Industrial Sectors In China Research Articles

The sustainability of China’s metal industries: features, challenges and future focuses

The metal industry (MI) is the largest energy consumer and producer of environmental pollution within the industrial sector in China. This paper investigated the sustainability of China's metal industry since the 21th century through an overview and an analysis of green total-factor productivity (GTFP) of this sector. The results showed the following: (1) since the beginning of the 21th century, the scale of China's MI expanded rapidly. However, the rapid development of this sector relies on an extensive mode that has triggered off a series of resources and environmental problems. The promotion of green development in this sector becomes urgently. (2) The GTFP of China's MI increased from 2000 to 2015, and technological progress (or technological innovation) was the key driver. The GTFP growth of the mining and processing of ferrous metal ores occurred due to technological progress and efficiency improvements. In other industries, the GTFP growth mainly resulted from technological progress/innovation. (3) The industries involved in the mining and processing of ferrous and nonferrous metal ores were on the state of increasing returns to scale, the returns to scale of the smelting and pressing of nonferrous metals and the manufacture of metal products transformed from increasing to constant, and the returns to scale of the smelting and pressing of ferrous metals experienced three states: increasing, decreasing, and constant.

行业异质性视角下我国工业生态创新效率评价

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 行业异质性视角下我国工业生态创新效率评价 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201809152005 作者: 作者单位: 兰州理工大学经管学院,兰州理工大学经管学院 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金项目（71763017）；甘肃省高等科研项目（055007） The evaluation of industrial eco-innovation efficiency in China from the perspective of industry heterogeneity Author: Affiliation: School of Economics and Management, Lanzhou University of Technology,School of Economics and Management, Lanzhou University of Technology Fund Project: The National Natural Science Foundation of china;Gansu Provincial Advanced Scientific Research Project 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:随着资源紧缺、环境污染日益严峻，生态创新成为各国追逐的政治目标，研究我国不同工业行业的生态创新效率对我国的创新发展和可持续发展具有重要意义。从生态创新内涵出发，构建包括环境效益和经济效益在内的生态创新效率评价指标体系。以2009-2015年我国34个工业行业面板数据为样本，利用生产要素密集度将选取的34个工业行业归类为资源密集型行业、劳动密集型行业和资本密集型行业。运用基于实数编码加速遗传算法的投影寻踪分类模型进行综合评价，该方法可以依据最佳投影方向来判断各评价指标对综合评价目标的贡献大小和方向，利用投影指标值实现对34个行业的统一分类和评价。结果表明：不同要素密集度行业的生态创新效率存在显著差异，资本密集型行业的生态创新效率最高，资源密集型行业和劳动密集型行业的生态创新效率较为接近，但都低于行业整体平均水平，其中尤以劳动密集型行业中的有色金属矿采选业的生态创新效率最低；生态创新研发人力、财力的投入以及创新活动所带来的经济效益对生态创新效率的提升影响较大，而仪器和设备等物质投入对生态创新效率影响较小。 Abstract:The shortage of resources and the increasingly severe environmental pollution have made the eco-innovation become a political goal pursued by countries all over the world. The study on the eco-innovation efficiency of the different industrial sectors in China will be of great significance for the innovative and sustainable development. Starting from the connotation of eco-innovation, an assessment index system of eco-innovation efficiency was established, including environmental benefits and economic benefits. The panel data of 34 industrial sectors from 2009 to 2015 in China was taken as a sample and the 34 industrial sectors selected were classified into resource-intensive industries, labor-intensive industries and capital-intensive industries by using the production factor intensity in this study. The projection pursuit classification model based on real number encoded accelerating genetic algorithm was used for comprehensive assessment, while this method can judge the contribution size and direction of each assessment index to the comprehensive assessment objective according to the optimal projection direction, as well as realize the unified classification and assessment for the 34 industrial sectors through using the projection index value. The results show that the eco-innovation efficiency varies significantly in the industries with different factor intensities. The eco-innovation efficiency of the capital-intensive industries is the highest, while that of the resource-intensive industries and labor-intensive industries are close to each other but both are lower than the overall average of the industry. Among them, the non-ferrous metal mining and dressing industry in labor-intensive industries shows the lowest eco-innovation efficiency. The input of manpower and financial resources in the research and development of eco-innovation and the economic benefits brought by innovation activities have a great influence on the improvement of eco-innovation efficiency, while the input of materials, such as instruments and equipment, etc., have less influence on that. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Energy and environmental efficiency measurement of China's industrial sectors: A DEA model with non-homogeneous inputs and outputs

