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Numerous studies have divided industrial water use system into stages of industrial water use (IWU) and wastewater treatment (IWT) subsystems, named as the IWUWT system, yet scant studies have examined its dynamic recycling efficiency with non-discretionary variables. This paper proposes a dynamic two-stage recycling model with non-discretionary variables to compare and analyze the basin differences of the efficiency, and further reveal the driving forces of this efficiency in the Yangtze River basin and Yellow River basin. The results are as follows. (1) The average overall efficiency of the IWUWT system for the 30 provinces during 2011-2018 was 0.79 due to the bad performance of the IWT subsystem with an efficiency score of 0.74, especially for Yunnan and Guangxi. (2) The influence of economic policy uncertainty on circulating industrial water use is more significant in the south basin. (3) Economic development and water use intensity were the main drivers of IWUWT efficiency in the Yangtze River basin, while economic development and environmental consciousness were for the Yellow River basin. The results have important implications for Chinese government and different provinces to improve IWUWT efficiency by policy-making., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Improving water use efficiency from a recycling perspective is claimed to be a better way to ensure prosperity in a water-stressed world. Although many studies have focused on the efficiency of integrated water use system, such as a water use and wastewater treatment (WUWT) system, few studies have observed the dynamic change involving a two-stage recycling structure. This research thus proposes a dynamic two-stage recycling model within the directional distance function (DDF) by taking reused water in the WT stage as a recycled product for WU stage's input in the next period. This paper reveals the dynamic evolution and spatial migration path of this efficiency in China. Results are as follows. (1) The average overall efficiency of the urban WUWT system for 30 provinces during 2011-2018 was 0.78. The central region's lower WUWT efficiency was caused by the expanding provincial differences in WU efficiency. (2) The urban WU sub-system performed poorer than that of the urban WT sub-system due to underutilizing reused water, such as in Jiangxi, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Jilin. (3) Narrowing the spatial imbalance of economic development and water use between the eastern and western regions is of great importance for promoting China's spatial imbalance of urban WUWT efficiency., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The demand for energy has continued to increase because of global economic development, which has led to rising fuel prices and continued pollution problems. China is currently the largest coal consumer and is also the largest emitter of coal-fired CO 2 emissions. However, past efficiency studies have been mostly limited to static analyses and have not considered undesirable outputs. Therefore, this study developed a bound dynamic directional distance function (DDF) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to explore the energy and environmental efficiencies in 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2015, from which it was found that (1) the overall efficiency was the best in the eastern region, but relatively low in the western region; (2) Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangxi, Jilin, and some other regions had efficiencies of 1; (3) the revenue and non-coal indicator efficiencies were reasonably good, but the expenditure and emissions efficiencies were generally poor; and (4) the key direction for primary improvements was found to be the emissions index.

Water resource shortage has become a major bottleneck restricting the sustainable development of China's economy and society. Identifying the driving factors of water use is helpful to put forward suggestions of water-saving society construction. This paper takes Jiangsu province as example and adopts LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) method to decompose the driving factors of water use change. We find that the production intensity effect and the industrial structure effect are the two dominating factors that induce the decline of total water use. Economic development effect is the most important factor to promote the increase of total water use, and domestic intensity effect is the secondary factors except for 2000-2003 period. Population scale effect on the total water use is relatively weak. The domestic intensity effect is the primary factor to promote the increase of domestic water use; the urbanization effect is a secondary factor to promote the increase of domestic water use. Based on the research conclusions, the corresponding water-saving policy is put forward.

