The convergence of carbon emission performance and cointegration analysis for China

In this paper we apply a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for measuring changes in total carbon emission efficiency between 1986 and 2008 across Chinese regions and then estimate driving forces of regional carbon emission performance (MCPI). A long-run relationship has been detected and the coefficients, estimated using Kao´s method, are statistically significant mostly. Our results indicate the positive effect of R&D, price and public expenditure on carbon emission performance and the negative effect of export, industrial structure and the geographical spillover of R&D among them, R&D turns out to have the strongest impact on MCPI. The key to improving it is inner innovation. Finally, our results support the hypothesis of “Pollution haven” and there isn´t a process of carbon emission performance convergence occur over the period examined.