Has Technological Progress Contributed to the Bias of Green Output in China’s Marine Economy?

Jianyue Ji,Jinglin Zhou,Xingmin Yin

doi:10.3390/w14030443

Abstract

At present, the destruction of the marine ecological environment and the imbalance of economic structure have put forward urgent requirements for the green development of the marine economy. Based on the input and output data of China’s coastal provinces from 2006 to 2018, the RDM (range directional model) direction distance function was used to measure the output bias technology progress (OBTC) index of each region, and its influence on China’s marine economy green total factor productivity (GTFP) was judged accordingly. Furthermore, the rationality of the current OBTC index was studied. The results show that there is obvious output-biased technological progress in China’s marine economy, and it has led to the improvement of the GTFP. Although most coastal areas still tend to pursue the improvement of the total output value of the marine economy at the expense of environmental damage, the green bias of China’s marine economy has improved significantly since 2015, driven by relevant marine environmental protection policies. From the perspective of different areas, the imbalance of regional development in the process of China’s marine economic development is significant. The green bias of the marine economy is highest in the East China Sea area and lowest in the Bohai rim area. However, the coordination between the development of the green marine economy and environmental protection in the South China Sea area needs to be improved.

Highlights

In the past ten years, the growth rate of China’s marine economy has been higher than that of the national economy in the same period, with the gross ocean product (GOP) at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan reaching 6466.9 billion yuan
The technology change (TC) index is more in line with the ML index for each year, while the efficiency change (EC) index is close to one in most years, indicating that technological progress in marine development has a stable effect on the growth of ocean
The novelty of this study is that the green development of the marine economy was discussed from the perspective of output, and the output bias technology progress (OBTC) index of each region in each year was calculated to determine whether there is a significant output-biased technological progress in the development of China’s marine economy

Summary

Introduction

In the past ten years, the growth rate of China’s marine economy has been higher than that of the national economy in the same period, with the gross ocean product (GOP) at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan reaching 6466.9 billion yuan. At the same time, a series of problems such as the destruction of marine ecological environment, the imbalance of economic structures, and the expansion of spatial differences have emerged [1]. It shows an extensive development of “high energy consumption and low output” [2]. In this regard, the 2012 report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of. The key to improving the equilibrium of green marine economic development between regions lies in making clear the regions’ objective conditions and comparative advantages, and formulating local development strategies, rationally allocating various factors of production, and highlighting their own development priorities to promote the coordinated development of the regions

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion