Technology gap and CO2 emission reduction potential by technical efficiency measures: A meta-frontier modeling for the Chinese agricultural sector

The purpose of this paper is to explore CO2 emission efficiency in china's agricultural sector during the period 2001-2012. We also analyze the CO2 emission reduction potential as well as its two main contributors (i.e. technology gap inefficiency and managerial failure). The meta-frontier framework is adopted to reflect technology heterogeneities in China's agricultural sector among the eastern, central and western regions. Based on the DEA (data envelopment analysis) method, the models are estimated by means of linear programming. Empirical results indicate that CO2 emission efficiency of the agricultural sector in western China is the lowest compared with eastern and central China; stemming from the fact that most provinces in western China generally fall behind in terms of technology. The total potential agricultural CO2 emissions reduction is estimated at 1161.33 million tons, which can be attributed to managerial failure in the case of eastern and central China. For western China, it can be attributed to both technological gap inefficiency and managerial failure.