Total factor productivity of marine economy in China in the era of digital economy

: Based on the external conditions of technological progress and market demand upgrading in the process of high-quality development and the evolution of production factors, the factors of production in a digital economy are no longer limited to the traditional factors of production of labor, land, and capital. As knowledge and information, data have become the new core factor of production. However, data do not spontaneously generate economic value, and their impact on the economy does not break away from the framework of the traditional endogenous growth theory. They integrate technology flow, material flow, capital flow, and talent flow effectively, which render many factors in the traditional economic growth theory with new meanings. Therefore, it is necessary to appropriately expand the existing theoretical system. Based on the evolution of the endogenous growth model, this study constructed an input-output indicator system including data factor to measure the total factor productivity of marine economy in 11 coastal provinces of China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) and the productivity changes of each factor from 2006 to 2018 using the directional distance function (DDF)- Luenberger index and its decomposition model. The results show that: 1) The performance of data factor in all coastal areas of China increased to different degrees, but the digital divide between these areas during the study period still cannot be ignored. 2) The measurement results of the DDF-Luenberger index show that since 2006, the total factor productivity of marine economy in all coastal areas has increased, and the stage characteristics are obvious. 3) The results of single factor performance measurement show that: with regard to the data factor, having large amounts of data only indicate the potential to transform them into real productivity, and the change of total factor data productivity still depends more on the change of digital technology. With regard to the labor factor, the development of digital economy shows the Matthew effect in the improvement of labor skills. During the study period, the total factor labor productivity in all coastal areas showed an upward trend. With regard to the capital factor, the change of total factor capital productivity shows obvious temporal and spatial differentiation characteristics. With regard to the resource factor, in general, the total factor resource productivity of coastal provinces shows positive changes with obvious stage characteristics.