Agglomeration of Productive Services, Industrial Structure Upgrading and Green Total Factor Productivity: An Empirical Analysis Based on 68 Prefectural-Level-and-Above Cities in the Yellow River Basin of China

Xu Dong, Yang Chen, Qinqin Zhuang, Yali Yang and Xiaomeng Zhao ()
Additional contact information
Xu Dong: School of Economics, Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Yang Chen: School of Economics, Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Qinqin Zhuang: Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100732, China
Yali Yang: School of Information Management, Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Xiaomeng Zhao: School of Economics and Business Administration, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: Improving green total factor productivity (GTFP) is the inherent requirement for practicing the philosophy of green development and achieving regional high-quality development. Based on panel data for 68 prefectural-level-and-above cities in the Yellow River Basin of China from 2006 to 2019, we measured their GTFPs and degrees of productive-services agglomeration using the non-radial directional distance function and industrial agglomeration index formulas, respectively. Furthermore, we empirically investigated the interactive relationship between agglomeration of productive services, industrial-structure upgrading, and GTFP using the dual fixed-effects model, the mediating-effect model, and the moderating-effect model. The findings were as follows. (1) Both specialized and diversified agglomeration of productive services significantly improved the GTFPs of cities in the Yellow River Basin, and the promoting effect of specialized agglomeration was stronger than that of diversified agglomeration. (2) The diversified agglomeration of productive services (hereinafter referred to as diversified agglomeration) made a significant contribution to GTFP in all sample cities of the Yellow River Basin, while the specialized agglomeration of productive services (hereinafter referred to as specialized agglomeration) only significantly improved GTFP in the upstream cities and had no significant effect on the midstream and downstream cities. (3) When examined according to city size, specialized agglomeration was found to have a positive impact on the GTFPs of small and medium-sized cities in the Yellow River Basin but a non-significant negative impact on large cities, while the effect of diversified agglomeration on GTFP was found not to be significant. (4) Industrial-structure upgrading played partially mediating and negative moderating roles in the process of specialized agglomeration affecting the GTFPs of cities in the Yellow River Basin, but it did not become a mediating channel and moderating factor that influenced diversified agglomeration in relation to GTFP.

Keywords: green total factor productivity; agglomeration of productive services; industrial-structure upgrading; the Yellow River Basin; lean green; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11643/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11643/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11643-:d:915955

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().