Measurement and convergence of transportation industry total factor energy efficiency in China

Abstract

This paper constructs an epsilon-based measure (EBM) model containing an undesired output, and uses the model to measure the transportation industry total factor energy efficiency (TITFEE) of 30 Chinese provinces in 2005–2017, based on the relevant panel data. In addition, both absolute and conditional beta convergence models (BCMs) were established to empirically analyze the convergence of China’s TITFEEs. The results show that: there was significant provincial difference in TITFEE. In general, high TITFEE provinces concentrate in the economically developed eastern coastal area, while most provinces with relatively low TITFEE belong to central and western inland areas; the three major regions of China exhibited an obvious regional difference in TITFEE: the TITFEE decreased gradually from east to west; the absolute BCM results reveal that China’s TITFEEs obviously follow the trend of absolute beta convergence in the sample period, and the TITFEE of the central region converged at the fastest pace, followed in turn by that of the western region, and that of the eastern region; After the control variables had been added, the conditional beta convergence of the TITFEE in each region was much faster than the absolute beta convergence.

Keywords

• Transportation industry total factor energy efficiency (TITFEE)
• Convergence
• Epsilon-based measure (EBM) model
• Beta convergence model (BCM)