Assessing the effects of regional coordinated development and ecological on public welfare in the Yangtze River Delta

Regional coordinated development (RCD) has been an important approach and arduous objective in achieving the improvement of public welfare in many developing countries. Taking the Yangtze River Delta as a case study, this research detailed an empirical investigation into the spatiotemporal patterns and evolutionary characteristics of ecological and socioeconomic coordinated development (ESCD) during (2001-2019) in perspectives of an internal subsystem of the unit and between units. The econometric model was constructed to verify the effect of ecological and socioeconomic coordination development (ESCD) degrees in the Yangtze River Delta on public welfare. The results show that in the perspective of internal integration including three provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, and one municipality Shanghai, the coupling coordinated development degree of internal five subsystems is relatively good in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang except for Anhui. From the perspective of interprovincial integration, the coupling coordination degree among four geographical units is between 0.301 and 0.696, which belong to medium and low levels of the coordinated state. Among them, the coupling coordinated degree of Shanghai-Jiangsu is higher than that of Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Zhejiang-Anhui, and Anhui-Shanghai. Panel data analysis demonstrates ecological and socioeconomic coordinated development (ESCD) has a significantly positive effect on social and economic welfare in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang except for Anhui. Besides, the control variables of local fiscal expenditure intensity in one lagging period, foreign trade scale, and Sulfur dioxide emission (SO2) significantly affect social and economic welfare. The findings of this study provide significant reference and scientific evidence to strengthen (ESCD) in other areas in developing countries.