Possibility Frontier Research Articles

Trade‐Offs and Optimization of Ecosystem Services in the Plain Terminal Lake Basin: A Case Study of Xinjiang

ABSTRACTInfluenced by climate change and human activities, plain terminal lake basins (PTLB) in arid regions experience significant shrinkage, resulting in a decline in ecosystem services (ESs) such as windbreak and sand fixation (SF) and habitat quality (HQ). However, systematic assessments of these services in such basins are limited. A key research challenge is to define and enhance the contribution of plain terminal lakes within the ESs framework of their respective basins. Therefore, this study focused on the Ebinur Lake Basin (ELB), Manas River Basin (MRB), and Tarim River Basin (TRB) in Xinjiang. We adopted both the InVEST and RWEQ models to assess ESs in these regions, by employing the production possibility frontier (PPF) to optimize various ESs, including carbon storage (CS), water yield (WY), HQ, and SF. The results indicated a general upward trend in ESs across these key basins, with a particularly significant increase in the CS. Spatial analysis revealed that regions with improved ESs were mainly concentrated in the mountainous and oasis areas of the basins, with the most pronounced improvement observed in the TRB. Within these basins, the interactions between the different ESs mainly exhibited synergistic relationships. However, notable concave trade‐off relationships existed between WY and CS, WY and HQ, and HQ and SF, particularly in the TRB. This was largely attributed to increased trade‐offs between WY and other ESs, resulting from the widespread agricultural expansion in the TRB. We plotted the optimal Pareto efficiency curves for ESs across the three basins to obtain the corresponding optimization results, and made recommendations for the enhancement of ESs. In summary, this study lays a solid scientific foundation for establishing ecological protection boundaries and promoting high‐quality sustainable development in the PTLB of arid areas.

How economically and environmentally viable are multiple dams in the upper Cauvery Basin, India? A hydro-economic analysis using a landscape-based hydrological model

Abstract. The construction of dams threatens the health of watershed ecosystems. The purpose of this study is to show how multiple dams in a basin can impact hydrological flow regimes and subsequently aquatic ecosystems that depend on river flows. The approach assesses the ecosystem services (ESs), including the tradeoffs between economic and ecological services due to altered flow regimes. It uses a previously developed model that integrates a landscape-based hydrological model with a reservoir operations model on a basin scale. The approach is novel because not only does it offer the analysis of alterations in ecosystem services on a daily scale when pre-dam data are unavailable but also allows for dams to be synthetically placed anywhere in the river network and the corresponding alterations in flow regimes to be simulated in a flexible manner. As a proof of concept, we analyse the economic and ecological performances of different spatial configuration of existing reservoirs instead of synthetically placed reservoirs in the upper Cauvery River basin in India. Such a study is timely and conducted for the first time, especially in light of calls to assess the cascade of reservoirs in India and regions elsewhere where pre-dam data are unavailable. The hydrological impact of different configurations of reservoirs is quantified using indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHAs). Additionally, the production of two major ecosystem services that depend on the flow regime of the river, as indicated by irrigated agricultural production and the normalized fish diversity index (NFDI), is estimated, and a tradeoff curve, i.e. a production possibility frontier, for the two services is established. Through the lens of the indices chosen for the ecosystem services, the results show that smaller reservoirs on lower-order streams are better for the basin economy and the environment than larger reservoirs. Cultivating irrigated crops of higher value can maximize the value of stored water and, with lower storage, generate a better economic value than cultivating lower-value crops while reducing hydrological alterations. The proposed approach, especially when simulating synthetic spatial configurations of reservoirs, can help water and river basin managers to understand the provision of ecosystem services in hydrologically altered basins, optimize dam operations, or even prioritize dam removals with a goal of achieving a balanced provision of ecosystem services.

Efficiency and benchmarks for photovoltaic power generation amid uncertain conditions

Photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems are highly subject to weather and site conditions, thus, the construction of PV power plant projects must consider these uncertainties. This study analyzes the monthly electricity generation of 249 utility-scale PV power plants in Japan to evaluate their electricity generation efficiency. Applying the generic data envelopment analysis, benchmark values were identified for power generation from PV power plants. Furthermore, we implemented a Monte Carlo experiment to evaluate the impact of variability in solar irradiance and temperature on power generation efficiency. For our analysis, we considered three inputs—solar irradiance, temperature, and installed capacity—and electricity generation as the output. The results showed that inter-regional gap in the efficiency score between the west and north regions is 0.03, and this can be covered by a 0.1 increase in the DC/AC ratio. Additionally, variability in weather conditions affect both the efficiency of a power plant and production possibility frontier, in turn causing the benchmark values for a generic decision-making unit to vary. Increasing the generation capacity of power plants and operating them more efficiently is essential to expanding the use of renewable energy resources.

