Inclusive Green Growth Research Articles

Provincial Inclusive Green Growth Efficiency in China: Spatial Correlation Network Investigation and Its Influence Factors

Inclusive green growth efficiency (IGGE) analysis is an effective tool for improving coordinated economic, social, and environmental development. This study incorporated the game cross-efficiency DEA to measure the IGGE of 30 provinces in China. Then, the modified spatial gravity model and social network analysis model were applied to construct and analyze the spatial correlation network structure of the IGGE. The quadratic assignment procedure was used to mine the influencing factors that affect the formation and evolution of the spatial correlation network of the IGGE. The results are as follows. (1) During the study period, there were significant differences in the IGGE among the 31 provinces, among which the eastern provinces were higher than the central and western provinces. (2) The spatial correlation of the IGGE presented a complex and multi-threaded network structure, indicating that the IGGE has a noticeable cross-regional spillover effect. Beijing, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Guangdong played the role of the “net spillover” block. Qinghai, Guizhou, Guangxi, and the surrounding provinces played the role of the “primary beneficial”. The Yangtze delta and Pearl River Delta economic zone (primarily including Shanghai and Guangdong) acted as a “bridge” to the Yunnan–Guizhou region and the surrounding provinces. (3) The spatial adjacency, degree of openness, economic development, and environmental governance were the prominent factors influencing the formation and evolution of the IGGE spatial correlation network. This work provides an example of constructing an IGGE correlation network while considering various factors, such as the economy, population, and distance. It also could help policymakers clarify the IGGE spatial correlation pattern and the provinces’ roles and potential for IGGE synergic improvement.

Inclusive Human Development and Inclusive Green Growth: A Simultaneous Approach

Inclusive Human Development and Inclusive Green Growth: A Simultaneous Approach

Inclusive green growth in OECD countries: what are the impacts of stringent environmental and employment regulations?

Inclusive green growth in OECD countries: what are the impacts of stringent environmental and employment regulations?

Toward inclusive green growth for sustainable development: A new perspective of labor market distortion

AbstractLabor market distortion is ceaselessly endangering the balance among economic efficiency, social equity, and environmental quality sought by inclusive green growth and sustainable development. This study develops an innovative evaluation system to measure China's inclusive green growth by using provincial panel data from 2004 to 2020. Three dimensions are covered, including economic development, social equity and welfare, and green sustainability. Static and dynamic panel econometric models are employed to investigate the effect of labor market distortion on inclusive green growth and the potential transmission channels. The spatial econometric model is further applied to study the spatial spillover effect of labor market distortion on inclusive green growth. The results indicate that labor market distortion negatively affects inclusive green growth. Technological innovation, industrial structure optimization, and export trade upgrading are transmission channels of the impact of labor market distortion on inclusive green growth. In addition to hindering local inclusive green growth, labor market distortion also decreases neighboring inclusive green growth through the spatial spillover effect. These conclusions suggest that removing distortion in the labor market and emphasizing the role of market mechanisms in labor allocation may provide a new perspective to help move toward inclusive green growth for sustainable development.

Towards Sustainability: The Relationship between Foreign Direct Investment, Economic Freedom and Inclusive Green Growth

Towards Sustainability: The Relationship between Foreign Direct Investment, Economic Freedom and Inclusive Green Growth

Foreign Direct Investment and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Energy Efficiency Contingencies and Thresholds: Comment

Foreign Direct Investment and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Energy Efficiency Contingencies and Thresholds: Comment

Evaluation and Policy Optimization of Inclusive Green Growth of City Clusters Along the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River

Under the background of the transformation of the main social contradictions and the new stage of improving the quality and efficiency of the economy, it is of great significance for the regional high-quality development to promote the inclusive green growth of city clusters along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Based on SBM-Malmquist-Luenberger model, this paper measures the real performance of inclusive green growth of city clusters along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and corresponding policy optimization suggestions are put forward.

Performance evaluation and regional disparities of inclusive green growth in the Yellow River Basin: An empirical study based on the dual goals of pollution and carbon reduction and common prosperity

Performance evaluation and regional disparities of inclusive green growth in the Yellow River Basin: An empirical study based on the dual goals of pollution and carbon reduction and common prosperity

Unleashing the dynamic and nonlinear relationship among new-type urbanization, foreign direct investment, and inclusive green growth in China: an environmental sustainability perspective.

