Re-measuring Productivity, Energy and Environmental Factors of China’s New Industrialization

PANG Ruizhi1, LI Peng2 and LU Yonggang1

1Economic and Social Development Research Institute, Nankai University, Tianjin
2Chongqing Municipal Planning and Design Institute, Chongqing
Abstract: This paper identifies low-carbon, energy-efficient, and green economic growth as the primary goals of China’s new industrialization and defines productivity under new

industrialization which; unlike conventional productivity, simultaneously satisfies these goals. In contrast to conventional methods for measuring productivity, this paper employs a non-radial, non-angular SBM directional distance function to estimate new industrialization productivity of industrial sectors across 30 Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions between 1998 and 2008. Our research shows that conventional measurements of productivity overestimate industrial growth in China’s central and western regions. On the whole, prospects for growth performance of China’s industrial sectors are not optimistic. The degree of new industrialization is higher in eastern region than in central and western regions, where balancing industrial growth with resources and the environment is a daunting task. This paper’s conclusions support “environmental Kuznets curve” and “Porter hypothesis” but reject “pollution asylum hypothesis”.

Key word: growth performance of new industrialization, productivity under “new industrialization”, SBM directional distance function