Environment pollution was closely related to human health. The energy consumption is one of the important sources of environmental pollution in the development of economy. This paper used undesirable two-stage meta-frontier DDF (distance difference function) data envelopment analysis model to explore the impact of environment pollutants from energy consumption on the mortality of children and the aged, survival rate of 65 years old and health expenditure efficiency in 27 high income countries, 21 upper middle income countries, and 16 lower middle income countries from 2010 to 2014. High income countries had higher efficiency of energy and health than middle income countries in general. But whether in high income or middle income countries, the efficiency of non-renewable energy is higher than renewable energy. There was much room for both high income countries and middle income countries to improve renewable energy efficiency. Besides, middle income countries need to improve the efficiency of non-renewable energy and reduce pollutant emissions per unit of GDP. In terms of health efficiency, upper middle income countries performed worse than lower income countries. This phenomenon might indicate there was a U-shaped relationship between health efficiency and income level. Upper income countries should pay more attention to the environmental and health problems and cross the U-shaped turning point. The contribution of this article was to consider the heterogeneous performance of energy efficiency, environmental efficiency, and health efficiency under the influence of income level differences, and found that there might be a U-shaped relationship between health efficiency and income level.

China's rapid economic growth is accompanied by increasing energy consumption and severe environmental problems. As sustainable development can only be achieved by reducing energy intensity, new energy and renewable energy investment, as well as improving traditional energy efficiency, is becoming increasingly important. However, past energy efficiency assessments using data envelopment analysis (DEA) models mostly focused on radial and non-radial DEA model analyses. However, traditional radial DEA models ignore non-radial slacks when evaluating efficiency values, and non-radial DEA models ignore the same proportionality as radial DEA when evaluating efficiency value slacks. To balance the radial and non-radial model characteristics and consider undesirable output, this study combines a modified Epsilou-based measure (EBM) DEA and undesirable output and proposes a modified undesirable EBM DEA model to analyze the efficiency of China's new and traditional energy sources. The empirical results found that (1) most new energy investment in most municipalities/provinces rapidly grew from 2013 to 2016; (2) as the annual efficiency score was only 1 in Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, and Tianjin, the other 26 municipalities/provinces need significant improvements; (3) traditional energy efficiency scores were higher than new energy efficiency; and (4) NO 2 efficiencies are slightly better than CO 2 and SO 2 efficiencies.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is one of the most important areas for the economic growth of China, but rapid development has caused tremendous damage to the energy and ecological environments of the region. Very few studies have compared the carbon emissions of YREB with that of non-YREB and furthermore, have not considered regional differences and radial or non-radial characteristics in their analysis. This paper thus selects the energy consumption data of 19 provinces and cities in YREB and 19 provinces and cities in non-YREB from 2013 to 2016, constructs the modified meta-frontier Epsilou-based measure (EBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and adds an undesirable factor, energy consumption, and CO₂ emission efficiency of each province and city of the two regions. The results are as follows. (1) China's provinces and cities have different energy efficiency scores in energy consumption, economic growth, and CO₂ emissions. The regional ranks and technology gaps of five provinces and cities in non-YREB and of four provinces and cities in YREB exhibit a decline. Overall, the ranks and technology gaps of the provinces and cities in YREB are significantly lower than those in non-YREB, meaning that there is greater room for efficiency improvement in the latter region. (2) The gross domestic product (GDP) and CO₂ efficiency values of non-YREB provinces present great differences, especially the CO₂ efficiency value that ranges from 0.2 to 1, while their values in YREB are more balanced with little difference between provinces and cities. Thus, YREB is more coordinated in terms of energy savings and air pollutant reduction. (3) Some cities with good economic development such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin have regional and technology gap values of one, indicating that they not only target economic growth but also address energy savings and air pollutant reduction. The regional rank and technology gap values of some underdeveloped provinces such as Neimenggu, Ningxia, and Qinghai are also one. Finally, this research proposes countermeasures and recommendations to both areas.

