Business School, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, No. 3601, Hongjing Avenue, Jiangning District, Nanjing 211171, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 9;19(24):16577. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416577.
As an important factor of production, the use of energy will greatly improve production efficiency and is the material basis for China's sustainable development. Environmental regulation plays an important role in energy efficiency (EE), while fiscal decentralization is an important institutional context for China's economic development. In order to explore the role of environmental regulation and fiscal decentralization on EE, this paper measures the EE of 30 provincial regions in China from 2006 to 2020 by the super-efficient SBM method, and verifies the relationship between fiscal decentralization and environmental regulation on EE using a spatial econometric model, and conclusions as follows: (1) China's overall energy efficiency averages 0.563, still at a low level, with the highest average efficiency value in the east and the lowest in the west. (2) An inverted U-shaped relationship exists between environmental regulation and EE, and its spatial spillover effect also shows an inverted U-shaped relationship. Fiscal decentralization promotes the regional EE, and its spatial effect also significantly positive. (3) When the level of environmental regulation increases, the EE level of the local and neighboring provinces will increase. The enhancement of fiscal decentralization system can promote local EE, but it has a negative effect on the energy efficiency level of neighboring provinces. Finally, based on the results of the empirical analysis, this paper proposes suggestions for improving regional EE, which are of great theoretical and practical value for improving climate change and achieving sustainable regional economic development in China.
作为一种重要的生产要素，能源的利用将极大地提高生产效率，是中国可持续发展的物质基础。环境规制在能源效率（EE）方面发挥着重要作用，而财政分权是中国经济发展的重要制度背景。为了探讨环境规制和财政分权对 EE 的作用，本文采用超效率 SBM 方法衡量了 2006 年至 2020 年中国 30 个省级地区的 EE，并利用空间计量经济学模型验证了财政分权与环境规制对 EE 的关系，得出以下结论：（1）中国整体能源效率平均值为 0.563，仍处于较低水平，东部地区平均效率值最高，西部地区最低。（2）环境规制与 EE 之间存在倒 U 型关系，其空间溢出效应也呈倒 U 型关系。财政分权促进了区域 EE，其空间效应也显著为正。（3）当环境规制水平提高时，本地和邻近省份的 EE 水平将提高。财政分权制度的增强可以促进本地 EE，但对邻近省份的能源效率水平产生负面影响。最后，根据实证分析的结果，本文提出了提高区域 EE 的建议，这对改善气候变化和实现中国可持续区域经济发展具有重要的理论和实践价值。
