Abstract
Inclusive Green Growth (IGG) has important reference value for China’s ecological civilization construction and transformation of economic development. Therefore, this study assesses China’s IGG level from the perspective of relative efficiency. The IGG efficiency (IGGE) was measured at the provincial level in China from 2000 to 2020 by using Super-Epsilon-Based Measure (EBM) model that considers undesirable outputs. The spatiotemporal pattern of IGGE was analyzed by kernel density estimation and spatial autocorrelation. The results indicate a fluctuating trend from 2000 to 2020 for the IGGE of China, and significant differences between regional and interprovincial IGGE were observed. On average, the eastern region presented the highest efficiency, while the level in the central regions was lowest. There is a positive spatial autocorrelation in the IGGE distribution, and the agglomeration of spatial distribution fluctuated during the study period. The IGGE has spatial spillover effects at the provincial level according to the spatial Durbin model. Among the influencing factors, the spatial spillover effects of industrial structure, government administrative capability, and industrialization level are significant. The regression results also confirm the Environmental Kuznets Curve effect between IGG and economic growth in China. Finally, some implicit policies can be established based on the empirical analysis.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41701117 and No. 42071150).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Xiaotong Gao and Jianqi Jia. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Lin Zhao. Edited and reviewed by Yu Zhang. And all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript.
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Zhao, L., Gao, X., Jia, J. et al. Analyzing inclusive green growth in China: a perspective of relative efficiency. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 16017–16035 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23155-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23155-w