Non-radial Directional Distance Function Research Articles

Evaluation of Unified Healthcare Efficiency in China: A Meta-Frontier Non-radial Directional Distance Function Analysis During 2009-2019.

In this study, we analyze the unified healthcare efficiency in China at the regional level from 2009 to 2019. To accurately evaluate the evolution of unified efficiency from both static and dynamic perspectives, we combine the non-radial directional distance function and the meta-frontier method to evaluate the unified healthcare efficiency and its dynamic changes. This new approach allows for regional heterogeneity and non-radial slack simultaneously. The decomposition of the meta-frontier non-radial Malmquist unified healthcare efficiency index (MNMHEI) can be used to identify the driving factors of dynamic changes. The results show that the unified healthcare efficiency in eastern China is generally higher than that in non-eastern China from the static perspective, implying significant regional differences. Moreover, the unified efficiency in both eastern and non-eastern regions shows similar time trends and reaches the maximum in 2012. From the dynamic perspective, the unified healthcare efficiency increases annually by 2.68% during the study period. This increase in eastern China as a technology leader is mainly driven by technological progress, whereas the increase in non-eastern China is mainly driven by a better catch-up effect. In addition, the impact of the reform on the non-eastern region is more significant for the decreasing technology gap, the stronger growth momentum of technological progress, and global innovative provinces.

Carbon leakage and low-carbon performance: Heterogeneity of responsibility perspectives

As one of the research hotspots in the field of environmental economy, many scholars focus on evaluating low-carbon performance of multiple regions, but almost all of them ignore the impact of carbon leakage. To fill the gap, this paper proposed a new evaluation framework to incorporate carbon leakage by combining the multi-regional input-output table (MRIO), the non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) and the meta-frontier approach. Following the framework, we analyze the performance of 42 countries under three typical carbon responsibility principles, including their low-carbon efficiency and rankings, technology gaps, and emission reduction potential respectively. The main findings are as follows: 1) The carbon leakage and transfer significantly influenced the country's low-carbon performance, mainly by improving the performance level, widening the technology gap, and overestimating the reduction potential, but not affecting the overall ranking structure. 2) Different evaluation method based on heterogenous perspectives can provide complementary information about countries' low-carbon performance. 3) The consumer and equally shared perspectives should gain more attention on the pathway to a cleaner world economy. Synthesizing the results under different perspectives, this paper proposes policy recommendations for different types of countries to promote local low-carbon development.

A Spatial Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Agglomeration and Green Total-Factor Productivity in the Context of the Carbon Emission Peak

We aim to explore the impact of economic agglomeration on the development of green total-factor productivity (GTFP) from both theoretical and empirical levels. We use the non-radial directional distance function method to formulate the GTFP index and further empirically study the impact of economic agglomeration on GTFP. The results indicate that: 1) there is a “U-shaped” curve relationship between economic agglomeration and GTFP, and the formation mechanism is that the economic agglomeration has a threshold effect on the agglomeration externalities such as infrastructure sharing, knowledge spillover, and labor market upgrading. 2) The mismatch of industrial structure is an important reason that the economic agglomeration in this region has not produced an obvious spatial spillover effect on other regions; relaxing restrictions on the concentration of economic activity to regional centers would contribute to the improvement of GTFP. 3) GTFP has the classic “snowball effect” in the time dimension but has the obvious “warning effect” in the space and time dimension. The conclusions of the research show that it is necessary to conform to the redistribution of economic geography, promote the rational allocation of human resources in the territorial space, and promote the coordination of economic agglomeration and green economic development goals.

Adjusted carbon intensity in China: Trend, driver, and network

As a widely used indicator, carbon intensity (CI) may be overestimated because of the efficiency loss in the production process, while the corresponding complex network remains largely disregarded. This study constructed an adjusted CI (ACI) indicator by considering the technical efficiency using a non-radial directional distance function during 1997–2017 across 30 provinces in China. We showed that provincial ACI exhibited a downward trend with roughly similar trajectories of CI over the study period. Decomposition analysis implied that efficiency gains and energy intensity mainly decreased ACI, whereas the carbon factor accounted for the increase in ACI. Furthermore, social network analysis indicated that the previous hierarchical ACI spatial association structure was broken to a certain extent, thereby enhancing the network stability. This study illustrated the possible feasibility of setting up ACI-based emission reduction targets and policies, especially for economies undergoing rapid transition.

