Spatial effect of innovation efficiency on ecological footprint: City-level empirical evidence from China

Improving the level of innovation is a driving force for the sustainable development of urban economy, ecology and society. Improved data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used herein to investigate 280 cities in China and measure their innovation efficiency during 2012-2018, and a spatial measurement model is applied to analyse the impact of innovation efficiency on ecological footprint. In addition, this paper further discusses the impact of innovation efficiency on ecological footprint of different regions, comparing innovative and non-innovative cities, and eastern, central and western cities. The major findings are as follows: (1) A significant positive spatial relationship exists in the ecological footprint of Chinese cities as a whole, including eastern and central cities. (2) Promoting innovation efficiency significantly inhibits the ecological footprint of not only local region, but also neighbouring regions, with coefficients of -0.2488 and -0.1638 respectively. (3) The inhibitory effect of the increase in innovation efficiency in innovative cities on ecological footprint is stronger in local and neighbouring regions than non-innovative cities. In eastern and central Chinese cities, local ecological footprint is subject to a potent inhibitory effect from the progress in innovation efficiency, while the improvement in innovation efficiency has shown a significant promoting effect in the western region; and the ecological footprint of neighbouring regions only in the eastern cities is inhibited by the improvement of innovation efficiency of local regions. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study uses improved data envelopment analysis (DEA) to investigate the innovation efficiency of 280 cities in China and its impact on ecological footprint. The findings show that promoting innovation efficiency can significantly inhibit ecological footprint in both local and neighbouring regions. Innovative cities have a stronger inhibitory effect on ecological footprint compared to non-innovative cities, with eastern and central cities benefiting from improved innovation efficiency while the western region experiences a promoting effect.