Environmental productivity in the European Union: A global Luenberger-metafrontier approach

Environmental productivity growth, regulation and types of pollutants: Evidence from European firms

European manufacturing firms have to cope with the new regulations that advocate a greener and more sustainable future with less emissions and at the same time enhance or at least maintain their productivity levels. A unique dataset is constructed by combining information on different firms' pollutants with their financial information during the 2011-2017 period. A non-radial directional distance function analysis is adopted with desirable and undesirable outputs to estimate environmental productivity growth and its components, which addresses the problem of heterogeneity. A regulatory impact indicator that provides information about the loss of outputs resulting from new policies is also computed. Finally, the impact of environmental regulations on productivity growth is explored using a panel vector autoregressive method. Our findings showcase different average values of productivity for each pollutant group. Moreover, results indicate that increasing the index of regulations by 1%, increases environmental productivity by 0.24% and 0.44% for heavy metals and greenhouse gases groups, respectively. Finally, results support the "weak" Porter Hypothesis, which attests that welldesigned environmental regulations can exert a positive effect on environmental innovation.

Sustainability performance of global chemical industry based on green total factor productivity

The sustainability of the chemical industry is crucial for achieving global sustainable production. The sustainability performance of global chemical industry is influenced by many issues synergistically and has not been fully quantified. Systematic analysis from multiple perspectives, such as resource savings, economic growth, and environmental improvement, is urgently needed to support effective macro-policy decisions. This study quantifies the variation trend of the sustainability of the global chemical industry during 2004-2014 and identifies the driving forces under the framework of green total factor productivity (GTFP). Results show that most developed countries performed efficiently (with GTFP values equal to 1) in sustainable production of the chemical industry, while the least developed countries usually performed inefficiently (with GTFP values lower than 1). Notably, a polarization of sustainability in the chemical industry has been confirmed among countries with different production capacities. From 2004 to 2014, the sustainability performance of the global chemical industry has generally improved. It was mainly driven by technological progress (resulting from independent technological innovation) rather than efficiency catching-up (derived from technological learning). Furthermore, technological progress was manifested mainly as the improvement in CO₂ reduction performance and capital saving performance, while technological learning was manifested mainly as the improvement in labor saving performance. Based on the conclusions of this study, the international world is suggested to take action to strengthen international technology cooperation, and governments should make prioritized and focused policies to effectively promote the sustainability of global chemical industry.

A framework linking farming resilience with productivity: empirical validation from Poland in times of crises

Farming sectors' resilience has been built over decades with the aid of policies and institutions. However, its actual standing can be assessed in times of crises when farms have to overcome particular challenges. We use a large-scale farming sectors dataset FADN spanning 2006-2015 in which two major economic crises occurred-the global economic crisis of 2008 and the Russian embargo of 2014-to exemplify our approach to resilience's assessment based on the Polish farming sectors. We introduce a distinction between "potential resilience" versus "revealed resilience" where the former is assessed based on resilience capacities (robustness, adaptability and transformability), while the latter is assessed based on the observed decomposition of total factor productivity (TFP) changes in response to the adverse economic shocks. Hence, the proposed framework directly links productivity with the two types of resilience. We applied the Färe-Primont method of TFP decomposition, into technological change and various types of efficiency changes and a detailed farm survey to distinguish between the drivers of technological changes in each farming sector such as specific innovations and ecosystem services. Our findings show that farms differ in their revealed resilience both among the sectors and between two different shock events. Only field crop farms and granivores farms (pig and poultry) maintained their resilience to both crises, staying robust and/or adaptable. The former had the most productive technology and were leaders in applying innovations while the latter were second best in innovations and fairly good in their application of ecosystem-based services into their technology. Other farm types failed to be resilient to the first crisis but proved robust during the second. The outcomes of the study have implications for sustainability oriented policies.

Technical Efficiency and Productivity Change in the European Union with Undesirable Output Considered

Global competition and climate change are changing the nature of economic activity and impose the urgent need to have environmentally sensitive productivity growth. The paper addresses both desirable and undesirable output to assess technical efficiency and productivity changes, as well as evaluate the importance of an energy input in the production function and productivity change differentials in the European Union (EU) over the period 2000–2018. To that end, it uses output-oriented data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity analysis. The results reveal that the EU is facing significant challenges due to a decreasing trend in technical efficiency and slow productivity growth. The absence of major improvements in human resource performance has reduced the benefits of technological innovations which are the main source of productivity growth. Additionally, the results show that energy use did not critically influence efficiency and productivity.

