Biased Technological Progress Research Articles

The effect of gender gap in labor market participation on carbon emission efficiency: State-level empirical evidence from the US

As structural transformation and economic development have progressed, the issue of climate change has become increasingly critical, concurrently with the growing significance of women in the labor market. Yet, the impact of the gender gap in labor participation rates on carbon emission efficiency remains ambiguous. This article employs a data envelopment analysis model to evaluate carbon emission efficiency, utilizing US state-level data from 2010 to 2021 for an empirical investigation into the influence of the gender gap in labor market participation and unemployment rates on carbon emission efficiency. Overall, the narrowing of the gender gap in the labor market contributes to the improvement of carbon emission efficiency. The detailed findings are as follows: (1) diminishing the gender gap in labor force participation and unemployment rates can enhance carbon emission efficiency, a trend particularly pronounced in states that have adopted the Equal Rights Amendment and during the pre-COVID-19 era; (2) gender gap in labor market participation and unemployment rates affects carbon emission efficiency through skilled labor biased technological progress and income inequality and (3) the increase of innovation efficiency, saving rate and endowment structure can mitigate gender gap in labor market participation and unemployment rates’ effects on carbon emission efficiency.

Climate Change, Biased Technological Advances and Agricultural TFP: Empirical Evidence from China

The impact of climate change on agricultural quality development under the constraint of China’s “Double Carbon” target has been widely discussed by policy practitioners and academic theorists. This paper attempts to deconstruct the logic of how climate change affects agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) in three dimensions—the structure of agricultural input factors, the change in the cropping system, and the stability of crop supply. This paper also reveals the mechanism through which biased technological progress increases agricultural TFP by weakening the magnitude of climate change and empirically tests it by using China’s provincial-level data from 2000 to 2021. This study showed that average annual temperature and annual precipitation had significant negative effects on agricultural TFP, that the number of sunshine hours had a significant positive effect on agricultural TFP, and that obvious regional differences existed in the effect of climate change on agricultural TFP. Further mechanism tests revealed that biased technological progress positively moderated the effect of climate change on agricultural TFP. Based on these findings, the appropriate countermeasures for improving climate early warning mechanisms, promoting the progress of appropriate technology, and fostering new agricultural management bodies.

Quantifying biased technical progress in China: Heterogeneous human capital and labor force dynamics

The main objectives of this study are to estimate the biased technical progress in China considering heterogeneity in human capital and labor force, examine how this heterogeneity quantitatively impacts the elasticity of substitution and biased technical progress compared to homogeneous labor assumptions, and compare the growth rates of human capital-augmenting and labor-augmenting technical progress. The estimation procedure involves a constrained Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) using provincial-level panel data from 1985 to 2021. By comparing results with and without accounting for labor force heterogeneity and human capital, the analysis quantifies their impact on the estimated elasticity of substitution between factors and the magnitude and direction of technical bias. Results found that the elasticity of capital-labor (human capital) substitution is between 0.7 and 0.8, and the elements are generally complementary. Although it does not affect the overall trend of elasticity of substitution and biased technical progress, the heterogeneity of human capital and labor force has a quantitative impact on them. It means that the elasticity of substitution increased, and the biased technological progress decreased. Moreover, the growth rate of human capital-augmenting technical progress was significantly lower than that of labor-augmenting technological progress. This study estimates the biased technical progress in China, where the human capital and labor force are heterogeneous. The findings suggest that policymakers should prioritize human capital investments and technological upgrades in industries to rebalance China's technical progress and boost productivity growth.

How does carbon biased technological progress promote carbon haze collaborative Governance？Evidence from Chinese cities

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and haze pollution are often thought to have the same origin, the burning of fossil fuels. However, their relationship is not always synergistic and may even exhibit mutual constraints. Carbon-biased technological progress has emerged as a promising approach for simultaneously achieving three goals – to reduce CO2 emissions, alleviate the haze pressure, and keep economic growth. This study empirically investigates the impact and mechanisms of carbon-biased technological progress on carbon haze collaborative governance using data from 286 Chinese cities during 2006–2021. The results indicate that: (1) Carbon biased technological progress positively influences carbon haze collaborative governance. (2) This progress achieves coordination by enhancing element allocation efficiency, carbon efficiency, and responding to public environmental demands. (3) The facilitating role of carbon biased technological progress to carbon haze collaborative governance will work better if external conditions are met. Moreover, the effectiveness of carbon-biased technological progress in promoting coordination is contingent upon high levels of marketization, government intervention, environmental regulation, and technical advancements. Local and regional governments should foster conducive conditions for carbon dioxide and haze pollution coordination, optimize the allocation and flow of carbon resources, ensure harmonization between environmental regulation policies and other sectors, and bolster international cooperation and technical knowledge exchange to collectively address global environmental challenges.

