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The dynamic change trends and internal driving factors of green development efficiency: robust evidence from resource-based Yellow River Basin cities

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Abstract

Promoting the green development of resource-based cities is an essential way to achieve sustainable regional economic development. Based on 2009–2019 panel data of the Yellow River Basin cities, this study adopts the super-directional distance function model to measure the green development efficiency of these selected cities. Furthermore, based on the Malmquist-Luenberger index, this paper focuses on the dynamic change trend of green development efficiency and internal driving factors. Furthermore, the Tobit model is used to specifically explore the influencing factors affecting the green development of cities. The findings suggested that the green development efficiency of selected cities falls in the middle to high range and that the efficiency varies among all cities in the Yellow River Basin. Likewise, technical efficiency improvements and technological progress drive development efficiency, and the former contributes more to green development. However, financial development, energy structure adjustments, and environmental regulation can strongly contribute to the green development of cities, and each influencing factor has obvious temporal and regional differences. This paper proposes appropriate policy suggestions to promote the coordinated development of the economic development and environmental protection of the Yellow River Basin.

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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 Science Foundation of China Grant No. 21BJY163 and the National Natural Science Foundation (41971127).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Li Yue, Huizhen Yan & Fayyaz Ahmad

  2. Department of Finance, College of Business Administration, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Najia Saqib

  3. College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Abbas Ali Chandio

  4. Department of Commerce, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Muhammad Munir Ahmad

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  1. Li Yue
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  2. Huizhen Yan
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  3. Fayyaz Ahmad
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  4. Najia Saqib
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  5. Abbas Ali Chandio
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  6. Muhammad Munir Ahmad
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Contributions

Data curation: Li Yue and Huizhen Yan; formal analysis: Li Yue, Fayyaz Ahmad, Abbas Ali Chandio, and Huizhen Yan; investigation: Muhammad Munir Ahmad and Najia Saqib; methodology: Li Yue and Huizhen Yan; project administration: Fayyaz Ahmad; writing original draft: Li Yue, Huizhen Yan, and Fayyaz Ahmad; writing, review, and editing: Najia Saqib, Muhammad Munir Ahmad, and Abbas Ali Chandio. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fayyaz Ahmad.

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Yue, L., Yan, H., Ahmad, F. et al. The dynamic change trends and internal driving factors of green development efficiency: robust evidence from resource-based Yellow River Basin cities. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 48571–48586 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25684-4

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