IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v138y2024ics0140988324005589.html

The effects of long–distance power transmission on employment growth: Empirical evidence from ultra–high voltage projects of China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Li
  • Gao, Zhengye
  • Ren, Shenggang

Abstract

Long–distance power transmission is a crucial solution for alleviating the uneven distribution of energy and promoting economic development. This work is the first to provide an estimate of the benefits to employment of long–distance power transmission. Using unique data from the China National Tax Survey Database for the years 2007–2016, we utilized ultra–high voltage (UHV) project of China as an exogenous shock to investigate how long–distance power transmission affects firms' labor demand by employing the difference–in–differences method. We found that the UHV system significantly increased firms' labor demand. A mechanism analysis suggested that the UHV system did this mainly by facilitating firm entry and expanding firm production scale. A heterogeneity analysis indicated that, compared with provinces with low grid reliability and grid capacity, firms in provinces with high grid reliability and grid capacity exhibited a stronger response to the UHV system in terms of labor demand. Our research findings provide a new solution for countries to balance resource distribution, energy transition, and employment growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Li & Gao, Zhengye & Ren, Shenggang, 2024. "The effects of long–distance power transmission on employment growth: Empirical evidence from ultra–high voltage projects of China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:138:y:2024:i:c:s0140988324005589
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107850
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988324005589
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107850?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nasirov, Shahriyar & Girard, Aymeric & Peña, Cristobal & Salazar, Felipe & Simon, François, 2021. "Expansion of renewable energy in Chile: Analysis of the effects on employment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    2. Taryn Dinkelman, 2011. "The Effects of Rural Electrification on Employment: New Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3078-3108, December.
    3. Duncan S. Callaway & Meredith Fowlie & Gavin McCormick, 2018. "Location, Location, Location: The Variable Value of Renewable Energy and Demand-Side Efficiency Resources," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(1), pages 39-75.
    4. Garin, Andrew, 2019. "Putting America to work, where? Evidence on the effectiveness of infrastructure construction as a locally targeted employment policy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 108-131.
    5. Cui, Jingbo & Wang, Chunhua & Zhang, Junjie & Zheng, Yang, 2021. "The effectiveness of China’s regional carbon market pilots in reducing firm emissions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113492, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Best, Rohan & Burke, Paul J., 2018. "Electricity availability: A precondition for faster economic growth?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 321-329.
    7. Molly Lipscomb & A. Mushfiq Mobarak & Tania Barham, 2013. "Development Effects of Electrification: Evidence from the Topographic Placement of Hydropower Plants in Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 200-231, April.
    8. Popov, Alexander & Rocholl, Jörg, 2018. "Do credit shocks affect labor demand? Evidence for employment and wages during the financial crisis," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 16-27.
    9. Liu, Mengdi & Shadbegian, Ronald & Zhang, Bing, 2017. "Does environmental regulation affect labor demand in China? Evidence from the textile printing and dyeing industry," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 277-294.
    10. Cox, Michael & Peichl, Andreas & Pestel, Nico & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2014. "Labor demand effects of rising electricity prices: Evidence for Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 266-277.
    11. Shi, Wenming & Lin, Kun-Chin & McLaughlin, Heather & Qi, Guanqiu & Jin, Mengjie, 2020. "Spatial distribution of job opportunities in China: Evidence from the opening of the high-speed rail," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 138-147.
    12. Mensah, Justice Tei, 2024. "Jobs! Electricity shortages and unemployment in Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    13. Conley, Timothy G. & Dupor, Bill, 2013. "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Solely a government jobs program?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 535-549.
    14. Chaurey, Ritam & Le, Duong Trung, 2022. "Infrastructure maintenance and rural economic activity: Evidence from India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    15. Cao, June & Li, Wenwen & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2023. "The impact of lowering carbon emissions on corporate labour investment: A quasi-natural experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    16. Elia, Stefano & Mariotti, Ilaria & Piscitello, Lucia, 2009. "The impact of outward FDI on the home country's labour demand and skill composition," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 357-372, August.
