Growth and Convergence of Agricultural Total Factor Productivity in China Under Environmental Regulations

Using the unit investigation and evaluation method,this paper calculates the agricultural non-point source pollution taken as non-ideal output and incorporates it into the model of agricultural total factor productivity(TFP).Then this paper applying the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index method analyses the growth of agricultural TFP under environmental regulations of 29 provinces in China from 1993 to 2010.On this basis,this paper tested the convergence hypothesis of the agricultural TFP under environmental regulations.The results show as follows: firstly,the agricultural TFP growth under environmental regulations is slightly positive and it is mainly driven by the frontier technological progress,however,the technological efficiency tends to decline for each province in China.Secondly the agricultural TFP growth under environmental regulations of the eastern,western and central regions has reduced in turn.Thirdly,without the consideration of environmental pollution the index of agricultural TFP whether in China or central China and western China areas can increase by 0.88%、1.71% and 2.35%,respectively,however,the index of agricultural TFP in eastern China can reduce by 1.01%.Lastly,there is unstable σ convergence and stable absolute β convergence in the agricultural TFP under environmental regulations of all regions,and the σ value presents significant fluctuation characteristics.