Environmental technical efficiency and its dynamic evolution in China?s industry: A resource endowment perspective

Achieving green industrial transformation is the primary path to regional sustainable development. To accurately explore the regional gaps, dynamic evolutionary trends, and inequality characteristics of green industrial production performance from the resource endowment perspective, this study constructs a meta-frontier parametric framework combined with the bootstrap method to estimate the industrial environmental technical efficiency (ETE) and pollutants emissions reduction potential of different types of cities in China. A convergence model and an inequality index are then used to explore the dynamic evolutionary characteristics of industrial ETE. Finally, a quantitative analysis is conducted, with four notable findings. (1) With some fluctuation, China's industrial ETE rose from 0.4613 in 2003 to 0.8017 in 2016, indicating outstanding achievement in clean industrial development. The industrial ETE of non-resource-based cities (N-cities) is higher than that of resource-based cities (Rcities), which are primarily ascribed to the technology gap. (2) Industrial ETE conforms to the sigma and beta convergence. The inequality across the country continues to decrease, signifying the coordinated development trend of urban industry. (3) Despite remarkable achievements, industrial pollutants still have a reduction potential higher than 30%. N-cities' emissions reduction potential is greater than that of R-cities based on higher total pollutant emissions. (4) Resource dependence significantly reduces industrial ETE of the nation and R-cities. The findings suggest that different types of cities should formulate strategically targeted policies according to resource endowment characteristics. R-cities must eliminate the efficiency loss caused by resource dependence through technological advancement, whereas N-cities must focus policies on reducing pollutants emissions and improving resource allocation.

Automated summary

This study constructs a meta-frontier parametric framework combined with the bootstrap method to estimate the industrial environmental technical efficiency (ETE) and pollutants emissions reduction potential of different types of cities in China. The findings show that China's industrial ETE has been continuously improving, with non-resource-based cities having higher ETE than resource-based cities. Industrial ETE also conforms to sigma and beta convergence, indicating a decrease in inequality across the country. Different types of cities should formulate targeted policies according to their resource endowment characteristics.