further discuss and illustrate the links between the different themes in the framework. In general, urbanization emerges and develops from the division of labor and industrialization. In turn, the urbanization process can have an impact on economic development through three levels. The first level is the demand for consumption and investment generated by the aggregation of factors and population. At the second level, further division of labor and specialization increase the innovation capacity of cities. The third level, the positive externalities resulting from the expansion of the city's size. Through these three levels, there is an effect on economic development. For details of the modifications, please see "Section 2: Theory and Mechanism Analysis" on page 3 of the text.
Comment 4: The study has used an inferential statistical method to test the different hypotheses that lack appropriate literature foundations. It is common to present the literature with supporting articles that are the foundation for the study's proposed hypotheses stating the relationship between variables (what we already know supports what you believe your hypothesized results will be). This needs to be addressed in the manuscript's sections leading to the methodology section.
Response 4：We are aware of the importance of reasonable hypotheses for the empirical evidence of the article. For this reason, we integrated the whole paper and followed the theoretical framework - theoretical analysis - literature identification - comparative analysis of literature - proposing hypotheses, reproducing the analytical framework of the paper. A large amount of literature is added for the mediating and moderating mechanisms that the paper wants to verify. Based on this, 4 hypotheses for the study of this paper are proposed, namely:
H1: The construction of new urbanization in Northeast China can promote high-quality economic development by facilitating consumption, investment, and innovation as the three key mediating mechanisms.
H2: Public services have a moderating effect on the innovation, consumption and investment intermediation of new urbanization for economic development.
H3: Industrial structure upgrading have a moderating effect on the innovation, consumption and investment intermediation of new urbanization for economic development.
H4: Ecological environment have a moderating effect on the innovation, consumption and investment intermediation of new urbanization for economic development.
where H1 is to verify the mediating effect of new urbanization on high quality economic development in this paper. Here, we re-collect the existing literature and focus on the impact of new urbanization on innovation, consumption, and investment (i.e., the three mediating variables in this paper). Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4 are designed to verify the moderating effects of public services, industrial structure upgrading, and ecological environment. Therefore, we also collected a large amount of literature to compare and analyze the possible moderating paths as the basis for the hypotheses proposed in this paper. For details of the modifications, please see "Section 2: Theory and Mechanism Analysis" on page 3 of the paper. (Page 4-7; Lines 160-303)
Comment 5: While an attempt was made to present some relevant study findings, no attempt was made to discuss and contrast the findings against the findings of current and existing studies. Thus, making it difficult to understand how the study has progressed current knowledge in the area or how it has contributed to theory and practice. This point is an after-effect of points two and four above. Besides, it was unclear how the study measured or determined "high-quality" economic development.
Response 5：
First, the lack of in-depth treatment of the literature was an oversight on our part. The role of literature is to utilize the existing knowledge and support our study. For this reason, we not only added relevant literature in the introduction section, but also added a large amount of literature in the theory and mechanism analysis section in Section 2 to support the hypothesis of the article. When adding the literature, we took into account the suggestions of experts and tried to conduct a comparative analysis of the literature to examine the shortcomings of the existing literature studies, which were used to characterize the need for our current study.
Secondly, as experts have pointed out, the paper does not introduce the concepts involved in the title, such as "high quality". It is easy to affect the reader's understanding of the article. Based on this, we have taken reference from other excellent papers and organized the definition of economic quality development in the paper. Please refer to sub-section 3.1.2 in Section 3 of the paper for details of the revision. Specifically, high-quality economic development was first introduced by the Communist Party of China in its 19th National Congress report. The concept was introduced to distinguish China's earlier traditional and unsustainable economic growth and development model. High-quality development focuses on the comprehensive transformation of the modernized economic system and the construction of a modern economic system to achieve an efficient, equitable, green, and sustainable development model. Therefore, this paper defines the meaning of high quality in three aspects, i.e., higher efficiency of economic growth. smooth economic operation and low level of environmental coercion. In addition, we follow this criterion in constructing indicators. (Page 8; Lines 340-358)
Comment 6: The different sub-sections of the manuscript, such as the literature review and methodology, are overly descriptive. There is a need for a proper discussion and critique of the literature. The methodology should be presented to allow easy replication for future studies. Likewise, the literature review should contrast the opinions and views of what scholars have done in the chosen study area and not merely list their findings.
