The impacts of multi-dimension urbanization on energy-environmental efficiency: Empirical evidence from Guangdong Province, China

Understanding the complex ways in which urbanization influences energy-environmental efficiency (EEE) is essential for achieving energy savings and emission reductions. The multidimensional impacts of urbanization on EEE were evaluated using a hybrid approach that combined a super slack-based measure (SBM) model with a stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model. This approach was applied to evaluate the influences of multi-dimension urbanization on EEE, taking account of undesirable outputs from environmental pollution. The appropriateness of the approach was verified using panel data of 21 cities in Guangdong Province from 2005 to 2016. The results indicated there existed obvious regional differences in the indexes of urbanization and EEE in Guangdong Province during this period. Further analysis of the multidimensional impacts of urbanization revealed that two factors (i.e., proportion of the urban resident population and urban compactness) had significant positive impacts on EEE. Conversely, the impacts of the following three factors on EEE were significant negative: (1) per capita GDP, (2) contribution of the secondary industry, and (3) proportion of land used for urban construction. Some factors (e.g., population size and urban built-up area) did not have significant effects on EEE in Guangdong Province. These findings indicated that decision makers in Guangdong Province could consider the positive influences of the population urbanization and the negative influences of the land urbanization on EEE.