Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) strategy and its role of industrial productivity in China.
Design/methodology/approach
To identify the causal effect of this strategy on industrial sustainable development, the authors first use the slacks-based measure model to calculate industries’ total-factor productivity (TFP) considered with CO2 emissions as undesirable output on the provincial level. Then, the authors use the PSM-DID method to identify the difference of TFPs between provinces and industries before and after the implementation of SREB strategy.
Findings
However, the authors find that there is no difference or even a relative decrease in TFPs of industries in target provinces after the implementation of the strategy, which reveals that the SREB strategy does not play a positive role of the industries’ sustainable development in years of 2014 and 2015.
Originality/value
The value of this result is to identify the short-term impact of SREB strategy and to seek for probable causes and appropriate solutions.
Abstract:In order to realize the synergistic optimization management of energy efficiency in the key energy-intensive industries of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) region, this paper calculates the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of 27 industries in the Jing-Jin-Ji region. We discover that the manufacturing of raw chemical materials and chemical products, the smelting and processing of ferrous metals, and the production and supply of electric power and heat power are key industries, considering their economic output ratio, energy consumption ratio, and energy efficiency. Then, the Malmquist index is used to decompose the TFEE of key energy-intensive industries. The results show that the TFEE changes in the three major industries in the Jing-Jin-Ji region are caused by technological progress. Hebei has the highest total factor average energy efficiency in the production and supply of electric power and heat power industry, the main reason for this being the spillover effect from Beijing enterprises that have led to significant technological changes in Hebei. Due to similar technological advancements, Tianjin has the highest total factor average energy efficiency in the manufacturing of raw chemical materials and chemical products and the smelting and processing of ferrous metals. Therefore, the Jing-Jin-Ji region should work to increase its technological innovation and enhance its core competitiveness. We should optimize the allocation of resources in specific industries to improve the scale efficiency.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.