Measuring Resource, Environmental, and Economic Efficiency of China’s Urban Agglomerations Based on Hybrid Directional Distance Function

Abstract

Urban agglomerations are important regional units for China to participate in global competition. They are also the sites at which contradictions between China’s resource utilization, environmental pollution, and economic development are most apparent. This case study uses the hybrid directional distance function method to develop a comprehensive measure to evaluate resource, environmental, and economic efficiency. The results reveal spatial-temporal change characteristics and evolution rules relating to resource, environmental, and economic efficiency in China’s urban agglomerations in 2005 and 2013. The study shows relatively low levels of these three types of efficiency in China’s urban agglomerations. A gradually decreasing trend for all three types of efficiency is evident moving from the eastern to the central and western regions. Differences in resource and economic efficiency among different urban agglomerations have an increasing trend, whereas differences in environmental efficiency among agglomerations have a decreasing trend. All three types of efficiency demonstrate phased evolution features adapted to the developmental phases of urban agglomerations.