IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v168y2022ics0301421522003640.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Club convergence in energy efficiency of Belt and Road Initiative countries: The role of China’s outward foreign direct investment

Author

Listed:
  • Peng, Hua-Rong
  • Tan, Xiujie
  • Managi, Shunsuke
  • Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad

Abstract

Countries along with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) differ in geographical location, technological levels, and resource endowment. It is worth paying attention to the evolution of the gap in energy efficiency of BRI countries. Therefore, this study investigated club convergence in total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of BRI countries, and the role of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in TFEE convergence, by adopting panel data over 1996–2019. Results indicate that the TFEE of the BRI countries showed a trend of divergence as a whole, but converged to three convergence clubs with different characteristics of 1) high TFEE and convergence rates (20 countries); 2) middle TFEE and convergence rates (13 countries), 3) low TFEE and convergence rates (27 countries). We also found that China's OFDI in low-carbon industries in BRI countries contributed to the convergence of clubs with high energy efficiency and convergence rates. Moreover, China's OFDI in high-carbon industries showed a pollution halo effect, causing lower energy efficiency countries to converge to the high energy efficiency and convergence rate club.

Suggested Citation

  • Peng, Hua-Rong & Tan, Xiujie & Managi, Shunsuke & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2022. "Club convergence in energy efficiency of Belt and Road Initiative countries: The role of China’s outward foreign direct investment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:168:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522003640
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113139
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421522003640
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113139?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. Mussini, Mauro, 2020. "Inequality and convergence in energy intensity in the European Union," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    2. Martin Bijsterbosch & Marcin Kolasa, 2010. "FDI and productivity convergence in Central and Eastern Europe: an industry-level investigation," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 145(4), pages 689-712, January.
    3. Aseem Prakash & Matthew Potoski, 2006. "Racing to the Bottom? Trade, Environmental Governance, and ISO 14001," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(2), pages 350-364, April.
    4. Alicia Garcia Herrero & Jianwei Xu, 2017. "China's Belt and Road Initiative: Can Europe Expect Trade Gains?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 25(6), pages 84-99, November.
    5. Miketa, Asami & Mulder, Peter, 2005. "Energy productivity across developed and developing countries in 10 manufacturing sectors: Patterns of growth and convergence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 429-453, May.
    6. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    7. Moller, Lars Christian & Wacker, Konstantin M., 2017. "Explaining Ethiopia’s Growth Acceleration—The Role of Infrastructure and Macroeconomic Policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 198-215.
    8. Mishra, Vinod & Smyth, Russell, 2017. "Conditional convergence in Australia's energy consumption at the sector level," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 396-403.
    9. Mishra, Vinod & Smyth, Russell, 2014. "Convergence in energy consumption per capita among ASEAN countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 180-185.
    10. Han, Lei & Han, Botang & Shi, Xunpeng & Su, Bin & Lv, Xin & Lei, Xiao, 2018. "Energy efficiency convergence across countries in the context of China’s Belt and Road initiative," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 112-122.
    11. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    12. Horta, Isabel M. & Camanho, Ana S., 2015. "A nonparametric methodology for evaluating convergence in a multi-input multi-output setting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(2), pages 554-561.
    13. Tan, Xiujie & Choi, Yongrok & Wang, Banban & Huang, Xiaoqi, 2020. "Does China's carbon regulatory policy improve total factor carbon efficiency? A fixed-effect panel stochastic frontier analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    14. Hao, Yu & Peng, Hui, 2017. "On the convergence in China's provincial per capita energy consumption: New evidence from a spatial econometric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 31-43.
    15. Zhang, Yu & Jin, Warren & Xu, Miao, 2021. "Total factor efficiency and convergence analysis of renewable energy in Latin American countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 785-795.
    16. Qi, Shaozhou & Peng, Huarong & Zhang, Xiaoling & Tan, Xiujie, 2019. "Is energy efficiency of Belt and Road Initiative countries catching up or falling behind? Evidence from a panel quantile regression approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    17. Zhao, Zhibo & Shi, Xunpeng & Zhao, Lingdi & Zhang, Jinggu, 2020. "Extending production-theoretical decomposition analysis to environmentally sensitive growth: Case study of Belt and Road Initiative countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    18. Zhu, Junpeng & Lin, Boqiang, 2020. "Convergence analysis of city-level energy intensity in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    19. Yue-Jun Zhang & Yan-Lin Jin & Bo Shen, 2020. "Measuring the Energy Saving and CO2 Emissions Reduction Potential Under China’s Belt and Road Initiative," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 1095-1116, April.
    20. Mulder, Peter & de Groot, Henri L.F., 2012. "Structural change and convergence of energy intensity across OECD countries, 1970–2005," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1910-1921.
    21. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan, 2006. "Total-factor energy efficiency of regions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 3206-3217, November.
