Study On Measures And Influencing Factors Of China Regional Total Factor Productivity Under Environmental Regulations

The last three decades since reform and opening up has witnessed a magnificent and continuous boom in Chinese economy.While yielding plenteous fruit from it.the country also suffered a burst of environmental problems that emerged in different phases during the industrialization of developed countries over more than a centry.The tension between economic development and envisagement pollution has drawn wide public attention.As the economy has stepped into the status of "New Normal"Chinese government has lowered GDP growth targets in recent years.Meanwhile,global warming,hazy weather,and increasing attention on carbon emission from the global community have raised the bar for economy development quality.More and more people are calling for environment protection at the same time.As a core factor in the evaluation of economic development quality,total factor productivity(TFP)has been in the spotlight in economic research.Thanks to the researches of environmental regulations(ER),understanding about the relationship between TFP and ER has been taken to a higher level.Consequently,ER have to be included in measuring of productivity as the evaluation of Chinese economic development is expected to become more objective and accurate.Based on relevant theories of economic development,TFP and ER,this thesis collects and analyzes data(from 1998 to 2013)on macroeconomic,energy consumption,and carbon emission of 30 provinces,direct-controlled municipalities and autonomous regions(Tibet,Hong Kong SAR?Macao SAR and the Taiwan region excluded)in China.With Directional Distance Function based on DEA,TFP excluding ER(Malmquist index,or M),TFP including ER(Malmquist-Luenberger index,or ML)and the decomposable indexes(rate of efficiency change or EFFCH,and rate of technology change or TECH)are measured respectively.The objects of research are divided into eastern region,central region and western region,and the environmental TFP of the three regions are compared chronologically and geographically.Eventually,a panel regression model is established with measuring methods,and an empirical analysis is conducted on the influencing factors of TFP under ER.The following main conclusions are made:The chronological research proves ER in the eastern and central region effective for the increase of TFP;due to lack of ER in the western region,environment pollution has jeopardized TFP.During the same time period,eastern region ranks first,followed by central and western region in terms of environment TFP;the ML changing trend for all three regions resembles each other with the central region closest to the average line of the whole country.After 2010 when the government started to pay more attention to environment quality,economic growth rates slowed down,and ML indexes dropped.Geographically speaking,ML,M indexes and decomposable indexes of the eastern provinces are higher than that of central and western regions,while EFFCH of central region is higher than that of eastern region.A gradient descending can be observed in the average ML indexes of the three regions;differences among eastern and western regions is more prominent while indexes of central provinces concentrate.Nationwide,the maximum and minimum of ML appear in eastern and western region respectively.Among all provinces of the three regions,7 of the eastern provinces have their ML index surpassing national average,taking up 64%of all provinces of the region,3 central provinces(38%)and 4 western provinces(36%)do as well.In total,14 provinces' index exceed average,counting for 47%all over the country.In terms of the influencing factors of TFP in regions with ER,"Environment Kuznets Curve Hypothesis" and "Pollution Heaven Hypothesis" are most evident in the west.Raise in capital-labor ratio in central region impairs its increase of environment TFP.The development of tertiary industry in all three regions has obvious positive influence upon ML indexes.An effective implication of pollution control on the part of government boosts the growth of environment TFP,and western region still has its room for improvement in this regard.In the end,suggestions are given to help increase regional environment FTP with ER,such as coordinating environment and economic development,reasonably promoting opening up and cooperation,optimizing industrial structure,enhancing scientific innovation and strengthening environment regulations.