School of Statistics and Mathematics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China.
School of Technology and Business, Shandong Management University, Jinan, China.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 20;10:1102680. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1102680. eCollection 2022.
The environmentally sound invention (ESI) is a "bridge" between environmental sound technologies (ESTs) and green productions. This study investigates the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on ESI efficiency using a multi-methods model in three stages.
The ESI efficiency is measured using the Slack-Based Measure (SBM) method in the first stage. By excluding the environmental effect of the pandemic on each province using the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model's results in the second stage, this study compares the ESI efficiency change with or without the influence of the pandemic in the third stage.
The results show that the pandemic can be a "crisis" in the short term, but an "opportunity" in the long term. First, the SBM efficiency results in the first stage show a decrease in the number of the average efficient provinces in which the pandemic is more severe during 2020-2021. Second, results of the spatial Tobit and SFA models provide evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacts the ESI efficiency during 2020, this impact is decreasing in 2021, and this impact has a spatial diffusion effect.
Based on these results, this study discussed the theoretical and political implications. This paper enriches the knowledge of ESTs research and development by proposing a three-stage approach with multi-methods to investigate the influence of the pandemic's impact on ESI efficiency.
环境友好型发明（ESI）是环境友好型技术（EST）与绿色生产之间的“桥梁”。本研究采用多方法模型分三个阶段研究了 COVID-19 大流行对 ESI 效率的影响。
第一阶段使用基于松弛的测度（SBM）方法衡量 ESI 效率。第二阶段利用随机前沿分析（SFA）模型的结果排除疫情对各省份的环境影响，第三阶段比较有疫情和无疫情影响下的 ESI 效率变化。
结果表明，疫情短期内可能是一场“危机”，但从长期来看可能是一场“机遇”。首先，第一阶段的 SBM 效率结果表明，疫情较严重的省份中平均有效省份数量在 2020-2021 年有所减少。其次，空间 Tobit 和 SFA 模型的结果提供了证据表明，COVID-19 大流行对 2020 年的 ESI 效率产生负面影响，这种影响在 2021 年有所减弱，并且这种影响具有空间扩散效应。
基于这些结果，本文讨论了理论和政治意义。本研究通过采用多方法的三阶段方法来研究疫情对 ESI 效率的影响，丰富了 EST 研究与开发的知识。
