Transportation infrastructure, economic agglomeration and non-linearities of green total factor productivity growth in China: Evidence from partially linear functional coefficient model

Abstract

Previous studies have not clarified how transportation infrastructure will affect green total factor productivity. In this paper, we examine the impact of transportation infrastructure on green total factor productivity in Chinese cities with varying levels of economic agglomeration. We find that when the degree of economic agglomeration is relatively low, the effect of transportation infrastructure on green total factor productivity change is not obvious, but with a higher degree of agglomeration, this effect becomes evident. We thus recommend that the construction of transportation infrastructure may help the government achieve its goal of green and sustainable transformation, but the degree of economic agglomeration should be increased to beyond the critical level in order to make the impact of transportation infrastructure beneficial.