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

Abstract

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.