IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v213y2020ics0360544220318545.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coupling of economic growth and reduction in carbon emissions at the efficiency level: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Sheng, Pengfei
  • Li, Jun
  • Zhai, Mengxin
  • Huang, Shoujun

Abstract

Our work provides a comprehensive investigation of the coupling between the efficiency of economic growth and the efficiency of carbon emissions reduction in China, and makes a distinction between the coupling over the long-run and the short-run. Our estimates suggested significant evidence of coupling between economic growth and efficiency in carbon emissions reduction in the long-run, but China’s economic growth still increased carbon emissions at the aggregate level. In the short-run, coupling effects were different across provinces that were at different stages of economic development. Provinces with low- and high-stages of development saw positive short-run coupling, but provinces at the intermediate stage of development saw the contrary, which resulted in an obvious “U" shaped relationship between short-run coupling effects and real GDP per capita. Finally, our findings provide an economic rationale for differentiated low-carbon policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheng, Pengfei & Li, Jun & Zhai, Mengxin & Huang, Shoujun, 2020. "Coupling of economic growth and reduction in carbon emissions at the efficiency level: Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:213:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220318545
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.118747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220318545
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118747?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. Christopher F Baum & Mark E. Schaffer & Steven Stillman, 2003. "Instrumental variables and GMM: Estimation and testing," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(1), pages 1-31, March.
    2. Pedroni, Peter, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic And Finite Sample Properties Of Pooled Time Series Tests With An Application To The Ppp Hypothesis," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 597-625, June.
    3. Zhao, Xingrong & Zhang, Xi & Shao, Shuai, 2016. "Decoupling CO2 emissions and industrial growth in China over 1993–2013: The role of investment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 275-292.
    4. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    5. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf & Carl A Pasurka, Jr., 2001. "Accounting for Air Pollution Emissions in Measures of State Manufacturing Productivity Growth," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 381-409, August.
    6. Fujii, Hidemichi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2013. "Which industry is greener? An empirical study of nine industries in OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 381-388.
    7. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    8. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    9. Yang, Guangfei & Sun, Tao & Wang, Jianliang & Li, Xianneng, 2015. "Modeling the nexus between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 104-117.
    10. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Han, J.Y., 2010. "Total factor carbon emission performance: A Malmquist index analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 194-201, January.
    11. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Saboori, Behnaz & Soleymani, Abdorreza, 2016. "Economic growth and carbon emissions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 388-397.
    12. S You & H Yan, 2011. "A new approach in modelling undesirable output in DEA model☆," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(12), pages 2146-2156, December.
    13. Sheng, Pengfei & Guo, Xiaohui, 2016. "The Long-run and Short-run Impacts of Urbanization on Carbon Dioxide Emissions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 208-215.
    14. Emrouznejad, Ali & Yang, Guo-liang, 2016. "A framework for measuring global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index with CO2 emissions on Chinese manufacturing industries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P1), pages 840-856.
    15. Timo Kuosmanen, 2005. "Weak Disposability in Nonparametric Production Analysis with Undesirable Outputs," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(4), pages 1077-1082.
    16. Tapio, Petri, 2005. "Towards a theory of decoupling: degrees of decoupling in the EU and the case of road traffic in Finland between 1970 and 2001," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 137-151, March.
    17. Choi, In, 2001. "Unit root tests for panel data," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 249-272, April.
    18. Marzio Galeotti & Matteo Manera & Alessandro Lanza, 2009. "On the Robustness of Robustness Checks of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 42(4), pages 551-574, April.
    19. Hidemichi Fujii & Jing Cao & Shunsuke Managi, 2015. "Decomposition of Productivity Considering Multi-environmental Pollutants in Chinese Industrial Sector," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 75-84, February.
    20. Song, Yan & Zhang, Ming & Shan, Cheng, 2019. "Research on the decoupling trend and mitigation potential of CO2 emissions from China's transport sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 837-843.
