Exploring the Spatial-Temporal Evolution Characteristics of Urban Eco-efficiency: A Case Study of 276 Chinese Cities

With the unbalanced development of the ecological environment and economic growth, eco-efficiency (EE) has turned into a popular research topic. This paper measures the eco-efficiency values of Chinese cities using the Super-slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model with non-desired outputs. Data for the study were obtained from a sample of 276 cities in China from 2015–2019. The outcomes show that: (1) The top three performers in EE are Beijing, Ziyang, and Zhoukou, and the bottom three performers are Wuzhong, Yichun, and Tieling; (2) the amount of cities in the lowest efficiency group decreases, and the average eco-efficiency value increases slightly overall; (3) by region, the average eco-efficiency value is highest in the east, comparable in the central and western areas, and lowest in the northeast; (4) from the period, the eco-efficiency values in the eastern and western regions have not changed much since 2015–2019, but the central region has increased from 0.28 to 0.42 and the northeastern region has decreased from 0.31 to 0.24. The results of the study provide a significant reference for policymakers to consider environmental protection and economic growth in an integrated manner.