Energy 221 (2021) 119763

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Energy
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Measurement and influential factors of the efficiency of coal resources

of China’s provinces: Based on Bootstrap-DEA and Tobit
Liming Xue a, *, Wenjie Zhang a, **, Zhixue Zheng b, ***, Zhe Liu a, Shuo Meng a,
Huaqing Li a, Yulin Du c
a
College of Energy and Mining, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), 100083, Beijing, China
b
College of Engineering, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China
c
China Electronics Standardization Institute, 100007, Beijing, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A more efficient use of China’s coal resources is key to rapidly promoting the growth of the country’s
Received 26 May 2020 industrializing economy. As such, it is essential that an effective approach for measuring and evaluating
Received in revised form the current efficiency of coal resources is developed. This paper measures the efficiency of coal resources
22 December 2020
in 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2015 using an improved DEA model of Bootstrap, and it uses Tobit
Accepted 1 January 2021
Available online 6 January 2021
regression to analyze the influencing factors on the efficiency of coal resources. The results illustrate that:
1) The proposed approach could significantly improve upon the accuracy of the measurement of the
traditional DEA model. 2) The efficiency of coal resources shows an uptrend of fluctuation for the
Keywords:
Energy efficiency of coal resources
research period. With respect to the influential factors, total coal consumption has the least influence on
Bootstrap-DEA the efficiency of coal resources. In contrast, local financial science and technology expenditures have
Influential factors greatest influence on the efficiency of coal resources. Among all the influential factors, local financial
Tobit science and technology expenditures have the greatest negative impact on energy efficiency of coal
Coal resources and it is very critical that the government increases investment in scientific and technological
Spatial effect investment in the mining industry.
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Energy is indispensable to economic development. The issue of
energy shortage is critical around the world, and especially for
China [1,2]. China has experienced decades of high speed economic
growth, and demand for energy is continually growing. At the same
time, production of coal is experiencing a slow down due to
ongoing economic restructuring to reduce excess production ca-
pacity and adjust industrial structure [3e5]. In 2017, total energy
production in China was 3.59 billion tons of coal equivalent, while
energy consumption was 4.49 billion tons of coal equivalent, which
created a 0.90 billion tons of coal equivalent shortage. How to
guarantee energy security is of strategic significance to China, to
address this problem, utilizing efficiently existing energy can to
* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
*** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: liming-xue@163.com (L. Xue), ckgczhangwenjie@163.com
(W. Zhang), zx-zheng@pku.edu.cn (Z. Zheng).
some extent alleviate energy shortage. The share of coal resources
has a downward trend, but it still represents approximately 70% of
total primary energy source production Fig. 1 [6]. Regardless of the
China National Energy Administration’s directives for imple-
mentation of the 13th five-year plan that directs that proportion of
clean and new energy resources should be increased in the up-
coming years, the dominant position of coal resources will not be
taken over for some time. According to British Petroleum, China’s
coal production was 1.75 billion tons of oil equivalent, accounting
for 47.4% of worldwide coal production. Although coal resources are
a pillar energy source in China, the public attitude towards them is
not commensurate with its status [7].
Due to the dirtiness, low efficiency and high accident rate
associated with coal [8,9], coal energy is frequently criticized for its
contributions as a pollutant and carbon emissions. Furthermore, in
comparison with energy efficiency studies on whole energy sour-
ces, oil, gas, etc., relatively few studies have been conducted on this
important energy source. Because of the lack of investigation
regarding energy efficiency of coal, we analyze energy efficiency of
coal resources in order to fill this gap in the literature. China has