Policy Orientation, Technological Innovation and Energy-Carbon Performance: An Empirical Study Based on China’s New Energy Demonstration Cities

The new energy demonstration city policy is a significant pilot measure to promote the transition of China’s energy system, aiming at developing new, green, and low-carbon sources of energy. In this paper, the Non-radial Directional Distance Function (NDDF) was adopted to calculate the Energy-Carbon Performance Index (ECPI) of Chinese 182 cities, for measuring the Energy-Carbon Performance (ECP) level of each city. On this basis, it is possible to empirically analyse the impact that the policy orientation of constructing new energy demonstration cities has had on urban energy carbon performance by using a combination of Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Difference. Moreover, a mediating effect model is utilised to test the mediating effect of technological innovation. The results show that the new energy demonstration city policy can significantly improve the ECP. Technological innovation has a partial mediating effect between the policy orientation of new energy demonstration city construction and ECP, which accounts for 12.92% of the total effect. Optimising the industrial structure, improving the level of economic development, increasing carbon sink resources, and attracting foreign direct investment all have significant impacts on the improvement of China’s ECP, while the urbanisation process has an inhibitory effect on the improvement of ECP. Heterogeneity analysis shows that policy orientation has a better driving effect on eastern cities and western cities in promoting the improvement of ECP. The policy implications of this paper are that 1) The government should expand the scope of new energy city pilots in an orderly manner; 2) The lasting and long-term influence of policy orientation on ECP should make use of technological innovation intermediary channels; 3) Support policies are supposed to formulate according to local conditions.

How Does the Carbon Tax Influence the Energy and Carbon Performance of China’s Mining Industry?

As the world’s largest energy consumer, China’s CO2 emissions have significantly risen, owing to its rapid economic growth. Hence, levying a carbon tax has become essential in accelerating China’s carbon neutralization process. This paper employs the two-stage translog cost function to calculate the price elasticity of the mining industry’s energy and input factors. Based on the price elasticity, the carbon tax’s influence on the mining industry’s energy and carbon performance is estimated. In the calculation of energy efficiency, the non-radial directional distance function is adopted. The results express that the carbon tax significantly decreases the mining industry’s CO2 emissions and promotes its energy and carbon performance. In addition to levying a carbon tax, the government should also strengthen the market-oriented reform of the oil and power infrastructure to optimize the mining industry’s energy structure.

Does protectionism improve environment of developing countries? A perspective of environmental efficiency assessment.

Past studies related to embodied pollutant accounting reported that free trade has increased the environmental pollution of developing economies, because the developed countries "outsource" their pollutants to developing nations. The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated the rise of the most serious protectionism after World War II. This study is aimed to discuss whether protectionism improve the environment in developing countries by developing a comprehensive evaluation model, which integrates multi-regional input-output (MRIO), data envelopment analysis (DEA), and scenario analysis. We revealed the role of protectionism from two perspectives: the single impact on pollutant emissions and the comprehensive impact on environmental efficiency. Specifically, the capital inputs, labor inputs, energy consumption, economic output, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions related to global trade activities were simulated based on the MRIO. And then, sector-level trade environmental efficiency was computed by intergrading the MRIO and DEA using a non-radial directional distance function. Finally, the environmental efficiency of both developing and developed countries under two scenarios with and without trade were estimated. The results confirmed that trade has increased the CO2, SO2 and NOX emissions of developing economies by 12.9%, 9.8% and 12.3%, and has reduced that of developed economies by 6.0%, 29.4% and 21.2%, respectively. However, the results also uncovered that the environmental efficiency of developing and developed economies was dropped by 3% and 5%, respectively, under no-trade scenario. We contend that protectionism is not conducive to the sustainable development of developing countries because it lowers their environmental efficiency, although it may reduce their territorial pollutant emissions. For developed countries, the single impact of protectionism on pollutant emission reduction and the comprehensive impact on environmental efficiency are both negative.

Measuring sustainability and competitiveness of tourism destinations with data envelopment analysis

This study analyses sustainability and competitiveness through measurements of efficiency, using data envelopment analysis. It constructs a meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function (meta-frontier NDDF) approach, which is then used to define a tourism development index and a tourism sustainability index. Using these indexes, the paper evaluates the efficiency of the tourism sector and its dynamic evolution for 27 cities in the Yangtze River Delta, China, (YRD) from 2010 to 2019. Considering regional heterogeneity, this paper analyzes the meta-frontier, group-frontier efficiency and technology gap ratio of urban tourism in the YRD, and explores the competitiveness of the cities. The results show that the more traditional measure of tourism efficiency, namely the tourism development index, which does not take account of the sector’s undesirable output (i.e., the negative impacts of carbon emissions from travel), produces overestimates. This study highlights the following practical implications: The increasing competition among tourism destinations requires tourism industry managers to determine the appropriate allocation of resources to promote the sustainable development of urban tourism. In the context of the need for global ‘carbon neutrality’, more consideration should be given to the negative impact of tourism on the natural environment to enhance the competitiveness of tourist destinations.

