Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The positive role of trade openness in industrial green total factor productivity—provincial evidence from China

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The sustainable development of the economy is a key issue of global concern. Green total factor productivity (GTFP) combining economic growth with resources and the environment can evaluate the quality of economic development comprehensively and accurately. In this paper, super slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model and Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index were used to calculate GTFP. The trend of industrial GTFP in China’s 30 provinces from 2006–2015 was analyzed. Furtherly, a dynamic panel model was used to discuss the impact of trade openness on GTFP. The results showed that (1) the growth rate of GTFP rose from 2007 to 2011 and declined significantly from 2011 to 2015, and GTFP only achieved positive growth in 2011; (2) the growth rate of GTFP in the eastern region was higher than that in the central and western regions; (3) the trend of technical progress change (MLTECH) index was highly consistent with that of ML index. That was, technical progress played a major role in the variation of GTFP; (4) trade openness could significantly improve China’s GTFP. Every 1% increase in trade openness could increase GTFP by 0.097% on average. It is advisable to implement differentiated economic development and environmental policies in different regions. Meanwhile, relevant measures can be taken to promote import and export trade, such as encouraging companies to increase investment in green technology research and development, optimizing the trade environment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  • Afzal M, Hussain I (2010) Export-led growth hypothesis: evidence from Pakistan. J Quant Econ 8(1):130–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed EM (2012) Green TFP intensity impact on sustainable East Asian productivity growth. Econ Anal Policy 42(1):67–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Mulali U, Ozturk I, Lean HH (2015) The influence of economic growth, urbanization, trade openness, financial development, and renewable energy on pollution in Europe. Nat Hazards 79(1):621–644

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baek J, Cho Y, Koo WW (2009) The environmental consequences of globalization: a country-specific time-series analysis. Ecol Econ 68(8-9):2255–2264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blundell R, Bond S (1998) Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models. J Econ 87(1):115–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charnes A, Cooper WW, Rhodes E (1978) Measuring the efficiency of decision making units. Eur J Oper Res 2(6):429–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen C, Lan Q, Gao M, Sun Y (2018) Green total factor productivity growth and its determinants in China’s industrial economy. Sustainability 10(4):1052

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chung YH, Färe R, Grosskopf S (1997) Productivity and undesirable outputs: a directional distance function approach. J Environ Manag 51(3):229–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Destek MA, Sinha A (2020) Renewable, non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth, trade openness and ecological footprint: evidence from organisation for economic Co-operation and development countries. J Clean Prod 242:118537

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du KR, Li JL (2019) Towards a green world: how do green technology innovations affect total-factor carbon productivity. Energy Policy 131:240–250

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Färe R, Grosskopf S, Pasurka CA Jr (2007) Environmental production functions and environmental directional distance functions. Energy 32(7):1055–1066

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng C, Huang JB, Wang M (2018) Analysis of green total-factor productivity in China’s regional metal industry: A meta-frontier approach. Res Policy 58:219–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng YJ, Zhong SY, Li QY, Zhao XM, Dong X (2019) Ecological well-being performance growth in China (1994-2014): From perspectives of industrial structure green adjustment and green total factor productivity. J Clean Prod 236:117556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fu J, Liu Y, Chen R, Yu X, Tang W (2020) Trade openness, internet finance development and banking sector development in China. Econ Model 91:670–678

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hdom HA, Fuinhas JA (2020) Energy production and trade openness: assessing economic growth, CO2 emissions and the applicability of the cointegration analysis. Energy Strateg Rev 30:100488

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He W, Tan L, Liu J, Zhang H (2020) Property rights protection, environmental regulation and corporate financial performance: revisiting the Porter Hypothesis. J Clean Prod 264:121615

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hou BQ, Wang B, Du MZ, Zhang N (2020) Does the SO2 emissions trading scheme encourage green total factor productivity? An empirical assessment on China’s cities. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27(6):6375–6388

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hye QMA (2012) Long term effect of trade openness on economic growth in case of Pakistan. Qual Quant 46(4):1137–1149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang Y, Wang H, Liu Z (2021) The impact of the free trade zone on green total factor productivity--evidence from the shanghai pilot free trade zone. Energy Policy 148:112000

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keho Y (2017) The impact of trade openness on economic growth: the case of Cote d’Ivoire. Cogent Econ Finance 5(1):1332820

