The Impact of Accountability for Energy Efficiency Targets on Labor Demand of Enterprises: Evidence from China’s Top-1000 Energy-Saving Program

Yiwen Yu, Lili Ding, Yongyou Nie, Yun Pan () and Zheng Jiao ()
Additional contact information
Yiwen Yu: School of Economics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Lili Ding: Landscaping and City Appearance Administrative Bureau of Minhang District, Shanghai 201199, China
Yongyou Nie: School of Economics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Yun Pan: School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Zheng Jiao: School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-19

Abstract: To control energy consumption, China issued the environmental regulation policy of the Top-1000 Energy-Saving Program in 2006, and it remains to be examined whether this policy will impact enterprises’ labor demand while promoting energy conservation and consumption reduction. Based on the panel data of Chinese enterprises (2000–2010), this study employs the difference-in-differences (DID) method to investigate the impact of the Top-1000 Energy-Saving Program on the labor demand of enterprises. It is found that the policy significantly reduces enterprises’ labor demand, a finding that passes several robustness tests. Second, the effects of the policy show heterogeneity across enterprises of various sizes, ownership structures, and regions. Finally, the mechanism analysis verifies the existence of an output effect leading to a decline in enterprises’ labor demand, while the substitution effect manifests itself in the substitution of enterprises’ labor demand with the increase of capital and technological innovation. This study provides important empirical evidence for the improvement of energy efficiency policies.

Keywords: the Top-1000 Energy-Saving Program; labor demand; energy saving and emission reduction; difference-in-differences (DID) method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/21/9447/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/21/9447/ (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:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:21:p:9447-:d:1510414

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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