Response 6：First, we reanalyzed and discussed the literature in each subsection of the article. For example, in the introduction section, we added some literature discussing the impact of urbanization on economic development and the current state of research. Please refer to the "Introduction" section on pages 1-2 . Through literature comparison, we found that urbanization has a certain role in promoting economic development in different periods of industrialization in both developed and developing countries. The mechanism of urbanization on economic development varies from country to country and from region to region. This is the basis for choosing Northeast China for the empirical analysis in this paper.Second, in the theoretical analysis section of the article in Section 2, we analyze and organize the literature for each mechanism study. Please refer to pages 2-7 of the text for details of the revision. Through the literature comparison, we find that there is a general agreement in the academic community that urbanization can promote innovation, consumption and investment, but there are regional differences. The mechanism of impact also varies. In particular. Scholars point out that the development of urbanization in Northeast China has not yet reached the inflection point [1], and economic growth is mainly dependent on investment expansion due to urbanization [2]. This paper pays attention to this research conclusion and tries to answer to the high-quality economic development of the Northeast region through the construction of new urbanization
Comment 7: General comment(s): Thoughts and ideas are difficult for the reader to understand due to unnecessarily long sentences and poor presentation within and between paragraphs. There is a need to proofread the manuscript for grammatical errors.
Response 7：We apologize for poor language of our manuscript. We worked on the manuscript for a long time and the repeated addition and removal of sentences and sections obviously led to poor readability. We have now worked on both language and readability and have also involved native English speakers for language corrections. At the same time the article was revised by a third-party professional agency to ensure accuracy in the language presentation. We really hope that the flow and language level have been substantially improved.
We tried our best to improve the manuscript and made some changes marked in revised paper which will not influence the content and framework of the paper. We appreciate for Reviewers’ warm work earnestly, and hope the correction will meet with approval. Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.
Best Regards
Yours Sincerely
Dongchao Zhang, Fangyi Jiao, Xiyue Zheng, Jianing Pang
References:
- Zhao, Z.; Peng, P.Y.; Zhang, F.; Wang, J.Y.; Li, H.X. The Impact of the Urbanization Process on Agricultural Technical Efficiency in Northeast China. Sustainability-Basel. 2022, 14, 12144
- Yang, K.; Zhang, S.H.; Luo, Y.; Quan, L.; Li, Q. The widening urbanization gap between the Three Northeast Provinces and the Yangtze River Delta under China's economic reform from 1984 to 2014. J. Sust. Dev. World. 2018, 25, 262-275
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
1. This paper is in general clearly written. The empirical results are backed up by the current regression findings. However, there are fundamental statistical as well as writing issues to clarify or improve.
2. There is no research hypothesis constructed in this paper. However, this paper is mainly estimating and testing the mediation and moderating effects. It is strongly suggested that the research hypotheses should be constructed from theories before the empirical work.
3. As Figure 1 indicates, there are three levels of the variables. However, in the econometric model, it is not clear whether the levels of variables are formally modeled. Eqs. (11)-(14) only show the mediation effect in panel data regressions but there is no level formally modeled at all. The authors may refer to hierarchical linear model (HLM) to formally model the three levels in Figure 1 into the econometric model.
4. Tables 5 and 6 indicate no levels of variables at all. Of course, they indicate that there are both mediation and moderating effects. The fixed-effects models are directly used for estimation. However, it is statistically sound to show the related tests such as F, LM, and Hausman tests for panel data model selections.
5. Pages 10-11 basically show that coefficients on individual paths are statistically significant. However, significance of individual paths does not guarantee significance of mediation effect. Please refer to the Sobel’s test for details. Moreover, it will be better to further clearly report whether it is a full or partial mediation effect.
6. Figure 4 is clearly presented. Again, it will be better to further clearly report whether there are full or partial mediation effects.
7. The conclusions now are mainly re-statements of the empirical findings. Only the last paragraph mentions some policy implications. It will be better if the policy implications can be further addressed based on the levels of variables, mediation effects, and moderating effect.
Author Response
Responses to Reviewer Comments and Suggestions
Dear Reviewer:
On behalf of all the contributing authors, I would like to express our sincere appreciation of your letter and reviewers’ constructive comments concerning our article entitled " Analysis on The Influence Mechanism of New Urbanization on High-quality Economic Development in Northeast China" (Manuscript No: 2290743). These comments are all valuable and helpful for improving our article. According to the reviewers’ comments, We have made modifications to our manuscript and supplemented extra data to make our results convincing. For your convenience, we have annotated the reviewer's comments in blue font and answered each of the comments. In addition, the red font in the resubmission manuscript shows the changes we made based on different review comments. The main corrections in the paper and theresponds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Comment 1: There is no research hypothesis constructed in this paper. However, this paper is mainly estimating and testing the mediation and moderating effects. It is strongly suggested that the research hypotheses should be constructed from theories before the empirical work.