Toward a quasi-satisficing sustainable manufacturing

Sustainable development should meet the needs of the present without compromising future generation needs. While political and standards approaches insist on regulatory directives, this paper proposes a quasi-satisficing methodology considering the sustainability topic within a larger encompassing framework. Starting from three reflections originated by the classical thermodynamics, the effect of knowledge accumulation on the Production Possibility Frontier (PPF), and a model for the human wellbeing in manufacturing ecosystem, this paper proposes a new production model and a heuristic approach to drive the decision process towards sustainable manufacturing.

EXPLORING EFFICIENCY GROWTH OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY-GENERATING SECTORS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A STOCHASTIC FRONTIER ANALYSIS

This study investigates the efficiency growth of advanced technology-generating sectors within the European Union (EU). Using a stochastic frontier analysis of annual sector-level panel data from 2000 to 2019, we examine sectoral (NACE two-digit level) and territorial implications. Our findings indicate that technological change was more intense in advanced technology-generating sectors than in other economic sectors, primarily driven by fixed capital investments. However, the impact of in-house research and development varied. Economic sectors such as pharmaceuticals and motor vehicles struggled to improve their production efficiency due to high competition and market specificity. A comparative analysis of EU economies showed a lower level of production efficiency in catching-up economies. Nevertheless, these economies contributed to the shift of the production possibility frontier in certain sectors on the EU level. Therefore, this study contributes to the ongoing scientific discussion on technological innovations in diverse territories, suggesting that less-developed economies could generate technological advancements in specific areas. We also discuss the implications for innovation and industrial policy actions.

Trade-Offs in Ecosystem Services: Clarifying Concepts and Measuring Severity within the Production Possibility Frontier Framework

Production possibility frontier (PPF) in economics denotes the set of all efficient combinations of the amounts of two or more goods that can be produced from the given resources and within the given technology. In the ecosystem services context, it corresponds to all efficient combinations of the amounts of two or more ecosystem services that can be obtained from the given land area within the given management framework. PPF thus captures the conflict, or trade-off, between the production of different goods or services. However, there is a lack of an agreed understanding of what precisely in a PPF expresses the degree of that conflict. This lack of clarity may greatly confound the discussions on trade-offs. This paper tries to answer the two following questions: (1) what exactly is trade-off in the PPF context? (2) how to effectively measure and compare trade-offs across PPFs? In response to the second question, a quantitative generic measure of trade-off severity is proposed.

Identifying critical landscape patterns for simultaneous provision of multiple ecosystem services – A case study in the central district of Wuhu City, China

Landscape patterns have a global impact on ecosystem services (ESs). Managing land to enhance the provision of multiple ESs is vital for ecological resilience and sustainable development. Identifying critical landscape patterns that simultaneously influence multiple ESs provision based on understanding ES trade-offs is needed. Our study aims to develop an approach to find the relationship between multiple ESs provision and landscape patterns, identify the critical landscape patterns that simultaneously promote multiple ESs provision, and give suggestions on land management based on an understanding of the relationships of ESs. Taking the central district of Wuhu City as an example, production possibility frontier (PPF) and Pareto ranks are used to identify relationships between ESs and extract the landscape pattern characteristics of samples that effectively enhance multiple ESs. Our analysis of trade-offs between ESs highlights the complexity of ES relationships and emphasizes the necessity for multi-dimensional investigative approaches. Landscape metrics of Mean Perimeter Area Ratio (PARA_MN), Coefficient of Variation of Perimeter (PERI_CV), Area-weighted Mean Fractal Dimension (FRAC_AM), and Relative Mutual Information (RELMUTINF) emerged as critical determinants of multiple ESs supply. Our findings suggest enhancing patch shape complexity when conducting land use planning to avoid homogenization and keeping differences between the diversity of land use categories and the diversity of adjacencies small. Also, we recommend caution in using high contagion as the only criterion for land use planning, as its effects may vary on different ES targets.

