Research on the Efficiency of Urban Infrastructure Investment under the Constraint of Carbon Emissions, Taking Provincial Capitals in China as an Example

Abstract

With the aggravation of the global climate problem, various countries are gradually formulating relevant policies and targets for carbon emission reduction in the infrastructure industry. Some countries or cities may have the problem of insufficient investment in infrastructure construction or blind investment, so it is urgent to carry out related research on the efficiency of infrastructure investment. From the perspective of carbon emission constraints, this study takes Chinese cities as the research case, and uses the unexpected output ultra-efficiency SBM model to measure the infrastructure investment efficiency and total-factor productivity from 2010 to 2020, and analyzes the influencing factors of infrastructure investment efficiency. The study found that (1) the regions with high infrastructure investment efficiency have the following two characteristics: the first relates to the cities with high investment, high output and fewer carbon emissions, and these cities rank at the forefront of economic development and scientific and technological level in the country. The second relates to the cities with high investment, high output and large carbon emissions. These cities have a large urban scale, their industrial structure is dominated by the secondary and tertiary industries, and their high output level plays a benign leading role. (2) Cities with low infrastructure investment efficiency are mainly manifest a large input of some infrastructure resources, low output level, high carbon emissions, and insufficient scale efficiency. (3) Economic level, industrial structure and fiscal expenditure play a positive role in improving the efficiency of infrastructure investment, and the development strategy of policies also affects the infrastructure investment mode. Finally, there are recommendations for the sustainable and high-quality development of infrastructure investment in developing countries.