Green total factor productivity is not merely an inevitable choice to continuously increase the quality of China's economy, but also a booming demand to promote global development. With the fast development of the new generation information technology represented by world comprehensive web technology, Internet growth may well play a more crucial role in enhancing green total factor productivity in China. Based on 2009-2017 China's inter-provincial panel data, this article uses the threshold regression model and fixed-effect model to empirically investigate the influence intensity and internal mechanism of green total factor productivity in areas affected by the Internet development. We ultimately come to the following conclusions. First, there is a digital divide between the regions of China. Second, many factors such as Internet development, human capital, urbanization, energy efficiency, and external dependence all exert a positive influence on China's green total factor productivity. At the same time, government intervention is not conducive to green total factor productivity. Third, the influence of Internet growth on China's green total factor productivity is non-linear, based on the significant double threshold effect of human capital. As the level of human capital continues to exceed the threshold value, the effect of Internet expansion on the green total factor productivity of China has undergone a structural change. The result has changed from a weak negative influence to a positive one, and the significance is increasing. To advance the smart, green, and coordinated development among regions, it is necessary to bring "Internet +" into full play in promoting China's green total factor productivity, strengthen the deep integration of Internet development and industrial development, and improve the level of clean production utilizing network information.
Facing the pressures of international carbon emission reduction, the transformation into a low-carbon economy has become a common issue of all countries. The core of developing a low-carbon economy is to increase carbon productivity, which can be measured as the economic benefits of unit carbon emissions. Therefore, using province-level panel data in China from 2009 to 2017, we analyze the carbon productivity level of each region, and empirically investigate the threshold effect of clean energy development on carbon productivity under different technological innovation levels. The results show that the carbon productivity is rising, and China’s economic development pattern has been shifting towards low-carbon and sustainable development. Furthermore, the driving force of clean energy development on carbon productivity is not monotonously increasing (decreasing) but is a “double threshold effect” of technological innovation capability. Finally, based on the research conclusions and realistic requirements of China’s low-carbon economic transformation, this paper proposes improving carbon productivity from the aspects of innovation capability improvement and institutional guarantee.
The trade-off between economic growth and ecological improvement has always become an important and difficult issue for many countries, especially for developing countries. Due to a long-term extensive economic growth pattern, the regional resource allocation deviates from the optimal, especially the existence of energy misallocation, which hinders the maximization of economic output. Therefore, considering the characteristics and heterogeneity of resource endowments in different regions and increasing renewable energy consumption, that is, promoting energy transition, is it capable of sustainable development under China’s actual conditions? The exploration of the issue is a core step in the research of the impact of renewable energy on industrial green transformation. Based on the panel data of 30 regions in China from 2009 to 2016, this paper constructs a threshold model from the perspective of regional energy misallocation and empirically tests the nonlinear mechanism of renewable energy consumption to promote industrial green transformation. The results show that China’s energy allocation efficiency is low, there is a certain misallocation phenomenon, and the improvement effect in recent years is not satisfactory. Further, the relationship between renewable energy consumption and industrial green transformation is not a simple linear relationship, but a double threshold effect due to regional energy misallocation. In areas with severe energy misallocation, renewable energy consumption does not have a significant boost to industrial green transformation. Finally, this paper proposes the policy enlightenment of promoting industrial green transformation from the aspects of performance evaluation, market reform, and factor flow.
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