The effect of environmental regulation on green total-factor productivity in China's industry

Employing both the meta-frontier and the non-radial directional distance function methods, we estimate the industrial GTFP and its decomposition from 2000 to 2019 in 30 Chinese provinces. Following this, a dynamic spatial panel model is employed to test the effects of the policy, the mechanisms of action and the channels of two sorts of environmental regulations on GTFP. The results show that, compared with a single policy, a combination of policies is more conducive to GTFP growth. Further analyses of the mechanisms indicate that command-and-control (management) environmental regulations will boost the expansion of GTFP. This is mainly achieved by improving technical efficiency and narrowing the technical gap. Market-based environmental regulations can also accelerate the growth of GTFP, principally through improvements in the advancement of technology and a narrowing of the technological gap Increased GTFP growth can be achieved via these three effects by using a policy mix.

Panacea, placebo or pathogen? An evaluation of the integrated performance of polycentric urban structures in the Chinese prefectural city-regions

Although the polycentric urban structure is perceived as a bridging concept to achieve various policy goals, such as promoting economic efficiency, diminishing spatial inequity, and encouraging environmental sustainability, most studies tend to focus only on a singular dimension of polycentricity. Drawing on the non-radial direction distance function approach, our study aimed to provide a three-dimensional integrated assessment of the benefits of polycentric spatial structure in the Chinese prefectural city-regions. However, our findings were not as expected; specifically, a lower degree of polycentric city structure is robustly associated with better overall performance, and this performance is size-dependent and dominated by economic efficiency. These results shed light on the prevailing role of agglomeration economies and suggest that a polycentric-oriented spatial strategy may not be a feasible policy for Chinese prefecture-level cities.

Efficiency of the Education System (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary) in Particular Voivodeships of Poland

The reform of the Polish education system (both lower and higher education) that was carried out in recent years has shown the need to improve the efficiency of schools. Therefore, it is reasonable to analyse and evaluate the efficiency of educational centres before implementing reforms. Educational units influence the development of human capital, which should translate into an increase in the wealth of a given region. To our knowledge, there is a lack of research on the technical efficiency of the primary, secondary and tertiary education systems in particular Polish voivodeships. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to present the results of studies on the efficiency of the three levels of the Polish education sector in 2016. The non-radial Slack-Based Directional Distance Function (SBDDF) model, which belongs to the nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, was used to test the efficiency. The number of teachers employed in particular voivodeships, as well as the number of schools and universities were assumed as inputs. The number of pupils and students was assumed as outputs. We hypothesise that there is a positive correlation between the efficiency of the education system and the labour market economic indicators in the province. The hypothesis was verified positively as the findings showed that the higher the education system efficiency indicator in a given voivodeship, the greater the number of the SME sector companies per 10,000 inhabitants, the higher the gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and the lower the percentage of the unemployed in the region. The study results may be of use to various groups of stakeholders, in particular, employees of ministries responsible for the functioning of primary, secondary and tertiary education. The limitations of the study concern the selection of variables adopted on the input and output side. Moreover, the conducted analysis is static (in one year). Therefore, there is a need to continue research using a dynamic approach.

How has the efficiency of China's green development evolved? An improved non-radial directional distance function measurement

As a key choice for human sustainable development, green development is also one of China's five major vision points. To explore the level of green development in China since it was first written into national documents in 2011, this paper applies an improved non-radial distance function based on Data Envelopment Analysis method to analyze the progress against the development targets set in related national documents. The results show that: (1) China's green development efficiency has kept increasing in 2011–2017. (2) The growth in green development efficiency was significantly higher in the 13th Five-Year Plan period compared to the 12th Five-Year Plan period. (3) The green development efficiency shows a decreasing trend from south to north, east of the Hu line. This study provides a more practical idea for evaluating the quality of green development in mainland China.

