China’s Provincial Environmental Efficiency Evaluation and Influencing Factors of the Mining Industry Considering Technology Heterogeneity

Abstract

The mining industry has promoted the process of industrialization in China, and the current consumer demand for mineral products is still very large. Since the development of mineral resources has caused serious environmental pollution and waste of resources, the country has raised the development of green mining to a strategic level. Based on China’s provincial data over the 2007–2016 period, this paper measured environmental efficiency (EE) of China’s mining industry (CMI) using Meta-frontier slacks-based measure (SBM) method and reveals the root causes of environmental inefficiency (EI). Then, a panel Tobit regression model was established to discuss the differential impact of relevant factors on the meta-frontier environmental efficiency (MFEE) of CMI in the regional heterogeneity perspective. The results show that: (1) The MFEE of CMI exhibits low score and there is significant regional heterogeneity, with the highest in Eastern China, followed by Central China, and Western China. (2) The technology gap ratio (TGR) in the three regions shows that Eastern China ranks the highest, followed by Central China, and Western China. TGI is the main contributor to the EI of CMI. (3) the overall MFEE of CMI, the MFEE of CMI in Eastern, Central and Western area are negatively related to the environmental regulation intensity, are positively related to the resource utilization rate, respectively. The economic development level, innovative ability, education level, industrial structure and state-owned capital proportion differently effect on China’s overall EE of the mining industry and the EE of the mining industry in different regions of China, respectively.