    21. Raymond W. Goldsmith, 1951. "A Perpetual Inventory of National Wealth," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 14, pages 5-73, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Friedl, Birgit & Getzner, Michael, 2003. "Determinants of CO2 emissions in a small open economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 133-148, April.
    23. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Narayan, Seema, 2010. "Carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth: Panel data evidence from developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 661-666, January.
    24. Joakim Westerlund, 2005. "New Simple Tests for Panel Cointegration," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 297-316.
    25. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1995. "Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 79-113, July.
    26. Pao, Hsiao-Tien & Tsai, Chung-Ming, 2010. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in BRIC countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7850-7860, December.
    27. Cohen, Gail & Jalles, Joao Tovar & Loungani, Prakash & Marto, Ricardo & Wang, Gewei, 2019. "Decoupling of emissions and GDP: Evidence from aggregate and provincial Chinese data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 105-118.
    28. Pastor, Jesus T. & Lovell, C.A. Knox, 2005. "A global Malmquist productivity index," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 266-271, August.
    29. S You & H Yan, 2011. "A new approach in modelling undesirable output in DEA model," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(12), pages 2146-2156, December.
    30. Stern, David I. & Gerlagh, Reyer & Burke, Paul J., 2017. "Modeling the emissions–income relationship using long-run growth rates," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 699-724, December.
    31. Azam, Muhammad, 2016. "Does environmental degradation shackle economic growth? A panel data investigation on 11 Asian countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 175-182.
    32. Cohen, Gail & Jalles, Joao Tovar & Loungani, Prakash & Marto, Ricardo, 2018. "The long-run decoupling of emissions and output: Evidence from the largest emitters," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 58-68.
    33. Zhang, Chuanguo & Lin, Yan, 2012. "Panel estimation for urbanization, energy consumption and CO2 emissions: A regional analysis in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 488-498.
    34. R. Ramanathan, 2002. "Combining indicators of energy consumption and CO 2 emissions: a cross-country comparison," International Journal of Global Energy Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 17(3), pages 214-227.
    35. Ekins, Paul & Pollitt, Hector & Summerton, Philip & Chewpreecha, Unnada, 2012. "Increasing carbon and material productivity through environmental tax reform," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 365-376.
    36. Leslie, Gordon, 2018. "Tax induced emissions? Estimating short-run emission impacts from carbon taxation under different market structures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 220-239.
    37. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2008. "A survey of data envelopment analysis in energy and environmental studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 1-18, August.
    38. Badi H. Baltagi & James M. Griffin & Weiwen Xiong, 2000. "To Pool Or Not To Pool: Homogeneous Versus Hetergeneous Estimations Applied to Cigarette Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 117-126, February.
    39. Antonakakis, Nikolaos & Chatziantoniou, Ioannis & Filis, George, 2017. "Energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth: An ethical dilemma," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 808-824.
    40. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Zhu, Joe, 2002. "Modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 16-20, October.
    41. Boqiang Lin, & Wang, Miao, 2019. "Possibilities of decoupling for China’s energy consumption from economic growth: A temporal-spatial analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 951-960.
    42. Zhang, Yu & Zhang, Sufang, 2018. "The impacts of GDP, trade structure, exchange rate and FDI inflows on China's carbon emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 347-353.
    43. Saboori, Behnaz & Sulaiman, Jamalludin & Mohd, Saidatulakmal, 2012. "Economic growth and CO2 emissions in Malaysia: A cointegration analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 184-191.
    44. He, Jiankun & Deng, Jing & Su, Mingshan, 2010. "CO2 emission from China's energy sector and strategy for its control," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 4494-4498.
    45. 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.
    46. Yu-Ying Lin, Eugene & Chen, Ping-Yu & Chen, Chi-Chung, 2013. "Measuring green productivity of country: A generlized metafrontier Malmquist productivity index approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 340-353.
