A benchmark-learning roadmap for regional sustainable development in China

Serious environmental problems have accompanied China’s remarkable economic growth for decades, which also have direct and indirect impacts on its neighbouring countries. From the perspective of regional sustainable development, a region’s macroeconomic policy should be based on its ability to maximize wealth as well as to minimize the environmental impacts for its inhabitants. On the basis of this point, the paper herein analyses the economic–environmental performance for regional levels in China. For each of China’s 31 regions, the authors identify two inputs (capital and employment) and four outputs (GDP, sulphur dioxide emissions, soot and industrial dust). The regions are grouped in order to improve similarities. Suitable role models are identified. Aside from traditional technical efficiency scores, a cross-efficiency measure (CEM) is also applied to differentiate the genuine role model. Integration for CEM and cluster analysis is applied to construct a benchmark-learning roadmap for those inefficient regions in order to improve their efficiency progressively.