Does Clean Energy Use Have Threshold Effects on Economic Development? A Case of Theoretical and Empirical Analyses from China

Minglin Wang, Shaolong Zeng (), Yunzhe Wang and Zhengxia He
Additional contact information
Minglin Wang: School of Economics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China
Shaolong Zeng: School of Economics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China
Yunzhe Wang: School of Economics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China
Zhengxia He: School of Economics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: Increasingly serious energy security and environmental problems have become the main constraints to China’s economic development. Therefore, it is critical to explore the threshold effect of clean energy use on China’s economic growth. Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2019 and using energy intensity (EI) as the threshold variable, this study adopts a panel threshold model to explore the threshold effect of clean energy development on the economy. Empirical results indicate that clean energy has a significant threshold effect on economic development, with the threshold value of EI being 0.7655. When EI is less than 0.7655, clean energy development has a more positive effect on economic growth. When the EI exceeds 0.7655, the impact is significantly positive but with a smaller coefficient. EI weakens the role of clean energy development in promoting economic growth. After 2015, the EI of most provinces in the sample was below the threshold value, which indicates that in recent years, with the economic cost of developing clean energy decreasing, the role of clean energy development in promoting the economy has become more significant. Therefore, we propose policy implications to better promote the effect of clean energy development in promoting economic growth.

Keywords: clean energy; economic growth; threshold effects; panel threshold model; substitution effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9757/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9757/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9757-:d:882943

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().