    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. Xueyang Wang & Xiumei Sun & Haotian Zhang & Chaokai Xue, 2022. "Digital Economy Development and Urban Green Innovation CA-Pability: Based on Panel Data of 274 Prefecture-Level Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Yu-Ke, Chen & Hassan, Muhammad Shahid & Kalim, Rukhsana & Mahmood, Haider & Arshed, Noman & Salman, Muhammad, 2022. "Testing asymmetric influence of clean and unclean energy for targeting environmental quality in environmentally poor economies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 765-775.
    3. Jie Su & Bo Zhou & Yuanpei Liao & Chaoshen Wang & Tian Feng, 2022. "Impact Mechanism of the Urban Network on Carbon Emissions in Rapidly Developing Regions: Example of 47 Cities in Southwest China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Jiao Wang & Zhenliang Liao & Hui Sun, 2023. "Analysis of Carbon Emission Efficiency in the Yellow River Basin in China: Spatiotemporal Differences and Influencing Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Hongjian Yu & Yao Zhao & Guitao Qiao & Mahmood Ahmad, 2023. "Can Green Financial Reform Policies Promote Enterprise Development? Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-21, February.
    6. Xueyang Wang & Xiumei Sun & Haotian Zhang & Mahmood Ahmad, 2022. "Digital Economy and Environmental Quality: Insights from the Spatial Durbin Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Yanmei Li & Xin Sun & Xiushan Bai, 2022. "Differences of Carbon Emission Efficiency in the Belt and Road Initiative Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Yingwen Ji & Zhiying Shao & Ruifang Wang, 2024. "Does Industrial Symbiosis Improve Carbon Emission Efficiency? Evidence from Chinese National Demonstration Eco-Industrial Parks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-22, January.
    9. Juanjuan Tian & Xiaoqian Song & Jinsuo Zhang, 2022. "Spatial-Temporal Pattern and Driving Factors of Carbon Efficiency in China: Evidence from Panel Data of Urban Governance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-24, March.
    10. Hu, Xiaoli & Zhu, Weiwei & Wei, Jiuchang, 2021. "Effects of information strategies on public acceptance of nuclear energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    11. Fangjhy Li & Yang-Che Wu & Mei-Chih Wang & Wing-Keung Wong & Zhijie Xing, 2021. "Empirical Study on CO 2 Emissions, Financial Development and Economic Growth of the BRICS Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-33, November.
    12. Salari, Mahmoud & Javid, Roxana J. & Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2021. "The nexus between CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and economic growth in the U.S," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 182-194.
    13. Zhang, Shuo & Yu, Yadong & Kharrazi, Ali & Ren, Hongtao & Ma, Tieju, 2022. "How can structural change contribute to concurrent sustainability policy targets on GDP, emissions, energy, and employment in China?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    14. Xu Zhang & Huaping Sun & Taohong Wang, 2022. "Impact of Financial Inclusion on the Efficiency of Carbon Emissions: Evidence from 30 Provinces in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-15, October.
    15. Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Sha, Yezhou & Yan, Cheng, 2022. "Envisaging the carbon emissions efficiency of digitalization: The case of the internet economy for China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    16. Zhichuan Zhu & Bo Liu & Zhuoxi Yu & Jianhong Cao, 2022. "Effects of the Digital Economy on Carbon Emissions: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-21, August.
    17. Jinlin Li & Litai Chen & Ying Chen & Jiawen He, 2022. "Digital economy, technological innovation, and green economic efficiency—Empirical evidence from 277 cities in China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 616-629, April.
    18. Feng Dong & Chang Qin & Xiaoyun Zhang & Xu Zhao & Yuling Pan & Yujin Gao & Jiao Zhu & Yangfan Li, 2021. "Towards Carbon Neutrality: The Impact of Renewable Energy Development on Carbon Emission Efficiency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-23, December.
    19. Xiuqing Zou & Tianyue Ge & Sheng Xing, 2023. "Impact of the Urban-Rural Income Disparity on Carbon Emission Efficiency Based on a Dual Perspective of Consumption Level and Structure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-19, July.