РЕЗУЛЬТАТЫ И ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТЬ РАБОТЫ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО СЕКТОРА В РЕГИОНАХ СЕВЕРО-ЗАПАДНОГО ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОГО ОКРУГА

Studies of the spatial aspect of the public sector efficiency are relevant for Russia because there is a tendency to increase the inequality in the development of Russian regions. For the subject of this study stand the results of public sector activities in the Russian economy in regional context and costs of achieving them. PSE (Public Sector Efficiency) was assessed for 85 regions of the Russian Federation for two periods: 2008–2014 and 2015–2021, and a spatial visualization of the obtained values of the public sector efficiency index is presented. The efficiency rating was headed by the Nenets and Chukotka Autonomous Okrugs, the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg turned out to be the least effective. The production possibility frontier of the public sector of the subjects of the Russian Federation has been constructed. An in-depth analysis of the results and efficiency of the public sector in the Northwestern Federal District was carried out, and practical recommendations for their increase were presented. A large interregional differentiation in the public sector efficiency in the NWFD has been revealed. The advantage of the NWFD regions was noted in almost all areas of public sector activity, especially in Environment and Economic Development, with a small lag in the Security block.

Oligarchy, underutilized capacity, and government policy

We examine an oligarchic economy where only elites can establish firms. In monopolistic competition when the size of the elite is sufficiently small, there is an absolute exclusive equilibrium where wages are driven to the reservation wage. Because of the possession of market power by firms, total equilibrium output is insufficient to warrant the employment of the entire labor force, leading to inadequate aggregate demand for labor and underutilized capacity. The economy inefficiently operates inside its production possibilities frontier. Then, the adoption of rather unorthodox left-wing fiscal and labor policies may boost capacity utilization and lead to a Pareto improvement.

Assessment and Enhancement of Ecosystem Service Supply Efficiency Based on Production Possibility Frontier: A Case Study of the Loess Plateau in Northern Shaanxi

Enhancing the supply efficiency of ecosystem services plays a central role in improving both natural ecosystems and human well-being. Taking the Loess Plateau of Northern Shaanxi as an example, this study utilizes InVEST to assess the ecosystem services of water yield and habitat quality. The optimal solutions for the combination of these two services are calculated on the basis of the Pareto principle. The production possibility frontier curves for the two services are fitted, and the services’ supply efficiency is measured. Furthermore, this study employs ordinary least squares and geographically weighted regression to analyze the dominant factors affecting supply efficiency. The results comprise the following findings: (1) There are eighteen solutions representing the optimal combinations between the two services. (2) The supply efficiency of the two services increases from northwest to southeast in spatial distribution. (3) The dominant factors vary among different zones of supply efficiency. Population, hydrology, and gross domestic product (GDP) are the dominant factors in the general-efficiency, sub-low-efficiency, and low-efficiency supply zones, respectively. Hydrology, NDVI, and GDP are the dominant factors in the sub-high-efficiency supply zone, while GDP, terrain, and population are the dominant factors in the high-efficiency supply zone. In conclusion, this paper proposes recommendations for reducing trade-offs and enhancing supply efficiency between ecosystem services. These include dynamic supervising for the high-efficiency supply zone, moderate greening in the sub-high-efficiency supply zone, stabilizing the population in the general-efficiency supply zone, and reducing development intensity in low- and sub-low-efficiency zones. The study reveals the potential and approaches for improving the supply of ecosystem services and offers guidance for formulating ecological protection plans.

Assessing spatial heterogeneous response of ecosystem service relationships to land use intensification

Sustainable land use should balance the competing needs for development and protection. Land-use intensification facilitates material benefits from ecosystem, while potentially undermining the capacity of regulate the life-support environment and thus altering trade-offs between ecosystem services (ES). However, there remains a limited understanding of how land-use intensity (LUI) affects the spatial heterogeneity of ES relationships. To address this issue, we first propose an ES synergies (ESS) index, to clarify site-specific ES relationships, based on a combination of the production possibility frontier (PPF) and the technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS). Then, we assess the nonlinear impacts of LUI on ESS, using the generalized additive models (GAMs). A case study was conducted in the Three Gorges region of central China, due to the dilemma between intensive development for poverty alleviation and water-soil retention for ecological protection. The results showed that an increase in LUI caused different rates of decline in ESS. Land-use intensification increased resource inputs and anthropogenic disturbances within entire land parcels, thus disrupting the synergistic relationships between several ES. Specifically, the synergies between water retention and carbon sequestration or biodiversity conservation decreased by more than three times as much as those between water retention and food production. Excessive LUI will reduce the provision of carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation compared to that of food production for the same level of water retention. However, moderate LUI can promote the synergistic provision of multiple services. For example, an LUI threshold of 2.5, which maximized the synergies of water-soil retention with other ES, showed the optimal balance of diverse ecological benefits at the highest level of intensity. Our study is expected to extend existing knowledge on the spatial heterogeneity of ES relationships by considering site-specific land use, and to mitigate the costs of land management due to ES trade-offs.

