IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v165y2022ics0301421522002221.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The emerging driving force of energy consumption in China: Does digital economy development matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Xue, Yan
  • Tang, Chang
  • Wu, Haitao
  • Liu, Jianmin
  • Hao, Yu

Abstract

Due to the benefits brought by progress in digital technology, the digital economy is profoundly changing the production and lifestyles of human beings, thus promoting the dual digital transformation of the energy supply side and demand side and having a profound impact on energy consumption. Based on 2011–2018 panel data on 30 provinces and 205 cities in China, this study empirically investigates the direct and indirect impacts of digital economy development on the scale and structure of energy consumption. The empirical results indicate that digital economy development promotes an increase in the scale of energy consumption and optimizes the structure of energy consumption. This result is still valid after robustness tests involving the selection of historical data as an instrumental variable (IV) and the “Broadband China” policy as a quasi-natural experiment. Mechanism analysis shows that digital economy development mainly impacts energy consumption by affecting economic growth, energy efficiency and the industrial structure. Moreover, the results of heterogeneity analysis and spatial model estimation indicate that the effects of digital economy development on energy consumption have obvious regional heterogeneity and spatial spillovers.

Suggested Citation

  • Xue, Yan & Tang, Chang & Wu, Haitao & Liu, Jianmin & Hao, Yu, 2022. "The emerging driving force of energy consumption in China: Does digital economy development matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:165:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522002221
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112997
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421522002221
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112997?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. Li, Mengna & Pan, Xiongfeng & Yuan, Sai, 2022. "Do the national industrial relocation demonstration zones have higher regional energy efficiency?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    2. Domini, Giacomo & Grazzi, Marco & Moschella, Daniele & Treibich, Tania, 2021. "Threats and opportunities in the digital era: Automation spikes and employment dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    3. Chen, Yongmin, 2020. "Improving market performance in the digital economy," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. 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).
    5. Amoako, Samuel & Insaidoo, Michael, 2021. "Symmetric impact of FDI on energy consumption: Evidence from Ghana," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    6. Ren, Siyu & Hao, Yu & Xu, Lu & Wu, Haitao & Ba, Ning, 2021. "Digitalization and energy: How does internet development affect China's energy consumption?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Zhou, Shengjia & Wang, Junhao & Xu, Bing, 2022. "Innovative coupling and coordination: Automobile and digital industries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    8. Calvin Jones & Dylan Henderson, 2019. "Broadband and uneven spatial development: The case of Cardiff City-Region," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(3), pages 228-247, May.
    9. Wu, Haitao & Xu, Lina & Ren, Siyu & Hao, Yu & Yan, Guoyao, 2020. "How do energy consumption and environmental regulation affect carbon emissions in China? New evidence from a dynamic threshold panel model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    10. Chen, Ziyue & Huang, Lizhen, 2021. "Digital twins for information-sharing in remanufacturing supply chain: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    11. Lin, Boqiang & Xu, Mengmeng, 2018. "Regional differences on CO2 emission efficiency in metallurgical industry of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 302-311.
    12. Wang, Kai-Hua & Su, Chi-Wei & Lobonţ, Oana-Ramona & Umar, Muhammad, 2021. "Whether crude oil dependence and CO2 emissions influence military expenditure in net oil importing countries?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    13. Yang, Mian & Wang, En-Ze & Hou, Yaru, 2021. "The relationship between manufacturing growth and CO2 emissions: Does renewable energy consumption matter?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    14. De’, Rahul & Pandey, Neena & Pal, Abhipsa, 2020. "Impact of digital surge during Covid-19 pandemic: A viewpoint on research and practice," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    15. Winskel, Mark & Kattirtzi, Michael, 2020. "Transitions, disruptions and revolutions: Expert views on prospects for a smart and local energy revolution in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    16. Killian, Ginger & McManus, Kristy, 2015. "A marketing communications approach for the digital era: Managerial guidelines for social media integration," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(5), pages 539-549.
    17. Pan, Yuling & Dong, Feng, 2022. "Design of energy use rights trading policy from the perspective of energy vulnerability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    18. Gruber, Harald, 2019. "Proposals for a digital industrial policy for Europe," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 116-127.
    19. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Weng, Jia-Hsi, 2019. "How does energy consumption affect China's urbanization? New evidence from dynamic threshold panel models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 24-38.
