Characteristics of green technology transfer and its improvement effect on carbon total factor productivity

Based on the green technology transaction data from 2010 to 2020, this study describes the distribution pattern and spatial correlation characteristics of 282 cities in China at different geographical scales systematically. Besides, the impact of green technology transfer on the change degree of carbon total factor productivity has been investigated under different scales and multi-dimensional proximity as well. The results indicate that: 1) The green technology transfer among region inside mainly occurs in pivot cities along the eastern coast and the capital cities in the central and western regions. However, the radiation effect of the pivot cities in the eastern region is stronger, while the driving effect of the capital cities in the central and western regions is relatively weak; 2) The green technology transfer network presents the feature of “core-edge”, with dense network connections in the eastern region and sparse network connections in the central and western regions. The “strong and strong” nodes such as “Shanghai-Shenzhen” and “Beijing-Tianjin” and the “strong and weak” nodes such as “Shanghai-Yancheng (Jiangsu)” and “Suzhou-Xuancheng (Anhui)” have frequent connections. It leads to the quadrilateral pattern of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing region. 3) The transfer of green technology, the upgrading of industrial structure and the improvement of marketization are conducive to the positive change of carbon total factor productivity; 4) The reduction of spatial scale and the proximity of multi-dimensional space such as geographical distance, administrative area and resource endowment have a positive promoting effect on the improvement of carbon total factor productivity.