Estimation of China’s Green Investment Efficiency in Belt and Road Countries -Based on SBM-Undesirable Model and Malmquist Index Model

Green and low-carbon development is an important element of the Belt and Road Initiative, and a reasonable and objective evaluation of China’s green investment efficiency in B&R countries is of great significance to promote the sustainable development of those area. This paper applies the Slack-based measure model that considers undesirable outputs and Malmquist total factor productivity index to measure the efficiency of China’s green investment in B&R countries from 2011 to 2018 from both static and dynamic perspectives, as well as provides an in-depth analysis of the differences, changes, and influential factors. The empirical results reveal that the overall efficiency of China’s green investment in B&R countries is relatively low, showing a distinctly uneven trend and the main driving force of the decline in total factor productivity comes from technical change. Some significant differences have also been reported amongst these countries in terms of their industrial development and income levels. These findings provide a valuable reference for B&R countries to identify unique strategies that can promote their green total productivity factor.