ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Influence of Agglomeration of Manufacturing
and the Producer Service Sector
on Energy Efficiency
1 1 | Huazhong University of Science and Technology, College of Public Administration, Wuhan, China |
2 | Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, College of Economics and Management, Nanjing, China |
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Submission date: 2018-04-23
Final revision date: 2018-07-09
Acceptance date: 2018-08-16
Online publication date: 2019-05-07
Publication date: 2019-05-28
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(5):3401–3418
KEYWORDS
industrial agglomerationenergy efficiencymanufacturing sectorproducer service sectornon-separable hybrid DEA
TOPICS
Environmental managementPollution legislation and data collectionPolicies for economically sustainable developmentPolicies for environmentally sustainable development
ABSTRACT
Due to the gradual agglomeration of economic activities and the continuous reinforcement of
spatial linkages in specific geographic locations, the geospatial factor should become an important
starting point to understand the relationship between industrial restructuring and energy conservation
and emission reduction. This paper first introduces a non-separable hybrid DEA model that considers
undesirable output to measure the energy efficiencies of 285 prefecture or higher-level cities in China
during 2003-2016; then, a dynamic spatial panel model is used to investigate the influence of different
types of industrial agglomerations and agglomeration modes on energy efficiency. According to the
obtained study results, for the investigation period, the overall energy efficiency of China with regard
to pollutants remained at a low level and presented a “U-shaped” decreasing-increasing trend. To be
specific, China’s energy efficiency distribution presented a trend of “high in the east and low in the west.”
The energy efficiency of East China changed relatively gently, while the energy efficiencies of central
China and western China changed dramatically. China’s energy efficiency also presented a significant
spatial agglomeration effect, i.e., cities with close energy efficiencies are usually adjacent to each other.
At the national level, agglomeration of the manufacturing sector significantly inhibited the increase of
energy efficiency; the agglomeration of the producer service sector and the co-agglomeration of the
manufacturing sector and the producer service sector both facilitated an increase of energy efficiency.
The influence of industrial agglomeration on energy efficiency differed across different city scale grades.
Based on these conclusions, the paper proposes the following policy implications: 1) make full use of
the energy savings and emission reduction effect of agglomeration; 2) accelerate the optimization of
industrial layout; 3) develop high-end service industry and productive service industry; and 4) create an
agglomeration environment that encourages benign industrial competition.
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