    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. Ozcan, Burcu, 2013. "The nexus between carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in Middle East countries: A panel data analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1138-1147.
    2. Carmen Díaz-Roldán & María del Carmen Ramos-Herrera, 2021. "Innovations and ICT: Do They Favour Economic Growth and Environmental Quality?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, March.
    3. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-542 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Acikgoz, Senay & Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami, 2019. "Where does economic growth in the Middle Eastern and North African countries come from?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 172-183.
    5. Omri, Anis & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Rault, Christophe, 2014. "Causal interactions between CO2 emissions, FDI, and economic growth: Evidence from dynamic simultaneous-equation models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 382-389.
    6. Al Mamun, Md. & Sohag, Kazi & Hannan Mia, Md. Abdul & Salah Uddin, Gazi & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2014. "Regional differences in the dynamic linkage between CO2 emissions, sectoral output and economic growth," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-11.
    7. Giovanni Bella & Carla Massidda & Ivan Etzo, 2013. "A Panel Estimation of the Relationship between Income, Electric Power Consumption and CO2 Emissions," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 59(2), pages 149-166.
    8. Sheng, Pengfei & Guo, Xiaohui, 2016. "The Long-run and Short-run Impacts of Urbanization on Carbon Dioxide Emissions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 208-215.
    9. Mitić Petar & Cvetanović Slobodan, 2018. "Exploring Economic Growth and Environment Nexus in Nine Southeastern European Countries," Economic Themes, Sciendo, vol. 56(2), pages 253-268, June.
    10. Iftikhar Yasin & Nawaz Ahmad & M. Aslam Chaudhary, 2020. "Catechizing the Environmental-Impression of Urbanization, Financial Development, and Political Institutions: A Circumstance of Ecological Footprints in 110 Developed and Less-Developed Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 621-649, January.
    11. Bakry, Walid & Mallik, Girijasankar & Nghiem, Xuan-Hoa & Sinha, Avik & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2023. "Is green finance really “green”? Examining the long-run relationship between green finance, renewable energy and environmental performance in developing countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 341-355.
    12. Afzalinejad, Mohammad, 2020. "Reverse efficiency measures for environmental assessment in data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    13. Petar Mitić & Olja Munitlak Ivanović & Aleksandar Zdravković, 2017. "A Cointegration Analysis of Real GDP and CO 2 Emissions in Transitional Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-18, April.
    14. Zhimin Peng & Qunqi Wu, 2020. "Evaluation of the relationship between energy consumption, economic growth, and CO2 emissions in China’ transport sector: the FMOLS and VECM approaches," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 6537-6561, October.
    15. Wen-Chi Yang & Wen-Min Lu & Alagu Perumal Ramasamy, 2021. "International Environmental Efficiency Trends and the Impact of the Paris Agreement," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-16, July.
    16. Iwata, Hiroki & Okada, Keisuke & Samreth, Sovannroeun, 2011. "A note on the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2: A pooled mean group approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(5), pages 1986-1996, May.
    17. Reza Sherafatian-Jahromi & Mohd Shahwahid Othman & Siong Hook Law & Normaz Wana Ismail, 2017. "Tourism and CO2 emissions nexus in Southeast Asia: new evidence from panel estimation," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1407-1423, August.
    18. Olimpia Neagu, 2019. "The Link between Economic Complexity and Carbon Emissions in the European Union Countries: A Model Based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-27, August.
    19. Liobikienė, Genovaitė & Butkus, Mindaugas, 2017. "Environmental Kuznets Curve of greenhouse gas emissions including technological progress and substitution effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 237-248.
    20. Opoku, Eric Evans Osei & Boachie, Micheal Kofi, 2020. "The environmental impact of industrialization and foreign direct investment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    21. Armenia Androniceanu & Irina Georgescu, 2023. "The Impact of CO 2 Emissions and Energy Consumption on Economic Growth: A Panel Data Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-17, January.

    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:energy:v:213:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220318545. 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.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    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.