Empirical Analysis of Provincial Energy Efficiency in China

Abstract

This paper proposes an energy efficiency index based on the data envelopment analysis approach. The index is used to examine energy efficiency in China. Using 1997-2006 panel data for 29 provinces, we find that energy efficiency is negatively associated with the secondary industry share in GDP, the state-owned economic share in GDP and the government expenditure share in GDP, and is positively associated with the technical level and non-coal share in energy consumption. In addition, we find that there exists a large gap in energy efficiency among eastern, central and western regions. The eastern region has a significantly higher energy efficiency level than the central and western regions. We conclude that the different levels of industry structure, government intervention, energy structure, and the technology content in the three regions lead to the differences in energy efficiency. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2009 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Potential in China: A Directional Meta-Frontier DEA Approach

“…The east is the leader in energy technology innovation. It was the earliest "open" region and features the most advanced levels of technology and improved management systems [15,30]. This is consistent with the observations of high energy efficiency in the eastern provinces under both meta-frontier and group frontier, as mentioned above.…”

“…The energy efficiency in the eastern region is high and the energy efficiency in the central and west groups is low. This conclusion differs from that of Hu and Wang [8], but is similar to Wang et al [28] and Wei et al [30] To further test the significant differences of energy efficiency with respect to group frontier and meta-frontier, the Mann-Whitney test, a non-parametric statistical method for two independent samples, was used. The results are listed in Table 4.…”

“…The provinces, such as Hebei, Shanxi, Guizhou, Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia, are the major bases of energy production, with the industrial sector primarily focusing on energy intensive industries. In addition, they are located in inland China, far below the eastern coastal provinces in economic stature, and weak in technological capabilities [15,28,30]. Hence, their energy efficiencies are relatively lower under the two conditions of production technologies.…”

“…They represent the best level of production technology in energy utilization. This is due to the existence of developed economies and advanced technologies in these provinces; moreover, the low-energy consumption industries including tourism and finance account for a large proportion in these regions [30]. The provinces, such as Hebei, Shanxi, Guizhou, Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia, are the major bases of energy production, with the industrial sector primarily focusing on energy intensive industries.…”

Transient and Persistent Energy Efficiency in the US Residential Sector: Evidence from Household-level Data

“…Zhou and Ang (2008) use DEA, a nonparametric approach to examine the energy efficiency performance of 21 OECD countries over 5 years (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001). Wei et al (2009) We use the estimation results to compute the potential decrease in CO2 emissions associated with an improvement in the level of energy efficiency in the US residential sector. This paper contributes to the literature in three ways.…”