IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v79y2022ics030142072200397x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Energy effects of non-energy policies: Minimum wage standard and enterprise energy efficiency in China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Yueyang
  • Mao, Jinzhou

Abstract

Improving energy efficiency is one of the core goals of energy policy, but non-energy policies also play a role that cannot be ignored. To explore the energy effects of nonenergy policies on the production sector, this paper studies the effect of minimum wage on the energy efficiency of enterprises based on China's 2000–2009 minimum wage data and industrial enterprise microdata. We find that the minimum wage standard significantly improves the energy efficiency of enterprises. This conclusion holds after addressing a series of endogeneity concerns. The channel analyses verify that the minimum wage standard strengthens the allocation of the fixed assets of enterprises, improves innovation ability, and thus promotes energy efficiency. Furthermore, the energy efficiency improvements due to the minimum wage standard are more prominent in nonstate-owned enterprises, enterprises with few financing constraints and labour-intensive enterprises. Additionally, energy efficiency improvement helps alleviate the adverse impact of industrial enterprises on the ecological environment. The research conclusion of this paper shows that the government can optimize the allocation of resources through administrative ways and promote the efficient use of energy and the recovery of green industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Yueyang & Mao, Jinzhou, 2022. "Energy effects of non-energy policies: Minimum wage standard and enterprise energy efficiency in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:79:y:2022:i:c:s030142072200397x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.102953
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142072200397X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.102953?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sun, Huaping & Edziah, Bless Kofi & Kporsu, Anthony Kwaku & Sarkodie, Samuel Asumadu & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2021. "Energy efficiency: The role of technological innovation and knowledge spillover," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Jack Favilukis & Xiaoji Lin & Xiaofei Zhao, 2020. "The Elephant in the Room: The Impact of Labor Obligations on Credit Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(6), pages 1673-1712, June.
    3. Durnev, Art & Mangen, Claudine, 2020. "The spillover effects of MD&A disclosures for real investment: The role of industry competition," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    4. Lazear, Edward P & Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 841-864, October.
    5. Santos, João & Borges, Afonso S. & Domingos, Tiago, 2021. "Exploring the links between total factor productivity and energy efficiency: Portugal, 1960–2014," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    6. Fan, Haichao & Lin, Faqin & Tang, Lixin, 2018. "Minimum Wage and Outward FDI from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 1-19.
    7. Zhang, Bing & Chen, Xiaolan & Guo, Huanxiu, 2018. "Does central supervision enhance local environmental enforcement? Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 70-90.
    8. Yellen, Janet L, 1984. "Efficiency Wage Models of Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 200-205, May.
    9. Royston, Sarah & Selby, Jan & Shove, Elizabeth, 2018. "Invisible energy policies: A new agenda for energy demand reduction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 127-135.
    10. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W., 2008. "Linear programming models for measuring economy-wide energy efficiency performance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 2901-2906, August.
    11. Caliendo Marco & Wittbrodt Linda & Schröder Carsten, 2019. "The Causal Effects of the Minimum Wage Introduction in Germany – An Overview," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 20(3), pages 257-292, August.
    12. Xu, Mingli & Kong, Gaowen & Kong, Dongmin, 2017. "Does wage justice hamper creativity? Pay gap and firm innovation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 186-202.
    13. Ren, Siyu & Hao, Yu & Wu, Haitao, 2022. "The role of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on green total factor energy efficiency: Does institutional quality matters? Evidence from China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Jeffrey Clemens, 2021. "How Do Firms Respond to Minimum Wage Increases? Understanding the Relevance of Non-employment Margins," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 51-72, Winter.
    15. Huang, Junbing & Hao, Yu & Lei, Hongyan, 2018. "Indigenous versus foreign innovation and energy intensity in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 1721-1729.
    16. Wang, Rong & Tan, Junlan & Yao, Shuangliang, 2021. "Are natural resources a blessing or a curse for economic development? The importance of energy innovations," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    17. Yang, Qiuyue & Song, Deyong, 2019. "How does environmental regulation break the resource curse: Theoretical and empirical study on China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    19. Ang, B.W., 2006. "Monitoring changes in economy-wide energy efficiency: From energy-GDP ratio to composite efficiency index," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 574-582, March.
    20. Sun, Huaping & Edziah, Bless Kofi & Sun, Chuanwang & Kporsu, Anthony Kwaku, 2019. "Institutional quality, green innovation and energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    21. Mirko Draca & Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 2011. "Minimum Wages and Firm Profitability," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 129-151, January.
