Abstract
The promotion of industrial environmental efficiency (IEE) has attracted considerable attention from scholars and policymakers. Previous studies have focused on the factors driving IEE without considering the leader-follower relationship between the two stages of IEE and have used aggregated indicators to detect the effect of urbanization on IEE. In this study, we open the “black box” of IEE and regard it as a serial system comprised of the economic development (ED) stage and the environmental governance (EG) stage. We select typical provinces belonging to the ED-oriented regions and EG-oriented regions for our analysis. We quantify IEE by using the slack-based model (SBM), decompose the effect of urbanization into four typical factors and detect the effect of the urbanization-related factors by using a tobit regression model. Next, we compare the effect of the urbanization-related factors in the different regions. The results show that overall, in 2011–2015, IEE in the different regions was low and fluctuating, and it increased in ED-oriented regions while remaining stable in EG-oriented regions. The IEE of the ED-oriented regions was always higher than that of the EG-oriented regions, with the gap increasing over time. The IEE of the two stages varied in each type of region. Urbanization-related factors had different effects on the IEE of the different stages in the two types of region, and the same factor had significantly different effects in different regions.
Highlights
Through the process of reform and openness, the industry of China is developing rapidly and is the largest contributor to the economic development of China
IEEEG clearly increased in environmental governance (EG)-oriented regions, especially beginning in 2013, while it slowly decreased in economic development (ED)-oriented regions
The industrial environmental efficiency (IEE) of ED-oriented regions is significantly dominated by IEEED, while the IEE of EGoriented regions is significantly dominated by IEEEG
Summary
Through the process of reform and openness, the industry of China is developing rapidly and is the largest contributor to the economic development of China. A total of 66.3% of total energy, 95% of coal, and 99% of crude oil are consumed in the industrial sectors. The amount of industrial wastewater discharge reached 18.16 billion tons in 2017, accounting for approximately 23.55% of the total wastewater discharge in China. The extensive development of industry has consumed too much energy and caused serious environmental pollution. China is still in a stage of rapid motorization
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
