IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v275y2019i3p1083-1095.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Data envelopment analysis for sustainability evaluation in China: Tackling the economic, environmental, and social dimensions

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Linlin
  • Zha, Yong
  • Zhuang, Yuliang
  • Liang, Liang

Abstract

This study develops a theoretical framework within the data envelopment analysis context to examine the efficiency of sustainable development systems. Such a system is composed of an economic and environmental subsystem and a social subsystem. We first explore the performances of the subsystems and the system under an independently parallel setting and then establish an operational linkage to study the noncooperative and cooperative interactions between the subsystems in a linked parallel setting. A case study of 30 major Chinese cities is presented to illustrate the feasibility of the approach and the results show great discrimination of system performances among the cities. The major cities have distinct geographic characteristics which affect their economic and environmental efficiency as well as the social efficiency. It was found that in some of these sustainable development systems, the subsystems behave inharmoniously, which results in significant inefficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Linlin & Zha, Yong & Zhuang, Yuliang & Liang, Liang, 2019. "Data envelopment analysis for sustainability evaluation in China: Tackling the economic, environmental, and social dimensions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(3), pages 1083-1095.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:275:y:2019:i:3:p:1083-1095
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2018.12.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221718310269
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2018.12.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wu, Jie & Zhu, Qingyuan & Ji, Xiang & Chu, Junfei & Liang, Liang, 2016. "Two-stage network processes with shared resources and resources recovered from undesirable outputs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 251(1), pages 182-197.
    2. Peng Zhou & Kim Leng Poh & Beng Wah Ang, 2016. "Data Envelopment Analysis for Measuring Environmental Performance," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Shiuh-Nan Hwang & Hsuan-Shih Lee & Joe Zhu (ed.), Handbook of Operations Analytics Using Data Envelopment Analysis, chapter 0, pages 31-49, Springer.
    3. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika, 2014. "Investment strategy for sustainable society by development of regional economies and prevention of industrial pollutions in Japanese manufacturing sectors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 299-312.
    4. Walheer, Barnabé, 2018. "Economic growth and greenhouse gases in Europe: A non-radial multi-sector nonparametric production-frontier analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 51-62.
    5. Ya Chen & Wade D. Cook & Juan Du & Hanhui Hu & Joe Zhu, 2017. "Bounded and discrete data and Likert scales in data envelopment analysis: application to regional energy efficiency in China," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 255(1), pages 347-366, August.
    6. Chen, Chialin & Zhu, Joe & Yu, Jiun-Yu & Noori, Hamid, 2012. "A new methodology for evaluating sustainable product design performance with two-stage network data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(2), pages 348-359.
    7. W-M Lu & S-F Lo, 2007. "A benchmark-learning roadmap for regional sustainable development in China," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(7), pages 841-849, July.
    8. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl A., 2007. "Environmental production functions and environmental directional distance functions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1055-1066.
    9. Finn R. Førsund, 2018. "Multi-equation modelling of desirable and undesirable outputs satisfying the materials balance," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 67-99, February.
    10. Du, Juan & Chen, Yao & Huang, Ying, 2018. "A Modified Malmquist-Luenberger Productivity Index: Assessing Environmental Productivity Performance in China," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(1), pages 171-187.
    11. White, Leroy & Lee, Gregory John, 2009. "Operational research and sustainable development: Tackling the social dimension," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(3), pages 683-692, March.
    12. Walheer, Barnabé, 2016. "Growth and convergence of the OECD countries: A multi-sector production-frontier approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(2), pages 665-675.
    13. Alireza Amirteimoori, 2013. "A DEA two-stage decision processes with shared resources," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 21(1), pages 141-151, January.
    14. Chen, Yao & Cook, Wade D. & Li, Ning & Zhu, Joe, 2009. "Additive efficiency decomposition in two-stage DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(3), pages 1170-1176, August.
    15. Kao, Chiang, 2014. "Network data envelopment analysis: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(1), pages 1-16.
    16. Jonathan F. Bard, 1983. "An Efficient Point Algorithm for a Linear Two-Stage Optimization Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 670-684, August.
    17. Chang, Young-Tae & Zhang, Ning & Danao, Denise & Zhang, Nan, 2013. "Environmental efficiency analysis of transportation system in China: A non-radial DEA approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 277-283.
    18. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan, 2006. "Total-factor energy efficiency of regions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 3206-3217, November.
    19. Zha, Yong & Liang, Liang, 2010. "Two-stage cooperation model with input freely distributed among the stages," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(2), pages 332-338, September.
    20. Cook, Wade D. & Seiford, Larry M., 2009. "Data envelopment analysis (DEA) - Thirty years on," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(1), pages 1-17, January.
    21. Liang Liang & Feng Yang & Wade Cook & Joe Zhu, 2006. "DEA models for supply chain efficiency evaluation," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 35-49, July.
    22. Cherchye, Laurens & Rock, Bram De & Walheer, Barnabé, 2015. "Multi-output efficiency with good and bad outputs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(3), pages 872-881.
