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586Behind the rapid economic growth in China, the extensive development mode of “high energy-consumption, high pollution, and high growth” has always been criticized. In fact, China has made unremitting efforts to control pollution emissions and promote green and high-quality development, and has achieved very remarkable results. However, due to the lack of measurement on China’s green development from a micro perspective, and the lack of comprehensive analysis of its internal logic, it is impossible to scientifically evaluate the progress made in green high-quality development, and promote the scientific decision-making of future policies according to micro behavior laws.
This paper incorporates the green attributes of products into the framework of technological complexity, measures the level of China’s green development from a micro perspective, and then reveals the underlying logic of green development from the perspectives of product penetration and path dependence. The study finds that: China’s green development shows a stable upward trend; the dual penetration of green products in the dimensions of continuous products and new products constitutes the basic path of China’s green development; for green penetration in China, its main form is continuous products, its main body is low-tech products, its main destination is economically developed areas, and its main industry is mechanical and electronic manufacturing. Further research finds that the green development path of China exhibits a significant characteristic of path dependence, and its main influencing factors are green technology and environmental regulations.
The marginal contributions of this paper are as follows: First, on the basis of the list of green products, it positions green development at the product level, and based on the perspective of export, it constructs the green development index, providing a basic case for examining the level of China’s green development at the micro level and carrying out empirical analysis. Second, it reveals the green penetration phenomenon and green path dependence characteristic behind China’s green development, opens the black box of green development products, and describes the main driving forces of green development, providing experience reference and path inspiration for further planning the green development path.
