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Assessing urbanization efficiency and its influencing factors in China based on Super-SBM and geographical detector models

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Abstract

Improving urbanization efficiency (UE) has gradually become an important requirement for the development of new-type urbanization. In this paper, first, we applied the Super-SBM model with undesirable outputs and Malmquist index to evaluate the UE of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2016 based on static and dynamic perspectives. Second, influencing factors were explored using the novel geographical detector model. The results show that China’s UE was not high overall and was increasing slowly. Regionally, the UE presented a high-to-low spatial evolution from east to west. Technical change was the main reason for the slow growth in efficiency, and undesirable outputs (pollutant emissions) were the key to efficiency loss. Over the study period, GDP per capita and urbanization rate had the greatest determining power on the UE, but their determination power was declining. Meanwhile, the impact of research and development (R&D) and foreign direct investment (FDI) on UE became increasingly important. Finally, some suggestions for improving the urban ecological environment and UE in China are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the comments and suggestions of the reviewers and editors to improve the paper.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.71974191), National Social Science Fund Late-funded Project of China (No.19FGLB057), the Key Project of Jiangsu Universities’ Philosophy and Social Sciences Research (No.2017ZDIXM162), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.2020ZDPYSK05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xiangyan Qian

  2. Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xiangyan Qian

  3. School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Di Wang & Rui Nie

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  1. Xiangyan Qian
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  2. Di Wang
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Contributions

Xiangyan Qian: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing–original draft, writing–review and editing. Di Wang: conceptualization, formal analysis, funding acquisition, writing–review and editing. Rui Nie: funding acquisition, writing–review and editing.

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Correspondence to Xiangyan Qian or Di Wang.

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Highlights

1. Super-SBM model with undesirable outputs and Malmquist–Luenberger index are adopted to evaluate urbanization efficiency.

2. The novel geographical detector method is applied to explore influencing factors.

3. The dynamic change and urbanization efficiency loss are mainly affected by technical change and excessive undesirable outputs, respectively.

4. The impact of R&D and FDI on urbanization efficiency is becoming increasingly important

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Qian, X., Wang, D. & Nie, R. Assessing urbanization efficiency and its influencing factors in China based on Super-SBM and geographical detector models. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 31312–31326 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12763-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12763-7

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