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Industrial three-division network system in China: efficiencies and their impact factors

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Abstract

The industrial production system can be divided into energy consumption (EC), wastewater treatment (WWT), and waste gas treatment (WGT) stages. Based on three stages, this paper presents an empirical investigation on China’s industrial efficiencies and the impact factors between 2011 and 2015. Specifically, we apply the network slacks-based measure (SBM) model to evaluate the industrial eco-efficiency, and calculate the division efficiencies via efficiency decomposition approach. Furthermore, the factors affecting the industrial efficiencies are explored through Tobit regression. We find that (1) there is a great potential to improve the eco-efficiency, and for most provinces, the EC efficiencies are highest, followed by the WGT efficiencies, and the WWT efficiencies are the lowest. (2) The efficiencies present obvious area disparities, the eco-efficiency of the eastern area is the highest except for 2012 and 2013, and the eastern area behaves best at the EC stage, while the western area at the WGT stage and the central area fluctuate greatly at the WWT stage. (3) Technological innovation and urbanization level hinder the improvements of eco-efficiency, while economic structure, industrial structure, and economic development level are positive impact factors, especially the industrial structure. Moreover, environmental regulation insignificantly affects the eco-efficiency but exerts a positive effect on the WGT efficiency.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was funded by the National Social Sciences Foundation of China, under Grant No. 14BXW026, and the Natural Science Foundation for Zhejiang Province(Grant LZ18G010001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310000, China

    Cheng zhen Xu & Shixiong Wang

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  1. Cheng zhen Xu
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  2. Shixiong Wang
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Contributions

Writing-original draft preparation, methodology, formal analysis, and software have been done by C.X.; data curation, conceptualization, validation, and visualization have been done by C.X. and S.W.; supervision and funding acquisition have been done by S.W.; investigation has been done by C.X.; finally, writing-review and editing have been done by C.X. and S.W.

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Correspondence to Shixiong Wang.

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Xu, C., Wang, S. Industrial three-division network system in China: efficiencies and their impact factors. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 47375–47394 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13651-w

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