IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i3p862-d136885.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Dynamic Analysis to Evaluate the Environmental Performance of Cities in China

Author

Listed:
  • Luqi Wang

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Xiaolong Xue

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Yue Shi

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Zeyu Wang

    (School of Management, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China)

  • Ankang Ji

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)

Abstract

With the contradiction between energy supply and demand around the world, urbanization formed with high-investment, high-consumption, and high-emission has significantly impaired the ecological environment of China. The evaluation of environmental impact is a must for decision-makings related to sustainable urbanization. This paper assessed the dynamic environmental performance of 285 cities in China from 2005 to 2013 based on the Malmquist-Luenberger index, an expanded data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. To ensure comparability among cities, a two-step clustering method was used to classify all cities into three types. From the results, we found (1) 166 and 185 cities’ environmental conditions remained the improvement during the research period under the meta-frontier and group frontier respectively. (2) Low and Medium energy intensity cities performed better than high energy intensity cities. (3) The environmental performance under the group frontier was overestimated compared with the meta-frontier. (4) The trends of environmental improvement and economic growth are significantly inconsistent. Overall, all ways to decrease undesirable outputs and increase desirable outputs, such as technological innovation, industrial structure optimization and regional cooperation, should be encouraged to achieve urban, regional and country sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Luqi Wang & Xiaolong Xue & Yue Shi & Zeyu Wang & Ankang Ji, 2018. "A Dynamic Analysis to Evaluate the Environmental Performance of Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:862-:d:136885
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/862/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/862/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhou, D.Q. & Wang, Qunwei & Su, B. & Zhou, P. & Yao, L.X., 2016. "Industrial energy conservation and emission reduction performance in China: A city-level nonparametric analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 201-209.
    2. Jin, Jingliang & Zhou, Dequn & Zhou, Peng, 2014. "Measuring environmental performance with stochastic environmental DEA: The case of APEC economies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 80-86.
    3. Huang, Yi-Ju & Chen, Ku-Hsieh & Yang, Chih-Hai, 2010. "Cost efficiency and optimal scale of electricity distribution firms in Taiwan: An application of metafrontier analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 15-23, January.
    4. Yujiro Hayami, 1969. "Sources of Agricultural Productivity Gap Among Selected Countries," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 51(3), pages 564-575.
    5. Dong-hyun Oh, 2010. "A global Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 183-197, December.
    6. Huikun Hong & Deti Xie & Heping Liao & Bo Tu & Jun Yang, 2017. "Land Use Efficiency and Total Factor Productivity—Distribution Dynamic Evolution of Rural Living Space in Chongqing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Corbett, Charles J. & Pan, Jeh-Nan, 2002. "Evaluating environmental performance using statistical process control techniques," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 68-83, May.
    8. Yafen He & Hualin Xie & Yuanhua Fan & Wei Wang & Xue Xie, 2016. "Forested Land Use Efficiency in China: Spatiotemporal Patterns and Influencing Factors from 1999 to 2010," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-17, August.
    9. Awasthi, Anjali & Chauhan, Satyaveer S. & Goyal, S.K., 2010. "A fuzzy multicriteria approach for evaluating environmental performance of suppliers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 370-378, August.
    10. Li, Ke & Lin, Boqiang, 2016. "Impact of energy conservation policies on the green productivity in China’s manufacturing sector: Evidence from a three-stage DEA model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 351-363.
    11. Minzhe Du & Bing Wang & Yanrui Wu, 2014. "Sources of China’s Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis Based on the BML Index with Green Growth Accounting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(9), pages 1-22, September.
    12. Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J., 2017. "Assessing environmental performance in the European Union: Eco-innovation versus catching-up," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 240-252.
    13. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl A., 2007. "Environmental production functions and environmental directional distance functions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1055-1066.
    14. Junfeng Zhang & Hong Fang & Bo Peng & Xu Wang & Siran Fang, 2016. "Productivity Growth-Accounting for Undesirable Outputs and Its Influencing Factors: The Case of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-13, November.
    15. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf, 2000. "Theory and Application of Directional Distance Functions," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 93-103, March.
