Measurement of Efficiency in Rural Ecological Environment Governance, Regional Differences, and Characteristics of Dynamic Evolution—Evidence from China

Abstract

The article calculates the overall efficiency of rural ecological environment governance in 29 provinces of China from 2013 to 2022 using the super-efficiency SBM model. It describes the current development status of each province and employs the Dagum Gini coefficient method to reveal the spatial disparities and their sources and contributions across the four major geographic regions. Furthermore, it utilizes Kernel density estimation to depict the dynamic changes and evolutionary patterns of each province. The study reveals that the overall efficiency of rural ecological environmental governance in China is on a fluctuating upward trajectory, with a regional distribution pattern of eastern > western > central > northeastern areas. Significant inter-regional and intra-regional disparities in the efficiency of rural ecological environmental governance are observed, with the northeastern region exhibiting the greatest intra-regional variation, and the eastern region the least. Additionally, spatial imbalances between regions persist. Based on these findings, targeted policy recommendations are proposed to further enhance the efficiency of rural ecological environmental governance in China.