IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v150y2018icp493-507.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The efficiencies of resource-saving and environment: A case study based on Chinese cities

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Bin
  • Lu, Danting
  • He, Yan
  • Chiu, Yung-ho

Abstract

In spite of its rapid economic development, China is faced with serious issues of resource shortage and environmental pollution. This paper is aimed at exploring the issues of resource shortage and environmental pollution in Chinese cities by means of efficiency evaluation. Through the Super-efficiency general directional distance function (GDDF) model, this paper calculates the urban efficiencies of resource-saving (UERS) of 197 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2015. Furthermore, considering the environmental problems, it applies the Super-efficiency GDDF model with undesirable outputs, and accesses the urban efficiencies containing environmental factors (UEEF). The empirical results are listed as follows. (1) Most of the Chinese cities exhibited comparatively low UERS and UEEF, indicating great potential for the reduction of resource consumption and environmental pollution; (2) Those groups with higher levels of resource-saving efficiency tend to have poorer environmental efficiency. This means that many cities achieve good economic performance at the expense of the environment; (3) In order to realize the sustainable economic and social development, we should not only save resources, but also reduce the emission of pollutants.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Bin & Lu, Danting & He, Yan & Chiu, Yung-ho, 2018. "The efficiencies of resource-saving and environment: A case study based on Chinese cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 493-507.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:150:y:2018:i:c:p:493-507
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.03.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544218303967
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2018.03.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cheng, Gang & Zervopoulos, Panagiotis D., 2014. "Estimating the technical efficiency of health care systems: A cross-country comparison using the directional distance function," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 238(3), pages 899-910.
    2. Chang, Tzu-Pu & Hu, Jin-Li, 2010. "Total-factor energy productivity growth, technical progress, and efficiency change: An empirical study of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(10), pages 3262-3270, October.
    3. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 2010. "Directional distance functions and slacks-based measures of efficiency: Some clarifications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 206(3), pages 702-702, November.
    4. Wang, Qunwei & Su, Bin & Sun, Jiasen & Zhou, Peng & Zhou, Dequn, 2015. "Measurement and decomposition of energy-saving and emissions reduction performance in Chinese cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 85-92.
    5. 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.
    6. Qunwei Wang & Peng Zhou & Zengyao Zhao & Neng Shen, 2014. "Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Potential in China: A Directional Meta-Frontier DEA Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(8), pages 1-17, August.
    7. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    8. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Zhou, D.Q., 2012. "Measuring economy-wide energy efficiency performance: A parametric frontier approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 196-200.
    9. Gómez-Calvet, Roberto & Conesa, David & Gómez-Calvet, Ana Rosa & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2014. "Energy efficiency in the European Union: What can be learned from the joint application of directional distance functions and slacks-based measures?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 137-154.
    10. Weninger, Quinn & Waters, James R., 2003. "Economic benefits of management reform in the northern Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishery," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 207-230, September.
    11. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Han, J.Y., 2010. "Total factor carbon emission performance: A Malmquist index analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 194-201, January.
    12. Zhou, Yan & Xing, Xinpeng & Fang, Kuangnan & Liang, Dapeng & Xu, Chunlin, 2013. "Environmental efficiency analysis of power industry in China based on an entropy SBM model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 68-75.
    13. Zaim, Osman, 2004. "Measuring environmental performance of state manufacturing through changes in pollution intensities: a DEA framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 37-47, January.
    14. Soushi Suzuki & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp, 2017. "The robustness of performance rankings of Asia-Pacific super cities," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 219-242, April.
    15. Buck, J. & Young, D., 2007. "The potential for energy efficiency gains in the Canadian commercial building sector: A stochastic frontier study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1769-1780.
    16. William Cooper & Kyung Park & Jesus Pastor, 1999. "RAM: A Range Adjusted Measure of Inefficiency for Use with Additive Models, and Relations to Other Models and Measures in DEA," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 5-42, February.
    17. Cui, Qiang & Li, Ye, 2015. "Evaluating energy efficiency for airlines: An application of VFB-DEA," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 44, pages 34-41.
    18. Oh, Dong-hyun, 2010. "A metafrontier approach for measuring an environmentally sensitive productivity growth index," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 146-157, January.
    19. Avkiran, Necmi Kemal, 2015. "An illustration of dynamic network DEA in commercial banking including robustness tests," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 141-150.
    20. Azadeh, A. & Amalnick, M.S. & Ghaderi, S.F. & Asadzadeh, S.M., 2007. "An integrated DEA PCA numerical taxonomy approach for energy efficiency assessment and consumption optimization in energy intensive manufacturing sectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3792-3806, July.
