Dynamic Evolution, Regional Differences, and Spatial Spillover Effects of Urban Ecological Welfare Performance in China from the Perspective of Ecological Value

Ecological welfare performance (EWP) is a necessary condition for achieving sustainable economic development and is a crucial initiative for resolving the dilemma of balancing economic development, social welfare, ecology, and the environment. This paper constructs and enhances a comprehensive evaluation system of ecological welfare performance (EWP) from an ecological value viewpoint for the purpose of making the results of the evaluation both comprehensive and objective. In the meantime, the Dagum Gini decomposition, kernel density, and the spatial Durbin model were initiated to measure and analyze urban EWP, which supplies new empirical results for studies on the dynamic evolution, regional differences and driving factors of urban EWP. The findings indicate the following: (1) In each spatial dimension, the urban EWP roughly demonstrates first a decreased and then an increased trend. There is a discrepancy in the east–central–west distribution of urban EWP in space, in which urban EWP in the east and west is larger than that in the central area. (2) For relative differences, intra-regional and inter-regional differences in urban EWP are significantly spatially uneven. Supervariable density is the main source of regional differences. For absolute differences, the EWP demonstrates a significant polarization effect. (3) The urban EWP does not have σ-convergence; nonetheless, it has spatial absolute β-convergence and spatial conditional β-convergence. (4) The urban EWP has a significant spatial correlation. Industrial structure, science and technology innovation, foreign investment, urbanization, government intervention, finance development, and environmental regulations all have influence effects and spatial effects on urban EWP; notwithstanding, the direction and magnitude of the effects vary across the different spatial dimensions.