Abstract
In the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), the green economy is an essential to sustainable economic development. In this study, we calculated a comprehensive index of environmental pollution based on the global entropy weight method and used the super slacks-based measure (SBM) model to estimate the green economic efficiency (GEE) of provinces and cities in the YREB from 2005 to 2018. Subsequently, we explored temporal and spatial evolution characteristics combined with the Theil and Moran indexes, and adopted the spatial Dubin model to analyze its influencing factors. We divided the YREB into three watersheds to facilitate the analysis. The results show that the GEE in the YREB initially decreased and then increased, and the difference among the three major watersheds was higher than that within the watershed. We found a positive spatial autocorrelation in the development level of the green economy in the YREB. While industrial structure had a negative effect, economic development, scientific and technological level, and environmental regulation all had a positive effect on GEE. Finally, we offered policy recommendations to improve the level of green development in the YREB.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the yearbooks or the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
Bilgaev A, Dong S, Li F, Cheng H, Sadykova E, Mikheeva A (2020) Assessment of the current eco-socio-economic situation of the Baikal region (Russia) from the perspective of the green economy development. Sustainability 12(9):3767. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093767
Charnes A, Cooper WW, Rhodes E (1979) Measuring the efficiency of decision making units. Eur J Oper Res 2(6):429–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(79)90229-7
Costanza R (1989) What is ecological economics? Ecol Econ 1(1):1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/0921-8009(89)90020-7
Grimaud A, Rouge L (2008) Environment, directed technical change and economic policy. Environ Resource Econ 41(4):439–463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-008-9201-4
Han J, Chen X (2021) Spatial-temporal evolution of urban green development level along the Yangtze River economic belt. East China Econ Manag 35(1):24–34
Jin G, Deng X, Zhao X, Guo B, Yang J (2018) Spatiotemporal patterns in urbanization efficiency within the Yangtze River Economic Belt between 2005 and 2014. J Geogr Sci 28(8):1113–1126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-018-1545-2
Kardos M (2014) The relevance of foreign direct investment for sustainable development: Empirical evidence from European Union. Procedia Econ Fin 15(1):1349–1354. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(14)00598-X
Lai A, Yang Z, Cui L (2021) Can environmental regulations breakdown domestic market segmentation? Evidence from China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29:10157–10172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16387-9
Li Y, Chen Y (2021) Development of an SBM-ML model for the measurement of green total factor productivity: the case of Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 145:111131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111131
Li C, Ji J (2021) Spatial–temporal characteristics and driving factors of green economic efficiency in China. Ann Oper Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-021-04404-6
Li L, Liu Y (2017) Industrial green spatial pattern evolution of Yangtze River Economic Belt in China. Chin Geogra Sci 27(4):660–672
Li C, Qian J, Li G (2020) China’s energy consumption and green economy efficiency: an empirical research based on the threshold effect. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:36621–36629. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09536-z
Li W, Xi WuF, Masoud M, Liu SQ (2019) Green development performance of water resources and its economic-related determinants. J Cleaner Prod 239(12):344–361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118048
Li W, Ouyang X (2020) Investigating the development efficiency of the green economy in China’s equipment manufacturing industry. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27(19):24070–24080. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08811-3
Lin B, Tan R (2019) Economic agglomeration and green economy efficiency in China. J Econ Res 54(02):119–132
Maxime D, Marcotte M, Arcand Y (2006) Development of eco-efficiency indicators for the Canadian food and beverage industry. J Cleaner Prod 14(6–7):636–648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2005.07.015
Nahman A, Mahumani BK, de Lange WJ (2016) Beyond GDP: towards a green economy index. Dev South Afr 33(2):215–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2015.1120649
Peng G, Zhang X, Liu F, Ruan L, Tian K (2021) Spatial–temporal evolution and regional difference decomposition of urban environmental governance efficiency in China. Environ Dev Sustain 23:8974–8990. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-020-01007-2
Puppim De Oliveira JA, Doll CNH, Balaban O et al (2013) Green economy and governance in cities: assessing good governance in key urban economic processes. J Cleaner Prod 58:138–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.07.043
Qiu F, Chen Y, Tan J, Liu J, Zheng Z, Zheng X (2020) Spatial-temporal heterogeneity of green development efficiency and its influencing factors in growing metropolitan area: a case study for the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area. Chin Geogra Sci 30(2):352–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-020-1114-3
Ren Y, Wang C (2017) Empirical study on impact of urbanization on regional green economic efficiency in China. Technol Econ 6(12):72–78
Ren Y (2020) Research on the green total factor productivity and its influencing factors based on system GMM model. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput 11:3497–3508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-019-01472-2
