Effect of green technology innovation on green total factor productivity in China: Evidence from spatial durbin model analysis

Abstract

Abstract Green technology innovation can greatly decline the environmental effects arising from fossil energy consumption. It is an essential way to improve green total factor productivity (GTFP) and achieve China’s goal of sustainable development. In this paper, stochastic frontier analysis and Malmquist index methods are applied to estimate provincial GTFPs of China during 2000–2016. Then, Spatial Durbin model is used to find out their spatial effect of green technology innovation on green total factor productivity from regional perspective. Empirical results are as follows: Firstly, it shows an upward trend on the whole while GTFP of eastern region is the highest and that of western region is the lowest. Moran index of GTFPs varies such dynamic trends as ‘upward→downward→upward’. Moreover, it is significantly positive and still at the lower-level range. ‘High-High’ and ‘Low-Low’ are the dominant spatial clustering types. This indicates that more attention should be paid to spatial arrangements. Secondly, based on the analysis results of Spatial Durbin model, green technology innovation has significant positive effect on its own GTFP variation but negative effects on that of its neighbors during the research period. Thirdly, based on three subsamples results, green technology innovations of eastern and central regions have negative effects on their GTFPs while having positive effects on that of western provinces. Findings can provide spatial references for central government in the policy regarding accelerating high-quality green development.