Can Transport Infrastructure Improve Enterprise Energy Efficiency? Evidence From China

Abstract

As an advanced social development capital, transportation plays a vital role in promoting regional development. Concurrently, the business activities of enterprises intimately relate to these transportation services. Utilizing road construction to improve the energy efficiency of enterprises, therefore, becomes a critical way to promote the transformation of the economy from high-speed development to high-quality development. Existing studies primarily focus on the impact of transport infrastructure on productivity, while few papers focus on the impact mechanism of transport infrastructure on energy efficiency. To delve deeper into the internal relationship between transportation and regional economic development, this paper explores the effect of transport infrastructure on energy utilization efficiency at the enterprise level. Based on the environmental pollution data of Chinese industrial enterprises from 2001 to 2011, this paper analyzes the impact of transport infrastructure on enterprises’ energy efficiency and verifies the impact mechanism. The results show that the construction and improvement of urban road facilities can significantly improve firm energy utilization efficiency. Compared to low-energy consumption sectors, the impact of transportation infrastructure on the energy efficiency of high-energy consumption industry enterprises is notably more pronounced. A closer examination of the impact mechanism revealed that both industrial agglomeration and the cost effect are pivotal mechanisms through which transportation infrastructure affects enterprise energy efficiency. JEL Classification: D21, L91, Q40, Q51