Spatial-temporal heterogeneity of green innovation in China

Abstract The whole world is facing the urgent issue of balancing economic development and ecological conservation. The fulfillment of the solution requires green innovation at the regional level. However, the heterogeneity of green innovation is obvious in different regions. To explore ways at effectively improving the level of regional green innovation in China, the research develops decomposition analysis based on the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model to identify the driving factors of green innovation. We also take the Geographical and Temporal Weighted Regression (GTWR) model to explore the driving factors of spatial-temporal heterogeneity of green innovation in China. The main results are as follows. Research and development (R&D) efficiency play a dominant role for increasing regional green patent applications, while environmental regulation contributes the most to a decline of regional green patent applications during 2003–2017. Various determinants of green patent applications exhibit spatial-temporal heterogeneity, such as the coefficients of influencing factors for each province in 2017 being more significant than the same coefficients in 2003. Beijing’s coefficient of R&D efficiency is the largest, while the coefficient of economic development for Shanxi is the largest. The findings herein provide detailed insight for China’s policymakers to effectively improve the level of regional green innovation domestically, which is of constructive significance to narrow the gap of regional green innovation and realize the coordinated and sustainable development of economy.

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