Silk Road Economic Belt strategy and industrial total-factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese industries

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) strategy and its role of industrial productivity in China.

Design/methodology/approach

To identify the causal effect of this strategy on industrial sustainable development, the authors first use the slacks-based measure model to calculate industries’ total-factor productivity (TFP) considered with CO₂ emissions as undesirable output on the provincial level. Then, the authors use the PSM-DID method to identify the difference of TFPs between provinces and industries before and after the implementation of SREB strategy.

Findings

However, the authors find that there is no difference or even a relative decrease in TFPs of industries in target provinces after the implementation of the strategy, which reveals that the SREB strategy does not play a positive role of the industries’ sustainable development in years of 2014 and 2015.

Originality/value

The value of this result is to identify the short-term impact of SREB strategy and to seek for probable causes and appropriate solutions.

Citation

Feng, J., Zhao, L., Jia, H. and Shao, S. (2019), "Silk Road Economic Belt strategy and industrial total-factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese industries", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 260-282. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-06-2018-0109