IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v282y2021ipas0306261920316032.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does natural gas pricing reform establish an effective mechanism in China: A policy evaluation perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Boqiang
  • Li, Zhensheng

Abstract

China's natural gas consumption has grown rapidly over the years, but the price mechanism was distorted by cross-subsidy and price inversion for a long time. In June 2013, nationwide pricing reform was implemented in the non-residential sector. To explore the effect of the reform on price distortion, this paper uses monthly data from 27 key cities to estimate the scale and rate of natural gas price subsidy from 2008 to 2017. The results show that the natural gas subsidy remains a large scale, but varies across sectors. The time interval in the implementation of the policy provides a quasi-natural experiment for studying the reform. The difference-in-difference-in-difference estimations prove that the natural gas pricing reform has significantly eliminated the subsidy rate in the non-residential sector, and an effective terminal pricing mechanism has been conducted. Considering that energy subsidy is a global issue, the experience of the pricing reform in China may be extended to emerging and developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Boqiang & Li, Zhensheng, 2021. "Does natural gas pricing reform establish an effective mechanism in China: A policy evaluation perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:282:y:2021:i:pa:s0306261920316032
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116205
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920316032
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116205?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cheon, Andrew & Urpelainen, Johannes & Lackner, Maureen, 2013. "Why do governments subsidize gasoline consumption? An empirical analysis of global gasoline prices, 2002–2009," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 382-390.
    2. Coady, David & Parry, Ian & Sears, Louis & Shang, Baoping, 2017. "How Large Are Global Fossil Fuel Subsidies?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 11-27.
    3. Xie, Lunyu & Yan, Haosheng & Zhang, Shuhan & Wei, Chu, 2020. "Does urbanization increase residential energy use? Evidence from the Chinese residential energy consumption survey 2012," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    4. Sun, Chuanwang, 2015. "An empirical case study about the reform of tiered pricing for household electricity in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 383-389.
    5. Shaun McRae, 2015. "Infrastructure Quality and the Subsidy Trap," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(1), pages 35-66, January.
    6. Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2011. "The Potato's Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence From A Historical Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(2), pages 593-650.
    7. Lin, Boqiang & Li, Zhensheng, 2020. "Analysis of the natural gas demand and subsidy in China: A multi-sectoral perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    8. Cai, Xiqian & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui, 2016. "Does environmental regulation drive away inbound foreign direct investment? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 73-85.
    9. Xu, Xiaoyu & González, Jorge E. & Shen, Shuanghe & Miao, Shiguang & Dou, Junxia, 2018. "Impacts of urbanization and air pollution on building energy demands — Beijing case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 98-109.
    10. Zheng, Wei & Walsh, Patrick Paul, 2019. "Economic growth, urbanization and energy consumption — A provincial level analysis of China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 153-162.
    11. ZhongXiang Zhang, 2014. "Energy Prices, Subsidies and Resource Tax Reform in China," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(3), pages 439-454, September.
    12. Zhang, Yi & Ji, Qiang & Fan, Ying, 2018. "The price and income elasticity of China's natural gas demand: A multi-sectoral perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 332-341.
    13. Li, Jianglong & Lin, Boqiang, 2017. "Rebound effect by incorporating endogenous energy efficiency: A comparison between heavy industry and light industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 347-357.
    14. Bretschger, Lucas & Zhang, Lin, 2017. "Carbon policy in a high-growth economy: The case of China," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-19.
    15. Li, Wei & Lu, Can, 2019. "The multiple effectiveness of state natural gas consumption constraint policies for achieving sustainable development targets in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 685-698.
    16. Wang, Tiantian & Zhang, Dayong & Ji, Qiang & Shi, Xunpeng, 2020. "Market reforms and determinants of import natural gas prices in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    17. Lin, Boqiang & Jiang, Zhujun, 2011. "Estimates of energy subsidies in China and impact of energy subsidy reform," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 273-283, March.
