Evaluation of county-level economic efficiency and its spatiotemporal differentiation in Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos-Yulin urban agglomeration in China

There are many urban agglomerations in mainland China. Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos-Yulin urban agglomeration is of great importance due to its economic scale and geographical location. The Western part of China is a less-developed area with a lower level of social-economic development. Therefore, it needs more attention from the central government and the academic world to win better opportunities for its development. This paper evaluates the economic efficiency of 30 county units of this urban agglomeration. It finds where the counties with lower efficiency locate and reveals the spatial and temporal pattern evolvement. The Stochastic Frontier Model is used to measure the efficiency of each county unit in this urban agglomeration and the spatial characteristics of which are visualized with ArcGIS. Then, Moran's Index is used to measure the spatial correlation of economic efficiency among these county units, and the results are presented with a LISA chart. The results show that the county's economic efficiency has improved steadily during the period covered by this study, and counties with high-efficiency levels have formed a pronounced agglomeration in the eastern part of the study area, and there is a significant positive spatial correlation among these counties. Furthermore, the economic linkage is significantly and positively associated with the economic efficiency of a county; however, a county's being the core area of a city plays a negative role. The paper implies, based on its findings that the maintenance and upgrading of a county's transportation network, the improvement of a county's comprehensive level of development, the expansion of the local market of a county, and the reduction of government expenditure will probably improve the economic efficiency of a county. The study also has implications for future research on economic efficiency. It could contribute to the ongoing debates regarding what affects the economic efficiency of a county and how to improve it.