Energy Transition, Trade Structure and Green Productivity Within Global Value Chain Production Networks

Integration into global production networks does not necessarily translate into green productivity gains. This study examines the associations of renewable electricity and global value chain (GVC) participation with green productivity in BRICS economies during 1990–2024. Green productivity is measured using Malmquist–Luenberger total factor productivity change, incorporating carbon emissions as an undesirable output. CS‐ARDL provides the principal estimates, accounting for common influences and dynamic adjustment, whereas CS‐DL and FGLS provide supplementary checks. Extensions examine energy efficiency as a control and an outcome, alongside sensitivity to country‐specific linear trends. GVC participation is negative but statistically insignificant in the principal estimates and remains insignificant after trend adjustment. Renewable electricity is positively associated with green productivity in the baseline estimates, but its coefficients decline and lose statistical significance after introducing country‐specific trends. Energy efficiency findings vary across estimators: GVC participation is positively associated with efficiency in FGLS, whereas renewable electricity exhibits negative associations in FGLS and long‐run CS‐DL estimates. The study contributes macro‐level evidence distinguishing cleaner electricity, energy efficiency, and environmentally adjusted productivity within BRICS production networks. Its findings inform coordinated energy and industrial policy, whereas specification sensitivity and unresolved endogeneity warrant interpretation as conditional associations.