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Direct and economy-wide energy rebound effects in China’s transportation sector: a comparative analysis

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Abstract

Although the existing literature has evaluated the energy rebound effect (ERE) from various aspects, the estimates of different types of ERE obtained by different methods still deserve further discussion. For this reason, by analyzing the pros and cons of assessment methods, this study offers a comparison between the direct and economy-wide EREs based on China’s transportation sector during the period of 2003–2019. Specifically, on the basis of the translog cost function, we use the dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) method with seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) to evaluate the sectoral direct ERE. Considering that the direct ERE estimation is limited by its strict assumptions, this article further assesses the sectoral ERE from a macro perspective. By constructing the dynamic two-stage panel function, the generalized method of moments (GMM) was adopted to estimate the sectoral economy-wide ERE. The empirical results demonstrate that first, capital and labor relative to energy are Morishima substitutes; second, the sectoral short-term economy-wide ERE in China was 71.60%, while the long-term economy-wide ERE was 32.00% during the study period; third, there are significant regional differences in the EREs of Chinese transportation industry both for the short and long term, and the east China demonstrated the highest sectoral economy-wide ERE.

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Availability of data and materials

The CEIC database https://www.ceicdata.com/zh-hans The China Statistical Yearbook http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/ The China Financial Yearbookhttps://data.cnki.net/trade/yearbook/single/n2014020005?z=z003

Notes

  1. Specifically, the eastern region includes Beijing, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Zhejiang; the central region includes Anhui, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jilin, and Shanxi; and the western region includes Chongqing, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, and Yunnan.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Editor and anonymous referees for their insightful and constructive comments.

Funding

We acknowledge the funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 71772065, 72072056), the Shanghai Science and Technology Plan Project (22692110000, 21692107200), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities at East China Normal University (Nos. 2021ECNU-YYJ026, 2021QKT007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Xiaoling Ouyang

  2. School of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Junhao Zhang & Gang Du

Authors
  1. Xiaoling Ouyang
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  2. Junhao Zhang
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  3. Gang Du
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Contributions

Xiaoling Ouyang: conceptualization, methodology, and writing-review and editing. Junhao Zhang: data curation and writing-original draft preparation. Gang Du: conceptualization, writing-review and editing. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Gang Du.

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Ouyang, X., Zhang, J. & Du, G. Direct and economy-wide energy rebound effects in China’s transportation sector: a comparative analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 90479–90494 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22131-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22131-8

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