IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v6y2014i9p6070-6087d40031.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Estimation of Resource Productivity and Efficiency: An Extended Evaluation of Sustainability Related to Material Flow

Author

Listed:
  • Pin-Chih Wang

    (Institute of Natural Resource Management, National Taipei University, New Taipei City 23741, Taiwan)

  • Yuh-Ming Lee

    (Institute of Natural Resource Management, National Taipei University, New Taipei City 23741, Taiwan)

  • Chiu-Yang Chen

    (Institute of Natural Resource Management, National Taipei University, New Taipei City 23741, Taiwan)

Abstract

This study is intended to conduct an extended evaluation of sustainability based on the material flow analysis of resource productivity. We first present updated information on the material flow analysis (MFA) database in Taiwan. Essential indicators are selected to quantify resource productivity associated with the economy-wide MFA of Taiwan. The study also applies the IPAT (impact-population-affluence-technology) master equation to measure trends of material use efficiency in Taiwan and to compare them with those of other Asia-Pacific countries. An extended evaluation of efficiency, in comparison with selected economies by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA), is conducted accordingly. The Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) is thereby adopted to quantify the patterns and the associated changes of efficiency. Observations and summaries can be described as follows. Based on the MFA of the Taiwanese economy, the average growth rates of domestic material input (DMI; 2.83%) and domestic material consumption (DMC; 2.13%) in the past two decades were both less than that of gross domestic product (GDP; 4.95%). The decoupling of environmental pressures from economic growth can be observed. In terms of the decomposition analysis of the IPAT equation and in comparison with 38 other economies, the material use efficiency of Taiwan did not perform as well as its economic growth. The DEA comparisons of resource productivity show that Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Japan performed the best in 2008. Since the MPI consists of technological change (frontier-shift or innovation) and efficiency change (catch-up), the change in efficiency (catch-up) of Taiwan has not been accomplished as expected in spite of the increase in its technological efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Pin-Chih Wang & Yuh-Ming Lee & Chiu-Yang Chen, 2014. "Estimation of Resource Productivity and Efficiency: An Extended Evaluation of Sustainability Related to Material Flow," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(9), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:9:p:6070-6087:d:40031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/9/6070/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/9/6070/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weisz, Helga & Krausmann, Fridolin & Amann, Christof & Eisenmenger, Nina & Erb, Karl-Heinz & Hubacek, Klaus & Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, 2006. "The physical economy of the European Union: Cross-country comparison and determinants of material consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 676-698, July.
    2. Fang, Chin-Yi & Hu, Jin-Li & Lou, Tze-Kai, 2013. "Environment-adjusted total-factor energy efficiency of Taiwan's service sectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1160-1168.
    3. Hu, Jin-Li & Kao, Chih-Hung, 2007. "Efficient energy-saving targets for APEC economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 373-382, January.
    4. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    5. Jeremy S. Brooks, 2013. "Avoiding the Limits to Growth: Gross National Happiness in Bhutan as a Model for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(9), pages 1-25, August.
    6. 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.
    7. Chien, Taichen & Hu, Jin-Li, 2008. "Renewable energy: An efficient mechanism to improve GDP," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3035-3042, August.
    8. Chien, Taichen & Hu, Jin-Li, 2007. "Renewable energy and macroeconomic efficiency of OECD and non-OECD economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3606-3615, July.
    9. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, December.
    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. Palacios, Jose-Luis & Calvo, Guiomar & Valero, Alicia & Valero, Antonio, 2018. "The cost of mineral depletion in Latin America: An exergoecology view," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 117-124.
    2. 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.
    3. László Török, 2024. "The Trend in Environmental Load in the European Union during the Period of 2012–2022," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Jose-Luis Palacios & Guiomar Calvo & Alicia Valero & Antonio Valero, 2018. "Exergoecology Assessment of Mineral Exports from Latin America: Beyond a Tonnage Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Godfred Seidu Jasaw & Osamu Saito & Kazuhiko Takeuchi, 2015. "Shea ( Vitellaria paradoxa ) Butter Production and Resource Use by Urban and Rural Processors in Northern Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Anja Hansen & Jörn Budde & Yusuf Nadi Karatay & Annette Prochnow, 2016. "CUDe —Carbon Utilization Degree as an Indicator for Sustainable Biomass Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-17, October.
    7. PICIU, Gabriela, 2018. "Waste Management In The Context Of Circular Economy In Romania," Journal of Financial and Monetary Economics, Centre of Financial and Monetary Research "Victor Slavescu", vol. 6(1), pages 242-248, October.
    8. Miroslav Fusko & Monika Bučková & Martin Gašo & Martin Krajčovič & Ľuboslav Dulina & Radovan Skokan, 2019. "Concept of Long-Term Sustainable Intralogistics in Plastic Recycling Factory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-27, November.
    9. Bampatsou, Christina & Halkos, George & Beneki, Christina, 2021. "Energy and material flow management to improve EU productivity," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 83-93.

