The Impact Of Market Segmentation On Energy Efficiency: An Energy Resource Mismatch Perspective

Since China's reform and opening up,China's economy has made remarkable achievements.However,this achievement is at the cost of high energy investment.At present,China's energy situation is still not optimistic.On the one hand,China is still in the period of rapid development of urbanization and industrialization.The demand for energy in economic development is still increasing,the contradiction between energy supply and demand is increasingly prominent,and the problem of energy constraints facing economic growth is becoming more and more serious.On the other hand,in the process of China's economic transformation,enterprises,as the main users of energy resources,will also be affected by the administrative intervention of the local government,thus increasing the pressure on China's energy demand to a certain extent.Therefore,based on the actual situation of China,it is very important to study how to improve energy efficiency,and to improve energy efficiency,we must first find the key factors affecting the improvement of energy efficiency.From the institutional perspective,the market segmentation under local protectionism may cause the mismatch of regional energy resources by intervening in the allocation of energy factors among different enterprises and hindering the free flow of energy factors among regions.In this case,the phenomenon of waste and high consumption in the process of energy production will become more and more serious,and the lack of innovation and crisis awareness of energy enterprises will eventually affect the improvement of China's energy efficiency.Based on this analysis,Using the panel data of 30 provinces and cities from 2003 to 2015,this paper analyzes the mechanism of market segmentation affecting energy efficiency from the perspective of energy resource mismatch,and adopts dynamic panel model to empirically examine the effect of market segmentation on energy efficiency and the effect of transmission mechanism.It is found that there is a significant negative relationship between market segmentation and energy efficiency,that is,the lower the degree of market segmentation,the higher the energy efficiency;the higher the degree of market segmentation,the lower the energy efficiency.From the perspective of regional heterogeneity of the effect of market segmentation on energy efficiency,the impact of market segmentation on energy efficiency in the eastern region is not significant,which may be due to the relatively low degree of market segmentation in the eastern region and the low misallocation index of energy resources in the eastern region;for the central and western regions,the energy resource misallocation index is low due to the low degree of market integration.Therefore,market segmentation significantly inhibits the improvement of energy efficiency in the central and western regions.From the perspective of the transmission mechanism,the market segmentation behavior among local governments leads to the aggravation of regional energy resource mismatch,which has a significant negative impact on energy efficiency.Therefore,from the perspective of policy,on the one hand,we should further crack the market segmentation between regions and promote market integration;on the other hand,we should promote the free flow of factors and promote fair competition among enterprises.Besides,to narrow the gap between the central and western regions and the eastern regions,it is necessary to increase support for the central and western regions and promote regional coordinated development.Finally,we should continue to deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises and optimize the evaluation index of local officials.The conclusion of this study will provide a useful reference for promoting the integration of China's Interregional market,improving the misallocation of energy resources,and improving energy efficiency.