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Despite great efforts being devoted to, and substantial resources being consumed by low-carbon economy (LCE) development globally, it appears that little is known about whether LCE development is efficient. This paper measures low-carbon economy efficiency (LCEE) performance from a global perspective. The Super-slack-based measure model is adopted to analyse the LCEE performance of 115 sample countries during 1999-2013. The Malmquist Productivity Index is used to evaluate the dynamic change of LCEE between sample countries. The results indicate that overall worldwide LCEE performance is at low levels, and the differences in LCEE performance among the 115 sample countries are significant. It also indicates that LCEE performance is generally better in developed countries. From the dynamic perspective, a significant improvement in LCEE performance was achieved globally during the survey period, with an overall annual increase of 0.75%. These results provide a valuable reference to policy-makers and practitioners for adopting measures to promote LCE development effectively at a global level.

The urbanization process over last several decades in China has brought benefits in multiple dimensions throughout the country. However, it appears that the benefits shared by small towns is very limited, and this is particular the case in Southwest China. This paper examines holistically the barriers against benefit-sharing by small towns in the urbanization process in China. Theory of Constraints (TOC) has been applied in this study in producing a holistic barrier-framework for studying the significance and performance of individual barriers. 21 case townships are selected in Southwest China for field surveys, including interview discussions, on-site visits and data collections. The content analysis and Likert scale scoring approach are used to convert the survey data to score values. Those significant barriers are discussed in depth by examining practical cases extracted from the field surveys. The study presents the most significant barriers which limit the benefit-sharing by small towns in Southwest China, such as lack of talents, limited financing channels, loss of labor-force population, lack of infrastructure construction, mono-industry structure, low level management ability, and restricted jurisdiction power. The findings from this study provide valuable references to search for effective approaches for promoting the development of small towns and contributing to the healthy and sustainable urbanization process in China.

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The recurrence of similar problems caused by human errors in urbanization process is common throughout the world. However, the knowledge learnt from these problems should become lessons as references for decision-making to avoid the recurrence of these problems, thus the results of urbanization are sustainable. It is considered of imperative importance to incorporate the lessons experienced into the decisionmaking process in a way that can help foresee the potential problems and take proper measures for addressing the problems. There is little existing study on how previous lessons are mined and incorporated in foreseeing the potential problems in future. The lack of this mining mechanism presents a significant barrier for decision makers to learn from the existing lessons thus to have references of how to make better decisions for future urbanization practices. This paper presents a Lessons Mining System (LMS) to assist in mining lessons experienced from previous practices. The system includes five components, namely, Lessonscase Representation , Lessons-case Store, Lessons-case Retrieval, Lessons-case Application, and Lessons-case Update. LMS can facilitate decision makers to understand what potential problems might occur from their current actions by referring to the lessons experienced previously in similar circumstances. This understanding can help decision makers take preventive measures to mitigate the potential problems. In other words, the use of LMS can send alarming messages to decision makers about what possible problematic consequence may occur thus they can modify their actions before too late. The establishment of LMS is based on Casebased Reasoning (CBR) theory and the similarity matching principles. A demonstration of Yangwu Town is presented to show the application of the system, and the result shows that the lessons mined can provide valuable references for the government of Yangwu Town to improve their decisionmaking quality.