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.119763
0360-5442/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al.
Fig. 1. Energy consumption and production in China from 2000 to 2017.
huge geographical area and there has been substantial disparity of
coal production due to the lack of balance in development of its
provinces [10]. Understanding energy efficiency of coal resources in
regions of country will lead to development of better policy im-
plications that would be of benefit to China.
2. Literature review
The conception of energy efficiency is a measure of the useful
work produced per unit of energy used in an energy conversion
[11]. At present, there are two methods for studying energy effi-
ciency, the first is single factor energy efficiency, and the second is
total factor energy efficiency. Single factor energy efficiency has
obvious limitations, when studying energy efficiency, it only
considered energy as a single input element. To avoid the disad-
vantages of single factor energy efficiency. The concept of total
factor energy efficiency is proposed based on the DEA model [12],
many scholars have used total factor energy efficiency to do many
studies, some scholars have calculated the energy efficiency of a
single type of energy source in the steel and coal industries using
different approaches and analyzed the influential factors. For
example, Wu et al. analyzed the influence of external factors on the
power efficiency of the steel industry in China by using the three-
stage DEA model. Their results reveal that improving trade open-
ness and optimizing industrial structure can improve power effi-
ciency [13]. In term of the efficiency of coal consumption, scholars
have analyzed statistics of coal consumption at both the macro and
micro levels. Long et al. studied differences in the efficiency of coal
consumption and pattern classification in China based on the data
envelopment analysis model and the Malmquist index. Their re-
sults reveal that technical and efficiency changes have a negative
growth effect on the total-factor energy efficiency of coal con-
sumption [14]. Guo et al. used slack based measurement-
undesirable approach to calculate the total factor coal consump-
tion efficiency of the provinces and regions in China and applied the
meta-frontier Malmquist index to analyze the efficiency of coal
consumption. Their the results indicate that technological progress
is the main driver of regional energy efficiency [15]. Furthermore,
Wu et al. used an epsilon-based measure evaluation model to
analyze the production efficiency of coal enterprises. They found
that the input and output inefficiency were primarily affected by
radial inefficiency [16].
In terms of energy efficiency measurement and analysis of
influencing factors, several scholars have measured energy
2
Energy 221 (2021) 119763
efficiency of various types of energy sources in China’s provinces.
The impact of different factors on energy efficiency show great
variance in China. For example, Bai et al. used the super efficiency
DEA method to measure energy efficiency, the results prove that
technological progress is the main methods to improve energy ef-
ficiency [17]. Yang et al. focused on investigating the influential
factors of China’s energy intensity, the results reveal that total
population is the most important factor and energy prices are the
least important factor [18]. Zhao et al. used three-stage DEA model
to evaluate China’s provincial energy efficiency, the results illus-
trate that ratio of the incremental value of secondary industry on
GDP has positive impact on energy efficiency, investment in fixed
assets and energy consumption have negative impact on energy
efficiency [19]. Thereafter, Pan et al. used slacks-based measure
data envelopment analysis method to calculate energy efficiency,
the results illustrate that foreign direct investment has positive
impact on energy efficiency [20].
In addition, when scope of energy efficiency value is between
0 and 1, a normal regression model cannot regard energy efficiency
as a dependent variable with a limited value, and the general
estimation method will lead to biases and inconsistent estimation
results such as Ordinary Least Square. Tobit regression is based on
principle of maximum likelihood estimation. Tobit firstly put for-
ward Tobit regression model, which is a type of econometric model,
and belongs to the limited dependent variables or truncation
econometric model. According to this model, the dependent vari-
able can only be observed in a restricted way [21]. Tobit regression
is widely used among scholars. Xiong et al. analyzed impact of in-
dustrial structure efficiency using Tobit regression model. They
found that adjustment of the industrial structure can improve en-
ergy efficiency of industry [22]. Yu et al. measured the regional
heterogeneity of China’s energy efficiency and analyzed the pri-
mary influential factors using Tobit regression. The results reveal
that government intervention and market openness have negative
impact on energy efficiency [23]. Yang et al. used Tobit model to
analyze the influential factors on urban energy efficiency. The re-
sults show that economic development and city scale can promote
urban energy efficiency while government expenditure, industrial
structures, energy prices etc. have negative impact on urban energy
efficiency [24].
Furthermore, some scholars have used Tobit regression to
evaluate energy efficiency of industrial sectors and analyzed their
influential factors. For example, Wang et al. measured energy effi-
ciency of 35 sub-industrial sectors in Beijing and analyzed the
influential factors of energy efficiency using Tobit regression. The
results reveal that energy consumption structure has negative in-
fluence on industrial energy efficiency while market concentration
and foreign direct investment have positive influence on industrial
energy efficiency [25]. Liu et al. calculated energy efficiency and
analyzed the influential factors on China’s transport sector through
use of censored model and truncated model. The results show that
per capital GDP, industrial structure, transport structure etc. have
positive impact on energy efficiency [26].
This summary of the existing literature reveals that the previous
research on efficiency of coal resources has only focused on mea-
surement and evaluation of efficiency values. Based on the afore-
mentioned studies, this paper examines the following influential
factors in Fig. 6. As such, this paper analyzes the influencing factors
on efficiency of coal resources in order to supplement the de-
ficiencies in the previous literature as they pertain to evaluating
both time-dimension and spatial distribution of efficiency of coal
resources.
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al. Energy 221 (2021) 119763

3. Methodology 3.2. Exploratory spatial data analysis

3.1. Correction of Bootstrap-DEA model deviation for efficiency of
coal resources
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is non-parametric total factor
efficiency measurement method and does not requiring production
function of decision-making units [27]. However, the traditional
DEA ignores the statistical test problem, and stability and feasibility
of conclusions cannot be guaranteed for the lack of statistical
properties of some indicators. Simar and Wilson [28] based on
empirical data and used the repeated sampling to improve the
traditional DEA that is called the Bootstrap-DEA. This model can
correct the deviation of confidence intervals and improve credi-
bility of traditional DEA [29].The Bootstrap-DEA is used in this
paper to measure efficiency of coal resources and the specific al-
gorithm is as follows:
Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) is a method through
which to test whether there is spatial dependence and spatial
heterogeneity among the research regions [30]. Spatial correlation
analysis is one of the core components of ESDA and provides
measurement of degree of agglomeration of spatial unit attribute
values, including global spatial autocorrelation test and local spatial
autocorrelation test [31].
(1) Global space test method: Global spatial autocorrelation can
analyze the overall degree of correlation, spatial distribution
pattern and significance of an attribute of all the spatial ob-
jects in the research regions. This paper uses the classical
indicator that is called global Moran’s I to reflect global
spatial agglomeration or decentralization characteristics. The
global Moran’s I [32] equals:

Pn Pn  
(1) Given input-output sample data ðxi ; yi Þ of ith decision unit
i¼1 jsi wij ðxi  xÞ xj x
DMU, using the traditional DEA to calculate the estimated IG ¼ 2
Pn Pn (5)
S i¼1 jsi wij
efficiency to obtain efficiency value qb of ith region by solving
i
linear programming model.
n
P n
P
( ) In Eq. (5), x ¼ 1n xi ; S2 ¼ 1n ðxi  xÞ2 ; xi is ith province
n
X n
X i¼1 i¼1
qbi ¼ min q  gi yi ; qxi  gi xi ; q  0; gi ¼ 1; gi  0 value of efficiency of coal resources, n is number of provinces, wij
i¼1 i¼1 is a weight matrix of the spatial relationship between two
(1) adjacent regions, which can be used to represent the spatial
relationship of research unit. When ith region is adjacent to jth
region, wij ¼ 1, or else, wij ¼ 0, then Moran’s index I is
(2) Based on efficiency value qbi , i ¼ 1, 2 … n of each region ob- between 1 and 1. The closer to 1 value of Moran’s I, the
tained, we use the Bootstrap method to generate n random stronger positive correlation there is with respect to efficiency of
efficiency values q*1b ,. . ., q*nb , where b represents bth iteration coal resources between two regions. Vice versa, where the
closer value of Moran’s I is to 1, the stronger the negative
when using the Bootstrap method, and q*1b stands for ith
correlation of efficiency of coal resources between two regions.
random value of bth iteration of q*1b ,. . ., q*nb . When Moran’s I is close to 0, it indicates that there is no spatial
(3) Calculating the simulated sample ðx*ib ; yi Þ based on the correlation between two regions. The significance test is carried
Bootstrap method, where x*ib ¼ ð qbi =bq nb Þ*xi , i ¼ 1, 2,. . ., n. out by the standardized Moran’s I, which is named ZI as follows.
(4) For each Bootstrap simulation sample, we use the DEA model
* I  EðIÞ
to calculate efficiency estimate value b
q bi , i ¼ 1, 2 … n. ZI ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (6)
(5) After repeating steps (2) to (4) B times, a set of efficiency VarðIÞ
*
estimates is obtained where b q bi , i ¼ 1,. . . n, b ¼ 1, 2 … B
(B ¼ 2000). In Eq. (6), EðIÞ is expectancy value and Var (I) is variance.
(6) Further estimating deviation of the modified DEA efficiency, (2) Local space test method: Global spatial autocorrelation as-
we find: sumes that space is stationary, which is an overall identifi-
cation of correlation of all spatial units. However, it cannot
    reveal features of adjacent regions. The local spatial auto-
* * *
q i ¼ E bq i  bq i
bias b (2) correlation statistic cannot only identify different spatial
correlation modes of different spatial locations but can also
reveal local agglomeration characteristics of research area. It
The estimator of deviation is: can provide a basis for research regarding efficiency of coal
resources of the regions. The local Moran’s I [33] of a spatial
  B
unit IL is defined as Eq. (7), where
* X *
d b
blas q i ¼ B1 b
q bi (3)
n
X
b¼1
IL ¼ zi wij zj (7)
isj
The efficiency value obtained after being corrected by the
Bootstrap method is as follows:
In Eq. (7), zi and zj are the standardized values of efficiency of
  coal resources, and wij is element of spatial weight matrix after
* * B
X *
~
q ¼ qbi  blas
d b q i ¼ 2bq i  B1 b
q bi (4) row standardization. The local Moran’s I is positive (negative),
b¼1 which indicates elements of the similar (different) type attribute
values are adjacent, and a larger absolute value indicates a
higher degree of proximity. The research area can be divided
3
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al. Energy 221 (2021) 119763