Response 1：
We are aware of the importance of reasonable hypotheses for the empirical evidence of the article. For this reason, we integrated the whole paper and followed the theoretical framework - theoretical analysis - literature identification - comparative analysis of literature - proposing hypotheses, reproducing the analytical framework of the paper. A large amount of literature is added for the mediating and moderating mechanisms that the paper wants to verify. Based on this, 4 hypotheses for the study of this paper are proposed, namely:
H1: The construction of new urbanization in Northeast China can promote high-quality economic development by facilitating consumption, investment, and innovation as the three key mediating mechanisms.
H2: Public services have a moderating effect on the innovation, consumption and investment intermediation of new urbanization for economic development.
H3: Industrial structure upgrading have a moderating effect on the innovation, consumption and investment intermediation of new urbanization for economic development.
H4: Ecological environment have a moderating effect on the innovation, consumption and investment intermediation of new urbanization for economic development.
Where H1 is to verify the mediating effect of new urbanization on high quality economic development in this paper. Here, we re-collect the existing literature and focus on the impact of new urbanization on innovation, consumption, and investment (i.e., the three mediating variables in this paper). Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4 are designed to verify the moderating effects of public services, industrial structure upgrading, and ecological environment. Therefore, we also collected a large amount of literature to compare and analyze the possible moderating paths as the basis for the hypotheses proposed in this paper. please see "Section 2: Theory and Mechanism Analysis" on page 3-7 of the paper.
Comment 2: As Figure 1 indicates, there are three levels of the variables. However, in the econometric model, it is not clear whether the levels of variables are formally modeled. Eqs. (11)-(14) only show the mediation effect in panel data regressions but there is no level formally modeled at all. The authors may refer to hierarchical linear model (HLM) to formally model the three levels in Figure 1 into the econometric model.
Response 2：The hierarchical linear model (HLM) you recommended was extremely helpful for our article. We searched the relevant literature, studied the HLM model systematically, and tried to apply it in our article. The specific process is as follows:First, the hierarchical linear model (HLM) was proposed by Bryk and Raudenbush in 1992 [1] and is based on a general linear regression analysis model that can handle data at both the individual and group levels [2]. This method is a statistical analysis method used to analyze data with nested structural characteristics, which can effectively solve the problem of organization effect (or background effect) [3], and has more advantages than traditional linear regression models in terms of model parameter estimation, model assumptions and data requirements [4]. When dealing with stratified data, the regression equation is first established with the first level (individual level) explanatory variable, then the intercept and slope in this equation are used as dependent variables, and then the second level (group level) explanatory variable is used as the independent variable for quadratic regression [5]. Take the two-level hierarchical linear model as an example, the basic process of modeling in this paper can be found in the uploaded Word.
Comment 3: Tables 5 and 6 indicate no levels of variables at all. Of course, they indicate that there are both mediation and moderating effects. The fixed-effects models are directly used for estimation. However, it is statistically sound to show the related tests such as F, LM, and Hausman tests for panel data model selections.
Response 3：First, For the significance of the empirical findings, we re-labeled the t-values according to Stata calculations to make the significance level consistent with the t-values; in addition, we annotated the symbols in the tables. For example: * p < 0.05;** p < 0.01;*** p < 0.001. Panel-corrected standard errors are shown in parentheses.