    20. Takase, Kae & Murota, Yasuhiro, 2004. "The impact of IT investment on energy: Japan and US comparison in 2010," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 1291-1301, July.
    21. Zhou, Kaile & Yang, Shanlin & Shao, Zhen, 2016. "Energy Internet: The business perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 212-222.
    22. Patterson, Murray G, 1996. "What is energy efficiency? : Concepts, indicators and methodological issues," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 377-390, May.
    23. Jiekuan Zhang & Yan Zhang, 2021. "Tourism, economic growth, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in China," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(5), pages 1060-1080, August.
    24. Chen, Yang & Shao, Shuai & Fan, Meiting & Tian, Zhihua & Yang, Lili, 2022. "One man's loss is another's gain: Does clean energy development reduce CO2 emissions in China? Evidence based on the spatial Durbin model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    25. Chatterjee, Sheshadri & Kumar Kar, Arpan, 2020. "Why do small and medium enterprises use social media marketing and what is the impact: Empirical insights from India," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    26. Yin, Jianhua & Zheng, Mingzheng & Chen, Jian, 2015. "The effects of environmental regulation and technical progress on CO2 Kuznets curve: An evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 97-108.
    27. Zhu, Bangzhu & Zhang, Mengfan & Zhou, Yanhua & Wang, Ping & Sheng, Jichuan & He, Kaijian & Wei, Yi-Ming & Xie, Rui, 2019. "Exploring the effect of industrial structure adjustment on interprovincial green development efficiency in China: A novel integrated approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    28. Koot, Martijn & Wijnhoven, Fons, 2021. "Usage impact on data center electricity needs: A system dynamic forecasting model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    29. Shuai Shao, Zhenbing Yang, Lili Yang, and Shuang Ma, 2019. "Can China's Energy Intensity Constraint Policy Promote Total Factor Energy Efficiency? Evidence from the Industrial Sector," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    30. Murtishaw, Scott & Schipper, Lee, 2001. "Disaggregated analysis of US energy consumption in the 1990s: evidence of the effects of the internet and rapid economic growth," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(15), pages 1335-1356, December.
    31. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    32. Sadorsky, Perry, 2012. "Information communication technology and electricity consumption in emerging economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 130-136.
    33. Carlsson, Bo, 2004. "The Digital Economy: what is new and what is not?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 245-264, September.
    34. Hao, Yu & Li, Ying & Guo, Yunxia & Chai, Jingxia & Yang, Chuxiao & Wu, Haitao, 2022. "Digitalization and electricity consumption: Does internet development contribute to the reduction in electricity intensity in China?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    35. Al-Wreikat, Yazan & Serrano, Clara & Sodré, José Ricardo, 2021. "Driving behaviour and trip condition effects on the energy consumption of an electric vehicle under real-world driving," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    36. Ma, Qiang & Tariq, Muhammad & Mahmood, Haider & Khan, Zeeshan, 2022. "The nexus between digital economy and carbon dioxide emissions in China: The moderating role of investments in research and development," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    37. Zhou, P. & Zhang, H. & Zhang, L.P., 2022. "The drivers of energy intensity changes in Chinese cities: A production-theoretical decomposition analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    38. Tamazian, Artur & Chousa, Juan Piñeiro & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2009. "Does higher economic and financial development lead to environmental degradation: Evidence from BRIC countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 246-253, January.
    39. Ma, Shaoyue & Xu, Xiangbo & Li, Chang & Zhang, Linxiu & Sun, Mingxing, 2021. "Energy consumption inequality decrease with energy consumption increase: Evidence from rural China at micro scale," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    40. Ryszard Borowiecki & Barbara Siuta-Tokarska & Jolanta Maroń & Marcin Suder & Agnieszka Thier & Katarzyna Żmija, 2021. "Developing Digital Economy and Society in the Light of the Issue of Digital Convergence of the Markets in the European Union Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-26, May.
    41. Yu, Xuewei & Moreno-Cruz, Juan & Crittenden, John C., 2015. "Regional energy rebound effect: The impact of economy-wide and sector level energy efficiency improvement in Georgia, USA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 250-259.
    42. Yang, Zhenbing & Hao, Chunyan & Shao, Shuai & Chen, Zhuo & Yang, Lili, 2022. "Appropriate technology and energy security: From the perspective of biased technological change," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    43. Pao, Hsiao-Tien & Li, Yi-Ying & Hsin-Chia Fu,, 2014. "Clean energy, non-clean energy, and economic growth in the MIST countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 932-942.
    44. Wang, Qiao & Yi, Hongtao, 2021. "New energy demonstration program and China's urban green economic growth: Do regional characteristics make a difference?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    45. Patrick Schulte & Heinz Welsch & Sascha Rexhäuser, 2016. "ICT and the Demand for Energy: Evidence from OECD Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(1), pages 119-146, January.