into four efficiency of coal resources agglomeration types: H-H
agglomeration, L-L agglomeration, H-L agglomeration and L-H
agglomeration according to local Moran’s I.
3.3. The Tobit regression model
is depicted through the Bootstrap-DEA and the traditional DEA of
30 provinces in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. we can conclude that
efficiency of coal resources based on the Bootstrap-DEA are smaller
than the traditional DEA. This is because the Bootstrap-DEA solves
deviation of the traditional DEA in the case of small samples, which
proves reliability and stability of the Bootstrap-DEA in Table 2.

The Tobit regression model is as below in this paper:
lnECRt;i ¼ b þ a1 lnGDPt;i þ a2 lnSECt;i þ a3 lnTERt;i þ a4 lnRPYt;i
þ a5 lnCOCt;i þ a6 lnFSTt;i þ a7 lnIPCt;i þ εt;i
(8)
In Eq (8). i represent city, t represents year, and ε is N1 vector of
random error. a1 ; a2 /a10 are coefficients of explanatory variables.
In order to eliminate heterogeneity between variables, the loga-
rithm of N1 vector of each variable is applied in this paper: lnECR,
lnGDP, lnSEC, lnTER, lnFST, lnCOC, lnIPC and lnRPY.
By using Eviews software, this paper selects seven influencing
factors as independent variables to analyze efficiency of coal re-
sources. The results are demonstrated in Table 1. In significance test,
the null hypothesis is: H0: bi ¼ 0, and the alternative hypothesis is:
Hi: bis0.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Measurement and analysis of efficiency of coal resources
This paper uses the Bootstrap-DEA model and R software to
calculate efficiency of coal resources of 30 provinces from 2000 to
2015 and set number of sampling times at 2000, confidence coef-
ficient is 95%. The radar chart of efficiency of coal resources in Fig. 2
4.2. Spatial and temporal differentiation analysis of efficiency of
coal resources
Efficiency of coal resources are calculated by the Bootstrap-DEA
model are listed in Table 3. The efficiency coal resources was be-
tween 0.37 and 0.81 for the 30 provinces during the research
period, which shows China’s coal resources are not fully utilized
and uneconomical use is more serious. In fact, there are two main
reasons to explain the low levels of coal resource efficiency: the first
is the overcapacity of coal resources within some of the years, and
the second involves falling coal prices for some of the years.
With respect to the time dimension, from 2000 to 2006, effi-
ciency of coal resource fell to a minimum of 0.53 in 2006, but ef-
ficiency of coal resources has shown a general upward trend that
has risen from 0.53 in 2006 to its highest point of 0.71 in 2013.
Recently however, a fluctuating downtrend was noted for two
years, indicating that the utilization of coal resources had improved
in these years. However, the gap between the maximum and the
minimum was 0.18, implying that the growth of efficiency of coal
resources is not promising. The reason for this trend could be that
the government developed new policies and eliminated outdated
industrial capacity in order to save coal resources. However, the
effects of the policy implementation have not been obvious, and so
have led to this status with respect to coal resources.
From the perspective of spatial patterns, efficiency of coal re-
sources has significant discrepancies between the regions. The

Table 1
The regression results of Tobit modela.