The synergy effect of energy security and carbon-haze collaborative management: From the perspective of biased technological progress

It is important to ensure energy security and achieve carbon-haze collaborative management for sustainable development. Reducing imported energy dependence is necessary to maintain energy security, while its impact on environmental quality remains unclear. From the perspective of biased technological progress, this paper estimates the level of biased technological progress towards self-sufficient energy by a heterogeneous stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) function, and then empirically examines whether self-sufficient energy biased technological progress has a dampening effect on haze pollution and carbon emissions. It is found that: (1) Self-sufficient energy biased technological progress can effectively reduce haze pollution and carbon emissions, achieving a synergistic effect between energy security and carbon-haze collaborative management. (2) “Efficiency enhancement” and “quality improvement” are the essential mechanisms for the synergistic effect. (3) Environmental regulation, abundant resource and technology endowments can enhance the haze reduction effect. And the lower dependence on foreign trade and stable global economic policy environment are more conducive to achieving carbon-haze collaborative control. (4) In the Eastern and Western regions, self-sufficient energy biased technology can be sped up to alleviate haze pollution. The findings can enrich the research exploring pollution control from the perspective of biased technological progress, and provide policy recommendations for promoting high-quality development.

China's biased technological progress, labor market allocation and the change of trade division structure

China is facing the dual background of the biased technology change and the contraction of global division system. It is important to understand the evolution of the direction of technological progress and the resulting change in the shares of value added at home and abroad. This paper reveals the typical facts of the coexistence of China's technological progress in favor of high-skilled labor and the increase in the share of value added of the domestic division. We prove that skill-biased technological progress has a positive effect on improving the revenue of the domestic industrial division. The distortion of labor market allocation has an inhibitory effect on the local share of division brought about by biased technological progress. The change of technological gap has a nonlinear regulating effect. The narrowing of the technological gap between China and advanced countries is an important driving force to promote the reconfiguration of the industrial division system in domestic and foreign markets. Under the background of the contraction of the global division system, the conclusions have some enlightening significance to form resilient industrial chains in the domestic division system.

The impact of carbon-biased technological progress on carbon haze coordinated governance: insights from China.

Superficial or cosmetic measures are unlikely to solve the complex challenges of carbon haze governance. Carbon-biased technological progress plays a significant role in low-carbon technology and economic sustainable development. This study introduces carbon resources as a production factor in the transcendental logarithmic function to calculate the biased technological progress index of 30 provinces in China between 2010 and 2020. Subsequently, this study constructs the spatial Durbin model to empirically investigate the spatial spillover effect of carbon-biased technology progress on carbon haze coordinated governance. The findings reveal that China's technological progress is primarily characterized by carbon bias, particularly in terms of labor-using carbon-saving technological progress and capital-using carbon-saving technological progress. Additionally, both levels of carbon haze coordinated governance and carbon-biased technological progress have significant spatial agglomeration characteristics. Moreover, the carbon-biased technological progress can facilitate synergy degree of carbon haze governance through energy-saving effects but can also hinder the carbon haze coordinated governance through rebound effects. Therefore, it is imperative to improve labor productivity, augment green capital investment, and stimulate the induction of technological progress towards carbon saving to achieve sustainable and high-quality economic development. The primary contribution is identifying the uncertainty surrounding the impact of carbon-biased technological progress on coordinated governance of carbon haze, while also providing theoretical explanations for the influence channels of carbon-biased technological progress.

Biased Technological Progress, Factor Price Distribution, and Overcapacity: A Case from China

This study aims to investigate the effects and mechanisms of biased technological progress on China’s industrial overcapacity. Using a time-varying stochastic frontier model, standardized supply-side system method, and the production function method, we measure the capacity utilization rate, biased technological progress index, and factor price distortion index in China’s industrial sector. Additionally, we employ a mediation effect model to analyze the impact of biased technological progress on overcapacity through factor price distortion. The findings suggest that biased technological progress can alleviate overcapacity, while factor price distortion exacerbates the problem. Biased technological progress alleviates overcapacity through capital price distortion, with a more significant effect in heavy industries than in light industries. Based on the results, we propose a series of policy recommendations, including optimizing the bias towards technological progress, improving the factor market, and enhancing the original innovation capability.

