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The government-production nexus of energy efficiency in China’s construction industry: regional difference and factor analysis

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Abstract

For decades, the construction industry has contributed significantly to China’s economic growth. The heavy energy consumption inevitably leads to the release of large amounts of carbon emissions. Improving energy efficiency has been a crucial solution for mitigating the environmental impacts while boosting its green economy in the construction industry. Measuring the energy efficiency in the construction industry considering the quality of government sector is still limited. Using panel provincial data in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper proposes a two-stage dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework integrating the government sector with the production sector in the construction industry, and calculates energy efficiency. The spatial Durbin model is used to analyze the driving forces of energy efficiency. The research findings include (1) the energy efficiency in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions. The mean values of energy efficiency in the eastern, central, and western regions are 0.42, 0.34, and 0.37. (2) Even though governance efficiency is lower than production efficiency, there is a positive correlation between governance efficiency and production efficiency with a correlation coefficient of 0.48. Improving governance efficiency is a significant step to increase the production efficiency and further increase energy efficiency of the construction industry. (3) Digital transformation has a positive effect on governance efficiency but has no effect on production efficiency. The government-production nexus framework provides implications for clarifying the role of government intervention in improving energy efficiency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Business School Suzhou, Xi’an Jiao Tong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, 215123, Jiangsu Province, China

    Xin Feng

  2. Business School, Hohai University, Changzhou, 213022, Jiangsu Province, China

    Ruiqi Jin & Lina Zhang

  3. Department of Economics, Soochow University, Taipei, 10048, Taiwan

    Yung-ho Chiu

Authors
  1. Xin Feng
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  2. Ruiqi Jin
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  3. Yung-ho Chiu
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  4. Lina Zhang
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Contributions

Xin Feng: conceptualization, writing–original draft, visualization, investigation. Ruiqi Jin: conceptualization, writing–review and editing, methodology. Yung-ho Chiu: conceptualization, writing–review and editing, methodology, supervision. Lina Zhang: software, projection administration.

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Correspondence to Yung-ho Chiu.

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Table 5

Table 5 The definitions and measurements of variables
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Feng, X., Jin, R., Chiu, Yh. et al. The government-production nexus of energy efficiency in China’s construction industry: regional difference and factor analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 106227–106241 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29470-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29470-0

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