Abstract
Enhancing inclusive green total factor productivity (GITFP) growth has become an unavoidable option for economic development in light of high-quality economic development. This study contributed by improving the static green Solow model with the incorporation of energy environment and residential income gap factors. It uses the two-period directional distance function and the green inclusive Luenberger productivity indicator to identify the source and evolution of GITFP growth in China between 2001 and 2019. The regularity assessment data indicate that (1) China's GITFP increased from 2001 to 2019, with technical advancement as the primary driver and efficiency deterioration preventing future improvement. (2) For factor power sources, green productivity growth is mainly driven by energy saving and emission reduction effectiveness, with emission reduction performance being superior to energy conservation performance. In China, labor performance beats capital growth and GDP growth, whereas social performance adds a certain degree of green for inclusive TFP development. The eastern and western regions exhibit a single-wheel development pattern of efficiency decline and technological advancement. In contrast, the central region exhibits a two-wheel development pattern of efficiency increase and technological advancement. (3) Provinces in the East with strong economies, like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, are at the forefront of technology and act as "innovators" during the research, while provinces in the center and west are trying to catch up. On the basis of the above research, among the policy recommendations presented are the establishment of a performance evaluation mechanism for China's inclusive green growth and the modification of the notion of economic development.
Graphical abstract
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The division of the three regions: the east includes Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei,Shanghai, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Shandong, Hainan, and other 11 provinces; the central includes Jilin, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, and other 8 provinces, and the west includes Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang, Ningxia, and other 11 provinces.
Abbreviations
- GITFP:
-
Inclusive green total factor productivity
- DDF:
-
Directional distance function
- TFP:
-
Total factor productivity
- DEA:
-
Data envelopment analysis
- SBM:
-
Slacks-based measure
- GML:
-
Global-Malmquist-Luenberger
- EBM:
-
Epsilon-based measure
- BDDF:
-
Biennial directional distance function
- TC:
-
Technological change
- EC:
-
Efficiency change
- LSTC:
-
Labor saving technological change
- KSTC:
-
Capital saving technological change
- ESTC:
-
Energy saving technological change
- GGTC:
-
GDP growth technical change
- DRTC:
-
Carbon dioxide emission reduction technical change
- SRTC:
-
Income disparity technical change
- LSEC:
-
Labor saving efficiency change
- KSEC:
-
Capital saving efficiency change
- ESEC:
-
Energy saving efficiency change
- GGEC:
-
GDP growth efficiency change
- DREC:
-
Carbon dioxide emission reduction efficiency
- SREC:
-
Income disparity efficiency change
- LSP:
-
Labor saving performance
- KSP:
-
Capital saving performance
- ESP:
-
Energy saving performance
- GGP:
-
GDP growth performance
- DRP:
-
Carbon dioxide emission reduction performance
- SRP:
-
Income gap reduction performance
- CEADs:
-
China emission accounts and datasets
References
Aksoy H, Kaptan S, Varol T, Cetin M, Ozel HB (2022a) Exploring land use/land cover change by using density analysis method in yenice. Int J Environ Sci Technol 19(10):10257–10274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03847-5
Aksoy T, Dabanli A, Cetin M, Senyel Kurkcuoglu MA, Cengiz AE, Cabuk SN (2022b) Evaluation of comparing urban area land use change with urban atlas and corine data. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 29(19):28995–29015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17766-y
Albagoury S (2016) Inclusive green growth in Africa: Ethiopia case study. MPRA paper: 74364
Allen MJ, Allen TR, Davis C, McLeod G (2021) Exploring spatial patterns of virginia tornadoes using kernel density and space-time cube analysis (1960–2019). ISPRS Int J Geoinf 10(5):310. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10050310
Aroca P, Bosch M, Maloney WF (2005) Spatial dimensions of trade liberalization and economic convergence: Mexico 1985–2002. World Bank Econ Rev 19(3):345–378. https://doi.org/10.1093/WBER/LHI018
Cao JL (2022) The dynamic coupling nexus among inclusive green growth: a case study in Anhui province. China Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 29(32):49194–49213. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19237-4
Cetin M (2015a) Evaluation of the sustainable tourism potential of a protected area for landscape planning: a case study of the ancient city of Pompeipolis in Kastamonu. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 22(6):490–495. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2015.1081651
Cetin M (2015b) Using GIS analysis to assess urban green space in terms of accessibility: case study in Kutahya. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 22(5):420–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2015.1061066
Cetin M (2016) Sustainability of urban coastal area management: a case study on cide. J Sustain for 35(7):527–541. https://doi.org/10.1080/10549811.2016.1228072
Cetin M (2019) The effect of urban planning on urban formations determining bioclimatic comfort area’s effect using satellitia imagines on air quality: a case study of Bursa city. Air Qual Atmos Health 12(10):1237–1249. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-019-00742-4
