Assessing urbanization efficiency and its influencing factors in China based on Super-SBM and geographical detector models

Improving urbanization efficiency (UE) has gradually become an important requirement for the development of new-type urbanization. In this paper, first, we applied the Super-SBM model with undesirable outputs and Malmquist index to evaluate the UE of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2016 based on static and dynamic perspectives. Second, influencing factors were explored using the novel geographical detector model. The results show that China’s UE was not high overall and was increasing slowly. Regionally, the UE presented a high-to-low spatial evolution from east to west. Technical change was the main reason for the slow growth in efficiency, and undesirable outputs (pollutant emissions) were the key to efficiency loss. Over the study period, GDP per capita and urbanization rate had the greatest determining power on the UE, but their determination power was declining. Meanwhile, the impact of research and development (R&D) and foreign direct investment (FDI) on UE became increasingly important. Finally, some suggestions for improving the urban ecological environment and UE in China are discussed.