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In this study, based on measuring green innovation efficiency (GIE), the regional differences, distribution dynamics and convergences of GIE among 284 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2020 were investigated. It was found that: (1) the GIE showed a decreasing regional difference within and between the eight economic zones and among the whole sample population, with the intensity of transvariation making the major contribution to the differences; (2) the GIE across the country and the eight economic zones appeared to rise slowly, showing a certain level of polarization within the zones, but the gap and polarization tended to narrow gradually on the whole, except for the Northwest Economic Zone; (3) the GIE across the country and among the eight economic zones presented prominent convergences. It was conducive to enrich the research contents and methods of green innovation and provide references for green innovation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a novel hybrid Trigonometric Envelopment Analysis for Ideal Solutions (TEA-IS) model to assess the ecological efficiency of 248 Chinese cities for a 14-year period and employs a difference-in-difference approach to reveal the mechanism of the impact of low-carbon pilot city policies on ecological efficiency from the perspective of green technology innovation. This TEA-IS approach not only combines the advantageous features that exist in each individual model, but also allows an analysis of ecological efficiency in terms of the synergistic effects that may exist among correlated positive and negative criteria. Machine learning methods are also employed to predict high-low performance and synergistic Chinese cities in terms of the socio-economic and demographic context. Results indicate that ecological efficiency is generally low in Chinese cities. The low-carbon pilot city policy does help to improve ecological efficiency, which results from the mechanism of green technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]