The impact of China's financial expenditure on energy and carbon emission efficiency: Applying a meta-dynamic non-radial directional distance function

China is the world's largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, but despite unbalanced growth among the eastern, central, and western regions, local financial expenditure on energy conservation and environmental protection has increased from 255.1 billion yuan in 2011 to 582.5 billion yuan in 2018. This research thus introduces financial expenditure like a new input into a dynamic meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function to evaluate China's energy and carbon emission efficiency over that period of time. Different from previous studies, after considering financial expenditure we find that most provinces have narrowed their gap with the benchmark frontier, reflecting that increasing financial expenditure does help improve energy and carbon emission efficiency. The results highlight that most provinces should increase their financial expenditure on energy conservation and environmental protection, especially in the central and western regions, so as to narrow their technology gap with the eastern region.

An Empirical Study on the Efficiency of Green Innovation Supported by Urban Financial Development in the Pearl River Delta Cities

Green innovation is the technological innovation under the premise of environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction. Both technological innovation and green development need a lot of financial support. Does financial development effectively support the promotion of green innovation? This article selects 2009- 2018 panel data of nine cities in the Pearl River Delta and uses the non-radial direction distance function (NDDF) method of Data Envelopment Analysis to measure their efficiency of green innovation. Then, we use the Tobit model to verify to the effects of financial development on green innovation. The results showed that the index reflecting financial development scale of the Pearl River Delta’s cities, there is significantly negative correlation between the number of financial institutions and green innovation; the number of practitioners in financial institutions, the proportion of fiscal expenditures on science and technology, energy saving and environmental protection in total expenditures showed an evidently positive correlation between them. It indicates that financial development of the nine cities is good for the improvement of green innovation efficiency. Further, this paper uses substitution variables to conduct robustness test, and the above conclusions are still valid.

Spatial characteristics and factors that influence the environmental efficiency of public buildings in China

The rapid development of the tertiary industry has enabled energy consumption by public buildings the fastest growing branch of China's construction industry. The operating stage has the biggest share in the perspective of whole life cycle analyses. To conserve energy and reduce emissions is a critical issue for the public building sector. This study employs the non-radial directional distance function and data envelopment analysis methods to estimate the environmental efficiency of the public building industries in 30 provincial administrative regions between 2010 and 2017. And the Moran index is used to explore its spatial distribution characteristics. Finally, the factors affecting environmental efficiency are analyzed using a spatial econometric model analysis. The results indicated that the environmental efficiency for the public building industries across China were generally low, whereas their spatial characteristics were high in the east and low in the west, and high in the south and low in the north. There are several kinds of measures that can promote environmental efficiency, such as increasing the proportion of tertiary industry, promoting gross domestic product per capita growth, increasing the proportion of electricity in terminal energy consumption, and attracting foreign direct investment. However, the increases in urban population may decrease environmental efficiency. Nevertheless, an obvious spatial spillover effect exists in the environmental efficiency of the public building sector.

By-production of electricity and particulates: efficiency of Indian thermal power plants revisited

PurposeThis paper studies the efficiency of Indian coal-fired thermal power plants (CTPPs) in by-production of electricity and particulates also known as Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM).Design/methodology/approachA non-radial directional distance function is optimized using data envelopment analysis to enumerate the overall inefficiency of CTPPs and its components in recent times. Further, second-stage regression analysis is conducted to identify factors that affect the inefficiency of plants.FindingsThe low inefficiency score for electricity generation suggests that most CTPPs operate close to the good output frontier. A high degree of emissions inefficiency is a challenge for Indian CTPPs. Ever-rising coal use inefficiency is a hindrance to control SPM emissions. The second stage regression analysis concludes that factors like ownership and capacity utilization play vital roles in determining a plant’s inefficiency level. Privately owned CTPPs have performed better in terms of technical inefficiency and emission inefficiency than plants owned by Central and State governments.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few published works that benchmark the productive and environmental performance of Indian CTPPs.

How do environmental regulations affect carbon emission and energy efficiency patterns? A provincial-level analysis of Chinese energy-intensive industries.

This study measures the environmental regulation effect and pattern of carbon emission and energy efficiency through data envelopment analysis and econometric estimation. One of the most important ways to achieve a green transition is promoting technical progress through environmental regulation. Though China has witnessed rapid economic growth over the last two decades, the country can improve it further through adopting sustainable green energy and establishing more energy-efficient industries to strike a good balance between economic and social developments. The oil and carbon dioxide emission performances form the most important metrics. This study uses panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2008 to 2017 to assess the effect of environmental regulation on energy production. The nonradial directional distance function (NDDF) is used to measure the total factor energy efficiency index (TFEEI). The panel system GMM model, which can effectively address endogenous problems and regional variability, is utilized to research the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulations and EEI under various environmental regulations to study it. The findings reveal a considerably modest total average EEI amount for energy-intensive industries, averaging between 0.55 and 0.58, which is way below the ideal value (i.e., 1). Furthermore, the results of the dynamic panel data model revealed a significant U-shaped relationship between China's EEI and environmental regulation. The results show that as the values of market-based environmental regulations (MERs) and command and control environmental regulations (CCERs) exceed the corresponding levels, the impact of environmental regulation on the TFEEI increases gradually. This study will aid policymakers in better understanding the efficacy of different levels of environmental regulations to make more educated decisions.

