What Is the Resource Efficiency Progress in Line With the Economic Development in China?

Abstract

The current society is confronting with the crisis of resources scarcity and environment problem caused by the accelerating urbanization in China. China, with the largest population in the world, is challenged with severe resources scarcity. Improving the resources efficiency has been considered as the most effective way to decrease resource consumption and environment pollution. Thus, resource efficiency is a major concern among governments and researchers. The evaluation of resource efficiency has been attached great importance in policy formulating. This paper measures China’s provincial resource efficiency performance. The Super-slack-based measure (Super-SBM) mode is adopted to analyze the resource efficiency performance of 30 provinces during 2005-2015.The empirical results illustrate that the overall resource efficiency is relatively low, giving the average value of 0.3844. There are only 2 provinces (Shanghai and Beijing) were found to have achieved optimal overall efficiency, giving the resource efficiency values of more than 1. Moreover, it also indicates that the differences in resource efficiency among the 30 provinces are significant. The top resource efficiency performers are Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu and Guangdong, indicating that the resource efficiency performance is generally better located in eastern China. The worst three are Qinghai, Guizhou and Ningxia mainly located in western China. The results from this study provide valuable references to policy-makers for designing and adopting effective measures to promote the sustainable development in China.

Keywords: Resource efficiency, Super-SBM model, Sustainable development, China