Chinese-Style Fiscal Decentralization, Ecological Attention of Government, and Regional Energy Intensity

Mingxiong Bi, Chencheng Wang, Dian Fu, Xun Tan, Shurong Yu, Junbai Pan and Kun Lv ()
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Mingxiong Bi: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Chencheng Wang: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Dian Fu: Teaching and Education College, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Xun Tan: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Shurong Yu: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Junbai Pan: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Kun Lv: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-28

Abstract: The impact of Chinese-style fiscal decentralization on regional energy intensity has long been disputed by the supporters of “federal environmentalism” and those who hold “race to the bottom” views. At the same time, with the transformation of China’s development mode, the Chinese government is paying increasing attention to the protection of ecological civilization and the realization of sustainable development, and the government’s attention to the ecological environment is becoming an important factor affecting regional energy intensity. Therefore, this paper takes the fiscal decentralization and ecological attention of local governments in China as the research object and analyzes their impact mechanism on regional energy intensity. Firstly, the entropy weight method was used to measure the comprehensive score of fiscal decentralization of Chinese local governments, and the text analysis method was used to obtain the ecological attention index of Chinese provincial local governments, which was sorted into panel data of 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in mainland China from 2007 to 2019. The spatial econometric model and panel threshold model are structured as the means for analyzing the impact that fiscal decentralization and the ecological attention of local governments have, respectively, on regional energy intensity targets. We obtained the following conclusions: Chinese fiscal decentralization can significantly improve the regional energy intensity, and the fiscal decentralization of a region can significantly reduce the energy intensity in nearby regions; the enhancement of ecological attention of local governments will significantly inhibit regional energy intensity, and also has a significant inhibitory effect on the energy intensity of neighboring regions. As the threshold variable—which is the ecological attention of local governments—increases and reaches a certain level, fiscal decentralization will significantly and reversely inhibit regional energy intensity, indicating that the ecological attention of local governments can moderate the distortion of fiscal decentralization with regards to regional energy efficiency.

Keywords: fiscal decentralization; fiscal governance; ecological attention of government; energy intensity; spatial measurement model; threshold model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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