Ziyuan Kexue (Jun 2023)

The effects of market integration on regional energy efficiency and mechanism

  • ZHANG Congcong, CUI Songtao, ZHU Zhishuang, ZHANG Huaming

DOI
https://doi.org/10.18402/resci.2023.06.09
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 45, no. 6
pp. 1208 – 1222

Abstract

Read online

[Objective] Energy efficiency improvement is an effective means to increase the synergy between economic development and energy conservation and emission reduction. In this study, the effects of market integration on regional energy efficiency and mechanisms were examined to provide a theoretical support and policy reference for efficiency improvement of China’s unified large market construction policy. [Methods] The stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model was used to measure the energy efficiency of 239 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019, and the growth of energy efficiency was decomposed into three aspects: technological progress, technical efficiency change, and scale efficiency change; the panel fixed effect and mediation effect models were used to analyze the effect of market integration on regional energy efficiency, heterogeneity, and mechanism. [Results] The study found that: (1) Market integration can effectively promote regional energy efficiency, and the improvement of scale efficiency and technological progress are the key paths of market integration improving energy efficiency. (2) Market integration is more likely to improve energy efficiency in regions with high innovation levels and high population densities, and for regions with weaker innovation bases and lower population densities, the development of market integration can take the lead in improving regional scale efficiency and technological progress. (3) Market integration is more likely to improve regional energy efficiency by promoting the agglomeration of productive services. (4) Market integration can help alleviate the disparity of energy efficiency between regions. [Conclusion] The construction of a large national unified market to promote regional market integration is conducive to the effect of regional scale efficiency and technological progress, which in turn improves regional energy efficiency and promotes effective synergy between economic development and energy conservation and emission reduction.

Keywords