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Factors influencing energy intensity in four Chinese industries

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Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate the determinants of decline in energy intensity in four Chinese industries - pulp and paper, cement, iron and steel, and aluminum. This paper attempts to answer the following key question: For the purpose of promoting energy efficiency, do prices, technology, enterprise restructuring and other policy-related instruments affect various sectors uniformly so as to justify uniform industrial energy conservation policies, or do different industries respond significantly differently so as to require policies that are tailored to each sector separately? In this paper, we examine this question using data for China's most energy-intensive large and medium-size enterprises over the period 1999-2004. Our results suggest that in all four industries rising energy costs are a significant contributor to the decline in energy intensity over our period of study. China's industrial policies encouraging consolidations and scale economies also seem to have contributed to reductions in energy intensity in these four industries.

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JEL Codes: Q41: Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices, D22: Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis, D21: Firm Behavior: Theory, Q43: Energy and the Macroeconomy

Keywords: China, Energy intensity, Industrial sector

DOI: 10.5547/01956574.37.SI1.kfis

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Published in Volume 37, China Special Issue of the bi-monthly journal of the IAEE's Energy Economics Education Foundation.

 

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