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Assessing environmental performance trends in the transport industry: Eco-innovation or catching-up?

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  • Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes
  • Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J.

Abstract

This paper analyses the change in environmental performance that took place in the transport industry of 38 countries between the years 1995 and 2009. Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions are employed to compute Luenberger productivity indicators for the change in environmental performance and its determinants, namely, environmental technical change resulting from eco-innovation and catching-up with best available environmental technologies. Eight air pollutants account for the environmental contaminants from transport activities, and these are aggregated into three main categories of environmental pressures, namely, global warming, tropospheric ozone formation and acidification potentials. Furthermore, performance evaluation is based on how these specific environmental pressures are managed. Our principal findings show that there has been a noticeable improvement in environmental performance since the 1990s, primarily as a result of eco-innovations; moreover, this improvement has been markedly greater in low- and middle-income economies, bolstered, in this case, by both environmental technical progress and catching-up. These results reveal the need for policy measures aimed at encouraging catching-up with best available technologies, particularly in more developed countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J., 2015. "Assessing environmental performance trends in the transport industry: Eco-innovation or catching-up?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 570-580.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:51:y:2015:i:c:p:570-580
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2015.08.018
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    5. Liu, Hongxun & Gao, Jinfeng & Tian, Peng & Ma, Xiaoming & Meng, Guanfei & Yang, Jingnan & Li, Zhi, 2023. "The impact of environmental regulation on productivity with co-production of goods and bads," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    6. Ghisetti, Claudia & Quatraro, Francesco, 2017. "Green Technologies and Environmental Productivity: A Cross-sectoral Analysis of Direct and Indirect Effects in Italian Regions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1-13.
    7. Dong, Weijia & Li, Ye & Lv, Xin & Yu, Chang, 2021. "How does venture capital spur the innovation of environmentally friendly firms? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    8. Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J., 2017. "Assessing environmental performance in the European Union: Eco-innovation versus catching-up," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 240-252.
    9. Despoina Dede & Eleni Didaskalou & Sotirios Bersimis & Dimitrios Georgakellos, 2020. "A Statistical Framework for Assessing Environmental Performance of Quality Wine Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    10. Fei Mo & Derek Wang, 2019. "Environmental Sustainability of Road Transport in OECD Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-14, September.
    11. Pérez-Pérez, Juan Fernando & Parra, Juan Felipe & Serrano-García, Jakeline, 2021. "A system dynamics model: Transition to sustainable processes," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Boban Djordjević & Evelin Krmac, 2019. "Evaluation of Energy-Environment Efficiency of European Transport Sectors: Non-Radial DEA and TOPSIS Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-27, July.
    13. Monastyrenko, Evgenii, 2017. "Eco-efficiency outcomes of mergers and acquisitions in the European electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 258-277.
    14. Pablo-Romero, M.P. & Cruz, L. & Barata, E., 2017. "Testing the transport energy-environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the EU27 countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 257-269.
    15. Antunes, Jorge & Tan, Yong & Wanke, Peter & Jabbour, Charbel Jose Chiappetta, 2023. "Impact of R&D and innovation in Chinese road transportation sustainability performance: A novel trigonometric envelopment analysis for ideal solutions (TEA-IS)," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    16. Lisa Kraus & Heike Proff, 2021. "Sustainable Urban Transportation Criteria and Measurement—A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-21, June.
    17. Nikos Chatzistamoulou & Phoebe Koundouri, 2020. "Exploring Feedback Loops between Performance Measures. Energy and Environmental Efficiency under heterogeneous Eco-Innovation groups," DEOS Working Papers 2012, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    18. Junwei Ma & Jianhua Wang & Philip Szmedra, 2020. "Does Environmental Innovation Improve Environmental Productivity?—An Empirical Study Based on the Spatial Panel Data Model of Chinese Urban Agglomerations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-18, August.
    19. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan, 2016. "Marginal Rate of Transformation and Rate of Substitution measured by DEA environmental assessment: Comparison among European and North American nations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 270-287.
    20. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2019. "Is Social Capital Green? Cultural Features and Environmental Performance in the European Union," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(3), pages 795-822, March.
    21. Rehermann, F. & Pablo-Romero, M., 2018. "Economic growth and transport energy consumption in the Latin American and Caribbean countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 518-527.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transport industry; Environmental technical change; Eco-efficiency change; Luenberger indicators; Directional distance functions; Data Envelopment Analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
    • R49 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Other

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