Second, Considering that the data in this paper is an strongly balanced panel data structure, we need to judge whether to choose a fixed-effect or random-effect model before regression analysis. Therefore, this paper performs Hausman test on the research model, which is a significance test for the difference between the uniform parameter estimates in the two models, in order to select the appropriate fixed-effect or random effect-model. Hausman test using Stata15.1 software shows that a fixed-effects regression model is appropriate to eliminate the problem of estimation bias in the traditional model. (Page 13; Lines 500-507)
Third, To further verify the appropriateness of our model, variance inflation factor(VIF) analysis was conducted to avoid the problem of multicollinearity caused by the introduction of variables. The results show that the variance inflation factor VIF of the regression equation is in a reasonable interval and all are below the critical value of 10, indicating that there is no significant multicollinearity problem among the independent variables. The variance inflation factor test is shown in the following table: (Page 13; Lines 500-507)
Table 1 Correlation and covariance tests for mediation effect variables
|
|
HQD |
Urban |
Innovation |
Consume |
Invest |
Ifurban |
Pgdp |
VIF |
|
HQD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Urban |
0.56*** |
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.94 |
|
Innovation |
0.71*** |
0.69*** |
|
|
|
|
|
3.12 |
|
Consume |
0.53*** |
0.78*** |
0.81*** |
|
|
|
|
5.48 |
|
Invest |
0.46*** |
0.63*** |
0.54*** |
0.66*** |
|
|
|
4.17 |
|
Ifurban |
0.12*** |
0.24*** |
0.24*** |
0.44*** |
0.32*** |
|
|
1.49 |
|
Pgdp |
0.48*** |
0.70*** |
0.57*** |
0.61*** |
0.74*** |
0.25*** |
|
2.86 |
|
Financial |
0.57*** |
0.76*** |
0.62*** |
0.76*** |
0.84*** |
0.44*** |
0.72*** |
5.80 |
Note：*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1. Calculated by Stata15 software.
Comment 4: Pages 10-11 basically show that coefficients on individual paths are statistically significant. However, significance of individual paths does not guarantee significance of mediation effect. Please refer to the Sobel’s test for details. Moreover, it will be better to further clearly report whether it is a full or partial mediation effect.
Response 4：
(1) The mediating effects in this paper are tested by stepwise regressions, and we refer to Judd and Kenny, (1981) [5]; Baron and Kenny (1986) [6], Wen, Z. L. et al. (2004) [7], Zhou,G.Y. et al. (2022) [8], For a detailed process of modeling analysis, please refer to the uploaded Word for equations and logical relationship diagrams.
The specific steps are:
Step 1: test the coefficient c of equation (1), that is, the total effect of the independent variable X on the dependent variable Y.
Step 2: test the coefficient a of equation (2), which is the relationship of the independent variable X on the mediating variable M.
Step 3: testing the coefficient c' and b of equation (3) after controlling for the mediating variable M.
Basis for determining whether the intermediary effect is established:
- coefficient c is significant, i.e. H0: c = 0 is rejected.
- coefficient a is significant, i.e., H0: a = 0 is rejected, and coefficient b is significant, i.e., H0: b = 0 is rejected.
The intermediate effect holds if both of the above conditions are satisfied.
- If the above two conditions are satisfied simultaneously, the coefficient c' in equation (3) is not significant, then it is called fully mediated; the coefficient c' is significant, then it is called partially mediated.
In this paper, we followed the above process and regressed separately, and the results are shown in Figure 2(See the uploaded Word):
First:
The red part is the regression of X-Y in equation (1), i.e. Urban-HQED in this paper, with significant coefficients.
The blue part is the regression of X-M in equation (2), i.e. Urban for the three mediators in this paper, with significant coefficients.
Conclusion: it can be concluded that the mediating effect of this paper holds.
Secondly:
The green part is the regression of X, M on Y in equation (3) with test coefficient c', which is significant. It indicates that this paper is partially mediated effect.
Finally:
The yellow part is added to consider the model robustness, is the regression of Urban and all mediated M on HQED in this paper, and the test coefficients are significant.
(2) To ensure the robustness of the empirical study, this paper uses Sobel's method instead of the three-step method to recheck the mediation effects in this paper based on the recommendations of the review experts and drawing on Sobel's (1990) [9] study. The results are shown in Table 2:
Table 2 The test of intermediation effect based on Sobel method
|
Variables |
HQD |
HQD |
HQD |
|
(1) |
(2) |
(3) |
|
|
Urban |
0.11*** |
0.13*** |
0.36*** |
|
(3.80) |
(2.98) |
(11.42) |
|
|
Innovation |
0.46*** |
|
|
|
(17.4) |
|
|
|
|
Consume |
|
0.09*** |
|
|
|
(3.20) |
|
|
|
Invest |
|
|
0.07*** |
|
|
|
(4.59) |
|
|
Control |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Cons |
0.07*** |
0.02** |
0.02** |
|
(15.03) |
(2.95) |
(2.4) |
|
|
N |
714 |
714 |
714 |
|
Adj-R2 |
0.5183 |
0.3815 |
0.3331 |
|
Sobel-Z |
14.30*** |
3.14*** |
4.49*** |
|
p |
(0.00) |
(0.002) |
(0.00) |
|
Goodman1-Z |
14.30*** |
3.13*** |
4.48*** |
|
p |
(0.00) |
(0.002) |
(0.00) |
|
Goodman2-Z |
14.31*** |
3.14*** |
4.49*** |
|
p |
(0.00) |
(0.002) |
(0.00) |
|
Effect share |
0.76 |
0.36 |
0.20 |
Note: Values in parentheses are t-statistics, *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1.
