Does industrial convergence promote regional metabolism? Evidence from China

Industrial convergence is one of the important strategies to promote China’s sustainable development, and its development is phased. In order to better explore the heterogeneous effect of industrial convergence on regional metabolism in different stages, we takes the convergence of manufacturing and producer services in 26 provinces of China as the research object, and for the first time attempt to empirically test the impact of industrial convergence at different stages on metabolic efficiency. In this paper, we measure metabolic efficiency using emergy analysis and index data envelopment analysis (Index-DEA) and measure the convergence degree of the two industries using the coupling evaluation model. Then, we analyze the effects of industrial convergence on metabolic efficiency using the Tobit model. The results show that industrial convergence can significantly promote the metabolic efficiency of China. Specifically, in the emerging industry convergence zone, industry convergence has a significant promoting effect on the advancement of metabolic efficiency, while in the mature industry convergence zone, industry convergence has no effect on metabolic efficiency. Moreover, this paper considers six other factors that affect regional metabolism. In addition to government interaction, the other five factors have an impact on metabolism efficiency. Finally, special issues are briefly discussed. The results provide important insights for policy makers to better promote industrial convergence and improve regional metabolism.