Spatiotemporal Variations and Convergence Characteristics of Green Technological Progress in China’s Mariculture

Abstract

The sustainability of mariculture depends on adopting green technologies, which can mitigate the negative impacts on the environment and ensure long-term viability. However, existing studies do not comprehensively understand the characteristics and regional differences of green technology progress (GTP) in mariculture. According to data from ten coastal regions from 2008 to 2020, this study adopts the Epsilon-Based Measure (EBM)-Malmquist model to measure the GTP of mariculture, uses the Dagum Gini coefficient to analyze the spatial differences of GTP, and uses convergence models to explore the convergence of GTP. The results showed that: (1) the GTP of China’s mariculture showed a fluctuating upward trend temporally and significant spatial differences. The overall differences showed a dispersion trend over time. The contributions of inter-regional super variable net value difference (Gnb), inter-regional transvariation intensity (Gt), and intra-regional difference (Gw) were 38.813%, 31.256%, and 29.931%, respectively. (2) The degree of dispersion of GTP among different regions has not decreased with time, which means there is no apparent σ convergence. Absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence existed in GTP, and the absolute value of the latter was greater than that of the former. That is, the growth rate of GTP will first reach their respective steady-state levels and then approach a unified steady-state equilibrium level.