As an important way for China to integrate into the international circulation, foreign direct investment (FDI) can not only increase China's capital accumulation but also directly affect inclusive green growth by promoting the diffusion and transfer of green technologies and activating the domestic market. Based on China's provincial panel data from 2007 to 2019, this paper discusses the following issues: first, Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) productivity index is used to measure and analyze the current situation of inclusive green growth in 30 provinces of China; second, we set a fixed effect panel model to test the relationship between FDI and inclusive green growth in China. Third, based on PVAR (panel vector autoregressive) model, the dynamic impacts of FDI and new urbanization on inclusive green growth are tested. Finally, a regression model with the new urbanization level as the threshold variable is constructed to test the threshold effect of FDI on China's green inclusive growth. Accordingly, each region needs to formulate FDI introduction policies according to the local new urbanization level, so as to give full play to the positive role of FDI in inclusive green growth.

Impact of Energy-Biased Technological Progress on Inclusive Green Growth

Inclusive green growth is a sustainable development approach that pursues the coordination of economic growth, the ecological environment, and social equity, which is conducive to solving the problems of environmental pollution and unbalanced economic growth in the industrialization process. Based on provincial data from 2005 to 2020 in China, this study examines the impact of energy-biased technological progress on inclusive green growth and explores the mechanism of its effects from the perspective of industrial structure upgrading using a panel regression model and mediating effect model. The results show the following: (1) China’s technological progress is characterized by energy-biased technological progress and the level of inclusive green growth is gradually increasing. (2) Energy-biased technological progress can positively contribute to inclusive green growth and is heterogeneous over time and space. (3) Energy-biased technological progress can promote inclusive green growth through industrial structure advancement and industrial structure cleanliness, and the two mechanisms are complementary. This article considers the biased characteristics of technological progress and the impact of industrial structure cleanliness on inclusive green growth and provides a reference for developing countries to achieve inclusive green growth.

The dilemma of “sustainable welfare” and the problem of the future in capacitating social policy

This article discusses a dilemma of welfare states in the ecological transition. While the principle of “sustainability” is increasingly accepted, there are very different concrete declinations of it. I identify two broad interpretations of sustainability and corresponding paths of social change. The dominant approach, promoted by governments, businesses, and international organizations focuses on inclusive green growth. It aims to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation and seeks to make the transition to a green economy as socially inclusive as possible. In this context, “enabling” social policies mainly focus on employment promotion. The second approach, mostly embraced by heterodox academics and social movements, involves a deeper social-ecological transformation which attempts to lower the priority of economic growth and employment. Accordingly, the role of capacitating welfare states is to enable all individuals to flourish in a post-productivist society. I argue that while the second approach is normatively superior to the first one, it is also more difficult to realize, generating a dilemma for future-oriented politics.

Foreign direct investment and inclusive green growth in Africa: Energy efficiency contingencies and thresholds

Despite the growing number of empirical studies on foreign direct investment (FDI) and energy efficiency (EE) as they relate to green growth, there remains an empirical research gap with respect to whether EE can engender positive synergy with FDI to foster inclusive green growth (IGG) in Africa. Also, little has been done to show the IGG gains from improving EE in both the short and long terms. Thus, this paper investigates whether EE interacts with FDI to foster IGG in Africa. According to our findings, which are based on 23 African countries and the dynamic GMM estimator, FDI hampers IGG in Africa, while EE fosters IGG. Notably, in the presence of EE, the IGG-deteriorating effect of FDI is reduced. Additional evidence by way of threshold analysis indicates that, improving EE in Africa generates positive sustainable development gains in both the short and long terms. This study suggests that, a country's drive to attract FDI needs to be accompanied by appropriate policy options to promote energy efficiency.

Economic globalisation and inclusive green growth in Africa: Contingencies and policy‐relevant thresholds of governance

AbstractThis study employs macrodata for 23 African countries to examine whether good governance interacts with economic globalisation (EG) to foster inclusive green growth (IGG). First, the study finds that EG hampers IGG in Africa. Second, although unconditionally good governance promotes IGG, only government effectiveness interacts with EG to foster IGG. Across the social and environmental sustainability dimensions of IGG, however, the effects differ substantially. Notably, whilst the EG‐governance pathways yield remarkable environmental sustainability net gains, a modest harmful effect was observed for socioeconomic sustainability. Evidence from our threshold analyses also suggests that whilst government effectiveness is critical for propelling EG to promote IGG, across the social and environmental perspectives of IGG, it is investments in building frameworks and structures for corruption control and the rule of law that are crucial. Our results shed new light on IGG and have several implications for Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063.

