The Dynamic Effect of High-Tech Industries’ R&D Investment on Energy Consumption

Abstract

High-tech industries are characterized by strong technology, low energy consumption, and low pollution. Among these high-tech industries, five sectors (pharmaceutical industry, aerospace industry, electronic and communication equipment industry, computer and office equipment industry, and medical equipment industry) are selected for our study; and R&D investment is an important support for the development of high-tech industries. How do research and development (R&D) investments affect energy consumption in high-tech industries? Are these effects all positive? What are the differences in the impacts for different types of high-tech sectors or in different regions? And why? To analyze these issues, state space mode is an appropriate method which presented a dynamic process, accurately estimating the parameters at each time nod. We used this model to analyze the impact of five high-tech sectors' research and development (R&D) investments on energy consumption in the four regions of China from 1998 to 2016. Some conclusions are drawn from the research: (1) Pharmaceutical industry has a negative influence on energy consumption in all regions. Compared with other types of high-tech industries, the pharmaceutical industry consumes a higher degree of energy. (2) In the east, middle, and northeast of China, a gap remains between scientific research and production due to the lack of high-tech personnel in the aerospace industry, which lead to a weak effects on energy consumption in these regions (3) For the electronic and communication equipment industry and computer and office equipment industry, the continuous inflow of funds and talent has led to greater competition pressure and excess production capacity in some developed areas. This accounts for the fact that the two industries' R&D investment is beneficial to the reduction of energy consumption in the western regions. (4) The densely populated eastern region has a large demand for health services, leading to an increased demand for medical equipment. That is why the R&D of medical equipment industry have significantly reduced the energy consumption in the east regions than in the other regions.

Examining the Industrial Energy Consumption Determinants: A Panel Bayesian Model Averaging Approach

“…However, Stucki [45] found out that 85% of companies in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland show insignificant or negative returns from investment in green energy technologies. To facilitate energy technology R&D and its implementation in companies, governments should additionally support it, as also highlighted in other studies (e.g., [46]). Magazzino and Cerulli [27], for example, found that additional funds are needed to that end.…”

Direct and indirect impacts of high-tech industry development on CO2 emissions: empirical evidence from China

“…In 2018, Xu and Lin (2018) found that the high-tech industries in eastern, central, and western China reduced CO 2 emissions to different degrees. Using a state-space model, Liu et al (2019) investigated the effect of research and development investment on the amount of energy consumed in the five high-tech sectors (mentioned earlier in this paper) in different regions of China between 1998 and 2016. Different modes of influence on overall energy consumption, which are proportional to CO 2 emissions, were explored among the five sectors.…”

“…The high-tech industry refers to an industrial sector that produces high-tech products using innovative technologies, experiences rapid growth, and penetrates other industries. High-tech companies have the following characteristics: (1) they are knowledge-and technology-intensive (Wang and Wang 2014), with a large proportion of scientific and technical personnel; (2) they consume fewer resources and less energy (Liu et al 2019); (3) they make large investments in research and development in projects with high economic return (Wang et al 2013); (4) they experience rapid growth (Liang 2011). The high-tech industry comprises five manufacturing subsectors, according to China Statistics Yearbook on High Technology Industry; these include aerospace, electronics and communication equipment, computer and office equipment, pharmaceutical and medical equipment, and instrument and meter.…”

“…Consequently, studies that evaluate the impact of the hightech industry on CO 2 emissions have gained in popularity (Chen et al 2016(Chen et al , 2019Cui et al 2019;Huang et al 2010;Li et al 2019;Liu et al 2019;Lin 2017, 2018). However, one area that remains less explored is the relationship between the reductions in CO 2 emissions achieved and the level of high-tech industry development (i.e., high, middle, or low level) in a given region.…”

E-commerce Industry’s R&D, Market Operating and Performance: Based on Worldwide Listed Companies’ Empirical Analysis

“…One is using R&D input as a dependent variable to study the relationship between personal internal factors of senior management (such as age, education, gender) [5], external environmental factors of senior management (such as duration, ownership structure of enterprises, R&D funding source), Founder CEOs [2], corporate government [6], Entrepreneurial orientation [7] and R&D input. The other path is using R&D input as an independent variable and focusing on the relationship between R&D input and company performance [8,9], the relationship between R&D input and stock price crash risk [10], the relationship between R&D input and productivity growth [11], and the relationship between R&D input and energy consumption [12].…”