Environmental problems brought by industry are attracting extensive attention so a comprehensive analysis of industrial environmental performance is increasingly important. However, the comparison of industrial sector efficiencies is complicated by the fact that the natural resources consumed and/or the pollutants discharged by each sector may differ. In this paper, we extend the DEA model to consider two-sided non-homogeneous problems, handling DMU sets that have non-homogeneity in both inputs and outputs. This is different from the previous researches which generally focus on regional data to avoid non-homogeneity. Today environmental reform and energy conservation in various industrial sectors are both parts of the basic state policy of China. The empirical results show that: (1) Sectors' efficiencies are still low and unbalanced. The Recycling and Disposal of Waste department achieves the best energy saving and emission reduction efficiency. (2) 38 sectors can be clustered into four groups and set new benchmark in each group. (3) The overall efficiency of 38 industrial sectors in China maintained a rising trend in five years. With this more realistic analysis of environmental efficiency, the Chinese government can make more informed decisions to realize sustainable industrial development.

Productivity measurement of industrial sector in China regarding air pollution

AbstractAs an important sector of national economy, the industrial sector accounts for 33.4% of gross domestic product while consuming 70% of energy and causing serious air pollution in China. It is meaningful to measure the productivity of industrial sector in China with air pollution consideration. The range‐adjusted measure of the nonradial data envelopment analysis, as with natural disposability and managerial disposability, is adopted in order to measure the productivity of provincial industrial sector in China during 2011–2014. The results explain that the unified efficiency under managerial disposability is lower than the unified efficiency under natural disposability and the unified efficiency under natural and managerial disposability, which means that management improvement and technology innovation should be obtained more attention from the government. As modernization of economic restructuring, there is not a trend of unified efficiency under natural disposability. Eastern China has highest unified efficiency under managerial disposability, whereas unified efficiency under natural and managerial disposability are improving in eastern China and western China in period of 2013–2014. The results also describe that more than 20 provinces and nearly half of provinces are suitable for the industrial pollution control investment and research and development investment, respectively. On the basis of the results of the truncated regression model, we can identify the influencing factors of unified efficiency. According to above results, suggestions are proposed in order to improve the productivity.

Total Factor Efficiency Study on China’s Industrial Coal Input and Wastewater Control with Dual Target Variables

After decades of economic development in China, its energy consumption still relies heavily on coal, and the dominant segment of our economy—the industrial sectors with large coal input—have caused massive wastewater pollution. To provide a decision-making basis for the sustainable development of Chinese industry and economy, this paper selected 39 industrial sectors in China and studied their Total Factor Efficiency (TFE) using Dual Target Variables of coal input and wastewater control during 2003–2014. The results showed that 82.05% of the total industries within our study scope had an efficiency level below 0.5. Over the entire study period of 2003–2014, only the national monopoly industries and high and new tech industries were able to maintain the optimal efficiency level. In comparison with the existing Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) Model and studies on TFE using multi-target variables methods, this paper has probably made two improvements. First, we improved the original DEA model to calculate the TFE of two target variables (coal input and wastewater control) at the same time. Second, we developed an algorithm to calculate the TFE of industrial coal input and wastewater control from 2003 to 2014, based on the official input-output statistics of China.

The labor force age structure and employment structure of the modern sector

This paper studies the relationship between population aging and structural change in terms of employment distribution in the non-agricultural sector. Based on cross-country panel data, it is revealed that a greater share of elderly workers in the labor force is associated with more service employment relative to that in the industrial sector. To rationalize this finding, a two-sector overlapping generations model is constructed. The model highlights two forces, namely the “scale effect (SE)” and the “composition effect (CE)”, that drive the correlation between the labor force age structure and the service-industry employment ratio. Calibrating main model parameters with China's micro level data, simulation results well fit the country's historical trajectory of structural change. According to population forecast data, the model predicts a substantial growth of services relative to the industrial sector in China up to 2050.

Convergence of carbon emissions intensity across Chinese industrial sectors

Abstract The convergence of carbon emissions in the industrial sector is an important prerequisite for achieving peak carbon emissions in China. This study investigates the carbon emissions intensity convergence of 24 industrial sectors in China between 1995 and 2015 based on an environmental performance index method and the convergence model. The results find that beta-conditional convergence exists across the carbon intensities of all industrial sectors by considering capital intensity and per-capita sectoral value added. This finding indicates that the carbon intensities of all sectors converge to different steady levels and are influenced by the two considered control variables. A decrease in the capital intensity or increase in the per-capita value added increases the degree of carbon intensity convergence, but the effect of per-capita value added is greater. Additionally, club convergence analyses show that there are two stronger convergent clubs of carbon intensity for 20 sectors, but the convergence evidence of the remaining four sectors is relatively weak.