    22. Bauducco, Sofía & Janiak, Alexandre, 2018. "The macroeconomic consequences of raising the minimum wage: Capital accumulation, employment and the wage distribution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 57-76.
    23. Saunders, Harry D., 2013. "Historical evidence for energy efficiency rebound in 30 US sectors and a toolkit for rebound analysts," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(7), pages 1317-1330.
    24. Daron Acemoglu, 2010. "When Does Labor Scarcity Encourage Innovation?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(6), pages 1037-1078.
    25. Brandt, Loren & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Yifan, 2012. "Creative accounting or creative destruction? Firm-level productivity growth in Chinese manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 339-351.
    26. Yueyang Zhao & Jinzhou Mao & Yueshan Li, 2022. "Local governments’ environmental emphasis and corporate green innovation: evidence from China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 2577-2603, November.
    27. Labanca, Nicola & Bertoldi, Paolo, 2018. "Beyond energy efficiency and individual behaviours: policy insights from social practice theories," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 494-502.
    28. Ximena V. del Carpio & Julián Messina & Anna Sanz‐de‐Galdeano, 2019. "Minimum Wage: Does it Improve Welfare in Thailand?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(2), pages 358-382, June.
    29. Qu, Chenyao & Shao, Jun & Shi, Zhenkai, 2020. "Does financial agglomeration promote the increase of energy efficiency in China?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    30. Roy, Jayjit & Yasar, Mahmut, 2015. "Energy efficiency and exporting: Evidence from firm-level data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(PA), pages 127-135.
    31. Ida Johansson & Nawzad Mardan & Erwin Cornelis & Osamu Kimura & Patrik Thollander, 2019. "Designing Policies and Programmes for Improved Energy Efficiency in Industrial SMEs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, April.
    32. Liu, Haomin & Zhang, Zaixu & Zhang, Tao & Wang, Liyang, 2020. "Revisiting China’s provincial energy efficiency and its influencing factors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    33. Pan, Xiongfeng & Ai, Bowei & Li, Changyu & Pan, Xianyou & Yan, Yaobo, 2019. "Dynamic relationship among environmental regulation, technological innovation and energy efficiency based on large scale provincial panel data in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 428-435.
    34. Meng Liu & Yun Liu & Yongliang Zhao, 2021. "Environmental Compliance and Enterprise Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-18, February.
    35. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Kong, Lei & Krishnan, Karthik & Yu, Qianqian, 2019. "Top Management Human Capital, Inventor Mobility, and Corporate Innovation," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(6), pages 2383-2422, December.
    36. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    37. He, Ling-Yun & Huang, Geng, 2021. "How can export improve firms’ energy efficiency? The role of innovation investment," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 90-97.
    38. Jiwei Chen, 2021. "Do minimum wage increases benefit worker health? Evidence from China," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 473-499, June.
    39. Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Phoumin, Han & Rasoulinezhad, Ehsan, 2022. "COVID-19 and regional solutions for mitigating the risk of SME finance in selected ASEAN member states," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 506-525.
    40. Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy & Shahzad, Umer & Doğan, Buhari, 2022. "The role of environmental technology for energy demand and energy efficiency: Evidence from OECD countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    41. Zhang, Xing-Ping & Cheng, Xiao-Mei & Yuan, Jia-Hai & Gao, Xiao-Jun, 2011. "Total-factor energy efficiency in developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 644-650, February.
    42. Long, Cheryl & Yang, Jin, 2016. "How do firms respond to minimum wage regulation in China? Evidence from Chinese private firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 267-284.
    43. Pablo-Romero, María del P. & Sánchez-Braza, Antonio, 2015. "Productive energy use and economic growth: Energy, physical and human capital relationships," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 420-429.
    44. Li, Weiqing & Chien, Fengsheng & Hsu, Ching-Chi & Zhang, YunQian & Nawaz, Muhammad Atif & Iqbal, Sajid & Mohsin, Muhammad, 2021. "Nexus between energy poverty and energy efficiency: Estimating the long-run dynamics," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    45. Herrerias, M.J. & Cuadros, A. & Luo, D., 2016. "Foreign versus indigenous innovation and energy intensity: Further research across Chinese regions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1374-1384.
    46. Francesca Bartolacci & Andrea Caputo & Michela Soverchia, 2020. "Sustainability and financial performance of small and medium sized enterprises: A bibliometric and systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1297-1309, March.
    47. Gan, Li & Hernandez, Manuel A. & Ma, Shuang, 2016. "The higher costs of doing business in China: Minimum wages and firms' export behavior," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 81-94.
