Research On Effect Of Human Capital And Technical Efficiency On Energy Efficiency

After thirty years of reform and opening up, China’s economy has developedquickly, and has made worldwide achievements. In the meantime, the quantity ofenergy consumption has been rising rapidly. As one of the most important inputelements in China, energy has direct effects on the healthy and continuous growth ofChinese economy. In the course of building a moderately prosperous society in allaspects, we need to master the basic connotation of energy efficiency fundamentallyand discuss the elements affecting energy efficiency as well as mechanism of action ofimproving energy efficiency. We hope our study can supply basic evidence for futuresustainable development of Chinese economy, and help government improve energyefficiency through various economic and management measures specifically andintentionally.According to endogenous growth theory, technology is the key part in improvingenergy efficiency, which implies that we can rely on technology in using energy tooffset the growth of energy consumption. However, technological advance isenslaved to human capital. Human capital accumulation is the motivation oftechnological progress, because highly-competent labor is good to the innovation andapplication of energy-saving technology. Considering the differences in knowledgeand skills of labors in different districts, labor in various cities make variouscontribution on efficiency improvement. High-quality human capital has the abilitiesof effectively absorbing and using technology, and promoting local economicdevelopment, while there is low-quality human capital, the spillover effect oftechnology will be reduced, which will hinder the further development of localeconomy. Therefore, it’s necessary to analyze the effect of human capital and energyefficiency on energy efficiency from the prospect of human capital initiative, thussupplying credible and scientific basis to policy-makers. The study of this paper mainly focuses on two problems. One is about thedirect effect of human capital and technological progress on energy efficiency; and theother one is about the different effects of technology on energy efficiency givendifferent human capital accumulation. This paper firstly tries to calculate humancapital index and technology efficiency index from1997to2011using measures offactor analysis and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). With the calculated data, thispaper aimed at building panel data model and panel threshold model to analyze therelationship between human capital, technology efficiency and energy efficiency. Theempirical results indicate that the two models get basically the same signs andsignificance of variable regression coefficient. Human capital, social technologicalprogress and the ability of domestic and overseas technology absorption all havepositive effects on energy efficiency. Besides, given the accumulation and initiativeof human capital, this paper also build a panel threshold model with human capital asthe threshold variable. The results show that in China there is indeed threshold valueof human capital and with the improvement of human capital, the effect of technologyefficiency on energy efficiency has a ever-increasing trend. Technology absorption,represented by the product term of domestic and overseas technological progress andhuman capital, also has a positive and remarkable effect on energy efficiency. Theseresults declare that nowadays human capital can absorb and make use of existingdomestic and overseas technology.The12thfive-year plan outline proposes that we should continue to take energyconservation and emission reduction as obligatory target of social development. Thisplan gives a new challenge to China which now lies in economic transformation period.Based on the results of empirical study, this paper also supplies some feasible andcredible energy policies. In the future, we need to pay more attention on humancapital accumulation, update energy-using technology, develop new energy and so on.