Accounting for resource accumulation in Japanese prefectures : an environmental efficiency analysis

This study analyzed the environmental efficiency of production activities based on the accumulated resources (i.e., buildings and roadways), factor inputs (i.e., labor and private capital stock), and CO2 emissions of 46 Japanese prefectures during the period ranging from 1992 to 2008. The major findings were as follows: (1) A decline in environmental efficiency was observed in many prefectures from 1992 to 1999, whereas a rapid increase in environmental efficiency was observed from 2000 to 2008 as a result of technical change (14%), (2) although the increase in population has positively impacts the environmental efficiency, the expansion of tertiary industries reduces the environmental efficiency due to the lower per worker GDP for the retail, lodging, and transportation industries compared with the manufacturing industries, (3) the total CO2 emission reduction potential of all environmentally inefficient prefectures identified in this study increased from 127 to 179 million t-CO2 (41%) over the 17-year period between 1992 and 2008.