Energy efficiency and production technology heterogeneity in China: A meta-frontier DEA approach

• Published in: Economic modelling Vol. 35; pp. 283 - 289
• Main Authors: Wang, Qunwei, Zhao, Zengyao, Zhou, Peng, Zhou, Dequn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-09-2013; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Clean technology; Data envelopment analysis; Economics; Energy consumption; Energy economics; Energy efficiency; Energy policy; Inefficiency decomposition; Meta-frontier DEA; Power generation; Studies; Technology gap; China; China, People's Rep; Meta-frontier DEA; Energy efficiency; Inefficiency decomposition; Technology gap
• ISSN: 0264-9993; 1873-6122
• DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2013.07.017

The heterogeneities of production technology among provinces in China cause difficulties for unbiased evaluation of energy efficiency. Using meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, this paper proposes a new method for measuring energy efficiency by considering the “technology gap” and analyzes it as a discrete source of energy inefficiency. This empirical study has three major findings: Firstly, the energy efficiency and technology gap are significantly different in the east, central and west, and most provinces in the east maintain high energy efficiency and advanced production technology, while energy efficiency in the west is on the contrary. Secondly, both the technology gap and management related to energy utilization are important sources of energy inefficiency in the central and the west provinces, and the effect of the technology gap is more obvious. Finally, though overall energy efficiency in China is not high by relative standards and significant regional difference exists, potential energy-saving strategies have been discovered in recent years.
•Propose a new total factor energy efficiency index•The energy efficiency index is estimated by meta-frontier DEA.•Conduct an empirical study on Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2010