An Integrated Measurement of the Efficiency of China’s Industrial Circular Economy and Associated Influencing Factors

Since the 1990s, the notion of a circular economy has been developing globally; countries all over the world have been considering the development of a circular economy as an important means of achieving sustainable development. As the development of an industrial circular economy can help promote the efficient recycling of resources, it is an important starting point for industrial transformation and upgrading, and represents a key factor that will lead to the development of a circular economy in China. China’s varying provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) have successively implemented circular economy practices in the industrial field. The research object of the present study is 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the control of central government (Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Tibet were not included owing to lack of data). Through the integration of geographic information systems (GIS) technology and the spatial analysis model, data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, and Tobit regression model, a measure model and index system are constructed, in order to carry out a multi-angle comprehensive study integrating the efficiency evaluation, spatial analysis, and influencing factors analysis of China’s industrial circular economy. It is an important innovation, and an important contribution to the existing research system. The conclusions are as follows: (1) In general, the overall level of China’s industrial circular economy’s efficiency was not high, and there was still a lot of room for improvement. The integrated efficiency of the industrial circular economy in the eastern region was relatively high, followed by that in the western region, and the lowest level in the middle region. (2) The efficiency of China’s industrial circular economy displayed obvious spatial aggregation characteristics at the provincial level, including clear spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity. High-value aggregation areas were mainly distributed in the eastern coastal areas, and low-value aggregation areas were concentrated and contiguously distributed in the middle and western inland areas. (3) The four elements of economic level, openness to the outside, government regulation, and industrialization aggregation each impose a significant positive impact on the efficiency of China’s industrial circular economy, which can promote its efficiency. The level of industrialization exerts a significant negative impact on the efficiency of the industrial circular economy, which hampers its improvement. The impact of technological innovation on the efficiency of the industrial circular economy is not statistically significant.