A Study On Carbon Productivity In China's Industrial Sector

With the acceleration of the negotiation process on climate change, developing countriesare facing potential pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. China has always attachedgreat importance to the issues of global climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.Controlling greenhouse gas emissions have been a major strategy for economic and socialdevelopment. Against this background, the study on carbon-productivity has become a hotspot in the field of low-carbon economy.The rise of the concept of carbon productivity was late, therefore, there was no completetheoretical system and calculation method on it. In order to enable the study have a goodtheoretical succession, the paper carried out a systematic study on the carbon productivityunder the framework of the total factor productivity. At the same time, taking into account theimportance of the industrial sector in the field of low-carbon economy, the scope of this paperwas limited to the China's industrial sector.There were seven chapters in this thesis. In chapter one, background, research methodswere described. In chapter two, the productivity-related research review and comments wereshowed mainly from the perspective that the scarcity of object would continue to change inthe different stages of development, this provided theoretical support for the followingresearch. In chapter three, the carbon productivity of Chinese industrial sector was calculatedunder the analytical framework of total factor productivity. The results provided data tosupport the subsequent empirical research. At the same time its convergence analysis wasconducted, which draw forth the problems in the change of China's carbon-productivity.Taking carbon-productivity into the analytical framework of economic growth, chapter fourderived a theoretical model of resource allocation effects to carbon-productivity. On this basis,the paper discussed the relationship among the configuration of the input factors of labor,capital and space of carbon dioxide emissions and carbon-productivity. In chapter five, thepaper measured the effect of economics of scale in China's industrial sector, and had anempirical research on the relationship between economics of scale and carbon-productivity;deep-level mined the mechanism of economies of scale on carbon-productivity. In chapter six,the author first made a review of the classification of technological progress and theconnotation of technical progress, and then analyzed the characteristics of the technologicalprogress of China's industrial sector, finally the paper determined the impact of technologicalprogress on carbon-productivity based on the empirical study result of the relationship between technological progress and the carbon-productivity of Chinese industrial sectors. Inchapter seven, the author put forward a series of policy recommendations to improve thecarbon-productivity of Chinese industrial sector according to the conclusions from chapterthree to chapter six.This study concluded that:(1) the carbon-productivity index in the framework of totalfactor productivity based on directional distance function and data envelopment analysismethod was lower than the single elements carbon-productivity index based on the traditionalsense. This meant that the carbon-productivity index in the framework of total factorproductivity was a more true reflection of the carbon-productivity growth in China's industrialsector. Based on the further analysis, the author found that the carbon productivity index ofthe Chinese industrial sector showed both δ-convergence and absolute β-convergence.(2)The changes of the proportion in carbon dioxide emissions space and coal resource hadsignificant negative impacts on the carbon-productivity growth. This meant that thereallocation of carbon dioxide emissions space was the important reason of the-convergence and absolute β-convergence of Chinese industrial sector carbon-productivity,reducing the consumption ratio of coal resources was an important way to increasecarbon-productivity of China's industrial sector.(3) China's industrial sector as a wholeshowed the diseconomies of scale. The external diseconomies of scale reflected byadministrative monopoly had the negative impact on carbon-productivity. The internaleconomics of scale reflected by the increased benefit of scale had a positive impact oncarbon-productivity.(4) China's industrial sector as a whole had technological progress;meanwhile the technological progress resulted from both the non-embodied neutraltechnological progress and capital-embodied technological progress. Capital-embodiedtechnological progress had a significant positive effect on the carbon-productivity of China'sindustrial sector.Based on above mentioned conclusions, this paper proposed some corresponding policyrecommendations to improve the carbon-productivity of China's industrial sector, such asoptimizing energy consumption structure, optimizing the structure of property rights,increasing the introduction of technology, improving the technical level of the equipmentmanufacturing industry, et al.The innovative explorations of this paper were mainly on the following aspects:(1) Provided a new research perspective. The author regarded the carbon-productivity asfactor productivity, and made a systematic analysis of the carbon productivity on the basis of decomposition theory of economic growth factor;(2) Had a study under the framework oftotal factor productivity. The carbon-productivity index in the framework of total factorproductivity was lower than the single elements carbon-productivity index based on thetraditional sense, so it was a more true reflection of the carbon-productivity growth of theChinese industrial sector.(3) Applied the directional distance function and data envelopmentanalysis method to measure the carbon-productivity. Because they could highlight thecharacteristics of the carbon-productivity;(4) Conducted a systematic study on the impactmechanism of carbon-productivity of China's industrial sector in three aspects: allocation ofresources, economies of scale, technological progress,(5) Proposed a series of targeted andoperable appropriate policy recommendations to improve carbon-productivity of China'sindustrial sector.