Province lnCOC lnRPY lnGDP lnIPC lnSEC lnTER lnFST C

Beijing 0.80* 1.55*** 12.79 0.02 4.02 ** 8.01 1.95 0.00

Tianjin 0.05 1.73*** 0.15 0.02 0.23*** 0.16 0.74*** 0.00
Hebei 1.95*** 0.74*** 2.31*** 0.43*** 3.56*** 1.91*** 2.14*** 0.00
Shanxi 3.99*** 2.12* 0.05 0.81*** 1.27*** 1.02 1.36*** 0.00
Inner Mongolia 0.85 3.01*** 3.43*** 0.06 0.85*** 2.77*** 0.32** 0.00
Liaoning 0.72* 1.90*** 0.78*** 0.03 0.28 1.25** 0.28*** 0.00
Jilin 0.98** 0.44 1.07* 0.12 0.89*** 0.27** 1.13* 0.00
Heilongjiang 0.54* 0.83*** 2.56** * 0.16 2.84*** 0.04 0.65** 0.00
Shanghai 1.28** 2.31** 0.98 1.14*** 0.04 0.17 1.55 0.00
Jiangsu 0.13 0.95 2.12 0.17*** 1.58* 0.21 0.72*** 0.00
Zhejiang 11.45*** 16.00*** 1.30*** 0.58*** 2.71*** 0.90*** 4.19*** 0.00
Anhui 0.41* 0.30*** 0.53 0.05 1.06** 0.08 0.13 0.00
Fujian 1.65*** 0.77 0.05 0.50*** 1.08*** 1.02*** 1.06** 0.00
Jiangxi 1.94 4.95** 1.46* 0.50 5.90*** 1.57** 0.74 0.00
Shandong 0.32 2.52*** 5.08*** 0.07** 2.54*** 2.33*** 0.70*** 0.00
Henan 0.71 0.88* 3.33* 0.08 2.62* 0.16 0.95** 0.00
Hubei 0.55*** 0.58*** 0.68*** 0.22*** 0.28** 0.05 0.02 0.00
Hunan 0.04 0.17 1.80 0.12 1.17 0.52 1.13 0.00
Guangdong 1.22*** 0.68 0.74 0.20** 1.13** 0.68*** 0.02 0.00
Guangxi 0.35*** 0.09** 1.33** * 0.15*** 0.86*** 0.50** 0.03 0.00
Hainan 0.97*** 0.48* 2.19*** 0.75*** 0.14 2.29*** 0.52** 0.00
Chongqing 1.36*** 0.42 1.19*** 0.41* 0.44 1.84*** 0.31 0.00
Sichuan 0.43*** 0.58*** 0.07 0.02 0.02 0.56** 0.57*** 0.00
Guizhou 1.45*** 1.20*** 0.78*** 0.30*** 0.93*** 0.15 0.18** 0.00
Yunnan 0.70*** 0.90*** 1.28*** 0.44*** 0.84*** 0.76*** 0.36*** 0.00
Shaanxi 3.26** 2.82* 0.75 0.09 0.25 0.94 0.15 0.00
Gansu 0.44 3.65** 0.08 0.56** 2.73*** 1.89** 1.96*** 0.00
Qinghai 0.27* 0.05 1.59*** 0.24** 0.41 1.30*** 1.15*** 0.00
Ningxia 2.06*** 0.78** 0.52 0.13 0.04 0.15 0.25* 0.00
Xinjiang 0.29 0.29 0.74*** 0.35*** 1.71*** 0.75*** 0.75** 0.00

Note: ***, **, * represent significant level for p < 0.01, p < 0.05, p < 0.1.
a
The results of the intercept is not equal to zero, when they are rounded to the hundredth, the “C” is shown as “0.00”.

4
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al.
Fig. 2. Comparison of measurement results.
average efficiency values show that Beijing, Shanghai, Xinjiang, and
Jiangsu are superior to other provinces, and that Anhui, Gansu,
Shanxi and Henan are inferior to other provinces. Moreover, the
most efficient region is Beijing, with an efficiency of 0.81. It has 2.19
times the efficiency of Anhui, which has the least efficiency of 0.37.
There are big variations in the efficiency trends over the research
years and between the different regions. The regions with higher
fluctuating ranges are Chongqing, Guangdong, Guizhou, where the
gap between the maximum and minimum are 0.55, 0.54, and 0.51
respectively. The relatively stable areas are Shandong, Shaanxi and
Hebei, where the gap between the maximum and the minimum are
0.10, 0.09, and 0.09, which shows that the different provinces have
huge discrepancies in capital, labor, coal resource reserves.
This paper examines the spatial and temporal integration with
respect to efficiency of coal resources of 30 provinces in 2000, 2005,
2010 and 2015 in Fig. 3, Arcgis software is used to depict the spatial
and temporal characters of efficiency of coal resources. Represented
by colors varying from dark to light, the four efficiency groups are:
inefficient, relatively inefficient, relatively efficient and efficient. As
implied in Fig. 3, efficiency of coal resources constantly makes
adjustments between efficiency groups in 30 provinces. Therefore,
The efficiency groups are divided into two spatial and temporal
5
Energy 221 (2021) 119763
evolution types: stationary types and fluctuation types, stationary
types are divided into two subcategories: stable in high efficiency
and stable in low efficiency, fluctuation types also are divided into
two subcategories: increased tendency for fluctuation and
decreased tendency for fluctuation [29].
The stable in high efficiency type is that the efficiency values
make adjustments between the relatively efficient and efficient
groups. These provinces are Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang,
Shandong, and Guangdong. Beijing and Tianjin advocates the
vigorous development of new energy and new technologies, and
replace coal-fired heating with clean energy throughout the region.
The government strictly controls the growth of energy consump-
tion in key industries and guides the high-pollution and high-
energy-consuming enterprises to transform into clean energy en-
terprises. In addition, the government requires the implementation
of a coal-to-gas project for the clean transformation of coal-fired
facilities and the replacement of inferior coal with high-quality
coal, these policies will reduce the waste of coal and improve the
efficiency of coal resources. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and
Guangdong are big provinces of coal consumption, these provinces
are advancing the merger and reorganization of coal mine enter-
prises, establishing a normal verification mechanism for coal mine
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al. Energy 221 (2021) 119763

