Environmental regulation and energy efficiency: evidence from daily penalty policy in China

Hu, Kai; Li, Dandan; Shi, Daqian; Wang, Xu

doi:10.1007/s11149-022-09455-6

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Some examples: although the 2002 unbundling reform in the Chinese electricity sector contributed to efficiency improvement (Ma and Zhao, 2015), there are still regulations on price and quantity that affect the efficiency of power plants (Sun and Wu, 2020); the U.S. electricity market restructuring imposed a negative effect on technical efficiency of utilities (Gultom, 2019); Australian distributors operate below efficient levels even after the deregulation that has been ongoing since 1998 (Lee et al, 2021); finally, efficiency in Pakistan's electricity market still suffers from multiple practical difficulties after reform (Mirza et al, 2021). Meanwhile, in some cases, deregulation may bring about instability in electricity markets (Binder and Mjelde, 2017), or result in efficiency loss due to mandated divestiture of generation assets or higher upstream transaction costs (Leung et al, 2019); environmental regulations may also affect efficiency in the energy sector (Hu et al, 2023). Barros (2008) applies DEA to find improvement in the technical efficiency of hydroelectric plants in Portugal between 2000 and2004. Nevertheless, it was only in 2006 that the new legislation defined the regime for electricity generation in the country.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operational Efficiency Improvements in the Portuguese Electricity Sector

Roseta-Palma

Ramalho

2023

Preprint

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Efficiency has long been an issue of concern in the electricity sector. Most existing studies relate technical efficiency in electricity generation to policy factors while that in transmission and distribution is associated with environmental factors. Although firm operation is also a relevant perspective on this topic, its explicit impact upon technical efficiency has rarely been studied. In order to analyze the evolution and operational determinants of productive and cost efficiency in the Portuguese electricity sector (including generation from different sources, trade, transmission and distribution), this study estimates Stochastic Frontier models using firm-level panel data from 2006 to 2019, covering the period of liberalization of the Portuguese electricity market. The evidence is consistent with the expectation on efficiency gains from the market reform. However, such improvement is likely to slow down and needs to be consolidated. Results on the inefficiency determinants suggest that it is possible to improve productive technical efficiency by encouraging investment in fixed assets, higher average hourly wage and moderate average working hours. JEL classification: D24, L23, O25, Q40

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operational Efficiency Improvements in the Portuguese Electricity Sector

Roseta-Palma

Ramalho

2023

Preprint

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“…China's emphasis on ER has deepened significantly over the past few years (Green and Stern, 2017;Kostka and Nahm, 2017), e.g., the Chinese government has strengthened the formulation and improvement of environmental laws and regulations (Fang et al, 2021). Environmental protection departments' supervisory and enforcement capabilities have continued to improve, and investigations and prosecutions of environmental violations have become timelier and more effective (Hu et al, 2023). Chinese society's concern for environmental issues has gradually increased, and the public's willingness to partake in environmental protection actions has increased (Flatø, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotics, environmental regulation, and agricultural carbon emissions: an examination of the environmental Kuznets curve theory and moderating effects

Li,

Chen

2024

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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IntroductionReducing carbon emissions from agriculture is essential to ensuring food security and human prosperity. As a country with approximately 20% of the global population, China has begun actively practicing the low-carbon agricultural development conception. Against the backdrop of disruptive technologies that continue to be integrated into various industries, the massive application of agricultural robots has opened the way to intelligent agriculture. This paper tries to answer whether there is some non-linear nexus between the application of agricultural robots and agricultural carbon emissions in China. As an essential tool for carbon emission reduction in China, does environmental regulation moderate the nexus between agricultural robot applications and agricultural carbon emissions? If so, how does this effect manifest itself?MethodsThis work takes China as an example by collecting macro-regional panel data from 30 provinces from 2006 to 2019. The environmental Kuznets curve theory is extended to agricultural carbon emissions, and we carried out empirical tests utilizing the panel fixed effects model and the moderating effects model.ResultsThis study verifies the inverted U-shaped nexus between agricultural robotics applications and agricultural carbon emissions in Chinese provinces, i.e., the agricultural carbon emissions (ACE)-Kuznets curve holds. The higher the level of formal environmental regulation, the larger the peak of the ACE-Kuznets curve and the more the inflection point is pushed back. The higher the level of informal environmental regulation, the lower the peak of the ACE-Kuznets curve and the later the inflection point.DiscussionThe findings in this paper represent the first exploration of the environmental Kuznets curve in agricultural carbon emissions. It is noteworthy that the moderating effect of formal environmental regulation does not lower the peak of the curve as we expect. This appearance is attributed to the reality that China is still in a phase of rising agricultural carbon emissions, which is exacerbated by the overlapping positive effects of agricultural robotics applications and formal environmental regulations. Informal environmental regulation is more effective than formal environmental regulation in reducing agricultural carbon emissions at this stage.

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