Eco-efficiency in China’s Loess Plateau Region and its influencing factors: a data envelopment analysis from both static and dynamic perspectives
- 31 July 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Environmental Science and Pollution Research
- Vol. 29 (1), 483-497
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15278-3
Abstract
China’s Loess Plateau Region (LPR) plays a significant role in national ecological security and development. Due to the advantage that relates environment with economy, eco-efficiency has become an important indicator of sustainable analysis. Using cross-level panel data for the period 2006–2017, this paper studied LPR’s static eco-efficiency and dynamic performance through a combined application of DEA super-efficient slack-based measure and Malmquist Productivity Index at multi-scales. LPR’s eco-efficiency was found to experience a slight increase during the study period. The value decreased roughly from east to west, with high eco-efficiency mainly distributed in provincial cities and resource-based cities. The decomposition of the Malmquist Index indicated that technological change contributed most to the improvement of eco-efficiency in the LPR. Besides, this paper explained the variations of eco-efficiency based on the integrated input-output indicators and TOBIT regression model. Economic scale, population density, government regulation, technical innovation, and openness degree were identified as positive influencing factors, while the structure of the industry and land-use intensity were found to have negative impacts on eco-efficiency. Resource-based cities were found to have stronger potentials for eco-efficiency improvement than non-resource-based cities. This paper revealed the characteristics of LPR’s eco-efficiency from three perspectives: a spatiotemporal perspective, a macro-meso-micro perspective, and a static-dynamic perspective. The findings of this study hold important implications for policy makers.Funding Information
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0404302)
- Northwest University Talent Foundation
This publication has 53 references indexed in Scilit:
- Eco-efficiency in early design decisions: A multimethodology approachJournal of Cleaner Production, 2020
- Assessment of eco-efficiency change considering energy and environment: A study of China’s non-ferrous metals industryJournal of Cleaner Production, 2020
- How technological innovations affect urban eco-efficiency in China: A prefecture-level panel data analysisJournal of Cleaner Production, 2020
- The eco-efficiency assessment of wastewater treatment plants in the city of Mashhad using emergy and life cycle analysesJournal of Cleaner Production, 2019
- Is metabolism in all regions of China performing well? – Evidence from a new DEA-Malmquist productivity approachEcological Indicators, 2019
- Improving eco-efficiency for the sustainable agricultural production: A case study in Shandong, ChinaTechnological Forecasting and Social Change, 2018
- Influencing factors of eco-efficient urban waste management: Evidence from Spanish municipalitiesJournal of Cleaner Production, 2017
- Integrating the Data Envelopment Analysis and the Balanced Scorecard approaches for enhanced performance assessmentOmega, 2012
- Multilateral Productivity Comparisons When Some Outputs are Undesirable: A Nonparametric ApproachThe Review of Economics and Statistics, 1989
- Measuring the efficiency of decision making unitsEuropean Journal of Operational Research, 1978