Table 2 coal trading market system, these measures have further promoted
Comparison of efficiency of coal resources between Bootstrap - DEA and Traditional the improvement of efficiency of coal resources.
-DEA in 2015.
Examples of stable in low efficiency include Hebei, Shanxi,
Province T-DEA B-DEA Dev. L.B. U.B. Anhui, Henan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and Gansu. Among these
Beijing 1.00 0.80 0.20 0.63 0.99 provinces, Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, Henan and Guizhou are the main
Tianjin 1.00 0.87 0.13 0.78 0.99 coal production and export provinces. Taking Shanxi Province as an
Hebei 0.53 0.48 0.05 0.43 0.52 example, this province is facing serious problems of increasingly
Shanxi 0.36 0.33 0.03 0.30 0.36
prominent energy and environmental constraints. Solving the
Inner Mongolia 1.00 0.82 0.18 0.69 0.99
Liaoning 1.00 0.88 0.12 0.80 0.99 problem of energy conservation and environmental protection is a
Jilin 0.82 0.74 0.08 0.67 0.81 primary issue. The treatment of polluted air and damaged land
Heilongjiang 0.49 0.44 0.05 0.40 0.49 need a lot of money that greatly increases the production cost of
Shanghai 1.00 0.79 0.21 0.65 0.98
coal, which is a major reason for the low efficiency of coal resources.
Jiangsu 1.00 0.82 0.18 0.67 0.99
Zhejiang 0.79 0.68 0.11 0.58 0.78
The remaining other provinces are located in western China, the
Anhui 0.50 0.46 0.05 0.41 0.50 economic development of provinces in the western region is rela-
Fujian 0.84 0.75 0.09 0.65 0.83 tively backward, compared with other provinces, there is a clear
Jiangxi 0.57 0.50 0.07 0.44 0.57 gap in coal mining technology, coal production is relatively low, and
Shandong 0.79 0.68 0.11 0.56 0.78
it requires a lot of manpower to participate in coal mine production
Henan 0.56 0.50 0.06 0.44 0.55
Hubei 0.92 0.84 0.08 0.78 0.91 activities, which reduces corporate profits and efficiency of coal
Hunan 0.77 0.70 0.07 0.65 0.76 resources.
Guangdong 1.00 0.79 0.21 0.63 0.99 The provinces of increased tendency for fluctuation are Liaon-
Guangxi 0.71 0.64 0.07 0.58 0.70 ing, Ningxia, Jilin, Hunan and Hubei, the coal resource efficiency of
Hainan 1.00 0.79 0.21 0.63 0.99
Chongqing 0.65 0.58 0.07 0.52 0.65
these provinces has shifted from the inefficiency group to the ef-
Sichuan 0.69 0.62 0.07 0.53 0.68 ficiency group, these provinces adjust the structure of the coal in-
Guizhou 0.55 0.50 0.05 0.45 0.54 dustry, and improve the percentage rate and utilization efficiency
Yunnan 0.59 0.53 0.06 0.48 0.58 of coal resources, these provinces also promote the comprehensive
Shaanxi 1.00 0.87 0.13 0.77 0.99
development in utilization of coal and associated resources and
Gansu 0.48 0.43 0.05 0.38 0.48
Qinghai 1.00 0.84 0.16 0.69 0.99 strengthen management to increase benefits, and build a coal
Ningxia 1.00 0.84 0.16 0.70 0.99 reserve base and a coal trading platform to improve the coal supply
Xinjiang 0.71 0.63 0.08 0.56 0.70 system.
The provinces of decreased tendency for fluctuation where this
is seen include Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, Jiangxi. The coal resources of
production capacity, accelerating the elimination of backward these two provinces are very rich, and the enterprises are carrying
production capacity, and actively promoting the construction of the out large-scale production. At the same time, the coal consumption

Table 3
Estimations of efficiency of coal resources in 30 provinces.

Province 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Average

Beijing 0.85 0.84 0.77 0.79 0.85 0.80 0.71 0.77 0.81 0.85 0.85 0.83 0.84 0.83 0.81 0.80 0.81
Tianjin 0.61 0.58 0.60 0.60 0.56 0.63 0.63 0.77 0.87 0.88 0.88 0.91 0.90 0.90 0.88 0.87 0.75
Hebei 0.46 0.56 0.56 0.49 0.45 0.42 0.43 0.53 0.59 0.57 0.56 0.56 0.55 0.55 0.52 0.48 0.52
Shanxi 0.38 0.34 0.38 0.38 0.39 0.43 0.41 0.51 0.52 0.46 0.47 0.50 0.44 0.43 0.42 0.33 0.42
Inner Mongolia 0.65 0.46 0.54 0.65 0.69 0.81 0.90 0.81 0.79 0.78 0.79 0.81 0.82 0.83 0.84 0.82 0.75
Liaoning 0.53 0.46 0.45 0.41 0.35 0.40 0.41 0.59 0.83 0.89 0.88 0.86 0.86 0.88 0.88 0.88 0.66
Jilin 0.55 0.47 0.50 0.50 0.45 0.51 0.53 0.71 0.72 0.77 0.81 0.91 0.91 0.93 0.83 0.74 0.68
Heilongjiang 0.72 0.57 0.58 0.57 0.50 0.53 0.52 0.61 0.64 0.59 0.66 0.76 0.66 0.63 0.55 0.44 0.60
Shanghai 0.83 0.79 0.79 0.78 0.77 0.77 0.75 0.80 0.82 0.85 0.82 0.80 0.82 0.82 0.81 0.79 0.80
Jiangsu 0.59 0.78 0.79 0.70 0.74 0.79 0.75 0.76 0.78 0.77 0.79 0.81 0.84 0.82 0.83 0.82 0.77
Zhejiang 0.63 0.59 0.71 0.67 0.62 0.59 0.61 0.62 0.78 0.77 0.80 0.76 0.77 0.72 0.69 0.68 0.69
Anhui 0.44 0.50 0.37 0.29 0.28 0.27 0.26 0.28 0.29 0.33 0.35 0.41 0.47 0.49 0.49 0.46 0.37
Fujian 0.77 0.80 0.75 0.84 0.70 0.61 0.54 0.56 0.59 0.61 0.71 0.67 0.69 0.76 0.76 0.75 0.70
Jiangxi 0.51 0.43 0.58 0.54 0.53 0.66 0.47 0.52 0.53 0.52 0.55 0.55 0.58 0.58 0.53 0.50 0.54
Shandong 0.58 0.54 0.57 0.71 0.79 0.79 0.79 0.80 0.84 0.84 0.80 0.76 0.75 0.74 0.72 0.68 0.73
Henan 0.42 0.41 0.40 0.34 0.28 0.39 0.42 0.51 0.56 0.53 0.53 0.53 0.56 0.51 0.52 0.50 0.46
Hubei 0.35 0.34 0.35 0.35 0.32 0.34 0.29 0.38 0.42 0.54 0.58 0.66 0.77 0.81 0.83 0.84 0.51
Hunan 0.49 0.48 0.49 0.44 0.43 0.37 0.30 0.34 0.38 0.45 0.46 0.56 0.65 0.71 0.71 0.70 0.50
Guangdong 0.74 0.74 0.75 0.74 0.73 0.74 0.72 0.76 0.77 0.78 0.79 0.80 0.82 0.82 0.81 0.79 0.77
Guangxi 0.47 0.48 0.51 0.53 0.45 0.45 0.40 0.42 0.52 0.50 0.50 0.52 0.57 0.59 0.62 0.64 0.51
Hainan 0.75 0.74 0.75 0.74 0.73 0.74 0.73 0.75 0.77 0.78 0.79 0.80 0.82 0.81 0.81 0.79 0.77
Chongqing 0.65 0.66 0.64 0.57 0.55 0.49 0.44 0.57 0.64 0.65 0.65 0.71 0.64 0.57 0.56 0.58 0.60
Sichuan 0.37 0.45 0.43 0.34 0.32 0.36 0.36 0.38 0.40 0.41 0.51 0.63 0.66 0.71 0.67 0.62 0.48
Guizhou 0.31 0.45 0.59 0.53 0.52 0.48 0.42 0.48 0.48 0.47 0.46 0.43 0.48 0.54 0.56 0.50 0.48
Yunnan 0.70 0.57 0.53 0.48 0.48 0.44 0.43 0.51 0.50 0.47 0.47 0.49 0.49 0.52 0.53 0.53 0.51
Shaanxi 0.45 0.42 0.44 0.44 0.37 0.36 0.40 0.51 0.55 0.52 0.52 0.57 0.87 0.86 0.85 0.87 0.56
Gansu 0.31 0.28 0.28 0.29 0.27 0.51 0.34 0.45 0.45 0.44 0.47 0.52 0.50 0.51 0.50 0.43 0.41
Qinghai 0.74 0.67 0.69 0.73 0.62 0.75 0.60 0.61 0.67 0.68 0.74 0.78 0.80 0.87 0.86 0.84 0.73
Ningxia 0.57 0.50 0.50 0.47 0.50 0.52 0.50 0.58 0.60 0.56 0.84 0.84 0.85 0.84 0.86 0.84 0.65
Xinjiang 0.86 0.83 0.81 0.80 0.82 0.75 0.90 0.88 0.87 0.74 0.82 0.84 0.76 0.69 0.71 0.63 0.79
Average 0.58 0.56 0.57 0.56 0.54 0.56 0.53 0.59 0.63 0.63 0.66 0.69 0.70 0.71 0.70 0.67 0.62