Mapping the evolution patterns of urbanization, ecosystem service supply–demand, and human well-being: A tree-like landscape perspective

Ecosystem services (ESs) are closely related to human well-being (HWB). Recently, urbanization has increased worldwide, which has had a significant impact on the ecosystem service supply–demand (ESSD) and HWB. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the spatiotemporal pattern of ESSD and HWB, while ignoring their evolutionary pathways, especially in karst areas. We aimed to quantify the optimal trade-offs of ESSD under the constraints of urbanization and the nonlinear relationship between ESSD and HWB, further constructing a tree-like framework to explore the evolutionary pathways of urbanization, ESSD, and HWB from a landscape evolution perspective. We used the production possibility frontier (PPF) to quantify the optimal trade-offs of three ESSDs, the generalized additive model (GAM) to fit the nonlinear relationship between ESSD and HWB, and the geographic evolution tree model (Geotree) to construct the tree-like structure of urbanization levels, comprehensive ecosystem service supply–demand (CESD), and HWB. There is a trade-off between the deficit of carbon storage services (CS) and water yield services (WY), but a synergy between the deficit of WY and the surplus of FS. Further, there is a synergy between the deficit of CSs and the surplus of food supply services (FS). The response of HWB to the ESSD of CS is not obvious, but the response to the ESSD of WY and FS is obvious. Based on the Geotree model, the urbanization, CESD, and HWB present strong coupling relationships, which show the characteristics of clustering, stratified heterogeneity, and evolution.

Assessing Temporal Trade-Offs of Ecosystem Services by Production Possibility Frontiers

Ecosystems provide multiple valuable services that play an essential role in preventing meteorological risks, combating sandy land expansion, and ensuring sustainable development in the West Liao River Basin. The trade-off among ecosystem services (ES) is inevitable because of biophysical constraints and societal preferences. The production possibility frontier (PPF) is increasingly deemed an appropriate tool for representing trade-off relationships among ES. In this study, we developed a feasible approach for estimating PPF, which includes three steps. First, the annual water yield model, the sediment delivery ratio model, the carbon storage and sequestration model, and the habitat quality model of InVEST models were used to quantify temporal changes in four key ES, including water retention, soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and habitat improvement, in five-year periods from 1990 to 2020. Second, after the standardization of ES quantities, the functional forms of PPF curves for six pairs of ES trade-offs were derived by adopting a two-term exponential function of the curve fitting tool in MATLAB. Third, the trade-off intensity for each ES pair was defined and calculated based on the distance from the mean point to the PPF curve. Compared to the existing approaches, our approach has the advantage of fitting functional forms of PPF curves, handling both positive and negative values of ES, and calculating trade-off intensities. This study has three implications. First, showing the trade-offs between ES by PPF is helpful for providing knowledge on the existence of turning points and a complex relationship between certain ES pairs, thus avoiding unintended and large-scale shifts in the provision of ES. Second, PPF curves are a useful tool for visualizing the nature of ES relationships and the changes in trade-off intensity, thus supporting decision-makers to identify optimal solutions and make land use planning that can increase the overall efficiency over multiple ES. Third, socioeconomic components should be integrated into the assessment of ES trade-offs in order to understand the influences of societal choices on and examine stakeholders’ preferences regarding efficient ES combinations.

Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs and Spatial Pattern Optimisation under Different Land Use Scenarios: A Case Study in Guanzhong Region, China