    46. Wu, Haitao & Xue, Yan & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu, 2021. "How does internet development affect energy-saving and emission reduction? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    47. Li, Guangchen & Wei, Weixian, 2021. "Financial development, openness, innovation, carbon emissions, and economic growth in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    48. 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).
    49. Zhou, P. & Wen, Wen, 2020. "Carbon-constrained firm decisions: From business strategies to operations modeling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(1), pages 1-15.
    50. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    51. Sinton, Jonathan E. & Levine, Mark D., 1994. "Changing energy intensity in Chinese industry : The relatively importance of structural shift and intensity change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 239-255, March.
    52. Ahluwalia, Saurabh & Mahto, Raj V. & Guerrero, Maribel, 2020. "Blockchain technology and startup financing: A transaction cost economics perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    53. Poumanyvong, Phetkeo & Kaneko, Shinji, 2010. "Does urbanization lead to less energy use and lower CO2 emissions? A cross-country analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 434-444, December.
    54. Huang, Jin-ping, 1993. "Industry energy use and structural change : A case study of The People's Republic of China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 131-136, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Junhong Qu & Xiaoli Hao, 2022. "Digital Economy, Financial Development, and Energy Poverty Based on Mediating Effects and a Spatial Autocorrelation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Wu, Haitao & Xue, Yan & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu, 2021. "How does internet development affect energy-saving and emission reduction? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    3. Yating Zeng & Xinyue Xu & Yuyao Zhao & Bin Li, 2023. "Impact of Digital Economy on the Upgrading of Energy Consumption Structure: Evidence from Mainland China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Hong, Junjie & Shi, Fangyuan & Zheng, Yuhan, 2023. "Does network infrastructure construction reduce energy intensity? Based on the “Broadband China” strategy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    5. Yu Hao & Jingwen Huang & Yunxia Guo & Haitao Wu & Siyu Ren, 2022. "Does the legacy of state planning put pressure on ecological efficiency? Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 3100-3121, November.
    6. Zhang, Wei & Liu, Xuemeng & Wang, Die & Zhou, Jianping, 2022. "Digital economy and carbon emission performance: Evidence at China's city level," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    7. Lin, Boqiang & Huang, Chenchen, 2023. "How will promoting the digital economy affect electricity intensity?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    8. Yin, Zi Hui & Zeng, Wei Ping, 2023. "The effects of industrial intelligence on China's energy intensity: The role of technology absorptive capacity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    9. Wang, Ying & Wang, Yong & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2023. "How does digital economy affect energy poverty? Analysis from the global perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    10. Ren, Siyu & Hao, Yu & Xu, Lu & Wu, Haitao & Ba, Ning, 2021. "Digitalization and energy: How does internet development affect China's energy consumption?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    11. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Umlai, Mohamed, 2023. "ICT sector, digitization and environmental sustainability: A systematic review of the literature from 2000 to 2022," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    12. Wang, Ke-Liang & Sun, Ting-Ting & Xu, Ru-Yu & Miao, Zhuang & Cheng, Yun-He, 2022. "How does internet development promote urban green innovation efficiency? Evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    13. Yu Hao & Yunxia Guo & Haitao Wu, 2022. "The role of information and communication technology on green total factor energy efficiency: Does environmental regulation work?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 403-424, January.
    14. Wang, Weilong & Yang, Xiaodong & Cao, Jianhong & Bu, Wenchao & Dagestani, Abd Alwahed & Adebayo, Tomiwa Sunday & Dilanchiev, Azer & Ren, Siyu, 2022. "Energy internet, digital economy, and green economic growth: Evidence from China," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 1(2).
    15. Luan, Bingjiang & Zou, Hong & Huang, Junbing, 2023. "Digital divide and household energy poverty in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    16. Xu, Qiong & Zhong, Meirui & Li, Xin, 2022. "How does digitalization affect energy? International evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    17. Lin, Boqiang & Huang, Chenchen, 2023. "Nonlinear relationship between digitization and energy efficiency: Evidence from transnational panel data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    18. Tang, Chang & Xue, Yan & Wu, Haitao & Irfan, Muhammad & Hao, Yu, 2022. "How does telecommunications infrastructure affect eco-efficiency? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    19. Gao, Da & Li, Ge & Yu, Jiyu, 2022. "Does digitization improve green total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from Chinese 213 cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    20. Zhong, Mei-Rui & Cao, Meng-Yuan & Zou, Han, 2022. "The carbon reduction effect of ICT: A perspective of factor substitution," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(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:enepol:v:165:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522002221. 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/enpol .

    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.