Can Transportation Infrastructure Improve Energy Efficiency Of Enterprises?

As the advance capital of social development,traffic plays an important role in promoting regional development.In addition,the economic activities of enterprises are closely related to the comprehensive transportation services.How to use road construction to improve the energy utilization efficiency of enterprises and drive the increase of production capacity is an important way to promote the transformation of economic development from high-speed to high-quality.Existing studies mainly concentrate on the impact of transportation infrastructure on productivity,while few researches focus on the impact mechanism of transport infrastructure on energy efficiency.In order to further understand the intrinsic relationships between transportation and regional economic development,this article attempts to explore the effect of traffic facilities on the energy utilization efficiency in the microcosmic aspect.In terms of theoretical research,this paper combed relevant literature,and then combined with the theory of new economic geography and agglomeration theory,explored the underlying mechanism.Transportation infrastructure affects enterprise energy efficiency mainly through three ways:forming industrial agglomeration,reducing enterprise production cost and optimizing energy structure.In the aspect of empirical research,this paper uses the data of Chinese industrial enterprises and polluting enterprises from 2001 to 2011 to measure the energy utilization efficiency of enterprises.The results show that:(1)The construction and improvement of urban road facilities have a significant promoting effect on the energy utilization efficiency of enterprises.(2)There are some regional differences in the impact of transportation infrastructure:the improvement of transportation infrastructure has a lower growth effect on enterprise energy use efficiency in eastern China than other regions;the expansion of urban roads will increase the energy consumption of highenergy industries and reduce the energy utilization efficiency of high-energy enterprises.(3)Through the examination of the influence mechanism,it is found that industrial agglomeration,cost effect and energy structure all play a mediating role in the relationship between transportation infrastructure and enterprise energy efficiency.The empirical conclusion of this paper further supports the mechanism and research hypothesis,and enriches the research on the relationship between transportation infrastructure and enterprise energy efficiency.Finally,this paper puts forward four suggestions on how to further layout transportation infrastructure and guide enterprises to develop in high quality.