    22. Jianhuan Huang & Yantuan Yu & Chunbo Ma, 2018. "Energy Efficiency Convergence in China: Catch-Up, Lock-In and Regulatory Uniformity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 70(1), pages 107-130, May.
    23. Parker, Steven & Liddle, Brantley, 2017. "Economy-wide and manufacturing energy productivity transition paths and club convergence for OECD and non-OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 338-346.
    24. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2007. "Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(6), pages 1771-1855, November.
    25. Carlino, Gerald A. & Mills, Leonard O., 1993. "Are U.S. regional incomes converging? : A time series analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 335-346, November.
    26. Cheng, Zhonghua & Liu, Jun & Li, Lianshui & Gu, Xinbei, 2020. "Research on meta-frontier total-factor energy efficiency and its spatial convergence in Chinese provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    27. Sadik, Ali T. & Bolbol, Ali A., 2001. "Capital Flows, FDI, and Technology Spillovers: Evidence from Arab Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2111-2125, December.
    28. Cole, Matthew A., 2006. "Does trade liberalization increase national energy use?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 108-112, July.
    29. Lili Kang & Fei Peng & Yu Zhu & An Pan, 2018. "Harmony in Diversity: Can the One Belt One Road Initiative Promote China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-28, September.
    30. Kounetas, Konstantinos Elias, 2018. "Energy consumption and CO2 emissions convergence in European Union member countries. A tonneau des Danaides?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 111-127.
    31. Ivanovski, Kris & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2018. "A club convergence analysis of per capita energy consumption across Australian regions and sectors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 519-531.
    32. Xiaoyang Chen,Maggie & Lin,Chuanhao, 2018. "Foreign Investment across the Belt and Road : Patterns, Determinants, and Effects," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8607, The World Bank.
    33. Lampe, Hannes W. & Hilgers, Dennis, 2015. "Trajectories of efficiency measurement: A bibliometric analysis of DEA and SFA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(1), pages 1-21.
    34. Bai, Caiquan & Feng, Chen & Du, Kerui & Wang, Yuansheng & Gong, Yuan, 2020. "Understanding spatial-temporal evolution of renewable energy technology innovation in China: Evidence from convergence analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    35. Liu, Chang & Hong, Tao & Li, Huaifeng & Wang, Lili, 2018. "From club convergence of per capita industrial pollutant emissions to industrial transfer effects: An empirical study across 285 cities in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 300-313.
    36. Bruce Blonigen, 2005. "A Review of the Empirical Literature on FDI Determinants," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 33(4), pages 383-403, December.
    37. Salameh, Mamdouh G., 2003. "Quest for Middle East oil: the US versus the Asia-Pacific region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(11), pages 1085-1091, September.
    38. Liu, Tie-Ying & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2020. "Convergence of the world’s energy use," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    39. Wei, Zixiang & Han, Botang & Pan, Xiuzhen & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Zafar, Muhammad Wasif, 2020. "Effects of diversified openness channels on the total-factor energy efficiency in China's manufacturing sub-sectors: Evidence from trade and FDI spillovers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    40. Fernando Ascensão & Lenore Fahrig & Anthony P. Clevenger & Richard T. Corlett & Jochen A. G. Jaeger & William F. Laurance & Henrique M. Pereira, 2018. "Environmental challenges for the Belt and Road Initiative," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(5), pages 206-209, May.
    41. Dong, Yan & Tian, Jinhuan & Ye, Jingjing, 2021. "Environmental regulation and foreign direct investment: Evidence from China's outward FDI," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    42. Peter Mulder, 2015. "International Specialization, Structural Change and the Evolution of Manufacturing Energy Intensity in OECD Countries," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    43. Razzaq, Asif & An, Hui & Delpachitra, Sarath, 2021. "Does technology gap increase FDI spillovers on productivity growth? Evidence from Chinese outward FDI in Belt and Road host countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    44. Jain, Princy & Goswami, Binoy, 2021. "Energy efficiency in South Asia: Trends and determinants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    45. Nugent, Jeffrey B. & Lu, Jiaxuan, 2021. "China's outward foreign direct investment in the Belt and Road Initiative: What are the motives for Chinese firms to invest?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    46. Moutinho, Victor & Robaina-Alves, Margarita & Mota, Jorge, 2014. "Carbon dioxide emissions intensity of Portuguese industry and energy sectors: A convergence analysis and econometric approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 438-449.
    47. Zhai, Fan, 2018. "China’s belt and road initiative: A preliminary quantitative assessment," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 84-92.
    48. Pao, Hsiao-Tien & Tsai, Chung-Ming, 2011. "Multivariate Granger causality between CO2 emissions, energy consumption, FDI (foreign direct investment) and GDP (gross domestic product): Evidence from a panel of BRIC (Brazil, Russian Federation, I," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 685-693.
    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. Muntasir Murshed & Ilhan Ozturk & Avik Sinha & Mohammad Mahtab Alam, 2024. "Achieving environmental sustainability through renewable energy transition in the Next Eleven countries: the importance of establishing sound democratic governance," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1-24, April.

