Growth of Green Total Factor Productivity and Its Determinants of Cities in China: A Spatial Econometric Approach

摘要

As pollution in Chinese cities worsens, there is renewed interest in promoting sustainable development across the country. This article introduces the global Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index (ML) to measure green total factor productivity (TFP) growth of 270 Chinese cities over the period 2003-2013. Empirical spatial econometrics is applied to analyze the spatial spillovers and the determinants of green TFP growth. Our results show that green TFP is a useful metric for measuring development, and that spatial spillover effects do exist among neighboring cities of similar development. Finally, the study provides some policy implications.