    23. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 2004. "Modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation: Comment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(1), pages 242-245, August.
    24. Cook, Wade D. & Zhu, Joe & Bi, Gongbing & Yang, Feng, 2010. "Network DEA: Additive efficiency decomposition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(2), pages 1122-1129, December.
    25. Louis Lefeber & Thomas Vietorisz, 2007. "The Meaning of Social Efficiency," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 139-164.
    26. van Ackere, Ann, 1993. "The principal/agent paradigm: Its relevance to various functional fields," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 83-103, October.
    27. Cherchye, Laurens & De Rock, Bram & Walheer, Barnabé, 2016. "Multi-output profit efficiency and directional distance functions," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 100-109.
    28. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    29. Liang Liang & Wade D. Cook & Joe Zhu, 2008. "DEA models for two‐stage processes: Game approach and efficiency decomposition," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(7), pages 643-653, October.
    30. Vladimir Strezov & Annette Evans & Tim J. Evans, 2017. "Assessment of the Economic, Social and Environmental Dimensions of the Indicators for Sustainable Development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 242-253, May.
    31. Easterlin, Richard A., 1974. "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 111773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    32. Barnabé Walheer, 2019. "Is constant returns-to-scale a restrictive assumption for sector-level empirical macroeconomics? The case of Europe," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 231-236, February.
    33. Michael Cuthill, 2010. "Strengthening the ‘social’ in sustainable development: Developing a conceptual framework for social sustainability in a rapid urban growth region in Australia," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(6), pages 362-373, November/.
    34. Tsan-Ming Choi & T. C. E. Cheng & Xiande Zhao & Desheng Dash Wu & Cuicui Luo & Haofei Wang & John R. Birge, 2016. "Bi-level Programing Merger Evaluation and Application to Banking Operations," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 25(3), pages 498-515, March.
    35. Tang, Christopher S. & Zhou, Sean, 2012. "Research advances in environmentally and socially sustainable operations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(3), pages 585-594.
    36. Wang, Qunwei & Su, Bin & Zhou, Peng & Chiu, Ching-Ren, 2016. "Measuring total-factor CO2 emission performance and technology gaps using a non-radial directional distance function: A modified approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 475-482.
    37. Erling Holden & Kristin Linnerud & David Banister, 2017. "The Imperatives of Sustainable Development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 213-226, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Jiaxin & Wang, Zihan & Cheng, Xin & Shuai, Jing & Shuai, Chuanmin & Liu, Jing, 2020. "Has solar PV achieved the national poverty alleviation goals? Empirical evidence from the performances of 52 villages in rural China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    2. Jun-Mao Liao & Ming-Jui Chang & Luh-Maan Chang, 2020. "Prediction of Air-Conditioning Energy Consumption in R&D Building Using Multiple Machine Learning Techniques," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-22, April.
    3. Tsaples, G. & Papathanasiou, J., 2021. "Data envelopment analysis and the concept of sustainability: A review and analysis of the literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    4. Yue Huang & Youping Teng & Shuai Yang, 2023. "Evaluation of the Sustainable Development of Macau, Based on the BP Neural Network," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Jiaguo Liu & Huida Zhao & Yibing Lyu & Xiaohang Yue, 2023. "The provision strategy of blockchain service under the supply chain with downstream competition," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 327(1), pages 375-400, August.
    6. Xun Liu & Zhiyuan Xue & Zhenhan Ding & Siyu Chen, 2023. "Sustainability Assessment of Municipal Infrastructure Projects Based on Continuous Interval Argumentation Ordered Weighted Average (C-OWA) and Cloud Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    7. Li, Jiaxin & Peng, Jiachao & Shuai, Chuanmin & Wang, Zihan & Huang, Fubin & Khayyam, Muhammad, 2022. "Does the solar PV program enhance the social empowerment of China's rural poor?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    8. Yong Tan & Mike G. Tsionas, 2022. "Modelling sustainability efficiency in banking," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 3754-3772, July.
    9. Jin Huang & Ai Huang & Min An & Hui An & Ye Tian & Chang Liu, 2022. "Evaluation of hydropower project implementing coordination degree on the perspective of stakeholders," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 13(3), pages 1187-1197, June.
    10. Zhu, Liyun & Schneider, Kevin & Oude Lansink, Alfons, 2023. "Economic, environmental, and social inefficiency assessment of Dutch dairy farms based on the dynamic by-production model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(3), pages 1134-1145.
    11. Anna Łozowicka, 2020. "Evaluation of the Efficiency of Sustainable Development Policy Implementation in Selected EU Member States Using DEA. The Ecological Dimension," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    12. Laura Calzada-Infante & Ana María López-Narbona & Alberto Núñez-Elvira & Javier Orozco-Messana, 2020. "Assessing the Efficiency of Sustainable Cities Using an Empirical Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, March.
    13. Xian’En Wang & Shimeng Wang & Xipan Wang & Wenbo Li & Junnian Song & Haiyan Duan & Shuo Wang, 2019. "The Assessment of Carbon Performance under the Region-Sector Perspective based on the Nonparametric Estimation: A Case Study of the Northern Province in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-23, October.
