Green Technological Progress and the Backwardness Advantage of Green Development: Taking the Sustainable Development Strategy of Central and Western China as an Example

Huaide Wen,Jun Dai

doi:10.3390/su13147567

Abstract

It is generally believed that research and development on green technology are difficult, but this paper finds that the gap in green technological progress between the central and western regions and the eastern region in China is significantly smaller than the gap in technological progress, and the per capita green GDP of the central and western regions caught up with the eastern region significantly faster than the per capita GDP. This paper proposes that the comparative advantage of human capital level in the central and western regions is the reason why these regions choose the direction of green technological progress, and the choice of the direction of green technological progress in the central and western regions may further bring about the backwardness advantages of green development in these regions. Through the system generalized method of moments (sys-GMM) estimation, empirical research using panel data from 29 provinces as well as the regional panel data in the mainland of China from 1995 to 2017 proved the above proposition. Specifically, due to the comparative advantages of human capital level, the central and western regions have chosen the direction of green technological progress; further, the central and western regions will obtain greater benefits of green GDP growth from the green technological progress, that is, the green technological progress enables these regions’ backwardness to take advantage from green development. This is a useful supplement to the theory of sustainable development and the theory of backwardness advantage.

Highlights

Gerschenkron [1] put forward the theory of backwardness advantage that due to the diversity and selectivity of institutional arrangements, underdeveloped countries can be at a relatively high starting point from the very beginning by imitating technologies from developed countries, introducing equipment and funds, and drawing lessons from successful experiences
This paper proposes that the CW-regions in China have the backwardness advantage of green development, which is of great significance for these regions to achieve the dual goals of economic catch-up and environmental protection
The conclusions form a useful supplement to the theory of sustainable development and the theory of backwardness advantage have important theoretical significance for solving the contradiction between economic catch-up and environmental pollution in underdeveloped regions and have important practical significance for the current economic reform of China, as well as important significance for the economic transformation and sustainable development in other developing countries

Summary

Introduction

Gerschenkron [1] put forward the theory of backwardness advantage that due to the diversity and selectivity of institutional arrangements, underdeveloped countries can be at a relatively high starting point from the very beginning by imitating technologies from developed countries, introducing equipment and funds, and drawing lessons from successful experiences. Underdeveloped countries will achieve faster economic growth driven by a strong desire for industrialization. Based on Watson’s “curse to the late comer”, Yang [4] proposed the backwardness disadvantage of developing countries. This triggered a controversy regarding the two theories of backwardness advantage and backwardness disadvantage in. Guo [5] published a paper in Guangming

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Conclusion