Influencing factors and efficiency of funds in humanitarian supply chains: the case of Chinese rural minimum living security funds

While humanitarian efforts are critical for assisting those affected by natural disasters, it is also essential for those affected by poverty, such as China’s rural poor. In this regard, China introduced the rural minimum living security system to provide humanitarian relief to its rural poor. The aim of this study is to explore the influencing factors and efficiency of humanitarian supply chains funds using rural minimum living security funds (RMLSF) as an example. Based on data from 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2007 to 2016, this study employs the logarithmic mean Divisia index approach to decompose the RMLSF and investigates the contributions of seven factors on the change therein. This study also uses the three-stage data envelopment analysis method to assess the poverty reduction efficiency of RMLSF. The results show that the economic development level, the extent to which minimum living security funds are tilted toward rural areas, and the fiscal expenditure scale are the three main factors for the increase in RMLSF. Moreover, the technical efficiency in most provinces and the average technical efficiency in the eastern and central regions are underestimated due to external ambient factors, whereas the average technical efficiency in the western region is overestimated. These results provide a basis for increasing the scale and efficiency of RMLSF.