The impact mechanism of industrial agglomeration on energy efficiency-Evidence from producer service industry in China

ABSTRACT

The development of regional industry in China has become one of the significant factors affecting energy efficiency. This paper combined the industry agglomeration theory and the improved Stochastic Impacts model to explore the impact mechanism of producer service industry agglomeration on energy efficiency. We applied spatial econometric model to estimate the spatial effects of the agglomeration on energy efficiency with panel data of 31 provinces from 2008 to 2017 in China. The results showed that China’s inter-provincial energy efficiency has a significant spatial spillover effect. Simultaneously, the specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration of producer services have a “U”-shaped effect on energy efficiency. Finally, we need to pay attention to the coordination and synchronization of the specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration of the producer service industry. An increase in the relative gap between the two can inhibit energy efficiency, but its inhibitory effect gradually weakened.

KEYWORDS:

• Producer service industry
• energy efficiency
• specialized agglomeration
• diversified agglomeration
• spatial effect

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.M.; data curation, J.M and W.L.; methodology, G.D.; writing—original draft, C.H.; software, C.H. and W.L; writing—review and editing, G.D. and C.H.; supervision, X.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief for their insightful comments that have improved the quality of the final manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.