• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.95-110
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• 2021

Purpose - This paper intends to conduct theoretical analysis and empirical test on the action mechanism of South Korea-China trade and South Korea's FDI to China on green total factor productivity, so as to provide a new perspective and ideas for the improvement of China's green total factor productivity and promote the high-quality development of China's economy Design/methodology - This paper uses the data of 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China from 2004 to 2017 as the research sample, adopts the GML index method of SBM Directional Distance Function to measure GTFP, and analyzes the influence of South Korea-China trade and FDI from South Korea on China's GTFP. Findings - Trade is conducive to promoting technological progress, which has a significant promotion effect on China's green total factor productivity. While FDI has a significant inhibitory effect on China's green total factor productivity, which verifies the "pollution haven" hypothesis. In addition, such influence has certain regional overall heterogeneity. Trade has a more significant promoting effect on GTFP in eastern coastal areas, while FDI has a more significant inhibitory effect on GTFP in central and western inland areas. The interaction between trade and FDI is conducive to the improvement of green total factor productivity, indicating that the benign mechanism of trade and FDI has been formed. Urbanization, industrial structure, human resource level and investment in science and technology are all conducive to the improvement of GTFP. Originality/value - Through theoretical analysis and empirical test on the action mechanism of South Korea-China trade and South Korea's FDI on green total factor productivity, this paper provides a solid theoretical foundation for the further development of China-South Korea economic and trade cooperation in the future.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.27-44
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the net effect of the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of China's manufacturing industry from the China-Korea Free Trade Area (China-Korea FTA) quantitatively. Design/methodology - Firstly, the Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index based on the SBM directional distance function is used to measure the GTFP of China's manufacturing and analyze the driving force for its growth. Secondly, the regression discontinuity quantitative analysis is used to determine the impact of the China-Korea FTA on China's manufacturing GTFP. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: the China-Korea FTA has promoted the GTFP of China's manufacturing with an effect evaluation mainly resulting from green technology progress. And there is industry heterogeneity in the policy effect on the manufacturing GTFP due to the China-Korea FTA. Namely, policy promotion from the China-Korea FTA is more effective on the GTFP of equipment manufacturing than it is on those of other industries. Originality/value - First, an evaluation and analysis of the GTFP development of China's manufacturing that employs GML index based on SBM directional distance function. Second, a quantitative estimate of China-Korea FTA's net effect on China's manufacturing industrial GTFP that uses regression discontinuity analysis, which is considered to be the closest method to natural experiments and superior to other causal inference methods. Third, an in-depth discussion of the practical steps that China's manufacturing can take to improve GTFP development and integrate China-Korea FTA construction into economic development.