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The spatial and temporal evolution of provincial eco-efficiency in China based on SBM modified three-stage data envelopment analysis

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Abstract

Eco-efficiency plays a significant role in expressing how efficient the economic activity consumes nature’s goods and services. To accurately measure eco-efficiency, the method slack-based measure modified three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) is adopted to evaluate environmental conditions in China’s 30 provinces from year 2004 to 2016. This study treats carbon emissions and three industrials wastes as undesirable outputs and excludes the influences from external environment and random errors when make adjustments. Based on the results, this study makes the following conclusions: Firstly, industrial structure, trade openness, and population have negative effects on eco-efficiency while technology investment, urbanization process, foreign direct investment, and fiscal decentralization have positive effects on eco-efficiency. Secondly, the eco-efficiency for most provinces after adjusted is lower than the pre-adjusted, which indicates the overestimation in eco-efficiency when using traditional approaches. Thirdly, the eco-efficiency in China showed a clear geographical step distribution, with the highest eco-efficiency in the east area, followed by the central, northwest, and southwest regions.

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Notes

  1. http://reports.weforum.org/global-energy-architecture-performance-index-2017/.

  2. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/.

  3. http://olap.epsnet.com.cn/index.html.

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Funding

This study is funded by the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Shenzhen Environmental Science and New Energy Technology Engineering Laboratory, Grant No. SDRC [2016]172.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shenzhen Environmental Science and New Energy Technology Engineering Laboratory, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Yang Zhou & Ying Kong

  2. Department of Economics, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Ying Kong

  3. School of Public Policy & Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100081, China

    Tuo Zhang

  4. Institute for Hospital Management, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518000, China

    Tuo Zhang

Authors
  1. Yang Zhou
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  2. Ying Kong
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  3. Tuo Zhang
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Correspondence to Ying Kong.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 5 Eco-efficiency in first step
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Table 6 Eco-efficiency in third step
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Zhou, Y., Kong, Y. & Zhang, T. The spatial and temporal evolution of provincial eco-efficiency in China based on SBM modified three-stage data envelopment analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 8557–8569 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07515-7

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