Understanding the complex interactions (i.e., trade-offs and synergies) among ecosystem services (ESs) and exploring land use optimisation are important to realize regional ecological governance and sustainable development. This study examined Guanzhong Region, Shaanxi Province, as the research object. We established 12 future land use scenarios and projected the future land use patterns under the future climate change scenarios and local development policies. Next, we assessed the four main ecosystem services—carbon sequestration (CS), habitat quality (HQ), soil conservation (SC), and food supply (FS) by using related formulas and the InVEST model. Furthermore, the production possibility frontier (PPF) was used to measure trade-offs and synergistic relationships among ESs, and extract the optimal ES group under the different target needs. The results are as follows: (1) In the future 12 land use scenarios of 2050 in Guanzhong Region, forested land increased evidently in the RCP2.6 ecological protection scenario (18,483.64 km). In the RCP6.0 rapid urban development scenario, construction land showed evident expansion in the central and northeastern areas (4764.52 km2). (2) Compared with the ESs under the future multiple scenarios, CS and HQ achieved the maximum value in the RCP8.5 ecological protection scenario. In the RCP2.6 ecological protection scenario, the amount of SC was the largest (3.81 × 106 t). FS in the RCP2.6 business as usual scenario got the maximum value (18.53 × 106 t). (3) By drawing the optimal PPF curve of multiple scenarios in 2050, trade-off relationships were found between FS and CS, HQ, and SC, and synergistic relationships were found between CS, HQ, and SC. Next, the optimal ES groups under the fitted curve were selected by comparing with the ESs of 2018, and adjusting the land use areas and spatial pattern to finally optimise the relationships between ES and achieve the best land use spatial pattern.

Green finance policy coupling effect of fossil energy use rights trading and renewable energy certificates trading on low carbon economy: Taking China as an example

In the context of low carbon economy development, controlling fossil energy consumption and promoting development in renewable energy are important paths for energy transition in various countries. Taking China as an example, this paper investigates the green finance policy coupling effect of fossil energy use rights trading (FET), renewable energy certificates trading (RECT), and renewable energy subsidies (RES) on the low carbon economy using a dynamic recursive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The main findings of this paper are as follows. (1) When using a game equity fixed-cost allocation model (Game-EFCAM) to allocate fossil energy use rights quotas among sectors, allocations differ in only a few sectors compared to the base period, and most sectors have relatively stable allocations compared to the base period. (2) The implementation of FET and RECT has a negative impact on per capita GDP. In the short term, RES can mitigate the negative impact of FET and RECT on per capita GDP, but eventually, the government needs to guide the enterprise innovation to improve the industrial structure to realize the double benefits of green finance policy. (3) The implementation of FET and RECT limits fossil energy consumption and also reduces the production possibility frontier of the secondary industries with higher levels of fossil energy consumption. The implementation of FET and RECT increases the proportions of tertiary industry and renewable energy. (4) The implementation of FET and RECT reduces carbon emissions. In other words, the implementation of FET and RECT mitigates the negative environmental externality. RES can enhance the carbon reduction efforts of FET and RECT. This research not only provides policy analysis for the development of the low carbon economy in China, but also gives a reference for other developing countries’ low carbon economy transition.

Effect of antitrust on innovative development with a different degree of intellectual property protection

Intellectual property is often referred to as a “legal monopoly”, which should stimulate the innovative activity of authors and inventors. In this formulation, increased antitrust regulation should always have a negative effect on the innovation industry, since it is aimed at reducing the companies’ profits, and therefore, other things being equal, reducing the innovation incentives. The paper reveals the conditions under which this statement can be true, and under which, on the contrary, the strengthening of antimonopoly regulation leads to an increase in innovative output. Using cross-country data, an empirical assessment of the mutual influence of the effectiveness of antimonopoly regulation and the degree of protection of intellectual property rights on the efficiency of the innovation sector and the economy are obtained. As an indicator of relative efficiency the paper considers the proximity to the production possibilities frontier, determined by the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method. As a result, the hypothesis for the complementary nature of the influence of both policies is confirmed: the strengthening of one gives a positive result only when the other is strong. The complementary nature of policies can be related to the following aspects. In the context of weak IP right protection, right holders are extensively using alternative mechanisms for the specification of property rights, which includes business practices that are controversial from the antitrust point of view. In such a case, strengthening the severity of antimonopoly regulation increases the costs of such practices and ultimately reduces the effectiveness of the intellectual property protection reducing output in the innovation industry. This result justifies the existence of exceptions for the IP owners, which could be present in the antimonopoly legislation in countries with a low level of IP rights protection. But as the effectiveness of the IP rights protection becomes stronger, such exceptions can be canceled. This result also shows that the notion of IP as a “legal monopoly” is overly simplistic and can lead to risks of Type I enforcement errors (punishing the innocent).

