Technological Progress,Technical Efficiency and Regional Energy Demand of China's Provinces

This article constructed a framework to analyze the relations between the technological progress,the technical efficiency and regional energy demand.Applying DEA,the article measures the technological progress,the technical efficiency Malmquist productivity indexes in 29 provinces(municipalities and autonomous regions) based on the province level panel data in China from 1995 to 2007.Research in this article is helpful for understanding the characteristics of the effect of the technological progress,the technical efficiency on regional energy demand in China and creating effective policies on energy conservation.It also empirically testified the relations between the technological progress,the technical efficiency and the regional energy demand in China based on panel model.The factors impacting energy consumption include technological progress,and technical efficiency,energy price,human capital and fixed capital stock.The effect of the technological advances on energy demand takes on a dual nature,so research on the effect of the technological advances on regional energy demand can provide a theoretical basis for the development of scientifically regional energy policy.This article also finds that the relationships between the technological progress,the technical efficiency and energy demand take on different patterns in different regions.Technical efficiency has significantly negative effects on the energy demand in east and central regions.Technological progress has significantly negative effects on the energy demand only in east regions.But technological progress and technical efficiency have no significant impact on the energy demand in west regions.Different economic base,energy resource endowments and degree of opening to the outside world in different regions may be the main reasons of the phenomena.The article puts forward the corresponding policy recommendations in relation to technological progress and regional energy conservation in China on the basis of the above findings.