Impact of Environmental Regulation on Total-Factor Energy Efficiency from the Perspective of Energy Consumption Structure

Abstract

In order to explore whether the interregional differences in environmental regulations affect the improvement of energy efficiency incorporating undesirable outputs, the total-factor energy efficiency of 30 province-level divisions in China are evaluated by the slack-based DEA model (SBM). A panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) is made to analyze the impact of environmental regulations on the total-factor energy efficiency. This impact performs different with different energy consumption structure. The empirical results show that the proportion of clean energy in the energy consumption in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Beijing and Fujian has exceeded the threshold value successively. Environmental regulation has a significant enhancing effect on the total-factor energy efficiency in these regions. Whereas, in those regions with low proportion of clean energy, the estimated impact coefficient of environmental regulation on the total-factor energy efficiency performs negative. Great pressure on environmental regulation should be matched up with energy-saving technical innovation and new energy usage stimulus. The positive promoting effect of environmental regulation on the total-factor energy efficiency needs a better energy consumption structure.