    17. Dickens, Richard & Machin, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 1999. "The Effects of Minimum Wages on Employment: Theory and Evidence from Britain," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 1-22, January.
    18. Nİhan Akyelken, 2015. "Infrastructure Development and Employment: The Case of Turkey," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 1360-1373, August.
    19. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov, 2010. "Big Bad Banks? The Winners and Losers from Bank Deregulation in the United States," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1637-1667, October.
    20. Doerr, Luisa & Dorn, Florian & Gaebler, Stefanie & Potrafke, Niklas, 2020. "How new airport infrastructure promotes tourism: evidence from a synthetic control approach in German regions," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 54(10), pages 1402-1412.
    21. Michael Greenstone, 2002. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Industrial Activity: Evidence from the 1970 and 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments and the Census of Manufactures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(6), pages 1175-1219, December.
    22. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Nguyen-Tien, Viet & Strobl, Eric A., 2021. "Power outages and firm performance: A hydro-IV approach for a single electricity grid," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    23. Jongwanich, Juthathip & Kohpaiboon, Archanun & Obashi, Ayako, 2022. "Technological advancement, import penetration and labour markets: Evidence from Thailand," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    24. Jose L. Groizard & Priya Ranjan & Antonio Rodriguez‐Lopez, 2015. "Trade Costs And Job Flows: Evidence From Establishment‐Level Data," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 173-204, January.
    25. Ama Baafra Abeberese, 2017. "Electricity Cost and Firm Performance: Evidence from India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(5), pages 839-852, December.
    26. Costa, Hélia & Veiga, Linda, 2021. "Local labor impact of wind energy investment: An analysis of Portuguese municipalities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    27. Rong, Shu & Liu, Kai & Huang, Si & Zhang, Qi, 2020. "FDI, labor market flexibility and employment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    28. Dinlersoz, Emin M. & Fu, Zhe, 2022. "Infrastructure investment and growth in China: A quantitative assessment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    29. Bennett, Daniel L., 2019. "Infrastructure investments and entrepreneurial dynamism in the U.S," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1-1.
    30. Zhang, Peng, 2023. "Anti-corruption campaign, political connections, and court bias: Evidence from Chinese corporate lawsuits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    31. Wei, Max & Patadia, Shana & Kammen, Daniel M., 2010. "Putting renewables and energy efficiency to work: How many jobs can the clean energy industry generate in the US?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 919-931, February.
    32. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    33. Gray, Wayne B. & Shadbegian, Ronald J. & Wang, Chunbei & Meral, Merve, 2014. "Do EPA regulations affect labor demand? Evidence from the pulp and paper industry," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 188-202.
    34. Çetin, Müjgan & Eğrican, Nilüfer, 2011. "Employment impacts of solar energy in Turkey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7184-7190.
    35. LaRiviere, Jacob & Lyu, Xueying, 2022. "Transmission constraints, intermittent renewables and welfare," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    36. Stephie Fried & David Lagakos, 2023. "Electricity and Firm Productivity: A General-Equilibrium Approach," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 67-103, October.
    37. Xia, Fang & Song, Feng, 2017. "The uneven development of wind power in China: Determinants and the role of supporting policies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 278-286.
    38. Jonas Hjort & Jonas Poulsen, 2019. "The Arrival of Fast Internet and Employment in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(3), pages 1032-1079, March.
    39. Chakrabarti, Sandip, 2018. "Can highway development promote employment growth in India?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-9.
    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. Chen, Ting & Zhou, Dequn & Ding, Hao & Shi, Xunpeng, 2025. "Implications of energy transition on regional employments in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    2. Gao, Zhengye & Zhao, Li, 2025. "Health impacts of cross-regional transmission infrastructure: Evidence from China's ultra-high voltage projects," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    3. Qian, Sida & Song, Yan & Zhang, Ming & Hu, Hanbing & Zhang, Wenhao, 2025. "Evaluating the economic and social benefits of global energy interconnection based on GTAP model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    4. Yi, Tianhao & Li, Lisha & Li, Zhiyong & Zhang, Jiaxuan, 2025. "Evaluating electricity transmission and distribution efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis Forest with feature importance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 330(C).
