Research On Spatial Disparity Of Energy Efficiency And Convergence In China

As energy restriction increases, energy conservation and consumption reduction are put on the agenda settlement. Energy efficiency, which is called "the fifth energy" , is an important variable influencing economic growth and energy consumption, and it is also of great governmental concern. In the eleventh five-year plan, reduction of energy consumption per unit GDP has definitely been ranked as one of the eight obligatory indexes. In order to achieve the whole target of reducing 20% energy intensity, a joint effort is needed from every region throughout the nation. Against the background of uneven social and economic development in China, relevant research on cross-regional comparison of energy efficiency is of great practical significance. This paper aims at revealing regional disparity feature and its convergence rule of energy efficiency in China, as to provide effective support for Chinese energy saving policy.Energy is an essential factor of production, which has been reached consensus. However, energy itself can not produce any output, only if it is combined with other input factors. Therefore, in this paper, adopting idea of total factor productivity, energy efficiency is defined as: under assumption of constant returns to scale (CRS), and condition of output given, energy efficiency is determined in terms of the ratio by comparing the required minimum energy input (target energy input) with actual energy consumption.Based on the calculation of regional energy efficiency, GIS method is utilized to draw spatial distribution map. The results indicate that energy efficiency takes on the feature of descending from east to west. Secondly, Theil index is formulated to weigh the disparity of regional energy efficiency in China, and analyze the decomposition of regional disparity based on four big regions division. Next, Model of explicit distribution dynamics (MEDD) is established according to kernel function and stochastic process. The MEDD reflects two aspects of dynamic evolution of regional energy efficiency (convergence status) from distribution shape and intra-distribution dynamics, where the latter is researched by two non-parameter approaches of Markov Chains and kernel stochastic estimation. Space factor is usually ignored by many present literatures, which assume every region is homogeneous and interdependent. In this paper, spatial relations among regional energy efficiency are identified by spatial auto-relation examination. Then, neighbor effect is introduced through regional conditioning method and convergence of regional energy efficiency is investigated under space condition. Lastly, some suggestions for energy conservation and consumption reduction are put forward in China.Through investigation, the following conclusions are obtained:(1) A law of reverse U shape is taken on the disparity of regional energy efficiency in China, where inter-regional disparity contributes larger than intra-regional disparity;(2) Regional energy efficiency of China has the characteristic of spatial dependency, and neighbor effect influences state transition of regional energy efficiency;(3) The distribution shape of regional energy efficiency in China has the feature of time-phased, going through the process of changing from double peaks to convergence. However, the liquidity of the distribution is weak while consistence of distribution is strong;(4) Regional conditioning of dynamic distribution method is adopted, which indicates neighbor effects of four kinds of spatial lagged terms show different features.