    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. Bi, Gong-Bing & Song, Wen & Zhou, P. & Liang, Liang, 2014. "Does environmental regulation affect energy efficiency in China's thermal power generation? Empirical evidence from a slacks-based DEA model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 537-546.
    2. Alizadeh, Reza & Gharizadeh Beiragh, Ramin & Soltanisehat, Leili & Soltanzadeh, Elham & Lund, Peter D., 2020. "Performance evaluation of complex electricity generation systems: A dynamic network-based data envelopment analysis approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Halkos, George & Tzeremes, Nickolaos, 2013. "Renewable energy consumption and economic efficiency: Evidence from European countries," MPRA Paper 44136, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Li, Lan-Bing & Hu, Jin-Li, 2012. "Ecological total-factor energy efficiency of regions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 216-224.
    5. Mousavi-Avval, Seyed Hashem & Rafiee, Shahin & Jafari, Ali & Mohammadi, Ali, 2011. "Optimization of energy consumption for soybean production using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(11), pages 3765-3772.
    6. Georgia Makridou, Kostas Andriosopoulos, Michael Doumpos, and Constantin Zopounidis, 2015. "A Two-stage approach for energy efficiency analysis in European Union countries," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    7. Meng, Fanyi & Su, Bin & Thomson, Elspeth & Zhou, Dequn & Zhou, P., 2016. "Measuring China’s regional energy and carbon emission efficiency with DEA models: A survey," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1-21.
    8. Demiral, Elif E. & Sağlam, Ümit, 2021. "Eco-efficiency and Eco-productivity assessments of the states in the United States: A two-stage Non-parametric analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    9. Gökgöz, Fazıl & Güvercin, Mustafa Taylan, 2018. "Energy security and renewable energy efficiency in EU," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 226-239.
    10. Ching-Cheng Lu & Yung-ho Chiu & I-Fang Lin & Tai-Yu Lin, 2023. "Dynamic total factors’ environmental efficiency in European union countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 10055-10072, September.
    11. Woo, Chungwon & Chung, Yanghon & Chun, Dongphil & Seo, Hangyeol & Hong, Sungjun, 2015. "The static and dynamic environmental efficiency of renewable energy: A Malmquist index analysis of OECD countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 367-376.
    12. Franz R. Hahn, 2007. "Determinants of Bank Efficiency in Europe. Assessing Bank Performance Across Markets," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 31499, March.
    13. Alperovych, Yan & Hübner, Georges & Lobet, Fabrice, 2015. "How does governmental versus private venture capital backing affect a firm's efficiency? Evidence from Belgium," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 508-525.
    14. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan & Yeh, Fang-Yu, 2006. "Total-factor water efficiency of regions in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 217-230, December.
    15. Peter Fernandes Wanke & Rebecca de Mattos, 2014. "Capacity Issues and Efficiency Drivers in Brazilian Bulk Terminals," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 11(5), pages 72-98, October.
    16. Matthias Klumpp & Dominic Loske, 2021. "Sustainability and Resilience Revisited: Impact of Information Technology Disruptions on Empirical Retail Logistics Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-20, May.
    17. George Halkos & Roman Matousek & Nickolaos Tzeremes, 2016. "Pre-evaluating technical efficiency gains from possible mergers and acquisitions: evidence from Japanese regional banks," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 47-77, January.
    18. Duk Hee Lee & Il Won Seo & Ho Chull Choe & Hee Dae Kim, 2012. "Collaboration network patterns and research performance: the case of Korean public research institutions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 925-942, June.
    19. Mehdiloozad, Mahmood & Zhu, Joe & Sahoo, Biresh K., 2018. "Identification of congestion in data envelopment analysis under the occurrence of multiple projections: A reliable method capable of dealing with negative data," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 644-654.
    20. Subhash C. Ray & Lei Chen, 2015. "Data Envelopment Analysis for Performance Evaluation: A Child’s Guide," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Subal C. Kumbhakar & Pami Dua (ed.), Benchmarking for Performance Evaluation, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 75-116, Springer.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:9:p:6070-6087:d:40031. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.