Measurement and Multiple Decomposition of Total Factor Productivity Growth in China’s Coal Industry

Abstract

Optimizing the industry development system and implementing a high-quality development strategy in China’s coal industry require us to grasp the overall status and regional differences of industrial development. Measuring and decomposing the total factor productivity growth of the coal industry is a necessary prerequisite. In this study, we estimated the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of coal industry in 24 major coal-producing provinces in China by constructing a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model based on a translog production function and decomposed it into technological progress change (TC), technical efficiency change (TE), scale efficiency change (SE), and factor allocation efficiency (AE). After analyzing the temporal evolution characteristics of TFP growth and its decomposition terms, we also characterized the spatial characteristics by region and province. The results showed that TFP growth in China’s coal industry is on the rise, with TC growth being the main driving factor of this; additionally, the weak growth of SE and AE also plays a limited role in this increase, while the decrease in TE hinders this trend. There are also significant regional differences in the TFP growth of China’s coal industry, with a ranking of central > west > east > northeast. Drivers of TFP growth vary between regions or in different provinces within the same region.