LAUSR

Abstract Road transportation has been playing an irreplaceable role in the process of pursuing sustainable development. This study employs a Global Malmquist-Luenberger Index approach to evaluate the green productivity growth of this industry at the provincial level based on the Data Envelopment Analysis and Directional Distance Function. Further, it decomposes green productivity growth into changes in various types of efficiency and technological progress. Finally, this study structures a novel quadrant matrix analysis framework based on the green productivity growth rate and stability, using the matrix to analyze the performance of provincial road transportation industries. This analysis results show that: (1) a fluctuating and slowly upward trend of green productivity over time exists; (2) at the regional level, the road transportation industries in Western and Central China achieved green productivity growth because of the catch-up effect and the economies of scale, respectively; (3) the green productivity in China’s Eastern area (the most developed area) declined, giving opportunities for improvement in both technology and efficiency; and (4) the southeast coast and border provinces showed large fluctuations in terms of green productivity of road transportation because of the impact of foreign trade environment. Implications for transportation system planning are provided based on the results.