Analysis of regional differences and evolution features for waterway transport efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt considering undesired outputs

Waterway transport plays an increasingly important role in pursuing the sustainable development of the transportation industry and promoting regional economic development. Understanding the regional differences and evolution features of waterway transport efficiency (WTE) is a requisite for formulating waterway transport development policies. However, many studies of transport efficiency mainly focus on road, railway, and air transportation. Few studies have conducted an in-depth analysis of the WTE in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from the perspective of considering undesired output. Adopting the Super slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model, Dagum Gini coefficient, and kernel density estimation as an analysis tool, this study explored the WTE's region disparities and dynamic evolution features based on the data from 2011 to 2020 in YREB. The analysis results represent that: (1) there represented a fluctuating and slowly upward trend of waterway transport efficiency during the study period. (2) The midstream region has the highest waterway transport efficiency, followed by the upstream region, and last is the downstream region. (3) The regional disparities in waterway transport efficiency exist in YREB, and the primary source of these differences is the inter-regional difference. And (4) the polarization phenomenon and agglomeration characteristics of waterway transport efficiency in YREB are gradually weakened and decreased, respectively. In the end, this article summarized the implications of this study to improve the waterway transport efficiency and service capabilities in YREB.