Abstract:

This paper establishes an accounting model of investment efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt under environmental restrictions based on the sequential Malmquist-Luenberger (SML) index. From the spatial perspective, large discrepancies exist among cities in investment efficiency with technological progresses as the main source of growth. Investment efficiency of each urban agglomeration trends to rise gradually from the upper reach to the lower reach of the Yangtze. The urban agglomeration in the Yangtze Delta is significantly higher than other four agglomerations in investment efficiency, but changes in efficiency are not as ideal as that in the urban agglomerations of Chengyu area and the middle reaches of the Yangtze. Chronologically, investment efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is growing. However, the main reason of the increase is the technological advances rather than the efficiency improvement. The result of this study indicates that China's environment policies have made positive effects on the improvement of environmental problems and the change of mode of production.

Key words: environmental restriction, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, investment efficiency, sequential Malmquist-Luenberger (SML) index