The Relationship between Transportation Industry Efficiency, Transportation Structure, and Regional Sustainability Development in China: Based on DEA and PVAR Models

Abstract

The sustainable development of the transportation industry has always been a major concern after China’s reform and opening up. Existing studies only examine the transportation efficiency of a single mode of transportation or a certain region without considering the overall efficiency of the national transportation industry. Furthermore, most studies do not consider the impact of transportation structure on transportation efficiency and economic development. Moreover, the correlations and interactions between transportation efficiency, transportation structure, and regional economic development have not been considered. Based on the research status, this study uses a panel vector autoregressive model to analyze the relationship between the three. The results show that the transportation efficiency value is the highest in the eastern region, followed by the central region, and it is the lowest in the western region. The equilibrium degree of transportation structure has a slight difference in the national transportation structure from 2011 to 2020, and the proportion of major transportation modes in each province is unchanged. The correlation of the three variables is as follows: (1) transportation efficiency and transportation structure have a mutually reinforcing effect in the short term; (2) regional economic development has a long-term contribution to transportation efficiency and structure improvement; and (3) the level of transportation efficiency plays a leading role in regional economic development. According to the empirical analysis results, this study puts forward relevant feasible suggestions for the decision makers who formulate the development policies of the transportation industry in order to optimize the structure, reduce resource waste, improve the service quality of various transportation modes, and promote the high-quality, sustainable development of the transportation industry and economy.

Estimation and Convergence Analysis of Traffic Structure Efficiency Based on an Undesirable Epsilon-Based Measure Model

“…Khanh Van et al (2022) studied the spatial efficiency of the transportation system using the Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes model and showed that the remaining capacity of parking lots in Sapporo City reached 27.81%, and the density of bus stops and roads exceeded demand by about 14%. Li et al (2022) used a three-stage DEA model to assess the efficiency of the transportation industry and used a panel vector autoregressive model to analyze the interaction between traffic structure, transportation efficiency, and regional economic development. Karlaftis (2004) used DEA to demonstrate that the efficiency and effectiveness of a transportation system are positively correlated and that the optimal size of a transportation system varies with the evaluation metric.…”

Research on infrastructure scale structure misallocation under economic and low-carbon perspectives: evidence from China's toll expressway industry

“…Regarding measurement methodologies, scholars have quantified factor misallocation by determining the extent of factor distortion in resource allocation using a profit function [21][22][23] , based on the efficiency loss measurement framework constructed by Hsieh and Klenow in 2009 24 . However, more scholars focus on the relative efficiency loss to reflect transportation resource misallocation 19,25 , such as Bai et al (2021) and Tiwari et al (2023) employed data envelopment analysis to evaluate the efficiency of state-owned transportation sectors in China's railroads and India's roads 26,27 ; Li et al ( 2022) assessed the overall efficiency of China's transportation industry using PVAR Models 19 .…”

“…Regarding the selection of indicators, scholars not only consider common ones like capital 15 and labor 16 , but also incorporate additional indicators into the evaluation of transportation resources misallocation, such as differences in the size of regional road networks with expressway attributes 17 , transportation demand 18 , transportation structure 19 , travel choice and travel cost 20 , and other indicators.…”

“…With regard to influencing factors, researchers categorize the determinants of resource misallocation in the transportation sector into two main groups: internal factors within the industry and external factors influencing the industry. Specifically, internal factors of the industry encompass elements, such as property rights structure 28 , transportation demand 18 , transportation structure 19 , communication efficiency (Li et al, 2020, financing mode, and firm size 29 , and so on. External factors influencing the industry encompass elements, such as government power scale 15 , industry economic regulation policy 3 government integrity level 16 , social development level and technological change 30 , and so on.…”

Revisiting the regional sustainable development from the perspective of multi-system factor flows–Evidence in the Yangtze River Delta of China

“…Research on regional sustainable development mainly explores areas such as land resources and environmental protection [ 28 , 29 ], industrial and economic development [ 30 , 31 ], government institutional mechanisms [ 32 ], and transportation and infrastructure [ 33 , 34 ]. Recently, some scholars have paid attention to the spatial distribution differences of cities’ sustainable development degree in the region and the driving effects of regional sustainable development [ 35 ].…”