Exploring Driving Forces of Green Growth: Empirical Analysis on China’s Iron and Steel Industry

Green growth of sectors with extensive energy and environmental impacts represented by the iron and steel (IS) industry plays a critical role in fostering sustainable and inclusive development. This paper constructs an updated evaluation model for green growth estimation by combining a global Malmquist–Luenberger index and an epsilon-based measure. A comprehensive decomposition framework is further posited to reveal underlying determinants of green growth. Research findings based on empirical tests from the panel data of Chinese IS firms spanning 2010–2017 demonstrate that the green growth level increased by 0.80% annually and followed the east–central–west gradient distribution. Technology progress and scale efficiency are two main contributors to China’s IS industrial green growth, whereas managerial inefficiency and scale bias of technical change hinder the productivity gains. The aforementioned factors also play different roles in enhancing the green growth of divergent regions. In accordance, context-specific practical implications and suggestions are put forward based on the research findings to facilitate the green growth of China’s IS industry.