School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
School of Business Administration, The Open University of China, Beijing 100039, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 10;19(19):12955. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191912955.
In the "full world" where natural capital is scarce, within the limits of the ecological environment, the improvement of welfare is a fundamental requirement for sustainable development. The ecological wellbeing performance (EWP) of 284 cities in China from 2007 to 2020 was measured by the superefficient SBM-DEA model, considering undesirable output, and analyzing the evolutionary trends of overall comprehensive technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency. The Theil index was used to explore the source and distribution of the Chinese cities' EWP differences. Exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and the spatial Durbin model (SDM) were applied to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics and driving factors of cities' EWP. The results showed the following: (1) Regarding spatial and temporal distribution, the EWP of Chinese cities showed a fluctuating upward trend, in which pure technical efficiency > scale efficiency. (2) Considering regional differences, the differences in cities' EWP were mainly intraregional rather than interregional. The contribution rates of distinct regions to the differences in EWP varied, i.e., western region > eastern region > central region > northeastern region. (3) In terms of spatial correlation, China's EWP showed positive spatial correlation, i.e., high-high agglomeration and low-low agglomeration. (4) Concerning influencing factors, the level of financial development, the structure of secondary industries, the level of opening-up, and the degree of urbanization significantly improved EWP. Decentralization of fiscal revenue significantly inhibited improvement of EWP. Decentralization of fiscal expenditure and technological progress had no significant impact on the EWP. In the future, to improve cities' EWP, China should focus on reducing differences in intraregional EWP, overcoming administrative regional limitations, encouraging regions with similar locations to formulate coordinated development plans, promoting economic growth, reducing levels of environmental pollution, and paying attention to the improvement of social welfare.
在自然资源稀缺的“完全世界”中，在生态环境的限制内，福利的提高是可持续发展的根本要求。本文采用超效率 SBM-DEA 模型，考虑非期望产出，测算了 2007-2020 年中国 284 个城市的生态福利绩效（EWP），分析了综合技术效率、纯技术效率和规模效率的整体演进趋势。采用 Theil 指数探究了中国城市 EWP 差异的来源和分布。运用探索性空间数据分析（ESDA）和空间杜宾模型（SDM）分析了城市 EWP 的空间分布特征及其驱动因素。结果表明：（1）从时空分布来看，中国城市 EWP 呈波动上升趋势，其中纯技术效率>规模效率。（2）从区域差异来看，城市 EWP 差异主要表现为区内差异，而非区际差异。不同区域对 EWP 差异的贡献率存在差异，依次为西部地区>东部地区>中部地区>东北地区。（3）从空间相关性来看，中国 EWP 具有显著的正向空间相关性，即高-高集聚和低-低集聚。（4）从影响因素来看，金融发展水平、第二产业结构、对外开放水平和城镇化水平显著提高了 EWP，财政收入分权显著抑制了 EWP 的提升，财政支出分权和技术进步对 EWP 没有显著影响。未来，为了提高城市 EWP，中国应注重缩小区内 EWP 差异，突破行政区域限制，鼓励地理位置相似的地区制定协调发展规划，促进经济增长，降低环境污染水平，关注社会福利的提高。
