Analysis Of County Eco-Efficiency Spatiotemporal Evolution And Influencing Factors In China

Since the reform and opening-up policy,China’s economy has grown rapidly,and its economic strength has significantly improved.However,at the same time,ecological destruction,environmental pollution,and excessive energy consumption have become increasingly prominent issues.The report of the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the establishment of a new development pattern,focus on promoting high-quality development,and advance eco-prioritization,conservation,intensification,green,and low-carbon development.Ecological efficiency clarifies the relationship between economic benefits,resource benefits,and ecological environmental benefits,which can effectively measure the level of sustainable development in a region and is an important manifestation of the concept of high-quality development and green new development.County-level regions are the basic spatial units of China’s economy with complete functions and relatively independent operations.They are also the main carriers of the national ecological environment,and a key administrative unit for promoting ecological civilization construction and the implementation of high-quality development policies.Researching the spatiotemporal evolution of China’s ecological efficiency and its influencing factors at the county level can help to more finely depict the spatiotemporal pattern characteristics of China’s ecological efficiency,reveal the driving factors of ecological efficiency evolution,and provide references and guidance for formulating differentiated policies to improve ecological efficiency,promoting high-quality development,advancing ecological civilization construction,and promoting harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.This study employs a Super-SBM model with unexpected output and a Malmquist index model to construct an ecological efficiency measurement indicator system that considers energy consumption and PM2.5 emissions.Firstly,the spatiotemporal characteristics of ecological efficiency at the county level in China from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed from both static and dynamic perspectives.The reasons for the relative inefficiency of ecological efficiency were discussed in combination with input-output slack variables.Secondly,the spatial differences and convergence of ecological efficiency in Chinese counties were analyzed using α convergence and β convergence.Finally,a panel regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of ecological efficiency.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)Overall,the ecological efficiency of county-level units in China is relatively low and roughly follows a pyramid distribution.Spatially,it shows a distribution pattern of “high in the west,low in the east,high in the south,and low in the north”.The ecological efficiency levels of the eight economic regions vary significantly.The main reason for the low level of ecological efficiency in counties is the high redundancy of input indicators.The regions with high redundancy are the Northwestern,Northeastern,and Northern coastal economic zones,while the regions with low redundancy are the Eastern and Southern coastal economic zones.(2)From 2000 to 2020,the ecological efficiency of county-level units in China showed an overall increasing trend,with most counties experiencing fluctuating growth in ecological efficiency.The driving force behind the growth of ecological efficiency mainly came from technological progress.The ecological efficiency of the eight major economic regions in the counties has maintained a growing trend.Among them,the ecological efficiency of counties in the middle reaches of the Yellow River Economic Zone has grown the fastest,while the ecological efficiency of counties in the Northeast Economic Zone has grown the slowest.(3)The overall ecological efficiency of China’s county-level units and within the eight major economic regions both exhibit α-convergence and absolute β-convergence,but the convergence speed of ecological efficiency in different economic regions varies.Among them,county-level units in the Northeast Economic Region show the fastest convergence,while those in the Southern Coastal Economic Region show the slowest convergence.From 2000 to 2020,China’s counties with low ecological efficiency have been catching up with those with higher ecological efficiency at a relatively high growth rate,leading to a continuous narrowing of the gap in ecological efficiency among counties.(4)The economic development level and ecological efficiency of county-level regions show an inverted U-shaped curve relationship.The higher the level of industrialization,the larger the population,and the greater the government intervention,the higher the ecological efficiency of the county-level regions.Conversely,the countylevel regions with better ecological conditions have lower ecological efficiency levels.