The impact of technological innovation on transport carbon emission efficiency in China: Spillover effect or siphon effect?

It is currently unknown whether technological innovation will have spillover or siphon effects on transport carbon emission efficiency (TCEE). Therefore, this paper creates a spatial econometric model to explore the spatial effect of technological innovation on TCEE. Taking 30 provinces in China as examples, we find that the TCEE and the technical innovation index have similar evolution characteristics (numerical value grows, the gap widens), and that both have a spatial distribution that decreases from the eastern coast to the western inland. Further research reveals that TCEE has a considerable siphon effects in China. The siphon effect gets stronger the higher the TCEE. Although technology innovation has the potential to improve TCEE in local province, the siphon effect hinders TCEE improvement in surrounding provinces. Furthermore, heterogeneity research reveals that excessive government intervention will inhibit the promotion of technological innovation on TCEE. Greater levels of government intervention in the middle and western regions than in the eastern region have more obvious inhibitory impacts. The results demonstrate that economic growth and transport structure have played a mediating role in the process of technological innovation promoting TCEE. Regional collaboration and less local protectionism can help the government achieve the dual goals of technological innovation development and TCEE promotion.