Green Total Factor Productivity during the 12th Five-Year Plan Period in China: A Network Malmquist Productivity Index Analysis

Because of the existence of the “black box” hypothesis, the internal operation mechanism of the economic development process is neglected. The paper describes the internal components and operation mechanism of the economic development process by constructing a network, consisting of economic production stage and environmental governance stage. The network Malmquist productivity index is employed to evaluate the green total factor productivity of China during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. The results show that: The overall environmental governance of China is in good condition. The change of network Malmquist productivity index is more closely related to the network technical change. The Malmquist productivity index of the whole network of economic development system shows an inverted "V" change, which is the same as that of two stages. The performance of the eastern region is the best, followed by the northeast region, the central region and the western region are below average.