The New History of Old Inequality

Abstract Since the financial crisis of 2008 and the publication in 2014 of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, income and wealth inequality have returned to public and scholarly interest. Most subsequent discussion has focused on the fall and rise of inequality in the twentieth century, but meanwhile another body of economic history literature has reconstructed long-run inequality dynamics in early modern Europe. This article surveys the new history of old inequality and discusses its three principal findings: first, that between about 1300 and about 1900 inequality increased continuously almost everywhere, meaning there is no clear link between economic growth and inequality. Secondly, the only phenomena that substantially reduced inequality were unprecedented catastrophes. Thirdly, although few things have decreased inequality, many strategies of elite wealth defence have increased it, motivating new comparative concepts like the ‘inequality possibility frontier’ and the ‘extraction ratio’. Inequality will continue to be a subject of urgent political and moral attention, and this field opens up a research agenda that could bridge the methodological divide between economic history as practised by economists and by historians.

Elevation dependency of ecosystem services supply efficiency in great lake watershed.

Although it is well acknowledged that the improvement of ecosystem services is conducive to human well-being, there is still a lack of approach to determining reasonable improvement goals, especially for ecosystem services with trade-off relationship. Based on the method of production possibility frontier (PPF), this study presented a novel approach to identifying the improvement goals of interacting ecosystem services with considering their context dependency. By calculating the gap between the current supply of ecosystem services and the reasonable improvement goal, the ecosystem services supply efficiency was defined and measured to identify the optimization potentials of ecosystem services with trade-off relationship. The results showed that the supply efficiency of ecosystem services (grain production and water purification) decreased and then increased significantly along with the increasing of farmland area ratio in the Dongting Lake Basin (DLB). Meanwhile, the inflection point appeared when the farmland area ratio was 0.16. The change of farmland area ratio was significantly influenced by the change of elevation, with the regression coefficients of elevation on the left and right sides of the inflection point being -1.28 and -0.5 respectively, which were higher than that of other factors. Along with the increasing of elevation, the ecosystem services supply efficiency decreased but increased when the elevation exceeded 721.74 m. Furthermore, the sub-watersheds with farmland area ratio below the inflection point, i.e. mainly high elevation areas, were located around national or provincial level poor counties, posing a great challenge for improving ecosystem services with trade-off relationship. Development strategies for sub-watersheds should consider the non-linear trade-offs of ecosystem services, especially the opposite stages of supply efficiency. This study highlighted the elevation dependency of ecosystem services supply efficiency through farmland area ratio in great lake watershed.

Spatial-temporal Evolution and Its Influencing Factors of Tourism Eco-efficiency in China

Eco-efficiency is an invaluable indicator for the measurement of the relationship between production activities and environmental depletion. This study measures the tourism eco-efficiency of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2020 based on the super-efficiency SBM model, and explores its spatial-temporal evolution characteristics using the kernel density function, standard deviation ellipse, and center of gravity model. Then, the influencing factors of the tourism eco-efficiency in China are analyzed by Tobit regression model. The results show that the tourism eco-efficiency of China is generally fluctuating upwards, but has not yet reached the maximum production possibility frontier. The kernel density curve shows a unimodal-bimodal-unimodal pattern, while the inter-provincial differences have been decreasing and becoming more balanced. The center of gravity of tourism eco-efficiency is located at the junction of Henan and Hubei province and generally moves to the south (slightly to the southwest). Meanwhile, it is revealed that the level of economic development and the tourism eco-efficiency has a significant inverted U-shaped relationship. The level of economic openness, traffic conditions, and tourism eco-efficiency is positively correlated. The environmental regulations and industrial structure have a negative but limited impact on tourism eco-efficiency. Finally, recommendations and suggestions for policy formulation to promote quality and sustainable development of the tourism industry are put forward, such as increasing investment in ecological protection and governance in tourism development, improving capacity-building in allocating green and low-carbon technologies and resources, strengthening tourism infrastructure construction, and enhancing environmental governance systems and mechanisms.

Information‐theoretic model of induced technical change: Theory and empirics

AbstractThe paper develops an information‐theoretic model of induced technical change where payoff‐maximizing agents are exposed to a positive degree of uncertainty when adopting new technology due to unobserved cost factors. The derived equilibrium of the model comes in the form of a non‐degenerate probability distribution that defines the distance of productivity growth from the potential maximum growth on the innovation possibilities frontier, often called the technical inefficiency function (TIF) in the frontier estimation literature. Many forms of the TIF are shown to be derived by specifying a particular functional form of the payoff function in our model. The paper estimates the innovation possibilities frontier and the TIF using the KLEMS data for 1995–2015 and documents the time evolution and sectoral heterogeneity of the innovation possibilities frontier.