Rural Financial Efficiency, Agricultural Technological Progress and Agricultural Carbon Emissions: Evidence from China

Abstract

Based on the 30-province panel data in China during 2005-2018, this paper uses the DEA-SBM model and DEA-Malmquist model to measure rural financial efficiency and agricultural technological progress respectively and then uses the mediating effect model to analyze the linear influence. The results show that rural financial efficiency and agricultural technological progress both can inhibit agricultural carbon emissions, while agricultural technological progress plays a mediating role when rural financial efficiency influences agricultural carbon emissions. What’s more, this paper uses the threshold effect model to analyze the non-linear influence. The findings reveal that when rural financial efficiency improves, the effects of rural financial efficiency and agricultural technology advances on agricultural carbon emissions shift from promoter to inhibitor.