Eco-Province Construction Performance and Its Influencing Factors of Shandong Province in China: From Regional Eco-Efficiency Perspective

Eco-province construction (EPC) innovated by China is an important approach for regional sustainable development. The core of this paper relates to how to quantitatively evaluate EPC performance and explore its influencing factors. We propose regional total-factor eco-efficiency as a proxy of EPC performance and apply the methods of the SBM directional distance function, the Theil index, hot-spot analysis, and the Tobit model to investigate spatial-temporal evolutionary characteristics and influencing factors of Shandong’s EPC performance from 2003 to 2017. The results showed that: (1) The EPC performance of Shandong presented a fluctuating rising trend as a whole and was unbalanced among regions with gradient-descending characteristics from the eastern, central to western regions. (2) The gravity center of Shandong’s EPC performance shifted northwards, eastwards, southwards, and westwards successively; the spatial pattern of regional EPC performance evolved from characteristics of high- and low-dispersion distribution in the initial stage to a significant H-shaped spatial conglomeration with hot spots distributed in Binzhou and Yantai and cold spots in the southern region. (3) A U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve existed between economic development level and Shandong’s EPC performance. Shandong’s EPC performance was positively related to R&D intensity while negatively related to urbanization. The impact of industrial structure, openness, and environmental regulation on Shandong’s EPC performance presented spatial heterogeneity. Shandong should establish a cross-regional collaborative governance mechanism of ecological construction and implement an ecological-innovation-driven development strategy to promote EPC performance.