Research On The Impact Of China’s Urban Agglomeration Trade Opening And Foreign Direct Investment On Green Total Factor Productivity

With the continuous advancement of global economic integration,China has gradually emerged as a significant player on the world stage.The Chinese government has consistently adhered to multilateral free trade and strengthened connections with other countries,actively striving to achieve high-quality green development.In the 14 th Five-Year Plan,the concept of "green development" was explicitly put forward,emphasizing the promotion of high-quality green development,the realization of green and low-carbon transformation,and the accelerated construction of a new green development system.The 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC)introduced the important strategy of "green development",emphasizing the adherence to people-centered development thinking,the accelerated construction of a new model of green,low-carbon,and circular development,and the promotion of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.Furthermore,the 20 th National Congress of the CPC further highlighted the strategic goal of building a "Beautiful China",emphasizing the promotion of green development,the construction of a beautiful China,and the enhancement of ecological civilization.These observations demonstrate the high level of importance that China places on green economy and sustainable development.In order to achieve this goal,the government has proposed a regional development model with urban agglomerations as the main focus.Under this model,urban agglomerations form a synergistic relationship through the agglomeration and complementarity of factors.As urban agglomerations continue to develop,the improvement of green total factor productivity becomes particularly important.Therefore,this paper will analyze the impact of trade openness and foreign direct investment on green total factor productivity,as well as their intrinsic connection to urban agglomeration development.Specifically,this study selects 194 cities from the urban agglomerations identified in the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China from 2003 to 2020 as the sample.Firstly,the non-radial non-angular SBM model combined with the Malmquist-Luenberger index method is employed to calculate the data of green total factor productivity from 2004 to 2020.The study also provides an overall evaluation of the development status and analyzes the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of trade openness,foreign direct investment,and green total factor productivity in Chinese urban agglomerations.Secondly,the high-dimensional fixed effects model is used to empirically analyze the impact of trade openness and foreign direct investment on the green total factor productivity of Chinese urban agglomerations,exploring the intrinsic relationship among these factors.The research findings indicate that trade openness contributes to the improvement of green total factor productivity in Chinese urban agglomerations.However,foreign direct investment has a significant inhibitory effect on the green total factor productivity of Chinese urban agglomerations,which validates the presence of the "pollution haven" hypothesis effect.Nevertheless,the interaction between trade openness and foreign direct investment has a positive impact on the overall enhancement of green total factor productivity in Chinese urban agglomerations and forms a beneficial mechanism,especially for the eastern urban agglomerations where it plays a significant promoting role.However,the effect on western urban agglomerations is not evident,and even the central urban agglomerations may experience inhibitory mechanisms on green development due to factors such as severe pollution caused by heavy industries.To validate the reliability of the empirical results,this study conducted robustness tests using three methods: alternative dependent variables,alternative calculations of green total factor productivity,and random deletion of a portion of the sample.The results indicate that the conclusions drawn in this study are robust,providing a good explanation of the development status of green total factor productivity in Chinese urban agglomerations and the impact mechanisms of trade openness and foreign direct investment on green total factor productivity.Finally,based on the research findings,this study puts forward some policy recommendations.These include accelerating the transformation of development concepts and emphasizing urban green development,expanding the scale of opening-up and optimizing regional trade structure,improving the mechanism for attracting foreign investment and strengthening environmental supervision,implementing differential investment policies based on individual development situations,optimizing and adjusting industrial structure,and accelerating the enhancement of human capital.These policy recommendations aim to promote the development of green total factor productivity in Chinese urban agglomerations.