The rapid economic growth of China in the last twenty years has caused a commensurate rise in atmospheric pollution which has had an impact on both the environment and public health. Since 2013, SO₂, CO₂ and nitrogen oxide levels have reached a level that may cause climate change and have adverse effects on the health of the local residents. Past environmental efficiency analyses have rarely examined economic development, air pollution and health as interacting systems; therefore, this study used a new two-stage DEA model, the Modified Undesirable EBM Two Stage DEA (Epsilon-Based Measure) to explore the environmental, economic and health efficiencies in thirty-one major cities in China. The results were as follows: while all cities needed to improve their GDP, the environmental efficiencies were continuing to rise in most cities. The health efficiency index indicated that disease efficiency had increased in most cities but declined in one third; therefore, it is necessary to strengthen treatment. The respiratory disease treatment efficiency in most cities was rising, and the room for improvement had significantly reduced. There were improvements in the mortality rate in 15 cities; however, the mortality rate treatment efficiency declined in 11 cities.

In China, struggling to balance environmental protection and economic growth is fundamental for the transformation of economic growth model in future. This research uses the dynamic DEA model and incorporates it into non-radial DDF. Then, the research estimates the provincial environmental performance in China during the observation period. Taking into account technological heterogeneity, in this study, the evaluated provinces are divided into two groups (temperate region and tropical and subtropical regions). The empirical findings reveal the following. (1) Most of the provinces have considerable room for enhancement in environmental performance. (2) The environmental performance of provinces in temperate regions is obviously worse than that of those in the tropical and subtropical regions. (3) Provinces in temperate region should improve environmental efficiency by reducing both their technology gap and managerial inefficiency compared to those in the tropical and subtropical regions. Considering in future that China's population will continue to shift from inland areas to coastal areas, especially large coastal cities, each province should take targeted policies to improve environmental performance according to their own situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic progress has pushed human beings to pay greater attention on their happiness, and various indicators to measure it have been created with the OECD's Better Life Index one of the most famous. This research uses the entropy method to divide the original 20 items of the Better Life Index into four categories (economic, environmental, social, and well-being). The Sustainable Development Goals promoted by the United Nations in recent years also include the same four aspects. Therefore, this study evaluates the efficiency performance of the 34 OECD member countries under these factors from 2013 to 2017 and analyzes their residents' happiness and sustainable development. The findings are as follows. (1) The overall efficiency of Australia, Belgium, Iceland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Switzerland, and United States is good, and their people's happiness is high. (2) Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Mexico, Slovak Republic, and Turkey exhibit poor economic efficiency. (3) Chile, Greece, Israel, Mexico, and Turkey present poor environmental efficiency. (4) Mexico has poor social index efficiency. (4) The well-being efficiency of Estonia, Hungary, and Turkey is poor. (5) Lastly, 17 out of 34 countries have good sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta are two regions with the highest level of economic development in China, and their port development is at the forefront of the country. This study measures the efficiency of 23 major ports in the two deltas from 2010 to 2018 using the meta Dynamic Directional Distance Function (D.D.F.) model and discusses the technology gap and the reasons for inefficiency of the ports. The research results show that 80% of the ports in these two deltas are inefficient. The Yangtze River Delta's port efficiency is higher than that of the Pearl River Delta, but the internal efficiency difference of the Yangtze River Delta port cluster is more significant. The efficiency ranking of most ports is inconsistent under the meta-frontier (M.F.) and group frontier (G.F.), and the average technology gap ratio (T.G.R.) of ports in the Pearl River Delta gradually exceeds that in the Yangtze River Delta. The inefficiency of ports in the Pearl River Delta is caused by input factors, and the inefficiency of ports in the Yangtze River Delta is also related to the containerisation level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contradiction between China's economic development, its need for resources and the protection of the environment is ctitical. Scarce water resources have resulted in a considerable bottleneck restricting the economic development of water‐deficient areas. An objective evaluation of the decoupling state of water consumption and economic development has become an important indicator of regional economic sustainable development. Based on panel data from 2000 to 2017 for six provinces in the arid and semiarid regions of Northwest China, the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method