| In the context of global warming and the depletion of non-renewable energy resources,the improvement of energy efficiency is a powerful "climate change competitiveness".Improving the energy efficiency of Chinese firms is a rare change for China to catch up and promote high-quality development.The top 1000 program targeted the largest energy-consuming firms in energy-intensive industries.As a decision-making individual for environmental regulation,understanding the energy efficiency of Chinese firms and the policy effect of the “Top 1000” Program on the energy efficiency of firms can help to achieve the “Carbon Peak and Neutrality”targets and cultivate competitive firms in energy utilization.Firstly,the non-radial directional distance function(NDDF)considering undesirable output is used to calculate the firm-level data of Chinese firms.Using the data of the Annual Survey of Industrial Firms(ASIF)from 2002 to 2010 and China’s Environmental Statistics Database(CESD),the firm-level energy efficiency is calculated,and the evolution of energy efficiency during the research period and the heterogeneity among regions are analyzed.Generally speaking,the energy efficiency of Chinese firms shows a decreasing trend from eastern region to western region,which mainly due to the imbalance of regional economic development.Absolute βconvergence test shows energy efficiency has a significant convergence at the 1%level in three regions,the central region exhibits a catch-up effect,which is mainly relies on the technical spillover effect of high energy efficiency firms in the east.Secondly,this study analyzes the impact of the “Top 1000” Program on the firms’ energy efficiency.The Propensity Score-Different-in-Different(PSM-DID)method is used for experimental strategy.During the policy period,the average firm energy efficiency decreased by 38.4%,which the environmental regulation of energy constraints is considered to be hindered firms’ energy efficiency.The reduction of energy efficiency applied the compliance cost effect,which is a crowding-out effect due to the distortion of the allocation of factors by energy constraints regulation,and there is a lag on the effectiveness.There are heterogeneous effects of environmeantal regulation on firms’ energy efficiency in different ownership and different regions.The state-owned firms are subject to stricter regulation,and the energy saving targets is included personal appraisal system.Therefore,the “Top 1000” Program has a stronger negative effect on state-owned firms’ energy efficiency,which due to the factor distortion.The energy efficiency of firms in the eastern region is significantly deminished due to the energy constraints regulation.Furthermore,the study identifies the mechanisms underlying the impact of the“Top 1000” Program on energy efficiency of firms,and analyzes through factor reallocation and innovation effect.The reallocation of factors due to the “Top 1000”Program is verified by adjusting the total output,fixed assets,and labor force relative to capital factors.Using the Metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger decomposition of the innovation effect,this study found that the “Top 1000” Progarm did not stimulate innovate and that provide no evidence about Porter hypothesis.Finally,according to the study above,this study reckons that the heterogeneity of firms’ energy efficiency should be taken into account when formulating energysaving constrained environmental regulations.In addition,the mandatory energysaving goal may cause the distortion of factor supply and efficiency loses.Government should use more flexible market incentive energy-saving policies.Moreover,Government should enhance the autonomy of firms in energy efficiency and encourage energy-saving innovative technologies.The essence of improving energy efficiency is to improve energy technology. |
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