IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v44y2023i2p103-138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coping with Externally Imposed Energy Constraints: Competitiveness and Operational Impact of China’s Top-1000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises Program

Author

Listed:
  • Yuxian Xiao
  • Haitao Yin
  • Jon J. Moon

Abstract

Global climate change has caused governments worldwide to take actions to improve their energy efficiency. This paper investigates how China’s Top-1000 program, a command-and-control type of energy-saving mandate, has affected the operational choices of firms, and in turn, their profitability. We apply the propensity score matching method to find “identical twins†for the participants in the Top-1000 program, then conduct a difference-in-differences analysis on the matched sample. Our findings suggest that the profitability of the enterprises targeted for energy savings decreased by one-third, mainly due to increased production costs. The targeted enterprises tended to increase their fixed assets per capita, which was associated with improvements in energy efficiency. Furthermore, compared to similar untargeted enterprises, there was a significant slowdown in the production growths of the targeted enterprises, raising concerns about carbon leakage due to increased production by less efficient producers.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuxian Xiao & Haitao Yin & Jon J. Moon, 2023. "Coping with Externally Imposed Energy Constraints: Competitiveness and Operational Impact of China’s Top-1000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises Program," The Energy Journal, , vol. 44(2), pages 103-138, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:44:y:2023:i:2:p:103-138
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.44.2.yxia
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.44.2.yxia
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.44.2.yxia?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefan Ambec & Mark A. Cohen & Stewart Elgie & Paul Lanoie, 2013. "The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness?," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(1), pages 2-22, January.
    2. Hongbin Cai & Qiao Liu, 2009. "Competition and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Chinese Industrial Firms," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 764-795, April.
    3. Zhao, Xiaoli & Yin, Haitao & Zhao, Yue, 2015. "Impact of environmental regulations on the efficiency and CO2 emissions of power plants in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 238-247.
    4. Pashigian, B Peter, 1984. "The Effect of Environmental Regulation on Optimal Plant Size and Factor Shares," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(1), pages 1-28, 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. Xu, Hao & Xu, Jingxuan & Wang, Jie & Hou, Xiang, 2023. "Reduce production or increase efficiency? Hazardous air pollutants regulation, energy use, and the synergistic effect on industrial enterprises' carbon emission," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Xupeng Zhang & Xinhai Lu & Danling Chen & Chaozheng Zhang & Kun Ge & Bing Kuang & Sui Liu, 2021. "Is environmental regulation a blessing or a curse for China's urban land use efficiency? Evidence from a threshold effect model," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 265-282, March.
    3. Xiaoling Wang & Yu Chen & Yizhe Dong & Tianyue Zhang & Baofeng Shi, 2025. "How does environmental regulation impact low-carbon transition? Evidence from China’s iron and steel industry," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 345(2), pages 637-663, February.
    4. Xiang, Xunyong & Liu, Ruier & Luo, Wenjie, 2024. "Pollution haven or pollution halo? Testing direct and spillover effects of FDI," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. Wang, Chunhua & Wu, JunJie & Zhang, Bing, 2018. "Environmental regulation, emissions and productivity: Evidence from Chinese COD-emitting manufacturers," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 54-73.
    6. Shi, Xing & Wu, Yanrui, 2017. "The effect of internal and external factors on innovative behaviour of Chinese manufacturing firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(S), pages 50-64.
    7. Huang, Youxing & Xu, Qi & Zhao, Yanping, 2021. "Short-run pain, long-run gain: Desulfurization investment and productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    8. Tian, Yanping & Song, Wenjing & Liu, Min, 2021. "Assessment of how environmental policy affects urban innovation: Evidence from China’s low-carbon pilot cities program," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 41-56.
    9. Valeria Costantini & Francesco Crespi & Giovanni Marin & Elena Paglialunga, 2016. "Eco-innovation, sustainable supply chains and environmental performance in European industries," LEM Papers Series 2016/19, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    10. Francesco Trebbi & Miao Ben Zhang, 2022. "The Cost of Regulatory Compliance in the United States," NBER Working Papers 30691, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Roland Vaubel, 2008. "The political economy of labor market regulation by the European Union," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 435-465, December.
    12. Hille, Erik & Althammer, Wilhelm & Diederich, Henning, 2020. "Environmental regulation and innovation in renewable energy technologies: Does the policy instrument matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    13. Alessandro Moro, 2021. "Can capital controls promote green investments in developing countries?," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1348, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Vitaliy Roud & Thomas Wolfgang Thurner, 2018. "The Influence of State‐Ownership on Eco‐Innovations in Russian Manufacturing Firms," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(5), pages 1213-1227, October.
    15. Fang, Mingyue & Nie, Huihua & Shen, Xinyi, 2023. "Can enterprise digitization improve ESG performance?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    16. Cao, Chunfang & Li, Xiaoyang & Xia, Changyuan, 2021. "The complicit role of local government authorities in corporate bribery: Evidence from a tax collection reform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Richardson, Grant & Taylor, Grantley & Lanis, Roman, 2015. "The impact of financial distress on corporate tax avoidance spanning the global financial crisis: Evidence from Australia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 44-53.
    18. Requillart, Vincent & Nauges, Celine & Simioni, Michel & Bontemps, Christophe, 2012. "Food Safety Regulation and Firm Productivity: Evidence from the French Food Industry," 2012 First Congress, June 4-5, 2012, Trento, Italy 124378, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
    19. Ahlin, Christian & Kim, In Kyung & Kim, Kyoo il, 2021. "Who commits fraud? evidence from korean gas stations," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    20. Zhangsheng Liu & Liuqingqing Yang & Liqin Fan, 2021. "Induced Effect of Environmental Regulation on Green Innovation: Evidence from the Increasing-Block Pricing Scheme," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-15, March.

    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:sae:enejou:v:44:y:2023:i:2:p:103-138. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.