The technology gap of Chinese regions' energy efficiency and spatial convergence—Based on the hybrid meta-frontier data envelopment analysis

Abstract

This paper applies the hybrid meta-frontier data envelopment analysis model to estimate the energy efficiency of the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions in China as well as all Chinese provinces during 2003–2012. We further compare the energy efficiency under the regional frontier and the meta-frontier for different provinces and then examine the convergence situation among these four regions in China as well as the national energy efficiency. The results show the evidence of big gaps in the energy efficiency between the provinces under both the regional frontier and the national meta-frontier. In general, the highest energy efficiency lies in eastern China, followed by western China and then northeastern China, with the lowest in central China. Using the technology gap ratio, the findings present that eastern China achieves the national potential optimized production technology, whereas the central, western, and northeastern regions are still some distance away from their own national potential optimized production technology with considerable room for improvement. As for the variation trends of energy efficiency, those of the central and northeastern regions have a convergence tendency, whereas the energy efficiencies of eastern and western China show the characteristics of slight divergence. Moreover, the convergence tendency of energy efficiency for the whole country has not yet been formed. Based on the above research conclusions, we propose a number of energy policy recommendations for China's government in order to improve energy efficiency.