Cetin M (2020a) Climate comfort depending on different altitudes and land use in the urban areas in Kahramanmaras city. Air Qual Atmos Health 13(8):991–999. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-020-00858-y
Cetin M (2020b) The changing of important factors in the landscape planning occur due to global climate change in temperature, rain and climate types: a case study of Mersin city. Turk j Agric Food Sci Technol 8(12):2695–2701
Cetin M, Onac AK, Sevik H, Canturk U, Akpinar H (2018) Chronicles and geoheritage of the ancient Roman city of Pompeiopolis: a landscape plan. Arab J Geosci 11(24):1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-018-4170-6
Cetin M, Aksoy T, Cabuk SN, Senyel Kurkcuoglu MA, Cabuk A (2021) Employing remote sensing technique to monitor the influence of newly established universities in creating an urban development process on the respective cities. Land Use Policy 109:105705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105705
Chai JX, Hao Y, Wu HT, Yang YM (2021) Do constraints created by economic growth targets benefit sustainable development? Evidence from China. Bus Strategy Environ 30(8):4188–4205. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2864
Chen YF, Miao JF, Zhu ZT (2021) Measuring green total factor productivity of China’s agricultural sector: a three-stage SBM-DEA model with non-point source pollution and CO2 emissions. J Clean Prod 318:128543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128543
Chen C (2012) Measuring environmental efficiency: critical issues and solutions. SSRN working paper no. 2151675
Cheng ZH, Li X (2022) Do raising environmental costs promote industrial green growth? A quasi-natural experiment based on the policy of raising standard sewage charges. J Clean Prod 343:131004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131004
Chung YH, Färe R, Grosskopf S (1997) Productivity and undesirable outputs: a directional distance function approach. J Environ Manage 51(3):229–240. https://doi.org/10.1006/jema.1997.0146
Deaton A (1997) The analysis of household surveys: a microeconometric approach to development policy: World bank publications
Desalegn G, Tangl A (2022) Enhancing green finance for inclusive green growth: a systematic approach. Sustainability 14(12):7416. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127416
Färe R, Grosskopf S (2010) Directional distance functions and slacks-based measures of efficiency. Eur J Oper Res 200(1):320–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2010.02.033
Färe R, Grosskopf S, Lovell CK, Pasurka C (1989) Multilateral productivity comparisons when some outputs are undesirable: a nonparametric approach. Rev Econ Stat 71(1):90-98. https://doi.org/10.2307/1928055
Feng YC, Wang XH, Liang Z, Hu SL, Xie Y, Wu GY (2021) Effects of emission trading system on green total factor productivity in China: empirical evidence from a quasi-natural experiment. J Clean Prod 294:126262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126262
Fujii H, Managi S, Matousek R (2014) Indian bank efficiency and productivity changes with undesirable outputs: a disaggregated approach. J Bank Financ 38:41–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2013.09.022
Gu K, Dong F, Sun H, Zhou Y (2021) How economic policy uncertainty processes impact on inclusive green growth in emerging industrialized countries: a case study of China. J Clean Prod 322:128963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128963
Guan YP, Wang HJ, Guan R, Ding L (2022) Measuring inclusive green total factor productivity from urban level in China. Front Environ Sci 10:1207. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.966246
Hao Y, Wei YM (2015) When does the turning point in China’s CO2 emissions occur? Results based on the green solow model. Environ Dev Eco 20(6):723–745. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X15000017
Hao Y, Liu JH, Lu Z, Shi RJ, Wu HT (2021) Impact of income inequality and fiscal decentralization on public health: evidence from China. Econ Model 94:934–944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2020.02.034
Hao Y, Guo YX, Wu HT (2022) The role of information and communication technology on green total factor energy efficiency: does environmental regulation work? Bus Strategy Environ 31(1):403–424. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2901
Herrero C, Pineda J, Villar A, Zambrano E (2020) Tracking progress towards accessible, green and efficient energy: the inclusive green energy index. Appl Energy 279:115691
Jin W, Gao SH, Pan SF (2022) Research on the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on green total factor productivity from the perspective of innovative human capital. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22120-x
Kaneko S, Managi S (2004) Environmental productivity in China. Econ Bull 17(2):1–10
Kaya E, Agca M, Adiguzel F, Cetin M (2019) Spatial data analysis with R programming for environment. Hum Ecol Risk Assess Int J 25(6):1521–1530. https://doi.org/10.1080/10807039.2018.1470896
Kilicoglu C, Cetin M, Aricak B, Sevik H (2020) Site selection by using the multi-criteria technique—a case study of Bafra, Turkey. Environ Monit Assess 192:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08562-1
Krugman PR (1997) Development, geography, and economic theory: MIT press
Lee C, Lee C (2022) How does green finance affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China. Energy Econ 107:105863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.105863
Li H, Shahbaz M, Jiang HD, Dong KY (2021) Is natural gas consumption mitigating air pollution? fresh evidence from national and regional analysis in China. Sustain Prod Consum 27:325–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.11.010