Estimation using stata15 software.
The regression results of models 1-3 in Table 2 are all significantly positive, and the p-values of Sobel test are all less than 0.05, indicating that the mediating effect still holds. (Page 14-15; Lines 536-558).
Comment 5: Figure 4 is clearly presented. Again, it will be better to further clearly report whether there are full or partial mediation effects.
Response 5：
The mediating effect test reveals that the mediating effect in this paper is partially mediated, i.e., urbanization can have an impact on economic quality development through mediating variables, while there is also a direct effect of urbanization on economic quality development. We have added the relevant discussion in Figure 4 in the text. See the text for details. (Page 18; Lines 655-669)
Comment 6: The conclusions now are mainly re-statements of the empirical findings. Only the last paragraph mentions some policy implications. It will be better if the policy implications can be further addressed based on the levels of variables, mediation effects, and moderating effect.
Response 6：
As the experts say, policy recommendations are the landing point of the article research. The policy recommendations at the end of the paper should also be aligned with the process and conclusions of the article study. For this reason, we revise the policy recommendations in Part 5 of the article. (Page 19; Lines 702-730)
In terms of intermediary mechanisms, to encourage the development of new urbanization and address these issues, several intermediary mechanisms need to be considered. Firstly, investment in regional innovation factors should be increased to enhance the attractiveness of the region to talents. Secondly, expanding domestic demand and leading consumption upgrades should be a priority. It is also important to quickly break down barriers between urban and rural areas to promote the formation of a unified large market in the Northeast. To promote the upgrading of consumption and industrial structure, it is important to focus on supply-side and demand-side matching, driven by demand and innovation. This can help to realize the virtuous cycle of material factors in cities. To lead investment optimization with new urbanization, more attention should be paid to improving people's livelihood and enhancing urban investment in social service functions. The focus of investment should be on consumption upgrading, industrial transformation, benefiting people's livelihood and restructuring, while avoiding investing in ineffective and inefficient areas that may cause overcapacity.
In terms of moderate mechanisms, a new generation of information technology makes modern urban development ideas and intelligent concepts possible, which highlights the need to increase investment in smart cities in the Northeast. The integration of emerging technologies with traditional industries should be explored to empower industries with technology and achieve industrial upgrading. Furthermore, improving the quality of urban public services and the ecological environment can have a moderating effect on urban innovation, consumption, and investment. This can help optimize the consumption and investment structure, improve the urban production and living environment, and enhance the efficiency of urban management and operation. This paper identifies some of the problems faced by urbanization and high-quality economic development in Northeast China and clarifies the mechanisms of action between the two. However, one of the mechanisms can still be refined and discussed specifically. For example, investment, as a mediating variable, has a differential impact on quality economic development when a squared term is used. This implies that there may be threshold effects or nonlinear characteristics of this impact mechanism, which can be taken as a topic for further research.
We tried our best to improve the manuscript and made some changes marked in revised paper which will not influence the content and framework of the paper. We appreciate for Reviewers’ warm work earnestly, and hope the correction will meet with approval. Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.
Best Regards
Yours Sincerely,
Dongchao Zhang, Fangyi Jiao, Xiyue Zheng, Jianing Pang
References
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- Wen, Z.L.; Chang, L.; Hau, K.T.; Liu,H.Y. Testing and Application of the Mediating Effects. Acta Psychol. Sinica. 2004, 36, 614-620
- Zhou, G.Y.; Liu, L; Luo, S.M. Sustainable development, ESG performance and company market value: Mediating effect of financial performance. Strateg. Environ. 2022, 31, 3371-3387.
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript looks definitely improved, congratulations to the Authors. In my opinion, it is ready to be published: the final decision is, of course, up to the Editor.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
Thank you for taking out time to respond to my initial concerns. More compelling evidence from the literature supporting the need for the proposed study is presented in the introductory section. Also, sufficient literature is presented in support of the study's proposed hypotheses stating the relationship between variables. Likewise, a good attempt was made to discuss and contrast the findings against those of current and existing studies.
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors have followed all suggestions from this reviewer to revise this paper. Especially, they have constructed the research hypotheses and taken the econometric advice from this reviewer. The revised manuscript thus has been very much substantially improved.