is employed to decompose the factors of the decoupling index and establish a decoupling relationship model between water consumption and economic development. The reasons that affect the decoupling state of water resource utilization and economic development are herein discussed, and the stability of the decoupling trend is analysed. Based on the overall regional trend, the decoupling state of the arid and semiarid regions in Northwest China improved from weak to strong, but the high decoupling stability index varied among the provinces. The intensity and structure were promotional factors for decoupling water consumption and economic development, and the contribution rate of the intensity factor was higher than that of the structure factor. Income and population were inhibiting factors for decoupling water consumption and economic development, and the contribution rate of the income factor was higher than that of the population factor. Based on these results, corresponding policy recommendations are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital finance is expected to improve the financial development of economic backward regions through its inclusive nature. Therefore, this paper selects the financial data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2017 to evaluate regional finance disparities with the inclusion of digital finance, using the meta‐frontier slack‐based measure dynamic DEA model. The results are as follows. (1) The overall financial efficiency, input efficiency, output efficiency, and TGR in the eastern region are better than those in the non‐eastern region. (2) With the inclusion of digital finance, the finance efficiency gaps in the eastern and non‐eastern regions have expanded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research uses a hybrid dynamic DEA model to measure the expense efficiency of wastewater treatment improvement by taking account of both the initial time and location gap between regions as a slack factor in a developing country. We empirically examine the expense efficiency of wastewater treatment by combining radial and non-radial methods, employing a radial measurement to evaluate the efficiency of the radial variables, and comparing with a non-radial measurement to evaluate the efficiency of the slack variable. The study further sets up a dynamic model to reflect each region's economic development trends with two notable discoveries. First, the expense efficiency of wastewater treatment in most regions is inefficient. Second, some regions are subjected to existing disadvantages in both time and geographic location gap and thus are hindered by obstacles in the expense efficiency of wastewater treatment improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, the contradiction between rapid economic development and water shortage has attracted much attention. This paper explores the problems of water consumption and environmental pollution in provinces with different economic development levels in China. Sewage discharge is put into the undesirable meta frontier dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) model as an undesirable output variable. The water use efficiency under different income levels from 2013 to 2017 is compared at the provincial level from the perspective of domestic water use efficiency, ecological water use efficiency, industrial water use efficiency and agricultural water use efficiency, and the dynamic evolution is further revealed by using kernel density estimation. The results show that water resource utilisation efficiency is positively correlated with regional income level and economic development level. The internal differences in high‐income areas are narrowing, while the internal differences in middle‐income areas are significantly expanding; agricultural water use efficiency is the most prominent problem. In view of these situations, the total amount and intensity of water consumption should be controlled in high‐income areas. For middle‐income provinces with abundant water resources but low efficiency, local governments can strengthen legislation and supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid economic growth in China has resulted in a significant increase in particulate matter (PM2.5) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), the reduction of which has become a primary government focus. However, as the energy consumption and air pollutant emissions in Chinese cities have very significant regional characteristics, individual governance measures are necessary. This study used 2013 to 2016 energy consumption data from 31 Chinese cities to evaluate the dynamic efficiency of the urban environments. Labor, fixed assets, and energy consumption were taken as the inputs, gross domestic product (GDP) was taken as the output, and particulate matter (PM2.5) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) were taken as the carry-over variable indicators. Using a meta-frontier dynamic DEA model, the 31 cities were classified into high-income and upper-middle-income cities, the overall 2013-2016 energy consumption and air pollutant efficiency scores were analyzed, and improvements and changes were recommended to increase the efficiencies. Large differences were found in the energy consumption and air pollution emissions efficiency scores and the needed improvements, with the hig-income cities performing better overall than the upper-middle-income cities. While there have been some significant improvements in SO2 emissions, PM2.5 improvements have been far