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Environmental growth convergence among Chinese regions

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  • Jean-Philippe Boussemart

    (UFR MIME - UFR de Mathématiques, Informatique, Management, Economie - Université de Lille, Sciences Humaines et Sociales, IESEG - School of Management, LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Herve Leleu

    (UCL FGES - Université Catholique de Lille - Faculté de gestion, économie et sciences - ICL - Institut Catholique de Lille - UCL - Université catholique de Lille, LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Zhiyang Shen

Abstract

Since the end of the 20th century, numerous studies have analyzed Chinese economic development to gauge whether China's rapid growth is sustainable. Most of these studies focused on assessing total factor productivity (TFP) in Chinese mainland provinces but suffered from methodological weaknesses by assuming constant returns to scale (CRS) for the production frontier and/or incorrectly modeling variables returns to scale (VRS) technology taking into account bad output such as carbon dioxide emissions. Our paper offers a right non-parametric programming framework based on weak disposability and VRS assumptions to estimate environmental growth convergence among Chinese regions characterized by size heterogeneity. We explicitly separate regional efficiency gaps into two components: The first studies the technical catching-up process on each one (technical effect), and the second reveals convergence or divergence in the combinations of input and output among regions (structural effect). Moreover, carbon shadow price levels for provinces can be derived through the dual version of our activity analysis framework. Our empirical work focuses on 30 Chinese regions from 1997 to 2010. The results emphasize that environmental growth convergence among regions has mainly relied on the structural effect. We find that the structural effect largely depends on the pollution cost convergence and not on the evolution of the relative prices of capital or labor. The carbon shadow price is increasing at an annual rate of 2.5% and was evaluated around 864 yuan per ton in 2010 in China while regional estimates show significant disparities at the beginning of the period.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Philippe Boussemart & Herve Leleu & Zhiyang Shen, 2015. "Environmental growth convergence among Chinese regions," Post-Print hal-01533551, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01533551
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2015.03.003
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    Cited by:

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    2. Yusi Cheng & Xuejie Bai & Yung‐Ho Chiu, 2023. "Performance evaluation for health‐care sectors using a dynamic network data envelopment analysis approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 2237-2253, June.
    3. Deng, Haiyan & Zheng, Wangyi & Shen, Zhiyang & Štreimikienė, Dalia, 2023. "Does fiscal expenditure promote green agricultural productivity gains: An investigation on corn production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    4. Biagia De Devitiis & Ornella Wanda Maietta, 2015. "Shadow Prices of Human Capital in Agriculture. Evidence from European FADN Regions," CSEF Working Papers 415, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    5. Ning Zhu & Xiang Dai & Tomas Baležentis & Dalia Streimikiene & Zhiyang Shen, 2022. "Estimating production gains from international cooperation: Evidence from countries along the Belt and Road," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 715-736, May.
    6. Ulucak, Zübeyde Şentürk & İlkay, Salih Çağrı & Özcan, Burcu & Gedikli, Ayfer, 2020. "Financial globalization and environmental degradation nexus: Evidence from emerging economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Wenyin Cheng & Zhusong Yang & Xia Pan & Tomas Baležentis & Xueli Chen, 2020. "Evolution of Carbon Shadow Prices in China’s Industrial Sector during 2003–2017: A By-Production Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, January.
    8. Junwei Ma & Jianhua Wang & Philip Szmedra, 2020. "Does Environmental Innovation Improve Environmental Productivity?—An Empirical Study Based on the Spatial Panel Data Model of Chinese Urban Agglomerations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-18, August.
    9. Li, Tianxiang & Baležentis, Tomas & Makutėnienė, Daiva & Streimikiene, Dalia & Kriščiukaitienė, Irena, 2016. "Energy-related CO2 emission in European Union agriculture: Driving forces and possibilities for reduction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 682-694.
    10. Tsun Se Cheong & Yanrui Wu & Jianxin Wu, 2016. "Evolution of carbon dioxide emissions in Chinese cities: trends and transitional dynamics," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 357-377, July.
    11. Shen, Zhiyang & Baležentis, Tomas & Chen, Xueli & Valdmanis, Vivian, 2018. "Green growth and structural change in Chinese agricultural sector during 1997–2014," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 83-96.
    12. Guangming Rao & Bin Su & Jinlian Li & Yong Wang & Yanhua Zhou & Zhaolin Wang, 2019. "Carbon Sequestration Total Factor Productivity Growth and Decomposition: A Case of the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-28, November.
    13. Yang, Jun & Zhang, Tengfei & Sheng, Pengfei & Shackman, Joshua D., 2016. "Carbon dioxide emissions and interregional economic convergence in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 672-680.
    14. Zhensheng Chen & Xueli Chen & Tomas Baležentis & Xiaoqing Gan & Vivian Valdmanis, 2020. "Productivity change and its driving forces in Chinese healthcare sector," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-16, December.
    15. Yongzhong Jiang & Xueli Chen & Vivian Valdmanis & Tomas Baležentis, 2019. "Evaluating Economic and Environmental Performance of the Chinese Industry Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-17, November.
    16. Zhiyang Shen & Vivian Valdmanis, 2020. "Identifying the contribution to hospital performance among Chinese regions by an aggregate directional distance function," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 142-152, March.
    17. Chen, Lei & Wang, Ying-Ming & Lai, Fujun, 2017. "Semi-disposability of undesirable outputs in data envelopment analysis for environmental assessments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(2), pages 655-664.
    18. Gao, Yuning & Zhang, Meichen & Zheng, Jinghai, 2021. "Accounting and determinants analysis of China's provincial total factor productivity considering carbon emissions," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Growth convergence; Catching-up; Undesirable output; Carbon dioxide emissions; Shadow price; Weak disposability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

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