    21. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan, 2006. "Total-factor energy efficiency of regions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 3206-3217, November.
    22. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Thrall, Robert M., 1990. "Recent developments in DEA : The mathematical programming approach to frontier analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 7-38.
    23. Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Weber, William L., 2009. "A directional slacks-based measure of technical inefficiency," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 274-287, December.
    24. Zofio, Jose L. & Prieto, Angel M., 2001. "Environmental efficiency and regulatory standards: the case of CO2 emissions from OECD industries," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 63-83, January.
    25. Cui, Qiang & Kuang, Hai-bo & Wu, Chun-you & Li, Ye, 2014. "The changing trend and influencing factors of energy efficiency: The case of nine countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1026-1034.
    26. Wei, Yi-Ming & Liao, Hua & Fan, Ying, 2007. "An empirical analysis of energy efficiency in China's iron and steel sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2262-2270.
    27. R. Russell & William Schworm, 2009. "Axiomatic foundations of efficiency measurement on data-generated technologies," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 77-86, April.
    28. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808, Decembrie.
    29. Song, Malin & An, Qingxian & Zhang, Wei & Wang, Zeya & Wu, Jie, 2012. "Environmental efficiency evaluation based on data envelopment analysis: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(7), pages 4465-4469.
    30. R. Robert Russell & William Schworm, 2009. "Axiomatic Foundations of Inefficiency Measurement on Space," Discussion Papers 2009-07, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    31. Picazo-Tadeo, Andres J. & Reig-Martinez, Ernest & Hernandez-Sancho, Francesc, 2005. "Directional distance functions and environmental regulation," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 131-142, June.
    32. Honma, Satoshi & Hu, Jin-Li, 2008. "Total-factor energy efficiency of regions in Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 821-833, February.
    33. Tao, Xueping & Wang, Ping & Zhu, Bangzhu, 2016. "Provincial green economic efficiency of China: A non-separable input–output SBM approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 58-66.
    34. Lu, Ching-Cheng & Chiu, Yung-Ho & Shyu, Ming-Kuang & Lee, Jen-Hui, 2013. "Measuring CO2 emission efficiency in OECD countries: Application of the Hybrid Efficiency model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 130-135.
    35. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Noh, Dong-Woon & Weber, William, 2005. "Characteristics of a polluting technology: theory and practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 469-492, June.
    36. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl A., 2007. "Environmental production functions and environmental directional distance functions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1055-1066.
    37. Li, Ke & Lin, Boqiang, 2015. "The improvement gap in energy intensity: Analysis of China's thirty provincial regions using the improved DEA (data envelopment analysis) model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 589-599.
    38. Reinhard, Stijn & Knox Lovell, C. A. & Thijssen, Geert J., 2000. "Environmental efficiency with multiple environmentally detrimental variables; estimated with SFA and DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 287-303, March.
    39. Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Weber, William L., 2005. "Estimating output gains by means of Luenberger efficiency measures," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 164(2), pages 535-547, July.
    40. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2008. "A survey of data envelopment analysis in energy and environmental studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 1-18, August.
    41. Guoping Mei & Jingyi Gan & Ning Zhang, 2015. "Metafrontier Environmental Efficiency for China’s Regions: A Slack-Based Efficiency Measure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-18, April.
    42. Wang, Ke & Wei, Yi-Ming & Zhang, Xian, 2012. "A comparative analysis of China’s regional energy and emission performance: Which is the better way to deal with undesirable outputs?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 574-584.
    43. Lee, Siew Eang & Rajagopalan, Priyadarsini, 2008. "Building energy efficiency labeling programme in Singapore," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 3982-3992, October.
    44. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 2010. "Directional distance functions and slacks-based measures of efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 320-322, January.
    45. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Zhu, Joe, 2002. "Modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 16-20, October.
    46. Yang, Yulan & Li, Baizhan & Yao, Runming, 2010. "A method of identifying and weighting indicators of energy efficiency assessment in Chinese residential buildings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7687-7697, December.
    47. Tone, Kaoru, 2001. "A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 498-509, May.
    48. Chen, Wenying & Xu, Ruina, 2010. "Clean coal technology development in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2123-2130, May.