    5. Ren, Shenggang & Bao, Ruizhi & Gao, Zhengye, 2025. "Arrival of distant power: The impact of ultra-high voltage transmission projects on energy structure in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).
    6. Xie, Bai-Chen & Wu, Qian-Xu & Qin, Yu-Yan & Zhang, Can, 2025. "Performance evaluation of emerging grid infrastructure Operations: Evidence from ultra-high-voltage transmission lines in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    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. Ren, Shenggang & Bao, Ruizhi & Gao, Zhengye, 2025. "Arrival of distant power: The impact of ultra-high voltage transmission projects on energy structure in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).
    2. Abiodun, Kehinde & Gilbert, Ben, 2022. "Does universal electrification shield firms from productivity loss?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    3. Mensah, Justice Tei, 2024. "Jobs! Electricity shortages and unemployment in Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Xia, Fang & Gao, Xuwen & Fan, Shenggen & Song, Feng, 2025. "The impact of reliable electricity access on agricultural income and land utilization in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Li, Zhuo & Li, Yuanqi, 2024. "Environmental regulation and employment: Evidence from China's new Environmental Protection Law," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 400-416.
    6. Richard S. J. Tol, 2023. "Navigating the energy trilemma during geopolitical and environmental crises," Papers 2301.07671, arXiv.org.
    7. Fried, Stephie & Lagakos, David, 2021. "Rural electrification, migration and structural transformation: Evidence from Ethiopia," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Lai, Wangyang & Lin, Liguo & Shen, Xiaochi & Zhou, Maigeng, 2025. "Investing in a transition fuel: The remarkable decline in mortality from China's rollout of natural gas infrastructure," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    9. Meeks, Robyn C. & Thompson, Hope & Wang, Zhenxuan, 2025. "Decentralized renewable energy to grow manufacturing? Evidence from microhydro mini-grids in Nepal," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    10. Chaurey, Ritam & Le, Duong Trung, 2022. "Infrastructure maintenance and rural economic activity: Evidence from India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    11. Gao, Zhengye & Zhao, Li, 2025. "Health impacts of cross-regional transmission infrastructure: Evidence from China's ultra-high voltage projects," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    12. Kassem, Dana, 2024. "Does electrification cause industrial development? Grid expansion and firm turnover in Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    13. Bhorat, Haroon & Köhler, Timothy, 2025. "Watts happening to work? The labour market effects of South Africa’s electricity crisis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    14. Tan, Ruipeng & Hou, Ke & Wu, Huaqing, 2025. "The cost of biodiversity protection: National Key Ecological Functional Zone and labor demand in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    15. Sanjoy Kumar Saha, 2024. "Assessing the impact of rural electrification on economic growth: a comprehensive analysis considering informal economy and income inequality in Bangladesh," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 551-583, June.
    16. Qi, Yu & Yin, Aoxue & Chen, Jianwei & Yang, Chunfei & Zhan, Pengyu, 2024. "Motivating for environmental protection: Evidence from county officials in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    17. Montrone, Lorenzo & Steckel, Jan Christoph & Kalkuhl, Matthias, 2022. "The type of power capacity matters for economic development – Evidence from a global panel," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    18. Mao, Jie & Wang, Chunhua & Yin, Haitao, 2023. "Corporate responses to air quality regulation: Evidence from a regional environmental policy in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    19. Yang, Tianli & Zhao, Zhong, 2025. "Long-term care insurance policy and the development of elderly care enterprises in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(PB).
    20. Liao, Tianlong & Liu, Guanchun & Liu, Yuanyuan & Lu, Rui, 2023. "Environmental regulation and corporate employment revisited: New quasi-natural experimental evidence from China's new environmental protection law," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eneeco:v:138:y:2024:i:c:s0140988324005589. 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/eneco .

    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.