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Eco‐efficiency is an important indicator which serves as a helpful instrument for the studies of sustainable development. This paper estimated the eco‐efficiency of 26 cities in China's Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations. Based on different matrixes, Moran's I was applied to analyze the spatial correlation. The spatial Durbin model was applied to analyze the direct and indirect effect of influencing factors. Some conclusions were drawn. (a) The average eco‐efficiency showed an increasing trend. The regional difference of eco‐efficiency decreased and then increased. Shanghai's eco‐efficiency had been the highest. (b) The eco‐efficiency showed positive spatial autocorrelation and it also exhibited significant characteristic of local spatial autocorrelation. (c) Economic development, fixed assets investment, and technological level of one city had a significant positive impact on the eco‐efficiency of the city itself. Industrial structure, fiscal decentralization, and foreign direct investment of a city had a significant negative impact on the eco‐efficiency of the city itself. Changes in the economic development and technological levels in a city had positive impacts on the eco‐efficiency of its neighboring cities. Foreign direct investment had a negative spatial spillover effect. (d) This paper suggested that it is necessary to pay attention to the interaction of influencing factors among cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]