Does fiscal decentralization improve energy and environmental performance? New perspective on vertical fiscal imbalance

Chinese-style fiscal decentralization and vertical fiscal imbalance may cause substantial incentive distortion, which is not beneficial for public environmental governance. Based on China's provincial panel data from 2000 to 2017, the non-radial directional distance function is used to assess energy and environmental performance, then we examine the impact of fiscal decentralization on energy and environmental performance from the perspective of vertical fiscal imbalance. The results show that the divergence between revenue decentralization and expenditure decentralization leads to vertical fiscal imbalance, which significantly reduces energy and environmental performance. Meanwhile, there is regional heterogeneity in the influence of vertical fiscal imbalance. Vertical fiscal imbalance in the eastern and economically developed regions worsen energy and environmental performance, while the vertical fiscal imbalance in the central, western regions and economically backward regions improve energy and environmental performance since they receive more transfer payments. Different fiscal compensation methods have different impacts on vertical fiscal imbalance. In addition, the influence mechanisms show that vertical fiscal imbalance harms energy and environmental performance by inhibiting industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation and strengthening government intervention. Therefore, to reduce energy and environmental efficiency losses, we recommend deepening fiscal reform and controlling vertical fiscal imbalance.

Environmental regulation and the growth of the total-factor carbon productivity of China's industries: Evidence from the implementation of action plan of air pollution prevention and control

To abate the severe air pollution, the Chinese government released the Action Plan of Air Pollution Prevention and Control (APAPPC) in 2013. This paper regards the APAPPC as a quasi-experiment and uses the DID method to investigate the impact of environmental regulation on the growth of green total-factor productivity of China's industries. This article employs the non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) and the global Malmquist index to measure the total-factor carbon productivity of China's industries. Further regressions suggest that the implementation of the APAPPC has significantly promoted the growth of the total-factor carbon productivity in the air pollution-intensive industries, and its marginal effect has steadily increased with time. This result is still valid after using a series of counterfactual tests and robustness tests. The further mechanism study shows that the APAPPC has significantly promoted R&D investment, especially in instruments and equipment, which has effectively promoted technical efficiency and technological advancement. It indicates that stringent and well-designed environmental regulations should lead to a “win-win” situation of environmental improvement and economic development by encouraging enterprises to upgrade their technology and equipment.

Sustainable Governance of the Korean Freight Transportation Industry from an Environmental Perspective

The transportation industry is one of the major sectors for air pollution. In particular, the freight transportation sector possesses the biggest share of air pollution in South Korea. Therefore, it is required to evaluate current environmental performance of this sector and predict regulation impact on the local economy for a sustainable future. Based on the sustainable governance, each local government should take actions or change the paradigm of the regulatory policies. Thus, this study examines the environmental performance of the freight transportation industry with air pollution of PM2.5 and NOx in 16 Korean local governments, based on the non-radial directional distance function (NDDF). On average, the freight transportation sector shows very low performance with a high potential value of 0.649. Furthermore, no significant uptrend was witnessed during the sample period (2012 to 2017), implying a lack of sustainable governance. Some local governments such as Seoul (0.9301) and Busan (0.9709) show high efficiency, and Gwangju shows a slow but increasing trend, while most of other cities are very low in their environmental performance of freight transportation industries. Even Seoul and Busan may not maintain their sustainable performance, because outperforming high sales revenue in these cities could lead to high efficiency even with high levels of aggravating air pollution. Therefore, it is meaningful to empirically test the sustainable feasibility in terms of regulatory costs, reflecting the opportunity costs to select increased regulation toward a sustainable, higher environment-friendly efficiency. Environmental regulation causes very low, negligible costs in most of the local governments, except Seoul, implying that a more regulatory regime will bring in the sustainable governance of the environmental efficiency (Porter hypothesis) for the freight transportation sector for these local governments. However, Seoul will endure a heavy economic burden if heavier environmental regulations are posed on its freight transport sector. Stepwise and fine tuning of regulations is required for Seoul. In contrast to Seoul, Incheon needs drastic reformation since it shows low efficiency with low regulatory cost.