ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Atmosphere and Climate
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1632050
Educational Investment, Technological Innovation, and Atmospheric Environmental Ffficiency: Evidence from SBM-DEA and Quantile Regression Model
Provisionally accepted
- Ningbo Polytechnic, Ningbo, China
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The scientific measurement of urban atmospheric environmental efficiency is a vital prerequisite for achieving air pollution control and regional green high-quality development. Based on the data of 11 cities in Zhejiang Province from 2014 to 2022, this study calculates the synergistic governance environmental efficiency (SGEE) of PM2.5 and O3 from both static and dynamic perspectives. Furthermore, a quantile regression model (QRM) is employed to reveal the impact mechanisms of educational investment and technological innovation on the efficiency. The results show that: (1) there are significant spatio-temporal variations in the concentrations of PM2.5 and O3 among the 11 cities. The effectiveness of coordinated governance is not significant. (2) The average value of SGEE of PM2.5 and O3 in Zhejiang Province is 0.533. Technological advancement is the primary driving force behind the improvement of the SGEE of PM2.5 and O3. (3) The results of QRM indicate that educational investment primarily improves the SGEE of PM2.5 and O3 at low-efficiency stages, while it exerts a certain resource "Crowding-out effect" at high-efficiency stages. In contrast, the rise in the level of technological innovation and the transformation and adjustment of industrial structure can effectively promote the improvement of the SGEE of PM2.5 and O3.
Keywords: Synergistic governance environmental efficiency of PM2.5 and O3, data envelopment analysis, Quantile regression model, Educational investment, technological innovation
Received: 20 May 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ji, Zhang, Liu and Ding. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lei Ding, Ningbo Polytechnic, Ningbo, China
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