The innovation efficiency of national high-tech zones in the Yellow River Basin is very important for its ecological protection and high-quality development. This paper

based on the three-stage data envelopment analysis model

stripped of the interference of external environmental factors and random error terms

measured and analyzed the innovation efficiency of national high-tech zones in the Yellow River Basin from the perspective of spatial distribution and temporal dynamics

specifically clarified the input redundancy and output insufficiency of each high-tech zone

and summarized the comparative advantages and outstanding problems of each high-tech zone. The results show that after stripping out the external factors such as economic development level

market opening level

human capital level and technological innovation potential

the overall average of the comprehensive technical efficiency of the national high-tech zones in the Yellow River Basin is higher than that before stripping. The low innovation efficiency of national high-tech zones in the Yellow River Basin is mainly caused by pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency

among which the low scale efficiency is the main factor restricting the improvement of innovation efficiency. Therefore

the national high-tech zones in the Yellow River Basin need to improve the pure technical efficiency on the basis of improving the scale efficiency

optimize the allocation of innovative resources in the National high-tech zones in the Yellow River Basin

construct the collaborative mechanism of inter-provincial cooperation and development of innovation activities in the Yellow River Basin

and realize the common improvement of innovation efficiency in the national high-tech zones in the Yellow River Basin.