Study on Measurement and Drivers of Inclusive Green Efficiency in China

Abstract

The stagnation of growth, huge income gap, and excessive ecological environment degradation are the three issues worldwide. As China entered the stage of high-quality development, it slowed down the economic growth speed and the government paid more attention to social harmony and environment protection. Inclusive green growth efficiency(IGGE) is used to measure the quality of economic development and the degree of coordination among economic, social, and natural systems. Under this background, this paper employs the Data Envelop Analysis (DEA) model to measure IGGE from 2006 to 2019 in 30 provinces of China. Moreover, the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics are revealed and the key drivers of IGGE are explored by the spatial econometric model. The results indicate that the level of provincial IGGI of China has an upward trend in the statistical period and the characteristics of spatial agglomeration have been enhanced. For the drivers of IGGI, the level of opening-up, human capital, and innovation have significant impact on IGGI in China, while other elements are not very important. Finally, some policy suggestions were proposed to promote IGGE in China.