Water pollution footprints induced by industrial import and export in China

ABSTRACTWith the rapid development of foreign trade in China, industrial import and export has been an absolute subject in recent years. The huge trade surplus of import and export trade of industrial products brings not only high profits, but also pollution costs as well. Based on the concept of water pollution footprints (WPFs), this study applies the input-output method and calculates pollutant-producing coefficients of 20 major industrial sectors in China and investigates the WPFs caused by the import and export trades of these industrial sectors. The research results show that WPF resulting from exports exceeds that of imports from 2011 to 2015 in China. The net inflow of pollution footprint is mainly from paper mills, printing and stationery manufacturing, and textile industry; whereas a great number of WPFs are transferred to other countries by these sectors, such as metal mining and dressing industry and oil and natural gas exploitation industry.

Multi-perspective comparisons and mitigation implications of SO2 and NO x discharges from the industrial sector of China: a decomposition analysis.

This study is the first attempt to investigate the drivers of Chinese industrial SO2 and NOx emissions from both periodic and structural perspectives through a decomposition analysis using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI). The two pollutants’ emissions were decomposed into output effects, structural effects, clean production effects, and pollution abatement effects. The results showed that China’s industrial SO2 discharge increased by 1.14 Mt during 2003–2014, and the contributions from the four effects were 23.17, − 1.88, − 3.80, and − 16.36 Mt, respectively. Likewise, NOx discharge changed by − 3.44 Mt over 2011–2014, and the corresponding contributions from the four effects were 2.97, − 0.62, − 1.84, and − 3.95 Mt. Thus, the output effect was mainly responsible for the growth of the two discharges. The average annual contribution rates of SO2 and NOx from output were 14.33 and 5.97%, respectively, but pollution abatement technology presented the most obvious mitigating effects (− 10.11 and − 7.92%), followed by the mitigating effects of clean production technology (− 2.35 and − 3.7%), and the mitigation from the structural effect was the weakest (− 1.16 and − 1.25%, respectively), which meant pollutant reduction policies related to industrial structure adjustment should be a long-term measure for the two discharges. In addition, the sub-sectors of I20 (manufacture of raw chemical materials and chemical products), I24 (manufacture of non-metallic mineral products), and I26 (smelting and pressing of non-ferrous metals) were the major contributors to both discharges. Thus, these sub-sectors should be given priority consideration when designing mitigation-related measures. Last, some particular policy implications were recommended for reducing the two discharges, including that the government should seek a technological discharge reduction route.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11356-018-1306-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The impact of the change of trade pattern on China’s energy industry——Based on the measurement of the upstreamness of production of the value chains

The natural monopoly of China’s upstream industry and the vertical structure of industrial chain’s upstream and downstream competition is an important feature of China’s industrial economic structure, and the impact of the change of trade pattern on the energy industry, which located at the upstream of the China’s value chain, has become an important issue in the industrial economy. Since China has entered into the WTO in 2001, we use it for event analysis based on 1987-2007 China input-output data. The study calculates the upstreamness of production of the value chain in various industrial sectors of China’s energy industry every five years, and make correlation analysis of upstreamness of production and other economic indicators to check the characteristics of periodic inspection of China’s industrial structure with the development of industrial economy and the change of trade pattern.

Environmental efficiency evaluation of industrial sector in China by incorporating learning effects

Concerns about reducing waste gas emissions and the trade-off with economic development dominate government policy worldwide. However, existing data envelopment analysis does little to permit understanding of how environmental efficiency can be improved by learning solutions. Digesting and following effective strategies from elsewhere is intuitive, but to date no evidence has been able to quantify how exactly the inputs and outputs of production are affected. Developing an improved slacks-based measure model, which incorporates learning effects as one part of undesirable outputs for the first time, we reappraise the performance of Chinese regional industrial production systems. Learning effects have significant impacts for three waste gases, especially for sulfur dioxide, advocating policy which gives managers and operatives access to best practice and empowers them to replicate this within their own firms. As well as reducing output there is strong potential to improve environmental efficiency, particularly in the developed eastern area of China. However, in the central and western regions of China it remains optimal to focus efforts on productivity and there caution on placing too much hope on learning activities is cautioned against. We also find that the proposed approach accompanied with traditional data envelopment analysis model can effectively identify the regional inefficiency whether sourced from learning activities, other production activities, or the both.