On the driving forces of green total factor productivity growth in China: evidence from biased technological progress analysis

The traditional model of factor-driven economic growth can no longer be maintained due to an increasing demand to save energy and reduce emissions and a rapid rise in the cost of related factors. The concept of green total factor productivity (GTFP) has emerged as an essential component of high-quality economic growth; consequently, how to boost GTFP through the development of technical advancement has become an important question in recent years. An improved CES production function of labor, capital, and energy is created using the theoretical framework for biased technological growth as its foundation. Subsequently, the mechanisms resulting from the synergy of factor structure, factor efficiency and biased technological progress (BTP) on GTFP are theoretically deduced and empirically analyzed. The conclusion shows that the types of technical advancement are mainly net labor-enhancing and net energy-enhancing technical advancement in China from 2001 to 2017. Due to the biased effect of technical advancement, the relative comparison of the three elements is determined predominantly by excessive capital investment and less by labor and energy. Factor-enhancing technical advancement led to the growth of GTFP, while the synergistic effect of BTP, factor structure and factor efficiency hindered the growth of GTFP.

Impact of biased technological progress on the total factor productivity of China's manufacturing industry: The driver of sustainable economic growth

Sustainable economic growth relies on an increase in total factor productivity (TFP). To upgrade the core competitiveness and support the sustainable growth and high-quality development of China's economy, ascending TFP in China's manufacturing industry counts. This study analysed the impact of biased technological progress on TFP, which was estimated by using the relevant data of 27 subsectors of China's manufacturing industry from 1980 to 2019. The results revealed that from the early industrialisation period (1980–2000) to the mid-industrialisation period (2001–2012) and then to the middle and late industrialisation period (2013–2019), the mean value of TFP in China's manufacturing industry grew from 0.291 to 0.394 and then to 0.555, embodying a continuously upwards advancing tendency. Technological progress was capital biased from 1981 to 2011 and labour biased during the rest of the sample period. In addition, its direction was heterogeneous among various industries. To some extent, the growth of TFP has been hindered by biased technological progress and factor allocation. The per unit increase in them has led to 1.495 and 1.017 unit decreases in the TFP. Upon examining the factor efficiency and the factor structure, we found that the estimated coefficients of biased technological progress dropped to −1.516 and −1.719, preventing TFP from growing to a greater extent. Consequently, there is room for their optimisation in China's manufacturing industry.

Does biased technological progress facilitate the reduction of transportation carbon emissions? A threshold-based perspective

Does biased technological progress facilitate the reduction of transportation carbon emissions? A threshold-based perspective

Can environmental regulation promote the green output bias in China's mariculture?

The green output bias of technological progress is the key factor driving the green transformation of mariculture. This study considers whether environmental regulation can promote the green output bias. Utilizing data envelopment analysis (DEA), we decomposed the green output biased technological progress index (OBTC) and constructed the index to measure the output bias between output value and pollutant emissions. The results show spatial and temporal differences in the green output bias, with different bias values for three major Chinese coastal regions during the study period. As the bias value mainly fluctuates around the zero value, the degree of green output bias must be enhanced. Considering the heterogeneity of environmental regulation, we empirically study the relation that exists between environmental regulation and green output bias. Our findings indicate a U-shaped relation between two categories of environmental regulation and the green output bias. Green technology partially intermediates the mechanisms by which these environmental regulations influence green output bias. Our results have implications for policymakers and other stakeholders for strengthening environmental regulation, promoting green technological innovation, and the scientific planning of the species and scale of mariculture to promote sustainable development.

