Technical and total factor energy efficiency of European regions: A two-stage approach

The results of DEA show that regional differences in technical and energy efficiency are considerable, whereby most of EU regions failed to utilize efficiently all of their resources. More developed EU regions are more technically and energy efficient. Moreover, most of EU regions experienced deterioration in TFEE in the recession years. The results of Tobit regression analysis, showing that there is a difference in the determinants of technical and energy efficiency, point out that human capital and innovation are particularly important for improving the region's efficiency or ecological performance.