The Effects of Urban Sprawl and Industrial Agglomeration on Environmental Efficiency: Evidence from the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration

Dong Feng,Zaisheng Zhang,Xintao Li,Jian Li

doi:10.3390/su11113042

Dong Feng, Zaisheng Zhang + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su11113042

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Abstract

Environmental efficiency evaluation is an effective way to assess the synergetic development degree between the economy and environment. In order to realize the mechanism of the effects of urban sprawl and industrial agglomeration on environmental efficiency by using the super efficiency Slacks-based Measure (SBM) model with undesirable outputs, this paper firstly calculates the environmental efficiency of the 13 cities in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration from 2006 to 2017. Then, based on the panel data of the 13 cities, we empirically examine the influence of urban sprawl and industrial agglomeration on environmental efficiency by adopting the panel Tobit regression model. The results show that large gaps exist in the degree of the cities’ environmental efficiency in the research period, and only Beijing’s environmental efficiency exhibits full efficiency in the 13 cities, with the overall environmental efficiency of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration presenting a decreasing trend. Additionally, the Tobit regression results indicate that urban sprawl has a significantly negative impact on environmental efficiency, but with the continual improvement of industrial agglomeration, the negative effects of urban sprawl will be partially offset. From the regression results of control variables, economic growth and urbanization developments have an inhibiting effect on the promotion of environmental efficiency. Furthermore, industrial structure optimization and technological innovation are helpful to improve environmental efficiency. The opening-up policy has had a significantly positive impact on environmental efficiency, and the “pollution paradise” hypothesis was untenable in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration.

Highlights

In the past 40 years of reform and opening up to the outside world, the miracle of China’s economic growth has been the reciprocal development of industrialization and urbanization
Based on the panel data of the 13 cities, we empirically examine the influence of urban sprawl and industrial agglomeration on environmental efficiency by adopting the panel Tobit regression model
The results show that large gaps exist in the degree of the cities’ environmental efficiency in the research period, and only Beijing’s environmental efficiency exhibits full efficiency in the 13 cities, with the overall environmental efficiency of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration presenting a decreasing trend

Summary

Introduction

In the past 40 years of reform and opening up to the outside world, the miracle of China’s economic growth has been the reciprocal development of industrialization and urbanization. The urbanization process has strengthened the dilemma between environmental protection and economic growth. This predicament is mainly caused by industrial development because of its important role in energy consumption [1]. The sustainability of economic development and environmental protection is largely related to the improvement of efficiency in the production process—that is, the economic efficiency of environmental factors needs to be analyzed, which is environmental efficiency [3]. For this reason, the Chinese government actively advocates the vigorous development of a green economy [4]

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