Research on Spatial-temporal Differentiation and Driving Forces of Green Economic Efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt Based on Geographic Detectors

Abstract

The research is based on the undesirable super-efficiency EBM model to measure the GEE of 108 cities in the YREB from 2003 to 2018, uses Geographical Information System to characterize the temporal and spatial evolution of the GEE, and applies the geographic detector model to further reveal the spatial heterogeneity of its driving forces. The results show that: (1)The GEE of the YREB took 2013 as the inflection point, showing two phases of volatility decline period and rapid rise period, and reflecting the spatial differentiation characteristics of “upstream-midstream-downstream” urban agglomeration. (2)The core driving forces for the improvement of GEE in the YREB include urbanization, consumption level, financial industry development, technological innovation and Internet penetration rate.(3)The local scale of the driving forces for GEE improvement is significantly different. The core driving forces of the upstream are education investment, urbanization, Internet penetration rate and transportation infrastructure; and education investment, industrial structure and city scale in the midstream; and industrial structure, consumption, technological innovation, economic development level in the downstream. Therefore, upstream, midstream, and downstream must seek to adapt to the situation and local conditions to improve the GEE.