Platform economy development and energy efficiency inequality: evidence from China.

Alleviating energy efficiency inequality between regions is critical for achieving green sustainable development and environmental equality. This study constructs platform economy development index and adopts Theil index to measure energy efficiency inequality. By using panel data from 30 regions in China spanning from 2013 to 2020, this study investigates the influence of platform economy development on energy efficiency in inequality through a two-way fixed-effects model. The results show that (1) platform economy development can alleviate energy efficiency inequality between regions. After the robustness tests, the results still support the findings. (2) When the level of industrial agglomeration, marketization and environmental decentralization is high, platform economy development is more effective in alleviating energy efficiency inequality. (3) Platform economy development can optimize energy resources allocation, promote energy utilization technology flow and narrow the green finance development gap, thus alleviating energy efficiency inequality. Governmental departments should promote platform economy development and green finance, and optimize renewable energy allocation.