Technology gap and China's regional energy efficiency: A parametric metafrontier approach

Boqiang Lin () and Kerui Du

Energy Economics, 2013, vol. 40, issue C, 529-536

Abstract: This paper analyzes the energy efficiency of China's 30 administrative regions during the period from 1997 to 2010. Most existing studies ignored the variation of production technologies among regions in China. Taking this factor into account, we introduce a parametric metafrontier approach based on the Shephard energy distance function. For further analysis, regions in China are divided into three groups using cluster analysis. We find that the regions in group 1 (mainly the regions in the east area of China) not only have the highest energy efficiency score, but also take the lead in terms of technology gap ratio. Meanwhile, due to their backward technology levels, the average energy efficiency score of the regions in group 3 (mainly the regions in the west area of China) is particularly low. Moreover, the pooled estimation, which ignores the technology gap among the groups, tends to underestimate the energy efficiency.

Keywords: Technology gap; Energy efficiency; Distance function; Parametric metafrontier analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q49 R19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (99)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:40:y:2013:i:c:p:529-536

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2013.08.013

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