Research on the effect of clean energy development on regional economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions from the perspective of regional differences

The paper uses data envelopment analysis model to decompose economic growth of dongting lake ecological economic zone. The results indicate that economic growth in the counties and cities of the dongting lake ecological economic zone is driven by fixed assets accumulation, which is the only factor responsible for narrowing the gap in economic growth between different regions. The spatial dependence has an important effect on the economic convergence, the decomposed economic growth factors have significant spatial dependence and spatial autocorrelation. As a result, the coefficients obtained by employing the ordinary least squares approach to estimate the standard absolute convergence equation are skewed and inconsistent, and the residuals are characterized by spatial clustering and non-random distribution. When spatial dependence is considered, the coefficients of economic growth are significant and negative and the neoclassical economic growth factor, the fixed assets accumulation, is indicated to be driving the economic convergence. Other the factors of economic development such as human capital, efficiency improvement and technological innovation have resulted in divergence in the dongting lake ecological economic zone’s economic development and have had a extensive influence on the economic gaps among different parts of the dongting lake ecological economic zone.