Shahzad U, Schneider N, Ben Jebli M (2021) How coal and geothermal energies interact with industrial development and carbon emissions? An autoregressive distributed lags approach to the Philippines. Resour Policy 74:102342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102342
Shan H (2008) Reestimating the capital stock of China: 1952–2006. J Quant Tech Econ 25(10):17–31
Shironitta K (2016) Global structural changes and their implication for territorial CO 2 emissions. J Econ Struct 5(1):1–18
Song M, Peng L, Shang Y, Zhao X (2022) Green technology progress and total factor productivity of resource-based enterprises: a perspective of technical compensation of environmental regulation. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 174:121276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121276
Sun D, Yuan X, Zhao C, Gu J, Chen Z, Sun H (2022) Decomposition and decoupling analysis of carbon emissions from agricultural economic growth in China’s Yangtze River economic belt. Environ Geochem Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01163-y
Tang J, Tang L, Li Y, Hu Z (2020) Measuring eco-efficiency and its convergence: empirical analysis from China. Energ Effi 13:1075–1087. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-020-09859-3
Tone K (2004) Dealing with undesirable outputs in DEA: a slacks-based measure (SBM) Approach. GRIPS Res Rep Ser 6:44–45
Tu Y, Peng B, Wei G, Elahi E, Yu T (2019) Regional environmental regulation efficiency: spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26(36):37152–37161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06837-w
Walz R, Pfaff M, Marscheider-Weidemann F, Glöser-Chahoud S (2017) Innovations for reaching the green sustainable development goals-where will they come from? Int Econ Econ Policy 14(3):449–480. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10368-017-0386-2
Wang R (2020) The influence of environmental regulation on the efficiency of China’s regional green economy based on the GMM model. Pol J Environ Stud 29(3):2395–2402
Wu D, Wang Y, Qian W (2020) Efficiency evaluation and dynamic evolution of China’s regional green economy: a method based on the Super-PEBM model and DEA window analysis. J Cleaner Prod 264https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121630,121630
Wu C, Zhou X (2020) Research on the spatiotemporal evolution and the influencing factors of green economic efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. J Macro-Qual Res 8(3):120–128
Xia W, Apergis N, Bashir M, Ghosh S, Doğan B, Shahzad U (2022) Investigating the role of globalization, and energy consumption for environmental externalities: empirical evidence from developed and developing economies. Renew Energy 183:219–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.10.084
Xia F, Xu J (2020) Green total factor productivity: a re-examination of quality of growth for provinces in China. China Econ Rev 62:101454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101454
Xu S, Wu T, Zhang Y (2020) The spatial-temporal variation and convergence of green innovation efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:26868–26881. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08865-3
Yang M, Yan X, Li Q (2020) Study on the impact of environmental regulation on the efficiency of industrial pollution control in China. China Popul Resour Environ 30(9):54–61
Yang W, Jin F, Wang C, Lv C (2012) Industrial eco-efficiency and its spatial-temporal differentiation in China. Front Environ Sci Eng 6(4):559–568. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-012-0400-4
Zhang C, Chen P (2021) Industrialization, urbanization, and carbon emission efficiency of Yangtze River Economic Belt—empirical analysis based on stochastic frontier model. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28:66914–66929. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15309-z
Zhang K, Yi Y, Zhang W (2014) Environmental total factor productivity and regional disparity in China. Lett Spat Resour Sci 7:9–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12076-013-0097-4
Zhang J, Wu G, Zhang J (2004) The Estimation of China’s provincial capital stock: 1952–2000. Econ Res J 10:35–44
Zhao X, Ma X, Chen B, Shang Y, Song M (2022) Challenges toward carbon neutrality in China: Strategies and countermeasures. Resour Conserv Recycl 176:105959. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105959
Zhuo C, Deng F (2020) How does China’s Western Development Strategy affect regional green economic efficiency? Sci Total Environ 707:135939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135939
Zou H, Ma X (2021) Identifying resource and environmental carrying capacity in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China: the perspectives of spatial differences and sustainable development. Environ Dev Sustain 23:14775–14798. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01271-w
Zhou Y, Liu Z, Liu S, Chen M, Zhang X, Wang Y (2020) Analysis of industrial eco-efficiency and its influencing factors in China. Clean Technol Environ Policy 22:2023–2038. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01943-7
Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Science Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Anhui Province (Grant Nos. KJ2019ZD45, KJ2020A0120), the Social Science Planning Project in Anhui Province (Grant No. AHSKF2021D29), the Innovation Development Research Project in Anhui Province (Grant No. 2021CX053), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71901088).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Writing-original draft, methodology, resources, writing-review and editing: Y. Song; conceptualization, data curation, funding acquisition: X. Sun; formal analysis, investigation: P. Xia; project administration, software: Z. Cui; supervision, validation, visualization: X. Zhao.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Eyup Dogan
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Song, Y., Sun, X., Xia, P. et al. Research on the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors of green economic efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 68257–68268 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20542-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20542-1