Modelling environmental constraints on the efficiency of management forms for public service delivery

This paper presents a new non-parametric methodology in which robust frontiers are used to measure the impact of environmental constraints on efficiency. In this approach, a data panel structure is applied to determine which management forms for the delivery of municipal services - public or private, in cooperation or individual - are best suited to the environment where the services are provided. The study method proposed is then applied to analyse the waste collection service provided in Spanish municipalities during the period 2002-2014. The results obtained show that of the management forms considered inter-municipal cooperation adapts best to heterogeneous environmental conditions.

Assessing the total factor performance of wastewater treatment in China: A city-level analysis

China is currently facing huge challenges in mitigating water shortages and protecting water bodies. The inferior wastewater treatment of the country has become the main barrier impeding regional water pollution control and sustainable economic development. Therefore, creating an overview of the current performance and weaknesses of city-level wastewater treatment is crucial and beneficial for exploring the driving factors for improvement. This study employed the slack-based measure and improved Luenberger productivity indicator decomposition method to investigate wastewater treatment performance in Chinese cities from static and dynamic perspectives. Results showed that pollutants were the main factors leading to wastewater treatment inefficiency. The total factor productivity of wastewater treatment (WTFP) of Chinese cities demonstrated an increasing trend from a temporal perspective and distinct spatial heterogeneity. An in-depth decomposition revealed that the most influential factor leading to WTFP growth was efficiency improvement rather than technical progress, pollutants discharge reduction rather than intensification of inputs. Given the varied types of cities, corresponding optimal and differentiated strategies, including source-oriented controls and end-of-pipe-led regulations, were provided to improve the overall performance of wastewater treatment. The findings of this study can help decision makers design specific policies for wastewater governance, which would be beneficial for achieving the green and high-quality development targets.

Assessing industrial circular economy performance and its dynamic evolution: An extended Malmquist index based on cooperative game network DEA

This paper aims to investigate efficiency performance and the dynamic evolution of industrial circular economy (ICE). We first employ the cooperative game network data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the overall efficiency, subsystem efficiency, and factor efficiency of the ICE system. Then, an extended Malmquist index (EMI) method is proposed to identify the dynamic evolution of efficiency performance over time. Unlike the standard Malmquist index method, the proposed EMI method can finally decompose the EMI of the ICE system into the square root of the product of four dynamic indicators of efficiency change and the technological progress of subsystems, providing more details and dominants underlying EMI in the ICE system. The evaluation results of China's Yangtze River Delta region over 2012-2017 show that overall efficiency of the ICE system presents obvious disparity across cities and subsystems. Besides, it is found that EMI of the ICE system presents a V-shaped fluctuation and is mainly dominated by the environmental treatment (ET) subsystem. The decline of EMI of the ICE system early in the sample period (2013-2014) is caused by serious efficiency deterioration of the ET subsystem, while its rise at the end of sample period (2016-2017) is due to the technological progress of the ET subsystem.

Income or Assets—What Determines the Approach to the Environment among Farmers in A Region in Poland?

The theory about the impact of farm size, income and assets on the environmental approach of farmers is ambiguous. We contribute to the existing discussion in two ways. Firstly, we look for the determinants of the environmental approach. Secondly, we treat farm size as a heterogeneous factor, affected not only by the value of assets but also flows of incomes. The main objective of the article is, therefore, to recognize the impact of assets and income on the environmental approach of agricultural producers. We analyze the results of surveys carried out in 2020 on a group of 120 farms from the Wielkopolska region (Poland), using structural equation modelling (generalized structural equation modelling (GSEM)-multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) model). Our results indicate that both the income and assets of the agricultural producers have a positive impact on their approach to the environment. However, to a greater extent, the farmer’s approach to the environment is influenced more by income than by assets. This may be influenced by the capitalization of subsidies in the price of agricultural land, which makes this element of farm assets detached from real processes. It is easier for farms with a higher income and assets to realize the orientation towards sustainability.

Regional difference in global unified efficiency of China-Evidence from city-level data

As the world's most energy-consuming and carbon-emitting country, China faces enormous pressures on energy conservation and emission reduction, and improving energy efficiency is one of the most important ways to save energy and reduce emissions. Using the city-level panel data in China during 2013-2017, we apply the global non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) to estimate the global unified efficiency (GUE) of each city as well as their driving forces, and identify the change of efficiency performance. The results indicate that the average GUE changed -1.0%, 1.2%, 6.0% and 7.0% during 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, respectively. The more developed Central China and the relatively underdeveloped Northwest China have high GUE, while the lower GUE exists in the Northeast and North China regions with greater industrial transformation and upgrading pressures. In general, the global unified efficiency of each region increases over time.