Total-factor ecology efficiency of regions in China

- We present a new index for evaluating ecological efficiency.
- The new index is developed by combining Ecological Footprint with the total-factor framework.
- We apply the new index to 28 provinces in China.
- The new index evaluates ecology efficiency more comprehensively.

This paper combines the concept of Ecological Footprint (EF) with the framework of total-factor energy efficiency to develop a new index of total-factor ecology efficiency (TFEcE), which is constructed as the ratio of the target EF input obtained from SBM (slack-based measure) model to the actual ecology input under the consideration of labor and capital inputs. This paper computes the TFEcE of 28 provinces in China for the period 2000-2012. Findings show that China's TFEcE remains a low level of 0.5, which urgently needs to be improved. China's regional TFEcE is extremely unbalanced and the eastern area ranks first with the highest score. Compared with total-factor energy efficiency and traditional single-factor ecological efficiency, The TFEcE index evaluates ecology efficiency more comprehensively through taking EF in conjunction with the total-factor framework.