6
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al. Energy 221 (2021) 119763

Fig. 3. Spatial-temporal evolution of efficiency of coal resources.

has also increased, and the coal utilization rate is not high. The task Table 4. The Moran’s I is positive over the research period, indi-
of reducing coal production capacity and eliminating backward coal cating that there is a spatial correlation of efficiency of coal re-
mines in Jiangxi is incomplete, which causes a decline in efficiency sources from a provincial perspective. It can be seen that value of
of coal resources. Moran’s I and test results fluctuated from 2000 to 2015, and they
passed the 1% significance test. These results demonstrate that ef-
4.3. Spatial autocorrelation analysis of efficiency of coal resources ficiency of coal resources has significant spatial correlation among
China’s provinces.
This paper utilizes Geoda software to estimate global autocor- The global spatial correlation test is based on the overall
relation of Moran’s I in 30 provinces from 2000 to 2015 and uses research of object to carry out the overall autocorrelation analysis,
Monte Carlo to make 999 simulations. The results are listed in which cannot accurately explain the spatial agglomeration phe-
nomenon of local area. Therefore, this paper uses a local spatial
autocorrelation test for further analysis.
Table 4 The Moran’s I scatter plot reflects the spatial clustering char-
Moran’s I and significance test.
acteristics in four quadrants. The first quadrant shows provinces
Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 with high efficiency of coal resources that are surrounded by
Moran’s I 0.74 0.707 0.79 0.81 0.81 0.92 0.66 0.78 provinces with high efficiency of coal resources. The second
P-value 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.002 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 quadrant shows provinces with low efficiency of coal resources that
Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 are surrounded by provinces with high efficiency of coal resources.
Moran’s I 0.78 0.86 0.88 0.87 0.86 0.89 0.92 0.86
The third quadrant shows provinces with low efficiency of coal
P-value 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001

