Measuring the Energy Consumption Efficiency of the Construction Industry in China

It is known that data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be applied for multiple input and output decision-making units (DMUs) productivity measuring. And DEA-based Malmquist productivity index (MPI) can be used as a tool for measuring the productivity change during different time periods. In this paper, we use input-oriented model to measure the energy consumption productivity change of construction from 2004 to 2009 with 4-regions in China as DMUs. In the applying results, there is only central region experienced effective energy consumption in the whole reference period. It also shows that these sectors always lie on the efficiency frontier of energy consumption as benchmarks. On the other way, regional analysis shows that there are still gaps between northeastern, western region and central, eastern region. According to the analyzing results, we should not only focus on the efficiency. Because of the economy and industry sector development gap between different regions, in some extent, we should combine efficiency, the change of efficiency and regional economy level. DEA-based Malmquist productivity index provide a good way to measure the energy consumption and can give information to the policy-makers to promote the strategy of sustainable development in China.