Productivity Decomposition of Chinese Energy Generation Enterprises: an Index Calculation Approach Embedded in the Data Envelopment Analysis Framework

Abstract

To explore the development of China's energy power generation enterprises, undertake reasonable resource allocation and optimization, and promote sustainable development. We apply an index calculation approach within the data envelopment analysis framework, collecting data from 50 enterprises in 2007-2022, resulting in a total of 800 observations (16*50) for the in-depth analysis of productivity decomposition. The results highlight that during the study years, the sample enterprises experienced the following changes on average per year: an increase of 0.244% in efficiency change (effch), a decline of 0.293% in technical progress (techch), an increase of 0.119% in pure efficiency change (pech), an increase of 0.134% in scale efficiency change (sech), and a decline of 0.057% in total factor of productivity (tfpch). These findings suggest an ongoing improvement in overall efficiency, indicating that energy generators are achieving better results in terms of operations, resource utilization, and scale effects, but need to focus on research and adoption of new technologies while seeking opportunities to further enhance productivity.