Doubling Down on Inclusive Green Growth with Phase II of the Sino-Dutch-East Africa Bamboo Development Programme

The Sino-Dutch-East Africa Bamboo Development Programme is a trilateral cooperation initiative brokered by the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR), which since 2016 has been harnessing Chinese and Dutch financial and technical assistance to kickstart bamboo value chains in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Given the immense natural resource endowment in the region, and the encouraging achievements of the program’s Phase I, a second phase was recently launched to further assist with the upscaling of the budding bamboo sectors and to further contribute to the simultaneous pursuits of various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—ranging from poverty reduction, social inclusion, and responsible production and consumption to climate action, life on land, and affordable clean energy.

Analyzing inclusive green growth in China: a perspective of relative efficiency.

Inclusive Green Growth (IGG) has important reference value for China's ecological civilization construction and transformation of economic development. Therefore, this study assesses China's IGG level from the perspective of relative efficiency. The IGG efficiency (IGGE) was measured at the provincial level in China from 2000 to 2020 by using Super-Epsilon-Based Measure (EBM) model that considers undesirable outputs. The spatiotemporal pattern of IGGE was analyzed by kernel density estimation and spatial autocorrelation. The results indicate a fluctuating trend from 2000 to 2020 for the IGGE of China, and significant differences between regional and interprovincial IGGE were observed. On average, the eastern region presented the highest efficiency, while the level in the central regions was lowest. There is a positive spatial autocorrelation in the IGGE distribution, and the agglomeration of spatial distribution fluctuated during the study period. The IGGE has spatial spillover effects at the provincial level according to the spatial Durbin model. Among the influencing factors, the spatial spillover effects of industrial structure, government administrative capability, and industrialization level are significant. The regression results also confirm the Environmental Kuznets Curve effect between IGG and economic growth in China. Finally, some implicit policies can be established based on the empirical analysis.

Dynamic Influence of Urbanization on Inclusive Green Growth in Belt and Road Countries: The Moderating Role of Governance

The strategic objective of this study was to determine the influence of urbanization on inclusive green growth (IGG) with the moderating impact of governance while considering household consumption, exchange rate, per capita income, and the unemployment rate as control variables. The data set consisted of the years 2004–2019 for 64 countries along the Belt and Road (BRI) region. The outcomes of the two-step system of generalized method of moments (GMM) robust with D-K regression methodology confirmed the significantly positive dynamic nature of inclusive green growth. Urbanization showed a significant but negative influence on inclusive green growth, indicating environmental degradation due to unplanned urban growth. The moderating role of governance also depicted a significant negative impact, emphasizing the need for a transparent governance framework for BRI countries to utilize resources effectively. Moreover, the interaction term of urbanization and governance showed a significantly positive improvement toward inclusive green growth. Besides this, per capita income played a significantly positive role, while unemployment and household consumption had a negative but significant influence on inclusive green growth. Further, the exchange rate impacted insignificantly on inclusive green growth. Hence, it is evident that urbanization, good governance, and employment opportunities are required to promote sustainable green growth in BRI countries. The research identifies the factors that are required for sustainability/IGG.

Inclusive green growth for sustainable development of cities in China: spatiotemporal differences and influencing factors.

Inclusive green growth (IGG) based on coordinating the society, economy, and environment is a new way to reach sustainable development. However, there is a lack of relevant research in developing countries. To bridge this gap, based on a comprehensive index that includes economy, social, and environment, this study evaluates the urban inclusive green growth index (IGGI) of 282 in China from 2003 to 2020 and analyzes the spatiotemporal dynamics and regional differences. Moreover, the spatial Durbin model is employed to explore the plausible influencing factors of urban IGGI in China. The main results show an increasing trend of IGGI in Chinese cities and imbalanced spatiotemporal dynamics. Furthermore, the econometric regress results show that upgrade of industrial structure, opening up, human capital, and urban innovation have significant positive impact on urban IGGI, while the administrative capacity of the government and urban industrialization show negative impact on urban IGGI; human capital not only affects the local IGGI but also has significant spatial spillover effects to the surrounding cities. This finding provides new evidence for China to achieve its 2030 sustainable development goals and sheds lights on how policy can be improved to boost IGGI levels and achieve carbon neutrality in 2060.

