Analysis on the Spatio-Temporal Evolution Characteristics of the Impact of China’s Digitalization Process on Green Total Factor Productivity

Green production is an inevitable choice for China’s high-quality economic development. With the rise of the digital technology revolution, China’s digital transformation may play an integral and important role in increasing green total factor productivity (GTFP). Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2014–2020, the impact of digitization on GTFP was explored using the model of geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR), and the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and development trends of such effects were further explored. The main findings are as follows: (1) China’s digitalization level and GTFP has significant spatial autocorrelation and similar spatial distribution characteristics. (2) Digitalization has a significant positive impact on GTFP, but this impact decreases yearly, and there are noticeable regional differences. Digitalization in the eastern and central regions has a more significant impact on GTFP than in the west. (3) The region where China’s digital development has extensively promoted GTFP has shifted from China’s southern coastal region to the northwest and northeast regions. (4) The time-series fluctuations of the regression coefficients of the digitization level in each province in China also show agglomeration characteristics. That is, the regression coefficients of neighboring provinces have similar time-series fluctuations.