7
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al.
Fig. 4. Moran scatter plot for China’s efficiency of coal resources.
resources that are surrounded by provinces of low efficiency of coal
resources. The fourth quadrant shows provinces of high efficiency
of coal resources that are surrounded by provinces with low effi-
ciency of coal resources. The provinces in the first and third
quadrants of the Moran scatter plot display spatial clustering
characteristics, indicating that these provinces have similar attri-
butes. Conversely, provinces in the second and fourth quadrants
have spatial heterogeneity, indicating that these provinces have
different attributes from those in the surrounding provinces.
The Moran’s I scatter plot in Fig. 4 shows the local Moran scatter
plots for 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. The circles represent levels of
the provinces’ efficiency of coal resources; the red line is regression
line of Moran’s I global test; and its slope represents test statistic.
Fig. 4 indicates the Moran Scatter Plots of every province in the four
quadrants respectively. These provinces are mostly distributed in
the first and the third quadrants, and there are hardly any provinces
that fall into the second and fourth quadrants. Because statistic test
of Moran’s I is not significant in the fourth quadrant, it indicates
that China’s provincial efficiency of coal resources is characterized
by spatial clustering.
Fig. 5 illustrates the clustering characteristics in 2000, 2005,
2010 and 2015 in the LISA agglomeration map. This paper uses
different colors to indicate High-High, Low-How, Low-Low and
High-Low agglomeration types of the provincial coal resource ef-
ficiencies. The numbers in the parentheses indicate total number of
provinces that passed significance test at the 1% level for each
agglomeration type.
As time goes on, the numbers of High-High, Low-Low agglom-
eration types are increasing except in 2015, which indicates that the
8
Energy 221 (2021) 119763
spatial correlation of efficiency of coal resources is becoming more
significant. Additionally, the LISA agglomeration map shows that
High-High agglomeration type is transferred toward country’s
eastern regions, including provinces such as Guangdong, Fujian,
Jiangsu, Shanghai, and some western regions such as Xinjiang,
Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia. The Low-Low agglomeration type is
concentrated in the central regions such as in Shanxi, Henan, Anhui,
Hubei, and mostly in the western regions such as in Guangxi,
Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, and Gansu. Hence, coal
resource efficiencies of 30 provinces have significant spatial cor-
relation, both with respect to global spatial correlation and local
spatial autocorrelation.
5. Analyzing influential factors on efficiency of coal resources
5.1. Variables and significance test
Based on the previous literature, in order to avoid multi-
collinearity between the variables [34], one must perform stepwise
regression analysis between dependent variables and independent
variables and delete variables of multicollinearity. Variables are
divided into four categories in Fig. 6. The results of significance tests
are depicted in Figs. 7e13. Provinces in white represent that
selecting variables do not have an impact on efficiency of coal re-
sources, bi ¼ 0, and the marked provinces indicate that they have
passed significance test, bis0. The following is result of provinces’
analysis in turn.
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al.
Fig. 5. LISA agglomeration map.
5.2. Comparative discussion of variables
(1) Total coal consumption. Total coal consumption has nega-
tive impact on efficiency of coal resources in Zhejiang, Fujian,
Yunnan, Shanghai, Beijing, Liaoning, Heilongjiang. Zhejiang,
Fujian, and Yunnan passed the 1% level of significance.
Shanghai passed the 5% level of significance. Beijing, Liaon-
ing, and Heilongjiang passed the 10% level of significance.
The total coal consumption of the annual mean for Liaoning
and Zhejiang is 0.15 billion tons and 0.12 billion tons
respectively, and they rank 7th and 10th. Liaoning is pri-
marily involved in coal mining and washing industries, as
well as ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing in-
dustries, in manufacturing and electricity, heat production
and the supply industries with respect to electricity, gas,
water production and supply industry. Liaoning and Zhejiang
improve the salvaging ratio of coal consumption in the above
industries to increase efficiency of coal resources.
(2) Resident population at the end of the year. Resident pop-
ulation at the end of the year has negative influence on
9
Energy 221 (2021) 119763
efficiency of coal resources in Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan,
Ningxia, Shaanxi, Hainan, Shanxi, and Sichuan. Hubei, Anhui,
and Sichuan passed the 1% level of significance; Jiangxi,
Henan, and Ningxia passed the 5% level of significance;
Shaanxi, Hainan, and Shanxi passed the 10% level of signifi-
cance. In comparison with several other variables, this vari-
able does not have significant effect on efficiency of coal
resources. The annual mean of the resident population at the
end of the year for Henan, Sichuan, Hebei and Anhui is 0.095
billion persons, 0.082 billion persons, 0.071 billion persons,
0.061 billion persons, and these provinces rank 3rd, 4th, 6th,
8th respectively. The annual mean of resident population at
the end of the year in manufacturing in Henan is 6.15e12.11
million. Within construction industry it is 3.96e7.01 million,
and in mining it is 0.49e0.57 million. In Sichuan, there are
46.6e48.5 million persons in farming, forestry, animal hus-
bandry and the fishery, 3.46e5.91 million persons in
manufacturing, and 1.01e1.21 million persons in mining. In
Anhui, there are 13.96e15.84 million persons in farming,
forestry, animal husbandry and the fishery, 5.28e7.14 million
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al.
Fig. 6. Flowchart of categories of variables.
persons in manufacturing, and 0.71e0.53 million persons in
mining. We can conclude that the number of people in
business at the end of the year is least according to the
provincial bureau of statistics and comparing farming,
forestry, animal husbandry and fishery and manufacturing.
The government is supposed to adjust number of people in
business at the end of year to augment number who work in
mining.
Fig. 7. Distribution map of coefficient of COC.
10
Energy 221 (2021) 119763
(3) Gross domestic production of region. Gross domestic pro-
duction of region has negative impact on efficiency of coal
resources in Guangxi, Hebei, Hubei, Hainan, Guizhou,
Yunnan, Jiangxi, and Henan. Guangxi, Hebei, Hubei, Hainan,
Guizhou, and Yunnan passed the 1% level of significance.
Jiangxi and Henan passed the 10% level of significance. The
annual mean value of gross domestic production of Henan
and Hebei is 555.1 billion yuan and 549.9 billion yuan
respectively, and they rank 5th and 6th. Although Henan’s
Fig. 8. Distribution map of coefficient of RPY.
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al.
Fig. 9. Distribution map of coefficient of GDP.
GDP value is among the better ones in country, its focus of
development must be shifted from information industry,
such as electronics to coal industry. Increasing intensity of
industrial adjustment and introducing advanced information
technology into coal mining industry would further promote
development of intelligent mines and improved efficiency of
coal resources.
Fig. 10. Distribution map of coefficient of IPC.
11
Energy 221 (2021) 119763
Fig. 11. Distribution map of coefficient of TER.
(4) Completed investment of industrial pollution control.
Completed investment of industrial pollution control has
negative influence on efficiency of coal resources in
Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi, Shandong,
Gansu, and Qinghai. Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and
Guangxi passed the 1% level of significance test. Shandong,
Gansu, and Qinghai passed the 5% level of significance test.
Fig. 12. Distribution map of coefficient of FST.
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al.
Fig. 13. Distribution map of coefficient of SEC.
The annual mean values of completed investment in indus-
trial pollution control for Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and
Fujian respectively are 7.55 billion yuan, 4.32 billion yuan,
3.49 billion yuan, and 2.70 billion yuan, and they rank 1st,
2nd, 5th, 10th. The China Statistical Yearbook shows that
sulfur dioxide emissions, nitrogen oxide emissions, smoke
