Does Air Cargo Matter in Chinese Regional Economic Development? An Empirical Granger Causality Test

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper “Does Air Cargo Matter in Regional Economic Development? An Empirical Granger-Causality Test” is interesting. However, there are some aspects that the authors should improve:

1. I think the title should be more specific.

2. It is important that the authors describe the contribution of this research in the literature. Is not clear. Why is it important to do this study? Knowing this causal relationship, what does it imply?

3. The authors must justify why China was chosen?

4. The source of the tables and figures must be added.

5. Improve the presentation and discussion of the results.

6. Improve conclusions. Highlight the article's contribution and policy implications. Discuss the limitations of the paper and future lines of research on the subject.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

We would like to thank you for your careful reading, helpful comments, and constructive suggestions, which has significantly improved the presentation of our manuscript entitled “Does Air Cargo Matter in Regional Economic Development? An Empirical Granger-Causality Test”(ID: sustainability-1796292). We have carefully revised the manuscript text based on your suggestions. Here are our point-to-point responses. Please see the attachment.

We look forward to hearing from you regarding our submission. We would be glad to respond to any further questions and comments that you may have.

Thank you and best regards.

Best wishes

Jun Zhou

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The present study titled "Does Air Cargo Matter in Regional Economic Development? An Empirical Granger-Causality Test" aims to capture air cargo and regional economies through a multivariate VAR model and attempts to explain the causal relationship in accordance with the endogenous and exogenous growth theory. However, the present study omits lots of important independent variables in the model. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

We would like to thank you for your careful reading, helpful comments, and constructive suggestions, which has significantly improved the presentation of our manuscript entitled “Does Air Cargo Matter in Regional Economic Development? An Empirical Granger-Causality Test”(ID: sustainability-1796292). We have carefully revised the manuscript text based on your suggestions. Here are our point-to-point responses. Please see the attachment.

We look forward to hearing from you regarding our submission. We would be glad to respond to any further questions and comments that you may have.

Thank you and best regards.

Best wishes

Jun Zhou

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Kind, Regarding your publication, I would like to inform you that the evaluation of your manuscript is very positive. I think we have done an excellent job, the research demand is well defined and your work contributes to the existing scientific literature on the subject. I think that the application of Granger’s causality test to assess the air freight relationship and regional economies through a VAR model is very interesting indeed. I believe that enough detail has been given to allow other to replicate both the procedures and the analyses carried out. The abstract is a good summary of the work done and the review of the literature is suitable, clear and quite complete. The table 1 "Names and locations of the selected cities" that certainly facilitates reading and understanding of data. The results (average, median...) are well described and allow a first descriptive analysis, the basic model is explained clearly, allowing an easy reading even to a less experienced audience. The whole graphic section (box diagram...etc) is clearly very understandable and easy to interpret, thanks to the clear sppiegazione that happens in the next part. However, I think that maybe you could make some minor changes (not necessary) to figures 1,2,3 and 4 of the scatterplots (placing the legends on the bottom right). The results of the analysis are well explained and documented both through the help of tables, both through a simple and clear explanation in your research article. The conclusions consistent and appropriate. Best Regards

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

We would like to thank you for your careful reading, helpful comments, and constructive suggestions, which has significantly improved the presentation of our manuscript entitled “Does Air Cargo Matter in Regional Economic Development? An Empirical Granger-Causality Test”(ID: sustainability-1796292). We have carefully revised the manuscript text based on your suggestions. Here are our point-to-point responses. Please see the attachment.

We look forward to hearing from you regarding our submission. We would be glad to respond to any further questions and comments that you may have.

Thank you and best regards.

Best wishes

Jun Zhou

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Reviewer 2 Report

The revised version of the manuscript can be accepted