    14. Chen, Chien-fei & Li, Jiaxin & Shuai, Jing & Nelson, Hannah & Walzem, Allen & Cheng, Jinhua, 2021. "Linking social-psychological factors with policy expectation: Using local voices to understand solar PV poverty alleviation in Wuhan, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    15. N. Torabi Golsefid & M. Salahi, 2023. "An SOCP approach to a two-stage network DEA with feedbacks and shared resources," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 60(3), pages 1153-1178, September.
    16. Khan, Mehmood & Ajmal, Mian M. & Gunasekaran, Angappa & AlMarzouqi, Abdulla H. & AlNuaimi, Bader Khamis, 2021. "Measures of greenness: An empirical study in service supply chains in the UAE," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    17. Kai He & Nan Zhu & Wu Jiang & Chuanjin Zhu, 2022. "Efficiency Evaluation of Chinese Provincial Industrial System Based on Network DEA Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-24, April.
    18. Ajishnu Roy & Aman Basu & Xuhui Dong, 2021. "Achieving Socioeconomic Development Fuelled by Globalization: An Analysis of 146 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, April.
    19. Zhang, Lin & Zhao, Linlin & Zha, Yong, 2021. "Efficiency evaluation of Chinese regional industrial systems using a dynamic two-stage DEA approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tatiana Bencova & Andrea Bohacikova, 2022. "DEA in Performance Measurement of Two-Stage Processes: Comparative Overview of the Literature," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 5, pages 111-129.
    2. Chen, Xiafei & Liu, Zhiying & Zhu, Qingyuan, 2020. "Reprint of "Performance evaluation of China's high-tech innovation process :Analysis based on the innovation value chain"," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 94.
    3. Chen, Xiafei & Liu, Zhiying & Zhu, Qingyuan, 2018. "Performance evaluation of China's high-tech innovation process: Analysis based on the innovation value chain," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 74, pages 42-53.
    4. Lim, Dong-Joon & Kim, Moon-Su, 2022. "Measuring dynamic efficiency with variable time lag effects," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    5. Kao, Chiang, 2014. "Network data envelopment analysis: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(1), pages 1-16.
    6. Zhou, Haibo & Yang, Yi & Chen, Yao & Zhu, Joe, 2018. "Data envelopment analysis application in sustainability: The origins, development and future directions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 1-16.
    7. Barnabé Walheer, 2020. "Output, input, and undesirable output interconnections in data envelopment analysis: convexity and returns-to-scale," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 284(1), pages 447-467, January.
    8. Ang, Sheng & Liu, Pei & Yang, Feng, 2020. "Intra-Organizational and inter-organizational resource allocation in two-stage network systems," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    9. Kao, Chiang, 2016. "Efficiency decomposition and aggregation in network data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 255(3), pages 778-786.
    10. Zhang, Linyan & Chen, Kun, 2019. "Hierarchical network systems: An application to high-technology industry in China," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 118-131.
    11. Walheer, Barnabé, 2018. "Economic growth and greenhouse gases in Europe: A non-radial multi-sector nonparametric production-frontier analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 51-62.
    12. Guo, Chuanyin & Abbasi Shureshjani, Roohollah & Foroughi, Ali Asghar & Zhu, Joe, 2017. "Decomposition weights and overall efficiency in two-stage additive network DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(3), pages 896-906.
    13. Zhu, Qingyuan & Xu, Shuqi & Sun, Jiasen & Li, Xingchen & Zhou, Dequn, 2022. "Energy efficiency evaluation of power supply system: A data-driven approach based on shared resources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    14. Tajbakhsh, Alireza & Hassini, Elkafi, 2018. "Evaluating sustainability performance in fossil-fuel power plants using a two-stage data envelopment analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 154-178.
    15. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    16. Zhang, Lin & Zhao, Linlin & Zha, Yong, 2021. "Efficiency evaluation of Chinese regional industrial systems using a dynamic two-stage DEA approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    17. Meng, Fanyong & Xiong, Beibei, 2021. "Logical efficiency decomposition for general two-stage systems in view of cross efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(2), pages 622-632.
    18. Despotis, Dimitris K. & Koronakos, Gregory & Sotiros, Dimitris, 2016. "The “weak-link” approach to network DEA for two-stage processes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 254(2), pages 481-492.
    19. Georgios Tsaples & Jason Papathanasiou & Andreas C. Georgiou, 2022. "An Exploratory DEA and Machine Learning Framework for the Evaluation and Analysis of Sustainability Composite Indicators in the EU," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(13), pages 1-27, June.
    20. Junfei Chu & Jie Wu & Qingyuan Zhu & Qingxian An & Beibei Xiong, 2019. "Analysis of China’s Regional Eco-efficiency: A DEA Two-stage Network Approach with Equitable Efficiency Decomposition," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 1263-1285, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:275:y:2019:i:3:p:1083-1095. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.