slower. Therefore, in most cities, more control measures are needed to control PM2.5 emissions. However, in addition to improving PM2.5 in the upper-middle-income cities, SO2treatments are also needed. Implications: There are big differences in the expectation of improvement of the two pollutants in all cities. In many Western cities, the expectation of PM2.5 improvement in the past years has not been reduced, but has been expanding. This shows that the central government has unified the air pollution control policies and the existing air pollution control measures formulated and implemented by the local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use the meta-frontier network DEA approach to evaluate the innovation efficiency of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2011. These provinces have been classified into two groups based on their levels of economic development. The first group comprises provinces in the Eastern region, while the second group comprises provinces in the Central and Western regions. First, we use the meta-frontier network DEA method to estimate the technology gaps of innovation efficiency between different operating types. Second, the quadrant analysis method explores the reasons for efficiency losses. Finally, we take the fixed effect model to examine whether industry-university-research cooperation influences technology efficiency. The empirical results indicate (i) the Eastern region has significantly higher innovation efficiency than the Central and Western regions. (ii) Some Eastern provinces have a high technology level, yet their resource allocation capabilities still need to be improved. (iii) Industry-university-research cooperation is an effective way to improve innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a close and important relationship between environmental pollution and public health, and environmental pollution has an important impact on the public health. This study employed the two-stage meta-frontier dynamic network data envelopment analysis (TMDN-DEA) model to explore the environment pollution effects from energy consumption on the mortality of children and adult, tuberculosis rate, survival rate and health expenditure efficiencies in 28 EU countries and 53 non-EU countries from 2010 to 2014. We calculated the overall efficiency scores and the technology gap ratios of each EU and non-EU countries and the efficiencies of input and output variables in the production and health stage. The average overall efficiencies each year in EU countries are higher than in the non-EU countries. But EU countries have higher energy efficiency than non-EU countries, and non-EU countries have higher health efficiency than EU countries. The health expenditure efficiencies in the EU countries are obviously lower than those in non-EU countries. The renewable energy efficiencies are obviously higher than the non-renewable energy efficiencies; PM2.5 efficiencies are obviously higher than the CO2 efficiencies and the children's mortality rate efficiencies are higher than the adult's mortality rate efficiencies for EU countries and non-EU countries. The government management in the EU and non-EU countries should be strengthened to reduce the air pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions and raise energy transformation to the clean energy in renewable energy and improve health efficiencies in medical and health care field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economic development status continues to grow, but its environmental degradation issue is also becoming a global concern. This study uses dynamic network data envelopment analysis (DN-DEA) to evaluate the energy using efficiency and environmental efficiency in China over the period 2014–2017. The result shows that the former is greater than the latter for all years. This study utilizes a policy-oriented matrix to find the relationship between energy efficiency and Malmquist productivity index (MPI), showing that Chongqing and 13 other provinces have relatively poor energy efficiency, and they therefore must formulate a more effective energy policy to improve undesirable gas emissions. Shanghai and 6 other provinces exhibit relatively good energy efficiency, but are not progressing in MPI, and hence they must develop a stable energy strategy to avoid different efficiencies of catch-up and frontier-shift across time periods. High energy-consuming industries must also choose a low-carbon energy strategy so that they can promote economic development, while taking into account environmental protection in China's provincial level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes the dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) model by considering time to measure the energy environmental efficiency of 28 countries in the European Union (EU) during the period 2006–2013. There are three kinds of variables: input, output, and carry-over. The inputs are labor, capital, and energy consumption (EC). The undesirable outputs are greenhouse gas emissions (GHE) and sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions, and the desirable output variable is gross domestic product (GDP). The carry-over variable is gross capital formation (GCF). The empirical results show that first the dynamic DEA model can measure environment efficiency and provide optimum improvement for inefficient countries, as more than half of the EU countries should improve their environmental efficiency. Second, the average overall scores of the EU countries point out that the better period of