Does environmentally biased technological progress reduce air pollution emissions? empirical analysis based on spatial model and PSTR model

Environmental policies and Environmentally biased technological advances have important theoretical value and practical significance for air pollution reduction and green economic development in China. The article is based on panel data for 270 cities in China from 2007 to 2020. Using a Spatial model, the direct, spillover and moderating effects of Environmentally biased technological progress on “local-neighbourhood” urban air pollution are examined empirically. On this basis, the PSTR model is used to further explore the non-linear effects of different types of environmental regulations. The study found that: 1) There is a significant positive spatial correlation between both air pollution and Environmentally biased technological progress in China. Environmentally biased technological progress significantly suppresses air pollution, with significant spatial spillover effects, and the conclusions remain robust after a series of robustness tests. 2) Different types of environmental regulations reinforce the dampening effect of Environmentally biased technological progress on air pollution. However, informal environmental regulation only reinforces the dampening effect of Environmentally biased technological progress on air pollution in the local cities. 3) There is a significant threshold effect of environmental regulation on the impact of Environmentally biased technological progress on air pollution. When the level of environmental regulation within a certain threshold interval, Environmentally biased technological progress has a dampening effect on air pollution. 4) The more eastern the city, the larger the city and the non-resource-based cities, the more significant the air pollution suppression effect of Environmentally biased technological advances. Based on this, this study points out that governments at all levels should pay attention to the spatial spillover effect of technological progress bias on air pollution, deepen the construction of joint prevention and control mechanisms for regional air pollution control; Establish multiple environmental regulation policies, formulate and implement environmental regulation policies according to local conditions and local technological progress bias; Formulate targeted environmental regulation policies and technological innovation policies according to the characteristics of different cities. It is an important theoretical reference to help China to fight the battle against air pollution in-depth and to promote further improvement of ecological and environmental quality.

Can raising trade barriers curb industrial pollution emissions?

The development of foreign trade and industrial pollution control is an important theme of government governance today. Based on the institutional background of rising international trade protectionism, this study examines the impact of trade barriers on industrial pollution emissions by using different measurement methods and data from 16 industrial sectors in 10 major countries. The results show that lowering trade barriers can significantly reduce industrial pollution emissions, considering the impact of potential endogenous problems. Heterogeneity analysis shows that reducing trade barriers in developed countries can reduce industrial SO2-emission intensity, while the opposite is true in developing countries. Trade barriers have the greatest effect on the pollution-emission intensity of technology-intensive industries, followed by labor-intensive and capital-intensive industries. Mechanism analysis shows that trade barriers affect industrial pollution-emission intensity through both pollution emission and industrial output and that energy-use intensity and biased technological progress are important mechanisms. This study provides a useful reference for governments to promote foreign trade development and ecological and environmental protection.

Effect of Digital Financial Inclusion on Dredging the Path of Green Growth—New Evidence From Front-End and Back-End Perspectives

To dredge China’s green growth path, this paper analyzes the front-end and back-end factors affecting green growth and also investigates the mediation role of digital financial inclusion from different dimensions. This study employs China’s provincial panel data in 2011–2018 and uses the dynamic threshold model to study the threshold effect of technological progress (TP) on green growth (GG) and the threshold effect of green growth (GG) on floating population (FP). The empirical results show that: first, with the digital financial inclusion as the threshold variable, there is a nonlinear relationship between technological progress (TP) and green growth (GG); second, with digital financial inclusion as the threshold variable, there is a nonlinear relationship between green growth (GG) and floating population (FP); third, output biased technological progress needs more support from digital financial inclusion than input biased technological progress than can significantly promote green growth. From the dimension of “digitization+financial scale+inclusion” digital financial inclusion not only improves the positive effect of technological progress on green growth but also alleviates the negative effect of green growth on the floating population. This study makes up for the research gap in the back-end impact of green growth based on new ideas of digital financial inclusion and floating population and has important theoretical reference significance for removing the obstacles in the green development path and realizing sustainable green growth.

How does biased technological progress affect haze pollution? Evidence from APEC economies

Biased technological progress is the act of energy conservation and emission reduction by changing the marginal rate of substitution. In this study, we introduced renewable energy into a production function, and proposed a method of identifying biased characteristics of technological progress, based on marginal productivity theory. A panel dataset for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies from 2000 to 2017 was analyzed to explore the effect of biased technological progress in reducing particulate matter (PM2.5). We found that input biased technological progress tended to use more non-renewable energy. Input biased technological progress aggravated haze pollution; however, this effect decreased as the PM2.5 concentration increased. Output biased technological progress significantly reduced haze pollution in high-income economies, but increased it in low-income economies. The effect of neutral technological progress on haze pollution was the opposite of the effect from output biased technological progress. We also found that increasing renewable energy consumption and reducing energy intensity were separate effective paths for input and output biased technological progress, respectively, to mitigate haze pollution. For neutral technological progress, improving total factor productivity was an important way to mitigate haze pollution. Finally, several policy recommendations are proposed to mitigate haze pollution in APEC economies.