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim D-H, Lin S-C, Suen Y-B (2016) Trade, growth and growth volatility: new panel evidence. Int Rev Econ Financ 45:384–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kong Q, Peng D, Ni Y, Jiang X, Wang Z (2020) Trade openness and economic growth quality of China: empirical analysis using ARDL model. Financ Res Lett 38:101488

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le T-H, Chang Y, Park D (2016) Trade openness and environmental quality: international evidence. Energy Policy 92:45–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lei XB, Wu SS (2019) Nonlinear effects of governmental and civil environmental regulation on green total factor productivity in China. Adv Meteorol 2019:8351512

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li B, Wu SS (2017) Effects of local and civil environmental regulation on green total factor productivity in China: a spatial Durbin econometric analysis. J Clean Prod 153(1):342–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li H, Fang K, Yang W, Wang D, Hong X (2013) Regional environmental efficiency evaluation in China: analysis based on the Super-SBM model with undesirable outputs. Math Comput Model 58(5-6):1018–1031

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li PS, Chen YY (2019) The influence of enterprises’ bargaining power on the green total factor productivity effect of environmental regulation-evidence from China. Sustainability 11(18):4910

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li TH, Liao GK (2020) The heterogeneous impact of financial development on green total factor productivity. Front Energy Res 8:29

  • Li XM, Shi PF, Han YZ, Deng AM, Liu D (2020) Measurement and spatial variation of green total factor productivity of the tourism industry in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health 17(4):1159

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lin BQ, Chen ZY (2018) Does factor market distortion inhibit the green total factor productivity in China? J Clean Prod 197:25–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin BQ, Xu MM (2019) Exploring the green total factor productivity of China’s metallurgical industry under carbon tax: a perspective on factor substitution. J Clean Prod 233:1322–1333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu ZK, Xin L (2019) Has China’s Belt and Road Initiative promoted its green total factor productivity ? - Evidence from primary provinces along the route. Energy Policy 129:360–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu XH, Jiang X, Gong MQ (2020) How land transfer marketization influence on green total factor productivity from the approach of industrial structure? Evidence from China Land Use Policy 95:104610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Majumder MK, Raghavan M, Vespignani J (2020) Oil curse, economic growth and trade openness. Energy Econ 91:104896

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Managi S, Hibiki A, Tsurumi T (2009) Does trade openness improve environmental quality? J Environ Econ Manag 58(3):346–363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China (2020) China environmental bulletin 2019. http://www.mee.gov.cn/hjzl/sthjzk/zghjzkgb/202006/P020200602509464172096.pdf. Accessed 04 November 2020

  • National Bureau of Statistics (2020) Growth rate of industrial added value of Industrial enterprises above designated size. https://data.stats.gov.cn/tablequery.htm?code=AD01. Accessed 04 Nov 2020

  • Rahman MM, Mamun SAK (2016) Energy use, international trade and economic growth nexus in Australia: new evidence from an extended growth model. Renew Sust Energ Rev 64:806–816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman MM, Saidi K, Mbarek MB (2020) Economic growth in South Asia: the role of CO2 emissions, population density and trade openness. Heliyon 6(5):e03903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramzan M, Sheng B, Shahbaz M, Song J, Jiao Z (2019) Impact of trade openness on GDP growth: does TFP matter? J Int Trade Econ Dev 28(8):960–995

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shahbaz M (2012) Does trade openness affect long run growth? Cointegration, causality and forecast error variance decomposition tests for Pakistan. Econ Model 29(6):2325–2339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shahbaz M, Tiwari AK, Nasir M (2013) The effects of financial development, economic growth, coal consumption and trade openness on CO2 emissions in South Africa. Energy Policy 61:1452–1459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen N, Liao H, Deng R, Wang Q (2019) Different types of environmental regulations and the heterogeneous influence on the environmental total factor productivity: empirical analysis of China's industry. J Clean Prod 211:171–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solarin SA, Shahbaz M (2015) Natural gas consumption and economic growth: the role of foreign direct investment, capital formation and trade openness in Malaysia. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 42:835–845

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solow RM (1957) Technical change and the aggregate production function. Rev Econ Stat 39:312–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song ML, Du JT, Tan KH (2018) Impact of fiscal decentralization on green total factor productivity. Int J Prod Econ 205:359–367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiba S, Belaid F (2020) The pollution concern in the era of globalization: do the contribution of foreign direct investment and trade openness matter? Energy Econ 92:104966

