Energy Efficiency Research: A Literature Review
Xiao Liu ¹, Tinghua Liu²
1.Economic School of Qingdao University, Shandong Qingdao 266071, People's Republic of China;
2.Business School, Shandong University of Technology, c, People's Republic of China
 

First Author: Xiao Liu, a master's candidate at Qingdao University, who is born in 1990. Major: Regional Economics.
Corresponding Author: Tinghua Liu, Shandong University of technology, Zibo City, Shandong Pvovince, Email: haddy1009@163.com.
 
 
 
 
 
Abstract: Energy is an important material resources to support the survival and development of human society, which also plays an important role in sustainable economic growth. Energy efficiency has become a focus in the academic field, there are many literature about energy efficiency. This paper makes a literature review from two aspects: regional research on energy efficiency and factors affecting energy efficiency. And we consider the regional research is mainly including the national level, regional comparison and single area analysis three aspects; while the affecting factors are including FDI, technical progress, government factors, industrial structure and other factors.
Key words: energy efficiency; FDI; technical progress
 
1 Introduction
At present, China environmental carrying capacity has reached the limit, low energy efficiency, the deterioration of ecological environment and the extensive mode of development of environment have been unable to ensure sustainable development. China's regional economic development is unbalanced, while its energy efficiency also has obvious regional differences. A comparative study on the regional energy efficiency and find the key factors effecting our energy efficiency have great theoretical and practical significance. The research on energy efficiency in the academic circles has been gradually enriched in recent years. This paper will review the literature from two aspects: regional research and influencing factors.
2 Regional energy efficiency study
The research on energy efficiency from the regional perspective is more abundant, and domestic and foreign scholars have done a more in-depth study. This part will be from the national level, regional comparison and single regional analysis of three levels of literature.
(1) national level
Stead (2007) analyzed the temporal and spatial effects of energy efficiency in EU countries.Ortiz (2009) studied the energy efficiency of EU countries to observe whether there was a convergence of energy efficiency among member states. Ceylan and Gunay (2010) used the data of European Union from 1995 to 2007, comparing energy efficiency between countries, found that the energy efficiency of each country in the sample period was relatively slow. Study on Chinese energy efficiency, Dan (2007) estimated the regional energy efficiency, regional distribution analysis found that most of the high energy efficiency region are often distributed in the southeast coastal provinces, low energy efficiency mostly in the coal rich inland areas. Sun et al. (2012) decomposed the traditional energy efficiency indicators, investigated the changes of energy efficiency and its influencing factors in different regions in China from 1986 to 2010. Huang et al. (2012) used the three stage DEA model to analyze the energy efficiency of China's 29 provinces in 2009. Chen et al. (2013) studied the consistency of energy efficiency and growth quality by using the data of 1997-2007 province of China in 30 provinces.
(2) regional comparison
At present, the research on the regional comparison of China mainly focuses on the comparison of the three (four) regions of East, West and East (Northeast), the comparison of the three economic zones, and the comparison between the two groups.
Li (2010) used panel data of 29 provinces in the mainland, the results show that the energy efficiency of the whole country and the three regions has fluctuated between 1999-2002, but the overall trend is rising. Ma (2011) studied the panel data of three major economic regions ( the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Bohai region), the results show that the energy efficiency of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta region are generally higher than that of the Bohai region. Wang (2014) analyzed the space-time from 1990-2009 in Chinese 31 provinces, found that the overall energy efficiency in the eastern and central regions is higher than that in the western regions, the northeast region is slightly higher than that in the central region .
(3) single area analysis
In recent years, some scholars have paid attention to the energy efficiency of a region. For example, Li et al. (2012) analyzed the influence factors of energy efficiency change in Tianjin. Zang and Liu(2012) studied the energy efficiency of Shandong Province in 1996-2010.Wu and Li(2015) also researched on the energy efficiency of Shandong Province in 2006-2013. Wu and Xu (2016) used the super efficiency DEA model and ML index to measure the energy efficiency of the Yangtze River economic belt, studied the factors that affecting the Yangtze River Economic belt.
3 Energy efficiency impact factors
(1) FDI
