Green Development Performance in China: A Metafrontier Non-Radial Approach

Ke Li and Malin Song
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Ke Li: College of Mathematics & Computer Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China
Malin Song: Collaborative Innovation Center for Ecological Economics and Management, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu 233030, China

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 3, 1-21

Abstract: This paper proposes a green development growth index (GDGI) for measuring the changes in sustainable development over time. This index considers a wide range of pollutants, and allows for the incorporation of group heterogeneity and non-radial slack in the conventional green development index. The GDGI is calculated based on a non-radial directional distance function derived by several data envelopment analysis (DEA) models, and was decomposed into an efficiency change (EC) index, a best-practice gap change (BPC) index and a technology gap change (TGC) index. The proposed indices are employed to measure green development performance in 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2012. The empirical results show that China has a low level of green development, with a 2.58% increase per year driven by an innovation effect. China’s green development is mainly led by the eastern region, and the technology gaps between the eastern region and the other two regions (the central and western regions) have become wider over the years. The group innovative provinces have set a target for resource utilization of non-innovative provinces in order to catch-up with the corresponding groups, while the metafrontier innovative provinces provide targets for the technology levels of other provinces to improve their green development performance.

Keywords: green development performance; non-radial directional distance function; metafrontier analysis; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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