Li JX, Zhou K, Cheng ZH (2022) Does China’s “belt and road” initiative promote green total factor productivity growth in countries along the route? J Clean Prod 367:133004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133004
Liu GT, Wang B, Cheng ZX, Zhang N (2020) The drivers of China’s regional green productivity, 1999–2013. Resour, Conserv Recycl 153:104561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104561
Liu DD, Zhu XY, Wang YF (2021) China’s agricultural green total factor productivity based on carbon emission: an analysis of evolution trend and influencing factors. J Clean Prod 278:123692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123692
Liu S, Lei PF, Li X, Li Y (2022) A nonseparable undesirable output modified three-stage data envelopment analysis application for evaluation of agricultural green total factor productivity in China. Sci Total Environ 838(Pt 1):155947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155947
Ofori IK, Gbolonyo EY, Ojong N (2022) Towards inclusive green growth in Africa: critical energy efficiency synergies and governance thresholds. J Clean Prod 369:132917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132917
Ojha VP, Pohit S, Ghosh J (2020) Recycling carbon tax for inclusive green growth: a CGE analysis of India. Energy Policy 144:111708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111708
Parikh KS (2014) Inclusive green growth in India’s aspirational democracy. Oxf Rev Econ Policy 30(3):569–583. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/gru033
Pastor JT, Asmild M, Lovell CAK (2011) The biennial Malmquist productivity change index. Socioecon Plann Sci 45(1):10–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2010.09.001
Pittman RW (1983) Multilateral productivity comparisons with undesirable outputs. Econ J 93(372):883–891. https://doi.org/10.2307/2232753
Quah DT (1997) Empirics for growth and distribution: stratification, polarization, and convergence clubs. J Econ Growth 2(1):27–59. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009781613339
Segura J, Franco D, Perán J (2022) Long-run economic growth in the delay spatial Solow model. Spat Econ Anal. https://doi.org/10.1080/17421772.2022.2104917
Solow RM (1956) A contribution to the theory of economic growth. Q J Econ 70(1):65–94. https://doi.org/10.2307/1884513
Sun YH, Ding WW, Yang ZI, Yang GC, Du JT (2020) Measuring China’s regional inclusive green growth. Sci Total Environ 713:136367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136367
Tian Y, Feng C (2022) The internal-structural effects of different types of environmental regulations on China’s green total-factor productivity. Energy Econ 113:106246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106246
Wang M, Xu M, Ma SJ (2021) The effect of the spatial heterogeneity of human capital structure on regional green total factor productivity. Struct Chang Econ Dyn 59:427–441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2021.09.018
Wanke P, Chen ZF, Dong QC, Antunes J (2021) Transportation sustainability, macroeconomics, and endogeneity in China: a hybrid neural-Markowitz-variable reduction approach. Technol Forecast Soc Change 170:120860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120860
Wen HM, Li HY, Li JW, Zhong S (2022) Green total factor productivity of dairy farming in china: based on the perspective of scale heterogeneity. Front Environ Sci 10:1084. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.961178
World Bank (2012) Inclusive green growth: the pathway to sustainable development: The World Bank
Wu R, Xie ZH (2020) Identifying the impacts of income inequality on CO2 emissions: empirical evidences from OECD countries and non-OECD countries. J Clean Prod 277:123858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123858
Wu MI, Wei YG, Lam PT, Liu FZ, Li Y (2019) Is urban development ecologically sustainable? Ecological footprint analysis and prediction based on a modified artificial neural network model: a case study of Tianjin in China. J Clean Prod 237:117795. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.117795
Zhang HP, Ren YY (2022) Relationship between foreign direct investment, industrial structure optimization, and green full-factor productivity: empirical evidence from changjiang economic area. Front Environ Sci 10:838. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.920412
Zhang BB, Yu L, Sun CW (2022) How does urban environmental legislation guide the green transition of enterprises? Based on the perspective of enterprises’ green total factor productivity. Energy Econ 110:106032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106032
Funding
The authors acknowledge financial support from , the key project of Beijing Municipal Education Commission Social Science Planning Fund (SM202010017003), Science and Technology Program of Zhejiang Province of China (2022C35060), the fund National Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology (2022X00094), and the Special Fund for the Joint Development Program of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education. The authors are also very grateful to the anonymous reviewers and Managing Editor Prof. Dr. Maryam Shabani for their insightful comments that helped us sufficiently improve the quality of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Additional information
Editorial responsibility: S. R. Sabbagh-Yazdi.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Gao, Z., Zhang, F., Li, L. et al. Inclusive green productivity growth in China: identification of sources and evolutionary patterns. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 21, 399–416 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05000-w
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05000-w