With the rapid growth of the global economy and the depletion of land-based resources, the demand for the ocean as a major driver of economic development is increasing. In China, the marine economy has been a sig-nificant "blue engine" for national economic growth; hence, it is crucial to evaluate marine economic efficiency to understand China's marine industry's input-output status and development level. Based on 559 independent observations presented in 49 empirical primary studies, we conducted a meta-analysis to quantitatively explore the differences in measurement results and identify the factors influencing marine economic efficiency. The notable results were fourfold. (1) Significant heterogeneity is evident among the findings of the primary studies. Based on the random-effect model, China's overall marine economic efficiency is 0.720, indicating that considerable potential remains for improving economic efficiency in the marine sector. (2) The data types, estimation methods, evaluation indicators, publication types, and publication years of primary studies signifi-cantly affect marine economic efficiency estimation results. (3) At the temporal level, marine economic efficiency generally demonstrates an upward trend with the increase in the sample data years. At the spatial level, the marine economic efficiency of the Circum Bohai Sea region is significantly higher than that of the Pan-Pearl River Delta region, whereas it does not significantly differ from the Yangtze River Delta region. (4) The level of marine science and technology, as well as the marine industry structure, exerts a significant positive impact on marine economic efficiency, whereas the gross ocean product negatively impacts marine economic efficiency. Accord-ingly, the following insights were obtained. In terms of marine economic development policies, policymakers should intensify scientific and technological innovation, balance marine resource use and marine environmental conservation, so that power a shift of the marine economy from resource-dependent growth to the orientation of better quality and benefit. In addition, priority must be given to the synergistic development of coastal regions and marine industry structure optimization and upgrading. Future studies should use long-term panel data, focus on using the parametric stochastic frontier analysis method, and assess negative environmental impacts by constructing a green evaluation index system.
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