What makes the provincial inequality of natural gas consumption in China? Evidence from Gini-coefficient approach

Abstract

Many researchers have focused on inequalities in income and energy consumption, but research on the regional disparities in natural gas consumption (NGC) is insufficient, which presents a gap about the development of informed policies for sustainable consumption. Increasing provincial NGC is a substantial measure to improve environmental protection, clean production, and the living standards of local citizens. It is necessary to determine the leading causes of inequality in gas consumption to improve the NGC in China’s provinces. To fill this research gap, we use the Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve to measure NGC inequality and apply hierarchical cluster analysis and a regression model with Partial R2 to estimate the factors of provincial NGC. The empirical results show a consistently increasing trend in China’s NGC over 1997–2019, which has not been accompanied by a steady decrease in inequality, and low inequality is mainly caused by several major natural gas-consuming provinces. Further, the NGC in coastal provinces is more significantly affected by GDP, foreign direct investment, and financial liberation, and the impact of urbanization level and population on provincial NGC has different patterns.