Вестник Витебского
государственного
технологического
университета

Abstract

As the Chinese economy transitions to the stage of high-quality development, improving the efficiency of managing the quality of life of the population is becoming a key condition for improving well-being and ensuring sustainable development. However, in the context of resource and environmental constraints, the question of how to scientifically evaluate and optimize management effectiveness remains a practical problem. Most existing studies ignore the impact of unwanted releases on quality of life and do not analyze the causes of changes in effectiveness in sufficient depth, which leads to insufficient targeting of policy recommendations. The purpose of this article is to justify the selection of quality of life management tools in the regions of China using the DEA-SBM method and the Malmquist-Luenberger index. In this regard, the article uses the SBM model, taking into account unwanted releases, and the Malmquist–Luenberger index to assess the effectiveness of quality of life management in 31 provinces of China in 2015–2023. The results show that the overall level of effectiveness of quality-of-life management is relatively low. An analysis using the SBM model shows that the main "bottlenecks" are caused by technical efficiency at the level of management practices and the introduction (use) of technologies, while the efficiency of scale as a whole is close to optimal. The analysis of the Malmquist–Luenberger index shows that the key reason for the decline in productivity is the lack of technological progress, rather than the degradation of managerial efficiency. Regional heterogeneity is expressed significantly: the Northeast is characterized by technologically driven growth, the East demonstrates decreasing marginal returns at high resource costs, and technological "bottlenecks" are more pronounced in the West. Based on this, it is proposed to shift the focus of optimizing management tools from "increasing resource costs" to "improving the efficiency of conversion (transformation) of resources." Through efficiency decomposition and inter-regional comparison, the article provides empirical grounds for differentiated policy design, thereby contributing to the optimization of resource allocation and innovation of management tools.

Quality of life management in China based on the DEA-SBM method and the Malmquist-Luenberger index