Study on the Drivers of Inclusive Green Growth in China Based on the Digital Economy Represented by the Internet of Things (IoT).

With the vigorous development of digital economy based on digital technologies such as Internet of things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence, new vitality has been injected into China's economic model. Inclusive green growth (IGG) supports the transformation of society towards a better quality of life and well-being, as well as environmental protection. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the main drivers of IGG. However, IGG is subject to a variety of interpretations and lacks definitional clarity. To brigade this gap, this study primarily evaluates the performance of IGG and explores the key drivers on IGG in China. Specifically, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is employed to calculate IGG for 281 cities in China during 2005–2020. Subsequently, we take advantage of a nest of machine learning (ML) algorithm to demonstrate the vital drivers of urban IGG, which avoids the defects of endogenous linear hypothesis of traditional econometric methods. The results indicate that digitization represented by the IoT and other digital technology is the core drivers of the urban IGG in the overall sample, accounting for about 50% among all of drivers. This finding provides new evidence supporting the “high-quality development” strategy in China, as well as shedding light on grasping the principal fulcrum to achieve the transformation towards IGG in developing economies similar to China.

Measuring inclusive green total factor productivity from urban level in China

Background: Inclusive green development aims to combine economic inclusiveness with greenness, which is an important goal of current economic development for China to achieve common prosperity. Measuring inclusive green total factor productivity (IGTFP) is of great significance for evaluating the quality of inclusive economic growth and accelerating inclusive economic growth.Method: This study establishes an index evaluation system of IGTFP from four aspects of high quality, efficient, fair, and sustainable development, using super-SBM to measure IGTFP based on panel data of 276 cities in China from 2006 to 2019, and conducts empirical comparative analysis from national central cities, provincial capitals, and ordinary prefecture.Result: 1) The IGTFP and technical progress rate in the central city and the provincial capital are significantly higher than that of the ordinary prefecture, but there is no significant difference in technical efficiency; the growth rate of IGTFP in the most central city remains around 10%, which is significantly higher in the south than that in the north. 2) According to the index decomposition result, all cities have basically realized the double-line improvement of technological efficiency and technological progress rate, but the technological efficiency is mostly lower than the technological progress rate. 3) From the perspective of economic convergence, only the IGTFP of provincial capitals shows the σ convergence feature, that is, the phenomenon of intra-group convergence; the IGTFP of all cities in three levels shows the β convergence feature, indicating that there is an obvious catch-up phenomenon within the group.Conclusion: The integration of “technology” and “efficiency” is the main driving force and path to realize the sustainable improvement of IGTFP in cities. Inclusive green growth needs to break “regional boundaries,” including north–south boundaries and urban boundaries.

Measurement and Spatial-Temporal Characteristics of Inclusive Green Growth in China

In the context of the widely recognized concept of inclusive green growth, it is of great practical significance to study the measurement of inclusive green growth, its temporal characteristics and its spatial heterogeneity. However, it should be noted that most existing studies only consider the situation of China when constructing inclusive green growth indices, and such studies lack international comparators. The index selection dimension is relatively single, and the temporal characteristics and spatial heterogeneity are rarely studied simultaneously. In this study, a spatial correlation analysis method is introduced, and the time series characteristics and spatial heterogeneity of inclusive green growth are deeply analyzed by means of a Moran’ I and LISA agglomeration diagram. The results show that: (1) Economic development, fair opportunity, green production and consumption and ecological environment protection are important factors affecting the level of inclusive green growth, but their development is not balanced; (2) Inclusive green growth has obvious time series characteristics, but there are great differences between provinces and regions; (3) The inclusive green growth has significant spatial heterogeneity. From 2010 to 2019, the inclusive green growth level has a dynamic evolution process. Moran’s I Index Global Spatial Test results show that inclusive green growth has obvious spatial autocorrelation, that is, it has great spatial differences. Local spatial test results also show that the inclusive green growth in China has obvious spatial aggregation characteristics. Therefore, it is important to coordinate the development of inclusive green growth between provinces and regions and improve the overall level of inclusive green growth in the future.