Allocation Efficiency of Public Sports Resources Based on the DEA Model in the Top 100 Economic Counties of China in Zhejiang Province

Background: The county is the basic unit of national economic and social development, and is also the foothold and starting point of public sports services. Purpose: Taking the top 100 economic counties of China in Zhejiang Province as the research object, this study explores the allocation efficiency and influencing factors of public sports resources in the period of 2016 to 2020. Methods: The output-oriented Super-SBM model, which is used to measure the static efficiency of its public sports resource allocation, is combined with the DEA-Malmquist model to measure the total factor productivity from the perspectives of overall characteristics, regional heterogeneity, and individual differences. Moreover, we objectively evaluate the dynamic evolution and spatiotemporal characteristics of resource quality growth, financial management technology, and allocation efficiency from the horizontal cross-section and vertical time series. Results: (1) The efficiency of allocation of public sports resources in the top 100 economic counties in Zhejiang Province is relatively high, but it presents the characteristics of "extensive" allocation, and the allocation structure is unreasonable. (2) The super-efficiency gradient division of public sports resources shows that Yuhuan City ranks first with a state of super-efficiency allocation; Ruian, Linhai, Wenling, Yiwu, and Haining have a state of high-efficiency allocation; and other regions are characterized by a state of medium- or low-efficiency allocation. (3) The improvement of total factor productivity depends on the catching-up feature of technological efficiency on the production frontier, but it has not yet compensated for the negative effect of the decline of technological progress, resulting in a decline in total factor productivity with an average annual trend of 0.3%. (4) The level of county economic development has a highly significant positive effect on the allocation efficiency of public sports resources, while the per capita sports ground area has a highly significant negative effect on efficiency. The county population density has a highly significant impact, and regional factors have no significant effect on efficiency. Conclusions: The results of this study provide useful insights for the development of sound public sports service improvement policies.