Study On The Relationship Between Urbanization And Energy Consumption In Shandong Province

Energy is the basis for the development of the national economy as a whole, it playsgreat role in the entire economic system. Energy can be used a consumer, entering intothe consumer portfolio;it can also be used as input elements, runing through every aspectof the economic operation. However, in recent years, along with China’s rapid economicdevelopment, urbanization has improved continuously, facing a shortage in energy supply,and energy efficiency is not high variety of energy issues, serious constraints to the furtherdevelopment of economic and social. At this stage,our country has entered the middlestage of rapid development of urbanization, in-depth grasp of the relationship betweenurbanization and energy consumption of very important significance. Shandong Provinceis the largest province of the energy consumption,at the same time, the level ofurbanization in Shandong Province has been above the national average over the sameperiod. At present, Shandong Province, urbanization and energy development have entereda critical stage. Low energy shortages and energy efficiency will seriously affect thenormal operation of the economic, social, environmental, etc., thus severely restricting thenormal development of urbanization. Under such a severe situation, the relationshipbetween urbanization and energy consumption in Shandong Province ", thesis topic, sincethe reform and opening up, the relationship between urbanization and energy consumptionin Shandong Province, as well as the impact of urbanization on energy consumption themechanism for the theoretical analysis and empirical research, not only to grasp the energystrategic direction in Shandong Province, to ensure the economic health of ShandongProvince sustainable development of practical significance for the better to grasp theoverall situation of China is of great significance. The main findings are as follows:Based on the current situations of urbanization and energy consumption in ShandongProvince, theoretically analyzing the mechanism of urbanization influence on energyconsumption, and the theoretical foundation is built through the cycle of economic theoryto build to examine the relationship between urbanization and energy consumption in Shandong Province, which conducted a series of theoretical analysis.Based on the Vector Auto-Regression model, this paper applies Granger causalitymodel and cointergration analysis to test the dynamic correlations between urbanizationand energy consumption in Shandong Province. Meanwhile, it also calculates thecontribution of urbanization to the change of energy consumption by the factordecomposition model. The empirical results show that the level of urbanization is theGranger causality to the energy consumption, but the energy consumption is not theGranger causality to the level of urbanization for Shandong province. There exists notonly a one-way granger relationship but also a long-term relationship betweenurbanization and energy consumption in Shandong Province. However, the role ofcorrection is not prominent in the long run, many other factors also affect the energyconsumption besides the urbanization. At the present stage, the contribution ofurbanization to the energy consumption is small, and its trend is decreasing. Therefore, theenergy demand will not restrict the urbanization process in Shandong Province, it is thefundamental approach to accelerate the resource-saving urbanization for reducing theenergy consumption.The empirical model is built to investigate the mechanism of urbanization influenceon energy consumption. Based on the cointergration analysis and the Granger causalitytest, we empirically analyze the impact of urbanization on energy consumption inShandong Province during the period of1978-2008. We found that urbanization caninfluence energy consumption in Shandong Province through six paths, including theinvestment drawing, the human capital accumulation, the technological innovation, theinstitutional vicissitude, the industrial organization optimization and the price of energyconsumption. Among the six factors, the capital investment is most significantlyinfluenced factor of urbanization on energy consumption. If the urbanization processincreases by1%, energy consumption will increases by1.4699%through the path ofcapital investment. Conversely, the human capital accumulation is most significantlyinhibited factor of urbanization on energy consumption. If the urbanization processincreases by1%, energy consumption will decrease by0.4319%through human capitalaccumulation. It shows that the human capital accumulation has played a important role in energy-saving during the urbanization process of Shandong Province.