The relationship between technological innovation and green transformation efficiency in China: An empirical analysis using spatial panel data

Abstract

Challenged by climate change and severe damage of the ecological environment caused by carbon emissions, the process of green transformation in the world has to be urgently accelerated. This study adopted the super-efficiency DEA method to calculate the green transformation efficiency (GTE) of 30 provinces of China (except for Tibet) from 2009 to 2018. From the perspective of the technological innovation process, a spatial Durbin model is further proposed to investigate the impacts of technology research and development (TERD) and technology commercialization (TECO) on GTEs. The results showed that: (1) both TERD and TECO exerted significant positive effects on GTEs in local provinces, while the TERD coefficient was higher than that of TECO. (2) The spillover effect of TERD on GTEs in neighboring provinces was significantly negative, while the spillover effect of TERD was significantly positive. (3) Although the interaction between TERD and TECO positively affected GTEs, it also exerted a negative spillover effect on GTE. These findings indicate that the government should include the spatial spillover effects of TERD and TECO on GTEs when designing policies in support of technological innovation activities that contribute to green transformation.