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tone K (2001) A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis. Eur J Oper Res 130(3):498–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tone K (2002) A slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in data envelopment analysis. Eur J Oper Res 143(1):32–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tone K (2004) Dealing with undesirable outputs in DEA: a slacks-based measure (SBM) approach. Presentation At NAPW, Toronto, pp 44–45

  • Wang K-L, Pang S-Q, Ding L-L, Miao Z (2020) Combining the biennial Malmquist–Luenberger index and panel quantile regression to analyze the green total factor productivity of the industrial sector in China. Sci Total Environ 739:140280

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang XL, Sun CZ, Wang S, Zhang ZX, Zou W (2018) Going green or going away? A spatial empirical examination of the relationship between environmental regulations, biased technological progress, and green total factor productivity. Int J Environ Res Public Health 15(9):1917

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wen H, Dai J (2020) Trade openness, environmental regulation, and human capital in China: based on ARDL cointegration and Granger causality analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27(2):1789–1799

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Bank (2014a) CO2 intensity (kg per kg of oil equivalent energy use). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.EG.ZS?view=chart. Accessed 04 Nov 2020

  • World Bank (2014b) Energy use (kg of oil equivalent per capita). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.PCAP.KG.OE?view=chart. Accessed 04 Nov 2020

  • World Bank (2016) PM2.5 air pollution, mean annual exposure (micrograms per cubic meter). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.PM25.MC.M3?end=2016&start=1990&view=chart. Accessed 04 Nov 2020

  • World Bank (2020) GDP per capita growth (annual %). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZG?end=2019&locations=CN&start=1960&view=chart. Accessed 04 Nov 2020

  • Wu H, Ren S, Yan G, Hao Y (2020) Does China’s outward direct investment improve green total factor productivity in the “Belt and Road” countries? Evidence from dynamic threshold panel model analysis. J Environ Manag 275:111295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xin BG, Qu YM (2019) Effects of smart city policies on green total factor productivity: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health 16(13):2396

  • Yuan B, Zhang Y (2020) Flexible environmental policy, technological innovation and sustainable development of China’s industry: The moderating effect of environment regulatory enforcement. J Clean Prod 243:118543

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang C, Liu H, Bressers HTA, Buchanan KS (2011) Productivity growth and environmental regulations - accounting for undesirable outputs: Analysis of China’s thirty provincial regions using the Malmquist–Luenberger index. Ecol Econ 70(12):2369–2379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang S (2018) Is trade openness good for environment in South Korea? The role of non-fossil electricity consumption. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25(10):9510–9522

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang W, Meng J, Tian X (2020) Does de-capacity policy enhance the total factor productivity of China’s coal companies? A Regression Discontinuity design. Res Policy 68:101741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou YY, Xu YR, Liu CZ, Fang ZQ, Fu XY, He MZ (2019) The threshold effect of China’s financial development on green total factor productivity. Sustainability 11(14):3776

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu XH, Chen Y, Feng C (2018) Green total factor productivity of China’s mining and quarrying industry: a global data envelopment analysis. Res Policy 57:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors greatly appreciate useful discussion of Yun Pan of Shanghai University, and we are very grateful to the reviewers for their insightful comments and careful review.

Funding

This research was funded by the Green Manufacturing System Integration Project in 2018 of the Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Corporation Limited.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Lili Ding & Yongyou Nie

  2. Department of Environmental Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Mingliang Wu & Zheng Jiao

Authors
  1. Lili Ding
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mingliang Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zheng Jiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yongyou Nie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Lili Ding, Mingliang Wu, Zheng Jiao, and Yongyou Nie. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Lili Ding and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zheng Jiao or Yongyou Nie.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Nicholas Apergis

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 6 displays the correlation coefficients of the variables used in this paper.

Table 6 Correlation coefficients
Full size table

Table 7 presents the descriptive statistics of the variables in the east, central and west regions.

Table 7 Descriptive statistics of variables in the eastern, central, and western regions
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ding, L., Wu, M., Jiao, Z. et al. The positive role of trade openness in industrial green total factor productivity—provincial evidence from China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 6538–6551 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16164-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16164-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation