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Spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of atmospheric environmental efficiency in China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 28, pages 12428–12440 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

This research constructs a super efficiency slack-based measure (SBM) model based on the Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index to analyze the atmospheric environmental efficiency (AEE) of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2016 and explores the spatial and temporal differences of AEE by using the coefficient of variation method. This paper further analyzes the internal influencing factors of AEE via the ML index decomposition approach and establishes a panel data regression model to explore AEE’s influencing factors in China. The results show some regional differences of the AEE level in China, with it the best in the eastern region and followed in order by the western and central region, and these differences exhibit an increasing trend year by year. During the study period, the development trend of AEE in China is similar to that in the eastern and western regions, showing a “W” shape, where in the central region it has a “U” pattern. The conclusion is that technical progress (TC) is the dominant factor affecting AEE, technical efficiency (EC) fails to effectively promote AEE improvement, and TC and EC present varying degrees of influence and different directions of action in the regions. The analysis results show that the influence effect of economic development on AEE presents a “U” pattern of first declining and then rising. The degree of China opening up to the outside world and its carbon dioxide emissions intensity have significant negative effects on AEE, whereas the increase of pollution control input effectively improves AEE.

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Data availability

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

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the editor and the anonymous reviewers of this paper.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 71934001, 71471001, 71533004, and 41771568), National Social Science Foundation of China (grant number 20ZDA084), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number 2016YFA0602500), the Ministry of Education in China (grant number 20YJC90193), the Higher Education Institutions in Anhui Province of China (grant number KJ2020A0006), the Innovation Strategy Research Project of Fujian Province (grant number 2020R0106), Social Science Foundation of Fujian Province (FJ2018C013), and the New Century Excellent Talents Support Plan for Universities in Fujian Province.

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Affiliations

  1. School of Economy, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350117, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaowei Ma, Xin Zhao, Lin Zhang & Huangxin Chen

  2. School of Statistics and Applied Mathematics, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, 233030, People’s Republic of China

    Yuanxiang Zhou

Authors
  1. Xiaowei Ma
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  2. Xin Zhao
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  3. Lin Zhang
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  4. Yuanxiang Zhou
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  5. Huangxin Chen
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Contributions

Conceptualization, X.M and X.Z.; methodology, X.Z.; software, X.M.; validation, H.C., L.Z., and Y.Z..; formal analysis, H.C.; investigation, L.Z.; resources, X.M.; data curation, X.Z.; writing—original draft preparation, X.M; writing—review and editing, H.C.; visualization, X.Z.; supervision, H.C.; project administration, H.C.; funding acquisition, H.C. and Y.Z.. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Huangxin Chen.

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Ma, X., Zhao, X., Zhang, L. et al. Spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of atmospheric environmental efficiency in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 12428–12440 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11128-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11128-w

Keywords

  • AEE
  • Super efficiency SBM
  • ML index
  • Coefficient of variation method
  • Influencing factors