Some scholars examine the effect of FDI (foreign direct investment) on energy efficiency in a country or a region. Mielnik and Goldemberg (2002) first proposed the "FDI will reduce the host country energy intensity" hypothesis, analyzed the impact of FDI on energy intensity in 20 developing countries. However, some studies have raised objections, such as Cole et al (2006) through the establishment of the model, using the data in cross-border data of 33 countries, found that FDI will affect the host country's environmental regulation policy formulation.
Domestic scholars also study the impact of FDI on energy efficiency. Teng and Liu (2010) used 1995-2007 data to analyze the impact of R&D Spillovers on regional energy efficiency. Chen and Li (2010) studied the effect of FDI on the industrial energy efficiency of provinces and cities, and discussed the influence of the entry of foreign enterprises on the industrial energy efficiency.
(2) technological progress
The influence of technical factors on energy efficiency has been attracted wide attention from scholars both at home and abroad. Wei et al. (2007) used Malmquist index to calculate the energy efficiency of China's iron and steel industry in 1994-2003. The author believes that the energy efficiency of China's iron and steel industry during the sample period increased by 60%, mainly due to the growth of technological progress rather than technical efficiency. Bosetti et al. (2008) using dynamic region model analysis found that the international R&D spillovers had a positive impact on improving energy efficiency. Cheng and Li (2010) thought that the progress of technology had a positive effect on the improvement of energy efficiency. Duan and Yu (2011) studied the effect of total factor productivity growth on energy efficiency. Wang and Qu (2011) analyzed the impact of technological progress and technical efficiency of the manufacturing industry on energy efficiency, and found that technological progress was the main reason for the increase of total factor energy efficiency in manufacturing industry.
(3) government factors
The development of the region can not be separated from the government behavior. Chen and Zhang (2012) argued that environmental regulation had a forced mechanism for energy efficiency. Shi and Shen (2013) researched on the effect of government intervention and economic agglomeration on energy efficiency, they found that dominant market mechanism of enterprise agglomeration can significantly improve energy efficiency, due to government intervention. In addition, the choice of the government to make energy-saving emission reduction strategy to improve energy efficiency failed to play its due effect.
(4) industrial structure
Many studies show that the upgrading of industrial structure can promote the improvement of energy efficiency, and it is considered that the change of industrial structure is an important factor to improve the regional energy efficiency. Liu et al. (2011) studied the contribution of industrial structure change to the improvement of regional energy efficiency from the perspective of space. Li and Lin (2014) analysis of the impact of industrial structure on energy efficiency in china. Wu and Dong (2016) analyze the impact of industrial structure on energy efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic belt.
(5) other factors
In addition, there are many factors affecting the energy efficiency, such as economic agglomeration, factor market distortion, foreign trade, and the process of marketization. Shi and Shen (2013) found that energy efficiency and the characteristics of the regional agglomeration of urban density showed U type changes. Lin and Du(2013) analyzed energy efficiency from 1997 to 2009, suggested that factors market distortion significantly inhibited China to improve energy efficiency. Lin and Liu(2015) studied on the impact of foreign trade on industrial energy efficiency, there was a positive feedback between the efficiency of foreign trade and energy environment. On the one hand, foreign trade can promote energy efficiency by the technology spillover from import products and learning during the export; on the other hand, the high energy industries will be more actively involved in foreign trade. Zhang and Ji (2014) empirical analyzed the impact of marketization on regional energy efficiency, they found that the market can significantly improve energy efficiency at least 0.6%.
4 Summary
Energy efficiency has become a focus in the academic field. This paper based on the literature review of energy efficiency from two aspects, namely, the regional research of energy efficiency and the influencing factors. There are three main aspects of regional analysis: the analysis of national level, regional comparison and the analysis of single region. The main influencing factors are FDI, technological progress, government factors, industrial structure and other factors.
 
Acknowledgments
    Funding program: Shandong social science planning and research Youth Project: "the financing path choice of Shandong province enterprise efficiency improvement under the background of credit constraints" (14DJJJ06).
 
 
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