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With the rapid economic development in China, substantial capital and resources are invested in urban logistics industry leading to quick expansion of the urban logistics. In this paper, the efficiency and energy efficiency of the urban logistics industry in China is measured through a stochastic frontier analysis based on a translog production function for a period of 2009–2017 using a sample of 216 prefecture-level cities. The results lead to several conclusions. (1) Average urban logistics efficiency and energy efficiency scores are at low levels and unbalanced between sample cities over the research period. Cities located in the eastern coastal region have the largest average efficiency scores, the central region has lower scores, and the western region has the lowest. (2) The difference in logistics efficiency between sample cities shows a downward trend for the entire country and eastern region. (3) Technical change plays an important role in promoting urban logistics efficiency. Technical inefficiency is the main cause of the nonefficient frontier of urban logistics. (4) Using the regression analysis, we found that digitalization and road density are positively correlated with the efficiency of urban logistics. Education has a long-term effect on the improvement of the urban logistics efficiency. In contrast, government intervention and environmental regulations are negatively correlated with the efficiency of urban logistics. (5) The effect of most factors on urban logistics efficiency across the sample stratified between eastern, central, and western regions is in line with the estimation results for the whole sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic globalization promotes industrial division and forms a large stream of products between countries all over the world, which leads to serious environmental problems. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between green logistics and international trade. Heckman’s two-stage procedure is employed to estimate an augmented gravity model that specifically includes green logistics variables with the data of 113 countries and regions over the period between 2007–2014. The findings show that the logistics performance index (LPI) of exporting and importing countries are positively correlated with trade volume, and that the LPI of exporting countries positively affects trade probability. Taking the entire sample into account, the green logistics performance of exporting countries positively affects export probability and volume. For trade flows between developing–developing countries, developed–developed countries, and developed–developing countries, the green logistics performance of importing countries has a negative impact on the export volume of exporting countries. In terms of trade flow between developing–developed countries, the green logistics performance of importing countries has a negative impact on export probability and a positive impact on export volume. The present research results will assist governments and exporters in understanding the relationship between green logistics and international trade, and help improve their policies and green operations toward sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]