Regional differences and spatial patterns of urbanization efficiency in Fujian Province, China

Research on the regional differences and spatial patterns of urbanization efficiency is of great theoretical and practical significance to promote coordinated and high-quality development of the regional economy and ecological environment. Regarding the ecological environment, this study comprehensively used the super-SBM DEA model, Malmquist index, and spatial econometric model to evaluate urbanization efficiency and analyze the spatial pattern at the city level in Fujian Province from 2008 to 2016. The results showed that: 1) urbanization efficiency of Fujian showed an overall increasing trend, with a cumulative growth of 32.96%. Influenced by technological progress, the overall urbanization efficiency still has great growth potential; 2) effective allocation of resources is a key factor leading to the imbalance of regional development between each city with urbanization efficiency; 3) regional natural resource endowments, socio-economic development level, and industrial structure are the main factors that