Understanding China's industrial CO2 emissions: A comprehensive decomposition framework

Because industrial sector in China is energy-intensive, clarifying the main factors driving CO2 emissions in this sector is of great importance for the carbon emission reduction and further sustainable development of China's economy. This paper combines production-theoretical decomposition analysis (PDA) and index decomposition analysis (IDA) to decompose China's industrial CO2 emission changes into seven factors: energy mix change, potential energy intensity change, economic activity, energy usage efficiency, energy saving technology change, GDP technical efficiency, and GDP technology change. The main findings are as follows: (1) during 2000–2015, industrial CO2 emissions increased 2.6560 times, economic activity was the largest contributor to increasing industrial CO2 emissions but varied significantly across provinces. (2) GDP technology change and potential energy intensity change were the dominant contributors to industrial CO2 mitigation. However, in several western provinces, potential energy intensity change played a positive role in increasing CO2 emissions. Therefore, local governments should adopt effective measures to improve technology levels in western provinces. (3) Energy-saving technology change also led to a reduction in CO2 emissions in most provinces, although its inhibiting effect was very small (annual average decrease rates were less than 3%). (4) Energy mix change, energy usage efficiency, and GDP technical efficiency played insignificant roles in affecting industrial CO2 emissions and had mixed results across provinces. This detailed information about the factors driving industrial CO2 emissions will be important for central and local governments in China in formulating emission-reduction policies.

Efficiency Evaluation and Policy Analysis of Industrial Wastewater Control in China

With increasing emissions of industrial wastewater and poor control measures, environmental pollution has become a serious issue haunting China’s economic development. Meanwhile, the current pollution management policy system in China is mainly under the supervision of the central government and executed by local governments. Under the current economic growth model of China, the industrial sector remains the dominant segment of our economy, which makes the Total Factor Efficiency (TFE) evaluation and policy analysis of industrial wastewater control decisive factors concerning China’s future economic growth and sustainable development. Based on existing studies of China and abroad, and with the help of a Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) model, this paper used 39 industrial sectors and their input-output data from 2003 to 2014 of China as Decision Making Units to calculate the TFE of wastewater control in different industrial sectors of China. Moreover, we have designed and adopted our own MATLAB programming for optimization solutions of multi-variable constrained nonlinear functions in order to obtain a more accurate estimation of the TFE of wastewater control. Based on our calculation results, this paper further explained the difference in TFE and policy implications across typical industries in China, and offered policy recommendations accordingly.

Effectiveness of Monetary Policy and the Growth of Industrial Sector in China

China is viewed as the pillar of Emerging Market Economies (EMEs), deems to surpassed United State, and become the topmost industrialized country in the world with the prospects of major shift in the future world power. However, growth rate has slow down since the third quarter of 2014. Through this paper, we aim at investigating the impacts of monetary policy on industrial sector growth, and determine whether the long-run industrial sector growth in China can be foster by the effectiveness of monetary policy. It also examines the interrelationships among the variables employed and determines the steady-state relationships between industrial sector growth and monetary policy. Time-series econometric techniques such as unit roots, ARDL and ECM are employed to monthly data for the year 1994:1 to 2013:12.According to the empirical results derived, the effectiveness of monetary policy significantly affects industrial sector growth and the short-run impact of monetary policy on industrial output production is established.

Effectiveness of Monetary Policy and the Growth of Industrial Sector in China

China is viewed as the pillar of Emerging Market Economies (EMEs), deems to surpassed United State, and become the topmost industrialized country in the world with the prospects of major shift in the future world power. However, growth rate has slow down since the third quarter of 2014. Through this paper, we aim at investigating the impacts of monetary policy on industrial sector growth, and determine whether the long-run industrial sector growth in China can be foster by the effectiveness of monetary policy. It also examines the interrelationships among the variables employed and determines the steady-state relationships between industrial sector growth and monetary policy. Time-series econometric techniques such as unit roots, ARDL and ECM are employed to monthly data for the year 1994:1 to 2013:12.According to the empirical results derived, the effectiveness of monetary policy significantly affects industrial sector growth and the short-run impact of monetary policy on industrial output production is established.

Embodied rare earths flow between industrial sectors in China: A complex network approach

Both the direct and indirect need of rare earths (RE) as an important raw material has driven the transfer of RE between different sectors, forming a complex network of RE flows in the economy. However, previous studies have focused primarily on the direct use of RE and neglected the indirect effect and the network characteristics that greatly hinders the sustainable use of RE. To solve this problem, this paper builds an embodied RE network by combining both input-output analysis and complex network theory. By analyzing the clustering coefficient and the average path length of the network, we find that the embodied RE flow network can reveal the small world nature characteristics. Moreover, chemicals and the scrap sector are the strongest sectors of the direct effect, indirect effect and intermediate effect based on the comprehensive analysis of the network’s degree centrality, eigenvector centrality, and betweenness centrality, respectively. Furthermore, the establishment of embodied RE flow relations is focused on the related sectors of infrastructure construction and the petrochemical industry based on the analysis of each sector’s weighted edges that carry embodied RE flow. Furthermore, the 41 sectors of an embodied RE flow network can be divided into four industrial clusters that are related closely to each other. Among the clusters, the E&C cluster is the core of the entire network. Finally, we provide policy implications on the sustainable use of RE through industrial restructuring.

