Do large cities have a productivity advantage in China? From the perspective of green total factor productivity growth.

Green total factor productivity (GTFP) under resource and environmental constraints is becoming increasingly important. This study constructed a new productivity indicator to calculate urban GTFP growth and identify whether large cities have an advantage. The Dagum Gini coefficient was combined to reveal the difference in GTFP growth among cities of different sizes, and urban GTFP growth was decomposed from the perspective of elements and technology. In addition, an econometric model was used to test the effects of city size on the GTFP growth and its decompositions. The results show an increasingly significant GTFP growth advantage in large cities, mainly due to technical progress, scale-mix efficiency growth, technical leadership effect, input utilization efficiency growth, expected output efficiency growth, and unexpected output governance efficiency growth. Notably, the econometric model shows that after controlling some external factors, the growth rate of urban GTFP still increases with the expansion of city size, which proves that large cities have an obvious productivity advantage. However, the sources of GTFP growth advantages of large cities no longer include scale-mix efficiency growth and input utilization efficiency growth. This study's conclusion has significant theoretical and practical implications for promoting the coordinated development of large, medium and small cities. C813, F061.2. [Display omitted] • This study constructs a MNEGLHM productivity indicator to measure the GTFP growth. • This is based on the input and output data of 280 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019. • Large cities have GTFP growth advantages and move economic development. • Decomposition results show the advantages of GTFP growth and where they stem from. • An econometric model is used to comprehensively test the effects of city size on the GTFP growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]