| Given that energy is a significant input factor for modern economic growth.The situation of the rising energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions is problematic.Hence,improving energy efficiency is considered critical globally.Since implementing free-market reforms in 1979,China’s economy has matured and become the world’s largest manufacturer,merchandise trader,and holder of foreign exchange reserves.However,the energy problem seriously restricts the sustainable development of China’s economy.Energy consumption and carbon emissions in China will continue to increase due to decades of rapid industrialization and urbanization.Technological progress plays an important role in energy efficiency improvement.Spillovers from foreign direct investment(FDI)and technological innovation are the two pathways that could accelerate technology development.The entry of FDI into the host country may have technology spillovers through different channels and transfer the advanced technology to improve the energy efficiency of the host country,which will have a profound impact on the energy environment of the host country.As a big energy consumption country,how do FDI technology spillovers through different transmission channels affect the energy efficiency of China’s manufacturing industry? Are there any threshold effect features? Can local companies’ technological innovations based on FDI technology from different spillover channels improve productivity and impact energy efficiency to achieve sustainable development goals?This study takes the manufacturing industry in Guangdong Province as the research object.Super-efficiency data envelopment analysis(SDEA)has been adopted to measure the total factor energy efficiency(TFEE)of the manufacturing industry in Guangdong Province from 2000 to 2018.The results indicate that the total factor energy efficiency of Guangdong Province shows an overall steady growth trend from 2000 to2018.From the perspective of industry heterogeneity,compare and analyze the total factor energy efficiency by differentiating the industries based on the level of technology.Then,the estimated total factor energy efficiency results,combined with theory and empirical research,the following three aspects are studied,and conclusions are drawn.Then the relevant policy implications for foreign investment,energy conservation and emission reduction are recommended.Firstly,quantitative and qualitative analysis of the imitation and non-imitation effects of FDI technology spillovers in the manufacturing industry is conducted.Empirically test the impact of two different channels of FDI technology spillovers on energy efficiency and other determinants of energy efficiency.The empirical results show that there is a significant positive correlation between FDI non-imitation effects and energy efficiency.In contrast,when the imitation effects of FDI technology spillovers occur,the relationship is in the opposite position.According to the industrial energy consumption,the samples are grouped and tested.The results indicate that the imitation and non-imitation effects have a greater impact on the low or middle energy consumption industries.Secondly,threshold effects in the impact of different FDI technology spillover channels on energy efficiency are investigated.Using the Hansen threshold panel regression model,analyze the existence,signs of correlation,and magnitude of threshold effects.From the perspective of R&D intensity and technology gap,the theoretical and empirical analysis of the threshold effects in FDI imitation effects and non-imitation effects on energy efficiency is carried out.The results show that a single threshold effect of FDI technology spillovers exists on the technology gap indicator.With the increasing technology gap between local companies and multinational enterprises,the impact on energy efficiency is getting smaller.For the R&D intensity indicator,there is also a single threshold effect,and the positive impact of FDI technology spillovers on energy efficiency is significantly stronger when exceeding the threshold.According to the different production factors of the industry,the samples are grouped and tested.The energy efficiency of capital-intensive industries is more affected by FDI technology spillover threshold effects on either the technology gap indicator or R&D intensity indicator.Thirdly,it studies the impact of local companies’ technological innovation,and innovation based on FDI imitation effects and non-imitation effects on energy efficiency and then compares their differences.Using system GMM regression to empirically test the relationship between local companies’ technological innovation and energy efficiency.The results show a significant negative correlation between technological innovation and energy efficiency,which indicates that technological innovation is not improving energy efficiency.Furthermore,empirical analysis is conducted on the imitative innovation of local companies,which is an innovation based on different FDI spillover channels by constructing the interaction terms between technological innovation and FDI imitation effects and non-imitation effects.The results show that the imitative innovation,affected by the FDI non-imitation effects,significantly promotes energy efficiency improvement.In contrast,imitative innovation,affected by the non-imitation effects,significantly inhibits energy efficiency improvement.This result indicates that FDI non-imitation effects minimize the negative effects of technological innovation on energy efficiency improvement and eventually transform into imitative innovation that promotes energy efficiency.This analysis further suggests that imitative innovation can improve energy efficiency when foreign capital creates competitive distortions in the host country’s local market.The empirical analysis in sub-samples according to different levels of R&D spending shows that technological innovation of local companies has positive effects on energy efficiency in medium-low tech industries,while both technological innovation and imitative innovation have no significant effects on improving energy efficiency in low-tech industries. |
PDF Full Text Request