TY - JOUR
T1 - Under the shadow of Asian Brown Clouds
T2 - Unbalanced regional productivities in China and environmental concerns
AU - Hu, Jin-Li
AU - Sheu, Her Jiun
AU - Lo, Shih Fang
PY - 2005/12/1
Y1 - 2005/12/1
N2 - China has seen rapid economic growth over the past two decades, but severe environmental problems have accompanied this, such as the looming danger of Asian Brown Clouds. This paper analyzes the regional development of China by examining economic performance and environmental factors. Technical efficiency and productivity changes in 31 regions of China are computed for the period 1997–2001. In the case of regional GDP, the fast-developing eastern (coastal) regions experience higher technical efficiency and productivity growth than the inland central and western regions. When environmental factors are incorporated, the eastern regions still perform better than inland regions, both from static and dynamic analysis. This phenomenon is termed the 'double deterioration' of the inland areas in China. Double deterioration is attributed to the lack of economic resources to replace highly-polluting production equipment and technology in those less developed regions.
AB - China has seen rapid economic growth over the past two decades, but severe environmental problems have accompanied this, such as the looming danger of Asian Brown Clouds. This paper analyzes the regional development of China by examining economic performance and environmental factors. Technical efficiency and productivity changes in 31 regions of China are computed for the period 1997–2001. In the case of regional GDP, the fast-developing eastern (coastal) regions experience higher technical efficiency and productivity growth than the inland central and western regions. When environmental factors are incorporated, the eastern regions still perform better than inland regions, both from static and dynamic analysis. This phenomenon is termed the 'double deterioration' of the inland areas in China. Double deterioration is attributed to the lack of economic resources to replace highly-polluting production equipment and technology in those less developed regions.
KW - Data envelopment analysis (DEA)
KW - Environment
KW - Malmquist productivity index
KW - Sustainable development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33644534531&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13504500509469652
DO - 10.1080/13504500509469652
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33644534531
SN - 1350-4509
VL - 12
SP - 429
EP - 442
JO - International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology
JF - International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology
IS - 4
ER -