performance is from 2009 to 2012. Third, the output variables of GHE, SOx, and GDP exhibit a significant impact on environmental efficiency. Finally, the average value of others is significantly better than high renewable energy utilization (HRE) with the Wilcoxon test. Thus, the EU's strategy for environmental energy improvement should be to pay attention to the benefits of renewable energy (RE) utilization, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHE), and enhancing the development of RE utilization to help achieve the goal of lower GHE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid economic development has resulted in a significant increase in energy consumption and pollution such as carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter (PM2.5), particulate matter 10 (PM10), SO2, and NO2 emissions, which can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Therefore, to ensure a sustainable future, it is essential to improve economic efficiency and reduce emissions. Using a Meta-frontier Non-radial Directional Distance Function model, this study took energy consumption, the labor force, and fixed asset investments as the inputs, Gross domestic product (GDP) as the desirable output, and CO2 and the Air Quality Index (AQI) scores as the undesirable outputs to assess energy efficiency and air pollutant index efficiency scores in China from 2013–2016 and to identify the areas in which improvements was necessary. It was found that there was a large gap between the western and eastern cities in China. A comparison of the CO2 and AQI in 31 Chinese cities showed a significant difference in the CO2 emissions and AQI efficiency scores, with the lower scoring cities being mainly concentrated in China’s western region. It was therefore concluded that China needs to pay greater attention to the differences in the economic levels, stages of social development, and energy structures in the western cities when developing appropriately focused improvement plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities play a pivotal role in China's sustainable economic progress, serving as focal points for various developmental elements. This study offers a novel perspective, delving into two crucial dimensions of urban advancement: industrial infrastructure and economic growth. This research assesses the sustainable development efficiency of 36 cities within the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration (PRDUA), using specific indicators aligned with SDG9 and SDG8. To conduct this evaluation, the study employs the Meta-Frontier Window Network DDF Data Envelopment Analysis considering both the stability and enhancements in urban sustainable development efficiency over a five-year policy span. The key findings are as follows: 1) Urbanization emerges as a driver of sustainable development efficiency. However, while Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Zhuhai have attained optimal levels, their internal efficiency stability remains a concern; 2) During the 13th Five-Year Plan, Nantong, Changzhou, and Wuxi showcased significant performance improvements. In contrast, Jiangmen experienced a notable decline of 64.72%; 3) Focusing on subsystems, the Resilient Industrial and Infrastructure Subsystem displays superior efficiency compared to the Sustainable Economic Growth Subsystem. Yet, it's essential to note that neither subsystem has achieved optimal efficiency across most regions; 4) Geographically, the urban sustainable efficiency of YRDUA appears evenly distributed, with ample room for improvement in most cities. In contrast, PRDUA demonstrates an efficiency increase from its periphery to its core. Through this comprehensive exploration, the study provides valuable insights into the intricate relationship between urbanization, sustainable development efficiency, and regional disparities. • Developed comprehensive indicators tailored to China's situation referring to the SDG framework. • A novel model addressing the efficiency and internal stability of different periods is proposed. • Urbanization enhances the efficiency, yet the promotion of internal stability is unobvious. • Setting a five-year plan is an enduring and effective policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of its rapid economic development, China is faced with serious issues of resource shortage and environmental pollution. This paper is aimed at exploring the issues of resource shortage and environmental pollution in Chinese cities by means of efficiency evaluation. Through the Super-efficiency general directional distance function (GDDF) model, this paper calculates the urban efficiencies of resource-saving (UERS) of 197 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2015. Furthermore, considering the environmental problems, it applies the Super-efficiency GDDF model with undesirable outputs, and accesses the urban efficiencies containing environmental factors (UEEF). The empirical results are listed as follows. (1) Most of the Chinese cities exhibited comparatively low UERS and UEEF, indicating great potential for the reduction of resource consumption and environmental pollution; (2) Those groups with higher levels of resource-saving efficiency tend to have poorer environmental efficiency. This means that many cities achieve good economic performance at the expense of the environment; (3) In order to realize the sustainable economic and social development, we should not only save resources, but also reduce the emission of pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]