Policy inducement effect in energy efficiency: An empirical analysis of China

Abstract

Energy efficiency improvement is one of the most effective means to achieve energy conservation. The success of energy conservation depends on scientific policy design. So what is the impact of existing policies on energy efficiency? What types of policy tools have the most significant impact on energy efficiency? In response to these problems, this paper took the energy conservation policies promulgated by the Chinese government over the years as samples. This paper used the ridge regression model to analyze policy inducement effect in energy efficiency based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and the policy text evaluation model. The results show that: (1) Energy conservation policies have a positive influence on improving energy efficiency. (2) Among the policy tools, economic incentive tools have the most significant influence on the increase in energy efficiency. Therefore, the government should emphasize the use of economic incentive policy tools and coordinate the relationship between various policy tools to achieve China’s stated energy conservation goals.