Research on China’s industrial green biased technological progress and its energy conservation and emission reduction effects

Based on an analytical production frontier framework, this paper constructs a comprehensive assessment model of both technological progress and its factor bias. It then systematically analyzes both industrial green biased technological progress and the energy conservation and emission reduction effects it exerts in China from 2001 to 2015. The results show the following: ① During the overall sample period, the average growth rate of industrial-technological progress was as high as 2.7% and the average annual growth was nearly 2.2%. Although there were losses in green TFP caused by a deterioration in technological efficiency, these were offset by other increases in green TFP. ② The main reason for industrial technological progress is the progress of neutral technology. Even though the contribution shares which are from input-biased and output-biased technological progress continuously rose, their promoting effects were still relatively weak. ③ On the whole, China’s input-biased technological progress can be presented as capital-intensive and labor-saving, capital-intensive and energy-saving, and energy-intensive and labor-saving, and it also shows a significant temporal-spatial characteristic. ④ China’s output-biased technological progress is, on the whole, seen as increasingly desirable output but technological progress in most provinces is still accompanied by increasing undesirable output during some periods.