    48. Yang, Zhenbing & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2021. "Unintended consequences of carbon regulation on the performance of SOEs in China: The role of technical efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    49. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Sun, Puyang & Zhu, Tong, 2017. "The direct and indirect effect of urbanization on energy intensity: A province-level study for China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 677-692.
    50. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu & Yang, Xiaodong & Xie, Guo, 2021. "Does internet development improve green total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    51. Michael Christensen & Thorbjørn Knudsen & Ulrik W. Nash & Nils Stieglitz, 2020. "Industry competition and firm conduct: Joint determinants of risk–return relations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(12), pages 2315-2338, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yevheniia Ziabina & Aleksy Kwilinski & Oleksii Lyulyov & Tetyana Pimonenko & Yana Us, 2023. "Convergence of Energy Policies between the EU and Ukraine under the Green Deal Policy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Dingqing & Liao, Hongwei & Liu, Aiguo & Li, Dongdong, 2023. "Natural resource saving effects of data factor marketization: Implications for green recovery," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    2. Yu, Yantuan & Chen, Xudong & Zhang, Ning, 2022. "Innovation and energy productivity: An empirical study of the innovative city pilot policy in China✰," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    3. Zhang, Ming-ang & Lu, Shuling & Zhang, Sihan & Bai, Yanfeng, 2023. "The unintended consequence of minimum wage hikes: Evidence based on firms' pollution emission," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    4. Sun, Huaping & Edziah, Bless Kofi & Kporsu, Anthony Kwaku & Sarkodie, Samuel Asumadu & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2021. "Energy efficiency: The role of technological innovation and knowledge spillover," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    5. Xiaoping Li & Shuzhou Peng & Wei‐Chiao Huang & Qian Zhou, 2022. "What Drives Chinese Firms' Export Sophistication? A Perspective from the Rise of Minimum Wages," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 30(2), pages 28-59, March.
    6. Yao, Wenyun & Qian, Yuhang & Yang, Hang & Xu, Wei, 2023. "Does minimum wages affect executive compensation? – Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    7. Liu, Jie & Qian, Haoqi & Zhang, Qian & Lin, Zhiyan & Siano, Pierluigi, 2023. "Corruption induced energy inefficiencies: Evidence from China's energy investment projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    8. Sebastian Link, 2019. "The Price and Employment Response of Firms to the Introduction of Minimum Wages," CESifo Working Paper Series 7575, CESifo.
    9. Shaoyan Yang & Duodong Ding & Churen Sun, 2022. "Does Innovative City Policy Improve Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-30, October.
    10. Baek, Jisun & Lee, Changkeun & Park, WooRam, 2021. "The impact of the minimum wage on the characteristics of new establishments: Evidence from South Korea," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Wang, Ying & Deng, Xiangzheng & Zhang, Hongwei & Liu, Yujie & Yue, Tianxiang & Liu, Gang, 2022. "Energy endowment, environmental regulation, and energy efficiency: Evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    12. Bustos, Emil, 2023. "The Effect of Centrally Bargained Wages on Firm Growth," Working Paper Series 1456, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    13. Zhang, Caiqing & Chen, Panyu, 2022. "Applying the three-stage SBM-DEA model to evaluate energy efficiency and impact factors in RCEP countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    14. Zheng Li & Fengshuo Liu & Shuai Mi, 2022. "Can an increase in the minimum wage standard force enterprises to innovate? Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3807-3819, December.
    15. Guo, Qiu-tong & Dong, Yong & Feng, Biao & Zhang, Hao, 2023. "Can green finance development promote total-factor energy efficiency? Empirical evidence from China based on a spatial Durbin model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    16. Angus C. Chu & Haichao Fan & Yuichi Furukawa & Zonglai Kou & Xueyue Liu, 2021. "Minimum Wages, Import Status, And Firms' Innovation: Theory And Evidence From China," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 441-458, January.
    17. Wu, Shu & Ding, Song, 2021. "Efficiency improvement, structural change, and energy intensity reduction: Evidence from Chinese agricultural sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    18. Ahn,Jaebin & Choi,Jaerim & Chung,Sunghoon, 2022. "Labor Market Rigidity at Home and Multinational Corporations’ Flexible Task Reallocation Abroad," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10114, The World Bank.
    19. Mayneris, Florian & Poncet, Sandra & Zhang, Tao, 2018. "Improving or disappearing: Firm-level adjustments to minimum wages in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 20-42.
    20. Abudureheman, Maliyamu & Jiang, Qingzhe & Dong, Xiucheng & Dong, Cong, 2022. "Spatial effects of dynamic comprehensive energy efficiency on CO2 reduction in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:79:y:2022:i:c:s030142072200397x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.