(powder) dust emissions decreased over time in Shandong,
Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, but that total wastewater emissions
did not decrease over time except in Shandong. Shandong,
Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian are enormous provinces of coal
consumption. It can be seen that coal consumption is directly
related to investment in control of environmental pollutants.
But the essential problem involves increasing investments so
as to improve desulfurization, denitrification and wastewater
purification technologies in order to improve efficiency of
coal resources.
(5) Industry structure. Industry structure is represented by in-
cremental values of secondary and tertiary industry. The
incremental value of secondary industry has negative impact
on efficiency of coal resources in Heilongjiang, Zhejiang,
Jiangxi, Shandong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Anhui, and Jiangsu.
Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Guangxi, and
Guizhou passed the 1% level of significance. Anhui passed the
5% level of significance, and Jiangsu passed the 10% level of
significance. Annual mean values of the incremental value of
secondary industry in Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, and
Heilongjiang are 458.6 billion yuan, 432.3 billion yuan, 333.5
billion yuan, 180.7 billion yuan respectively and they rank
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th. With the continuous advancement of coal
industry in resolving excess capacity, production of raw coal
is gradually decreasing at an average annual decline of 1.7%
in Jiangsu. The production of raw coal shows a clear down-
ward trend in Shandong and Heilongjiang from 2011 to 2015.
However, these provinces rank higher in coal consumption,
and to maintain coal consumption by imports whereas in-
crease cost of import. To solve this problem, government
12
Energy 221 (2021) 119763
should comprehensively increase the overall level of devel-
opment of coal resources by integrating coal resources and
promoting the effective protection, rational exploitation, and
efficient utilization of coal resources. The incremental value
of tertiary industry has negative impact on efficiency of coal
resources in Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Fujian, Shandong,
Guangdong, Chongqing, Qinghai, Liaoning, Jilin, Jiangxi, and
Sichuan. Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Fujian, Shandong, Guang-
dong, Chongqing, and Qinghai passed the 1% level of signif-
icance. Liaoning, Jilin, Jiangxi, and Sichuan passed the 5%
level of significance. The annual mean values of the incre-
mental value of the tertiary industries of Guangdong, Shan-
dong, Liaoning, Hebei, and Sichuan are 521.6 billion yuan,
319.7 billion yuan, 199.4 billion yuan, 187.0 billion yuan, 170.2
billion yuan respectively, and these provinces rank 1st, 3rd,
7th, 8th, 10th. Judging from the results of the four censuses,
the proportion of tertiary industry continues to rise steadily,
and the average annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013 was
10.3%. From the results of the analysis, the annual mean
values of the incremental value of tertiary industries of
Guangdong, Shandong, Liaoning, Hebei, and Sichuan rank at
forefront of 30 provinces, and total coal consumption in
Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning, Guangdong, Sichuan rank 1st,
3rd, 7th, 8th, and 15th. Therefore, while developing tertiary
industry, we do not ignore development of coal industry as a
result of shortage of coal resources, and it is estimated that
proportion of coal will be 50% of Chinese energy structure by
2050 [35].
(6) Local financial science and technology expenditures. Local
financial science and technology expenditures have negative
influence on efficiency of coal resources in Tianjin, Hebei,
Shanxi, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Shandong, Yunnan, Gansu, Lnner
Mongolia, Henan, Hainan, Guizhou, Ningxia, and Xinjiang.
Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Shandong,
Yunnan, and Gansu passed the 1% level of significance. Inner
Mongolia, Henan, Hainan, Guizhou, and Xinjiang passed the
5% level of significance. Ningxia passed the 10% level of sig-
nificance. The annual mean values of local financial science
and technology expenditures in Henan and Shanxi are 20.5
billion yuan and 6.7 billion yuan, and these provinces rank
3rd and 10th respectively. The local financial science and
technology expenditures of Henan account for 1.2%e1.4% of
public financial expenditures and education accounts for
18.7%e22.1%. The local financial science and technology ex-
penditures of Shanxi is 1.1%e1.6%, and that for education is
17.6%e23.5%. As we can see, there is a tremendous gap be-
tween expenditures on financial science and technology and
on education. Hence, government departments in Henan and
Shanxi need to augment their spending on financial science
and technology more than do other provinces in order to
increase their coal resource efficiencies.
6. Conclusions and policy implications
This paper uses an improved DEA model of Bootstrap to mea-
sure energy efficiency of coal resources of 30 provinces in China
from 2000 to 2015. Our results show that the proposed approach
can significantly improve accuracy of measurement of a traditional
DEA model. This paper also analyzes seven influencing factors on
efficiency of coal resources using panel data of 30 provinces from
2000 to 2015 through Tobit regression. Overall, this paper draws
the following conclusions:
The finding that local financial science and technology expen-
diture has negative impact on efficiency of coal resource utilization
is the most serious, particularly for 14 provinces in China. As such,
L. Xue, W. Zhang, Z. Zheng et al.
Chinese government ought to increase investment in science and
technology in coal industry. The mining industry is stepping into
development of the intelligent mine, and intelligent mining in coal
sector of the industry will be the developmental tendency of the
future. The introduction of advanced internet technology is a
necessary condition for improving efficiency of coal resources in
mining industry. Furthermore, gross domestic product of region,
completed investment in industrial pollution control and the in-
cremental value of secondary industry have negative impacts on
efficiency of coal resources in 8 provinces, total coal consumption
has negative impact on efficiency of coal resources in 6 provinces,
the incremental value of tertiary industry and resident population
at the end of year have negative impacts on efficiency of coal re-
sources including in 11 provinces and 9 provinces respectively. In
terms of the incremental value of tertiary industry, development of
tertiary industry has negative impact on efficiency of coal resources
in Guangdong, Shandong, Liaoning, Hebei, and Sichuan.
Therefore, development should be focused on coal industry in
order to reduce coal wastage and to improve efficiency of coal re-
sources during the upcoming process of modifying the industrial
structure. From the point of view of resident population, the per-
centage of population in mining industry is relatively small.
Because, in comparison with other industries, coal industry is tough
and remote, government and enterprise need to improve remu-
neration, introduce high-tech talent, and increase labor force.
Funding
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,
project number: 52074296.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Appendix
Inputs
capital The sum of coal industry and preparation industry fixed assets
investment(0.1 billion yuan, at 2000 year price)
human The number of employees in the secondary industry(10000
resource person)
energy consumption of coal resources(10000 ton)
consumption
Output The incremental value of the secondary industry(0.1 billion
yuan, at 2000 year price)
The abbreviated form
ECR Efficiency of coal resources
GDP Gross domestic production of region(0.1 billion yuan, at
2000 year price)
SEC Incremental value of the secondary industry(0.1 billion
yuan at, 2000 year price)
TER Incremental value of the tertiary industry(0.1 billion
yuan, at 2000 year price)
13
Energy 221 (2021) 119763
RPY Resident population at the end of the year(10000
person)
COC Total coal consumption(10000 ton)
IPC Completed investment of industrial pollution control
FST Local financial science and technology expenditures
T-DEA Traditional-DEA
B-DEA Bootstrap-DEA
L.B Low Boundary
U.B Up Boundary
Credit author statement
This paper does not involve academic misconduct.
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