    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. Qi, Shaozhou & Peng, Huarong & Zhang, Xiaoling & Tan, Xiujie, 2019. "Is energy efficiency of Belt and Road Initiative countries catching up or falling behind? Evidence from a panel quantile regression approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Salman, Muhammad & Zha, Donglan & Wang, Guimei, 2022. "Assessment of energy poverty convergence: A global analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    3. He, Weijun & Chen, Hao, 2022. "Will China's provincial per capita energy consumption converge to a common level over 1990–2017? Evidence from a club convergence approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    4. Liu, Tie-Ying & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2020. "Convergence of the world’s energy use," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Huaping Sun & Bless Kofi Edziah & Xiaoqian Song & Anthony Kwaku Kporsu & Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary, 2020. "Estimating Persistent and Transient Energy Efficiency in Belt and Road Countries: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, July.
    6. Zhu, Junpeng & Lin, Boqiang, 2020. "Convergence analysis of city-level energy intensity in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Romero-Ávila, Diego & Omay, Tolga, 2022. "Convergence of per capita energy consumption around the world: New evidence from nonlinear panel unit root tests," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    8. Bhattacharya, Mita & Inekwe, John Nkwoma & Sadorsky, Perry & Saha, Anjan, 2018. "Convergence of energy productivity across Indian states and territories," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 427-440.
    9. Nian Wang & Yingming Zhu & Yu Pei, 2021. "How does economic infrastructure affect industrial energy efficiency convergence? Empirical evidence from China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13973-13997, September.
    10. Valerio Mendoza, Octasiano Miguel & Borsi, Mihály Tamás & Comim, Flavio, 2022. "Human capital dynamics in China: Evidence from a club convergence approach," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Yao Wang & Qiang Yang & Xuenan Wu & Ruichen Wang & Tilei Gao & Yuntong Liu, 2023. "A Study of Trends in Low-Energy Development Patterns in China: A Data-Driven Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-18, June.
    12. Yan Wu & Cong Hu & Xunpeng Shi, 2021. "Heterogeneous Effects of the Belt and Road Initiative on Energy Efficiency in Participating Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-21, September.
    13. Ivanovski, Kris & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2018. "A club convergence analysis of per capita energy consumption across Australian regions and sectors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 519-531.
    14. Yan Wu & Chunlai Chen & Cong Hu, 2021. "Does the Belt and Road Initiative Increase the Carbon Emission Intensity of Participating Countries?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(3), pages 1-25, May.
    15. Parker, Steven & Liddle, Brantley, 2017. "Economy-wide and manufacturing energy productivity transition paths and club convergence for OECD and non-OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 338-346.
    16. Parker, Steven & Liddle, Brant, 2017. "Analysing energy productivity dynamics in the OECD manufacturing sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 91-97.
    17. Mateusz Jankiewicz, 2021. "The Convergence of Energy Use from Renewable Sources in the European Countries: Spatio-Temporal Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Han, Lei & Han, Botang & Shi, Xunpeng & Su, Bin & Lv, Xin & Lei, Xiao, 2018. "Energy efficiency convergence across countries in the context of China’s Belt and Road initiative," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 112-122.
    19. Payne, James E. & Vizek, Maruška & Lee, Junsoo, 2017. "Is there convergence in per capita renewable energy consumption across U.S. States? Evidence from LM and RALS-LM unit root tests with breaks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 715-728.
    20. Balado-Naves, Roberto & Baños-Pino, José Francisco & Mayor, Matías, 2023. "Spatial spillovers and world energy intensity convergence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(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:168:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522003640. 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.