Analysis of the Current Situation of the Construction Industry in Saudi Arabia and the Factors Affecting It: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The construction industry in Saudi Arabia has been modernized through the implementation of green building technologies and intelligent building systems, which have facilitated the sustainable development of the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. However, there is a paucity of research on the current situation of the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. In this study, the super-efficient epsilon-based measurement (EBM)–Malmquist model was used to measure the static and dynamic efficiency of the construction industry in the administrative areas of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia from 2013 to 2022, and the Tobit model was used to empirically analyze the factors affecting the efficiency of the industry. In addition, the spatial autocorrelation of the efficiency of the industry was analyzed using Moran’s Index (MI) to study the characteristics of the spatial distribution of industrial efficiency as well as the effectiveness of resource allocation. The study shows that Saudi Arabia’s construction industry is at a low level of development; the population, GDP, and carbon dioxide emissions have a significant impact on the efficiency of the industry; and the development of the industry can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, thus promoting environmental sustainability; Saudi Arabia’s construction industry has a spatial spillover effect but does not have a significant agglomeration effect. This study accurately identifies the current situation of the development of the construction industry in Saudi Arabia and proposes several countermeasures and opinions, which are expected to provide a theoretical basis for realizing its sustainable development.