Analysis of energy efficiency and energy savings potential in China’s provincial industrial sectors

Because industrial sectors in China are energy-intensive, improving energy efficiency and promoting energy savings in these sectors are of great importance for the further sustainable development of China’s economy. Using a proposed meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper analyzes the total-factor energy efficiency and energy savings potential in China’s provincial industrial sectors for the years 2000–2014 from three perspectives, namely, the technology gap, management, and scale. The results indicate that (1) driven by technological progress, energy efficiency during the sample period was greatly improved, though the expansion of technology gaps between regions and the decline in scale efficiency represented two significant handicaps; (2) the current energy efficiency in China’s industrial sectors remains extremely low, indicating that there is considerable potential for energy efficiency improvement and energy savings; and (3) the sources of energy inefficiency and energy savings potential in China’s industrial sectors exhibit spatially distinct characteristics. Accordingly, it is determined that most of China’s eastern provinces should focus on improving scale and management efficiency, whereas most of its central and western provinces should concentrate on three factors: narrowing the regional technology gap, improving management efficiency, and optimizing the industrial scale.

The relationships between household consumption activities and energy consumption in china— An input-output analysis from the lifestyle perspective

The household sector has become the second largest consumer of final energy, ranking only next to the industrial sector in China. Except for the direct energy consumption of the household sector, people’s consumption activities also indirectly affect the energy consumption of multiple production sectors. Previous studies have shed light upon consumer-oriented energy consumption and carbon emission, however, the critical problem of sector-to-sector energy linkages between supply side and demand side has not been fully addressed. Besides, there also lacks sufficient research on the energy conservation potential of residents’ lifestyle change. This paper investigates the direct and indirect impact of household consumption activities on energy consumption in China from the consumers’ lifestyle perspective based on the input-output analysis. The relationship between household energy consumption and industrial energy consumption and the effect of lifestyle change on energy conservation are also considered. It is estimated that China’s energy consumption caused by household consumption activities in 2012 is 29141.97 PJ in total, which accounts for 24.7% of the total final energy consumption. The indirect energy consumption of household consumption activities is 1.35 times more than the direct energy consumption. Housing activities cause the most indirect energy consumption, and the smelting and pressing industry of ferrous metal is the most energy-consuming industrial sector influenced by household consumption. We also find that adopting low-carbon consumption pattern and accelerating the decrease of energy intensity are both effective means to reduce the total energy consumption by scenario analysis. Finally the energy conservation potential by comparing different types of household consumption behaviors is revealed to make policy makers form vivid impressions on the importance of demand side regulation.

How do different innovation forms mediate the relationship between environmental regulation and performance?

The Porter Hypothesis (PH) challenges the traditional view on the relationship between environmental regulation and performance by arguing that different innovation forms stimulated by regulations can improve firm performance. However, little of the extant literature discusses how different innovation forms mediate the relationship involved in the Porter Hypothesis. Therefore, in this study, we attempt to provide a model to compare the mediation roles of process innovation and product innovation in the PH, using data from 35 industrial sectors in China from 2001 to 2010. Empirical results indicate that while both process innovation and product innovation mediate the causal link between environmental regulation and performance, product innovation has a slightly stronger mediation effect than process innovation.

Impact of Household Consumption Activities on Energy Consumption in China—Evidence from the Lifestyle Perspective and Input-output Analysis

The household sector has become the second largest consumer of final energy, ranking only next to the industrial sector in China. Except for the direct energy consumption of household sector, people's consumption activities also indirectly affect the energy consumption of multiple production sectors. This paper investigates the direct and indirect impact of household consumption activities on energy consumption in China from the consumers’ lifestyle perspective based on the input-output analysis. The results show that China's energy consumption caused by household consumption activities in 2012 accounts for 24.7% of the total finial energy consumption. The indirect energy consumption of household consumption activities is 1.35 times more than the direct energy consumption. Residential activities cause the most indirect energy consumption, while the smelting and pressing industry of ferrous metal is the most energy-consuming industrial sector influenced by household consumption. We also find that the low-carbon pattern and accelerated technological advance can reduce the indirect energy consumption effectively by scenario analysis.