Agricultural Productivity and Urbanization: Evidence from Grain and Tobacco Production Efficiency in China

This paperbased on grain production efficiency and tobacco production efficiency studies the impact of agricultural productivity on urbanization in open economy. Theoretically, a theoretical model allowing biased technological progress is constructed. The research finds that when technological progress is labor-saving technological progress, the improvement of agricultural productivity can significantly improve the level of urbanization. Empirically, using The Panel data of Chinese cities from 2000 to 2014, the empirical study finds that The improvement of grain production efficiency and the improvement of tobacco as a cash crop production efficiency will significantly improve the urbanization rate, and each standard deviation increase of agricultural productivity will increase the urbanization rate by about 4-9.6 percentage points, or about 12-30%. The above findings are robust and hold even after using instrumental variables and introducing more control variables. The research of this paper shows that the improvement of staple grain production efficiency and cash crop production efficiency can effectively improve the level of urbanization in China. Under the new normal of the economy, implementing the rural revitalization strategy and continuing to improve the efficiency of agricultural production is conducive to further improving the urbanization rate and boosting high-quality economic development.

How to realize the sustainable development of mariculture industry——Re-examine from the perspective of biased technological progress in China

With the high-intensity development of China’s mariculture, the contradiction between the deterioration of ecological environment and the demand for production growth has intensified. How can Chinese mariculture overcome the above problems and achieve sustainable development? Theoretically, biased technological progress has a great deal in optimizing resource allocation, improving the efficiency of mariculture, promoting large-scale production and reducing pollution. Based on translog production function, this paper intends to combine the input-output characteristics of mariculture to make an accurate judgment on biased technological progress of China’s mariculture, investigates the matching problem between biased technological progress and factor endowment, so as to better play the important role of technological progress in promoting the sustainable development of mariculture. The results show that: the factor bias of technological progress in China’s mariculture is to use labor first, followed by mariculture area and capital. Both index BiasLK and BiasLS have a decreasing trend on the whole, indicating that the trend of technological progress towards labor use has slowed down. The factor market is interfered by the state administration, and the prices of some factors are distorted, which can not reflect the scarcity of factors. The factor bias of technological progress of mariculture in China’s coastal regions is basically the same as the national situation. There are differences in the value of the index among different provinces, while the differences in technological progress across factors are relatively stable. Finally, this paper puts forward the corresponding policy recommendations.

Does environmental regulation induce improved financial development for green technological innovation in China?

The effect of environmental regulations on the nexus between financial development and biased technological innovation is a prerequisite for optimizing systems of environmental and financial policies to gain sustainable development goals (SDGs) in emerging markets. Drawing on China's city-level data from 2003 to 2018, we established econometric models and obtained the following empirical results. Financial development (FD) can promote energy- and environmental-biased technological progress, but, owing to the inverted U-shaped relationship, economic development, and resource endowment, the impact that FD has on biased technological progress is heterogeneous; unreasonable FD will also hinder green technological progress. Threshold model shows that with the improvement of environmental regulation, the impact of energy- and environmental-biased technological progress is also increasing. The development of green finance under SDGs is an important driving force in green technological progress. Finally, we offer suggestions to optimize environmental and financial policymaking and implementation from a government intervention perspective.

Biased technological progress and total factor productivity growth: From the perspective of China's renewable energy industry

With the decline in the intensity of subsidy policies, technological progress has become a critical factor in promoting the renewable energy industry's sustainable development. This paper estimates the direction and extent of biased technological progress in China's renewable energy industry from 2009 to 2018. On this basis, by constructing an accounting model for the growth rate of total factor productivity (TFP), this paper empirically analyzes the effects of different factors on TFP growth. The research results indicate that: (1) The TFP of China's renewable energy industry has dropped by 4.60% annually, and the growth of industrial output mainly relied on factor input rather than technological progress. (2) The technological progress and factor allocation of China's renewable energy industry generally show a bias towards the capital. At different stages of the industry's development, it presents different degrees of bias. (3) Technological progress is biased towards capital factor with a lower growth rate of factor efficiency, which hinders the growth of TFP in the renewable energy industry.