    16. Henderson, Vernon & Venables, Anthony J. & Regan, Tanner & Samsonov, Ilia, 2016. "Building functional cities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66832, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Hu, Jin-Li & Chang, Ming-Chung & Tsay, Hui-Wen, 2017. "The congestion total-factor energy efficiency of regions in Taiwan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 710-718.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Osei Agyemang & Kong Yusheng & Angelina Kissiwaa Twum & Emmanuel Caesar Ayamba & Maxwell Kongkuah & Mohammed Musah, 2021. "Trend and relationship between environmental accounting disclosure and environmental performance for mining companies listed in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 12192-12216, August.
    2. Li, Wenxiang & Bao, Lei & Wang, Luqi & Li, Ye & Mai, Xianmin, 2019. "Comparative evaluation of global low-carbon urban transport," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 14-26.
    3. Abbas Mardani & Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Balezentis & Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman & Khalil Md Nor & Seyed Meysam Khoshnava, 2018. "Data Envelopment Analysis in Energy and Environmental Economics: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Recent Development Trends," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Juan Du & Yongrui Duan & Jinghua Xu, 2019. "The infeasible problem of Malmquist–Luenberger index and its application on China’s environmental total factor productivity," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 278(1), pages 235-253, July.
    2. Joshi, Shruti & Nath, Siddhartha & Ranjan, Abhishek, 2023. "Green Total Factor Productivity for India: Some Recent Estimates and Policy Directions," MPRA Paper 117717, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Meiqiang Wang & Yingwen Chen & Zhixiang Zhou, 2020. "A Novel Stochastic Two-Stage DEA Model for Evaluating Industrial Production and Waste Gas Treatment Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Chung, Yeimin & Heshmati, Almas, 2013. "Measurement of Environmentally Sensitive Productivity Growth in Korean Industries," IZA Discussion Papers 7235, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Sinwoo Lee & Dong-Woon Noh & Dong-hyun Oh, 2018. "Characterizing the Difference between Indirect and Direct CO 2 Emissions: Evidence from Korean Manufacturing Industries, 2004–2010," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Suyang Xiao & Susu Wang & Fanhua Zeng & Wei-Chiao Huang, 2022. "Spatial Differences and Influencing Factors of Industrial Green Total Factor Productivity in Chinese Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-24, July.
    7. Lena, Daniela & Pasurka, Carl A. & Cucculelli, Marco, 2022. "Environmental regulation and green productivity growth: Evidence from Italian manufacturing industries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    8. Wang, Zhaohua & Feng, Chao, 2015. "Sources of production inefficiency and productivity growth in China: A global data envelopment analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 380-389.
    9. Lizhan Cao & Zhongying Qi & Junxia Ren, 2017. "China’s Industrial Total-Factor Energy Productivity Growth at Sub-Industry Level: A Two-Step Stochastic Metafrontier Malmquist Index Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-22, August.
    10. Emrouznejad, Ali & Yang, Guo-liang, 2016. "CO2 emissions reduction of Chinese light manufacturing industries: A novel RAM-based global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 397-410.
    11. Wang, Qunwei & Chiu, Yung-Ho & Chiu, Ching-Ren, 2017. "Non-radial metafrontier approach to identify carbon emission performance and intensity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 664-672.
    12. José Luis Zafra-Gómez & Victor Giménez-García & Cristina María Campos-Alba & Emilio José Higuera-Molina, 2020. "Direct Management or Inter-Municipal Cooperation in Smaller Municipalities? Exploring Cost Efficiency and Installed Capacity in Drinking Water Supply," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 34(13), pages 4289-4302, October.
    13. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    14. Arabi, Behrouz & Munisamy, Susila & Emrouznejad, Ali, 2015. "A new slacks-based measure of Malmquist–Luenberger index in the presence of undesirable outputs," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 29-37.
    15. Chaofan Chen & Qingxin Lan & Ming Gao & Yawen Sun, 2018. "Green Total Factor Productivity Growth and Its Determinants in China’s Industrial Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-25, April.
    16. Debdatta Pal & Subrata K. Mitra, 2018. "The efficiency of microfinance institutions with problem loans: A directional distance function approach," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 285-307, September.
    17. Aparicio, Juan & Pastor, Jesus T. & Zofio, Jose L., 2013. "On the inconsistency of the Malmquist–Luenberger index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(3), pages 738-742.
    18. Jeanneaux, Philippe & Latruffe, Laure, 2016. "Modelling pollution-generating technologies in performance benchmarking: Recent developments, limits and future prospects in the nonparametric frameworkAuthor-Name: Dakpo, K. Hervé," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(2), pages 347-359.
    19. Lin, Boqiang & Zhu, Junpeng, 2019. "Impact of energy saving and emission reduction policy on urban sustainable development: Empirical evidence from China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 12-22.
    20. Li, Jianglong & Lin, Boqiang, 2017. "Does energy and CO2 emissions performance of China benefit from regional integration?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 366-378.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:862-:d:136885. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.