On the Mechanism and Effect of Energy Efficiency's Influence on Economic Growth

This paper analyzes the energy efficiency's influence on China economic growth and its transmission mechanism. China energy efficiency was calculated by Malmquist-DEA productivity index of input-oriented constant returns to scale. Furthermore,panel data of China's 29 provinces( including cities and districts) from 1993 to 2011 was collected,and the empirical result shows that energy efficiency influences China economic growth. The whole research demonstrates that improving energy efficiency will promote China economic growth. Further analysis reveals that energy efficiency indirectly boosts China economic growth by raising the level of human capital accumulation,foreign trade and innovation. Therefore,action mechanism,which energy efficiency influences economic growth,are from three dimensions,namely,the accumulation of human capital,foreign trade and innovation,among which innovation is the most important transmission channel.