    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. Kai Li & Zhili Ma & Guozhou Zhang, 2019. "Evaluation of the Supply-Side Efficiency of China’s Real Estate Market: A Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Yali Zhao & Min Li, 2020. "Effect of Water-Saving Society Policy on Water Consumption in the Cities of China: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Zhaoxian Su & Yang Yang & Yun Wang & Pan Zhang & Xin Luo, 2023. "Study on Spatiotemporal Evolution Features and Affecting Factors of Collaborative Governance of Pollution Reduction and Carbon Abatement in Urban Agglomerations of the Yellow River Basin," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Victor Moutinho & Mara Madaleno, 2021. "A Two-Stage DEA Model to Evaluate the Technical Eco-Efficiency Indicator in the EU Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Yingming Zhu & Yuan Li & Yi Wang & Lingfeng Li, 2021. "The Impact of Water and Soil Scarcity and Pollution on Industrial Agglomeration: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Tu, Chuang & Mu, Xianzhong & Chen, Jian & Kong, Li & Zhang, Zheng & Lu, Yutong & Hu, Guangwen, 2021. "Study on the interactive relationship between urban residents’ expenditure and energy consumption of production sectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    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. 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.
    2. Zhou, Haibo & Yang, Yi & Chen, Yao & Zhu, Joe, 2018. "Data envelopment analysis application in sustainability: The origins, development and future directions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 1-16.
    3. Mardani, Abbas & Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras & Streimikiene, Dalia & Jusoh, Ahmad & Khoshnoudi, Masoumeh, 2017. "A comprehensive review of data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach in energy efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1298-1322.
    4. Gómez-Calvet, Roberto & Conesa, David & Gómez-Calvet, Ana Rosa & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2014. "Energy efficiency in the European Union: What can be learned from the joint application of directional distance functions and slacks-based measures?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 137-154.
    5. Vlontzos, George & Niavis, Spyros & Manos, Basil, 2014. "A DEA approach for estimating the agricultural energy and environmental efficiency of EU countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 91-96.
    6. Wang, H. & Zhou, P. & Zhou, D.Q., 2013. "Scenario-based energy efficiency and productivity in China: A non-radial directional distance function analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 795-803.
    7. Hang, Ye & Sun, Jiasen & Wang, Qunwei & Zhao, Zengyao & Wang, Yizhong, 2015. "Measuring energy inefficiency with undesirable outputs and technology heterogeneity in Chinese cities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 46-52.
    8. Ke Wang & Xueying Yu, 2017. "Industrial Energy and Environment Efficiency of Chinese Cities: An Analysis Based on Range-Adjusted Measure," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(04), pages 1023-1042, July.
    9. Wang, Zhaohua & Feng, Chao, 2015. "A performance evaluation of the energy, environmental, and economic efficiency and productivity in China: An application of global data envelopment analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 617-626.
    10. Gang Tian & Jian Shi & Licheng Sun & Xingle Long & Benhai Guo, 2017. "Dynamic changes in the energy–carbon performance of Chinese transportation sector: a meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function approach," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 89(2), pages 585-607, November.
    11. Feng, Chao & Zhang, Hua & Huang, Jian-Bai, 2017. "The approach to realizing the potential of emissions reduction in China: An implication from data envelopment analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 859-872.
    12. Kounetas, Konstantinos & Stergiou, Eirini, 2019. "Technology heterogeneity in European industries' energy efficiency performance. The role of climate, greenhouse gases, path dependence and energy mix," MPRA Paper 92314, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. 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.
    14. Sun, Jiasen & Li, Guo & Wang, Zhaohua, 2018. "Optimizing China’s energy consumption structure under energy and carbon constraints," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 57-72.
    15. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Wang, H., 2012. "Energy and CO2 emission performance in electricity generation: A non-radial directional distance function approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(3), pages 625-635.
    16. Behrouz Arabi & Susila Munisamy Doraisamy & Ali Emrouznejad & Alireza Khoshroo, 2017. "Eco-efficiency measurement and material balance principle: an application in power plants Malmquist Luenberger Index," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 255(1), pages 221-239, August.
    17. Ning Zhang & Jong-Dae Kim, 2014. "Measuring sustainability by Energy Efficiency Analysis for Korean Power Companies: A Sequential Slacks-Based Efficiency Measure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-13, March.
    18. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2008. "A survey of data envelopment analysis in energy and environmental studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 1-18, August.
    19. Long, Xingle & Wu, Chao & Zhang, Jijian & Zhang, Jing, 2018. "Environmental efficiency for 192 thermal power plants in the Yangtze River Delta considering heterogeneity: A metafrontier directional slacks-based measure approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3962-3971.
    20. Yu, Dejian & He, Xiaorong, 2020. "A bibliometric study for DEA applied to energy efficiency: Trends and future challenges," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).

    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:eee:energy:v:150:y:2018:i:c:p:493-507. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    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.