Dynamic energy efficiency of slack‐based measure in high‐income economies

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AbstractMankind is constantly pursuing economic growth and social development, and while these bring convenience to people, they involve large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions under the heavy use of energy, which produces quite serious air pollution, which not only affects people's health but also leads to ecological environmental damage. Nowadays, the impact of the environment and the negative impacts of the world's economies while promoting economic growth are the most important issues for economies to achieve balanced development. This study uses the dynamic slack‐based data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to assess the environmental energy efficiency of high‐income economies (including China) and explore the negative impacts on the environment, to obtain a basis for energy‐saving emission reduction methods or configurations by using 48 high‐income economies (including China) from 2010 to 2014. The interperiod (carryover) variable is gross domestic product (GDP). The empirical results show that economies with high energy efficiency have a large consumption of energy and are unable to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We also find that there exists a difference in the results depending on whether GDP is considered as the carryover variable. European economies are more efficient in energy consumption than others, and Asian economies are the most inefficient. In order to pursue GDP growth, economies need to consider reducing their energy consumption and CO2 emissions and improve their energy usage efficiency, further implementing sustainability.