Does biased technological progress facilitate the reduction of transportation carbon emissions? A threshold-based perspective

Rather than relying on traditional factors, low-carbon transportation should be developed by paying more attention to innovation. By constructing an extended stochastic frontier production function, this study explores the threshold effect of technological progress bias on CO2 emission in the transportation sector in eight different regions of China. It is found as the technological progress bias crosses the threshold, the impact of technological progress bias on transportation CO2 emission changes from positive to negative in Northeast China, the midstream of the Yellow River, East China, the Southeast Coast, the midstream of the Yangtze River and the Northwest region. In Northeast China, the coefficient changes from 0.121 to −0.168. In the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the coefficient changes from 0.528 to −0.0468. In East China, the coefficient changes from 0.495 to −0.325. In the Southeast Coast, the coefficient changes from 0.112 to −0.757. In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the coefficient changes from 0.518 to −0.177. In Southwest China, the coefficient changes from 0.293 to −0.014. In Northwest China, the coefficient changes from 1.021 to −1.436. In North China, when the technological progress bias exceeds the threshold, the biased technological progress still promotes CO2 emission. The coefficient changes from 0.157 to 0.406. The governments should continue to encourage the transformation of energy technologies from non-renewable energy to renewable energy through differentiated policies.