Spatial Association Network Evolution and Variance Decomposition of Economic Sustainability Development Efficiency in China

Xin Fang and Yun Cao ()
Additional contact information
Xin Fang: School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau 999078, China
Yun Cao: School of Economics, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: The economy’s sustainable development has become a national strategic deployment in China. Research on the difference between the economic sustainable development efficiency (ESDE) and the spatial network will assist the government with the deployment of sustainable development strategies and the achievement of the “peak carbon dioxide emissions”. This paper designs the input–output indicator system of sustainable economic development efficiency and builds an unexpected output super-EBM-Malmquist model to measure the ESDE of 30 provinces in China from 2008–2020. According to the ranking of ESDE, the 30 provinces in China are classified into four groups by applying the quartile method, and the difference in the ESDE in different regions and the temporal variation of different provinces are studied by using the Dagum Gini coefficient and Gaussian Kernel density. Moreover, the relationship between ESDE in different provinces is studied based on the revised gravity model and social network analysis method. The connections between provinces with related relations constitute the ESDE network. Results show that (1) the average ESDE in China shows an upward trend, the eastern region is in a leading position, the central and western regions are trying to catch up with the eastern region, and the development of the northeast region is lagging behind. (2) The level of ESDE in different provinces is clearly arranged from high to low, illuminating a distinct pattern. Moreover, provinces with high levels of development are much higher than provinces with low levels of development, presenting a phenomenon of polarization. (3) The regional ESDE development imbalance is prominent, and the ESDE in the eastern region is closely related, while the connection in the western region is lower. (4) Beijing–Tianjin Urban Agglomeration and the Yangtze River Delta have significant spatial spillover effects in the association network, while the northeast, northwest, southwest and central regions have significant spatial benefit relationships. These findings provide important enlightenment for promoting the sustainable and balanced development of China’s economy.

Keywords: sustainable economic development efficiency; EBM-Malmquist model; social network analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/2966/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/2966/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:2966-:d:1061643

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().