The spatial and temporal evolution of provincial eco-efficiency in China based on SBM modified three-stage data envelopment analysis

Eco-efficiency plays a significant role in expressing how efficient the economic activity consumes nature's goods and services. To accurately measure eco-efficiency, the method slack-based measure modified three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) is adopted to evaluate environmental conditions in China's 30 provinces from year 2004 to 2016. This study treats carbon emissions and three industrials wastes as undesirable outputs and excludes the influences from external environment and random errors when make adjustments. Based on the results, this study makes the following conclusions: Firstly, industrial structure, trade openness, and population have negative effects on eco-efficiency while technology investment, urbanization process, foreign direct investment, and fiscal decentralization have positive effects on eco-efficiency. Secondly, the eco-efficiency for most provinces after adjusted is lower than the pre-adjusted, which indicates the overestimation in eco-efficiency when using traditional approaches. Thirdly, the eco-efficiency in China showed a clear geographical step distribution, with the highest eco-efficiency in the east area, followed by the central, northwest, and southwest regions.