China Urban Agglomeration Economic Efficiency based on Data Envelopment Analysis

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of China's 13 major urban agglomerations' economic efficiency in the years 2009-2013 by applying DEA method and related panel data,aiming to reveal the trends of urban agglomerations' economic efficiency and at the same time,analyze its influencing factors. The research shows that the comprehensive economic efficiency of China's urban agglomerations has been fluctuating; and over half of them have the potential to scale up in the near future. In addition,the average resource utilization rate of China urban agglomeration is about 80% and labor redundancy is the most serious problem among them. It is also concluded that eastern urban agglomerations are generally better at integrated management and resource allocation and utilization; central areas are slightly in the lead of scale gathering while western areas lag behind in all aspects. It is finally concluded that each urban agglomeration should choose appropriate developing strategies according to its own features and status quo.