    18. Linn, Joshua & Muehlenbachs, Lucija, 2018. "The heterogeneous impacts of low natural gas prices on consumers and the environment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 1-28.
    19. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Weng, Jia-Hsi, 2019. "How does energy consumption affect China's urbanization? New evidence from dynamic threshold panel models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 24-38.
    20. Bah, Muhammad Maladoh & Saari, M. Yusof, 2020. "Quantifying the impacts of energy price reform on living expenses in Saudi Arabia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    21. Shuai Shao, Zhenbing Yang, Lili Yang, and Shuang Ma, 2019. "Can China's Energy Intensity Constraint Policy Promote Total Factor Energy Efficiency? Evidence from the Industrial Sector," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    22. Shi, Xinzheng & Xu, Zhufeng, 2018. "Environmental regulation and firm exports: Evidence from the eleventh Five-Year Plan in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 187-200.
    23. Chen, Zhao & Kahn, Matthew E. & Liu, Yu & Wang, Zhi, 2018. "The consequences of spatially differentiated water pollution regulation in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 468-485.
    24. Lin, Boqiang & Zhu, Junpeng, 2019. "Impact of energy saving and emission reduction policy on urban sustainable development: Empirical evidence from China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 12-22.
    25. Siddig, Khalid & Aguiar, Angel & Grethe, Harald & Minor, Peter & Walmsley, Terrie, 2014. "Impacts of removing fuel import subsidies in Nigeria on poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 165-178.
    26. Liu, Guixian & Dong, Xiucheng & Jiang, Qingzhe & Dong, Cong & Li, Jiaman, 2018. "Natural gas consumption of urban households in China and corresponding influencing factors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 17-26.
    27. Yang, Zhenbing & Fan, Meiting & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2017. "Does carbon intensity constraint policy improve industrial green production performance in China? A quasi-DID analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 271-282.
    28. Rioux, Bertrand & Galkin, Philipp & Murphy, Frederic & Feijoo, Felipe & Pierru, Axel & Malov, Artem & Li, Yan & Wu, Kang, 2019. "The economic impact of price controls on China's natural gas supply chain," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 394-410.
    29. Zhang, Xu & Ou, Xunmin & Yang, Xi & Qi, Tianyu & Nam, Kyung-Min & Zhang, Da & Zhang, Xiliang, 2017. "Socioeconomic burden of air pollution in China: Province-level analysis based on energy economic model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 478-489.
    30. Chen, Dengke & Chen, Shiyi & Jin, Hao & Lu, Yulin, 2020. "The impact of energy regulation on energy intensity and energy structure: Firm-level evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    31. Tabatabaei, Sharareh Majdzadeh & Hadian, Ebrahim & Marzban, Hossein & Zibaei, Mansour, 2017. "Economic, welfare and environmental impact of feed-in tariff policy: A case study in Iran," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 164-169.
    32. Liu, Chang & Lin, Boqiang, 2018. "Analysis of the changes in the scale of natural gas subsidy in China and its decomposition factors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 37-44.
    33. Chepeliev, Maksym & van der Mensbrugghe, Dominique, 2020. "Global fossil-fuel subsidy reform and Paris Agreement," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    34. Lin, Boqiang & Wang, Yao, 2020. "Does energy poverty really exist in China? From the perspective of residential electricity consumption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    35. He, Yongda & Lin, Boqiang, 2017. "The impact of natural gas price control in China: A computable general equilibrium approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 524-531.
    36. Paul J. Burke and Ashani Abayasekara, 2018. "The Price Elasticity of Electricity Demand in the United States: A Three-Dimensional Analysis," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    37. Liu, Chang & Lin, Boqiang, 2020. "Is increasing-block electricity pricing effectively carried out in China? A case study in Shanghai and Shenzhen," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    38. ANDERSON, KYM & McKIBBIN, WARWICK J., 2000. "Reducing coal subsidies and trade barriers: their contribution to greenhouse gas abatement," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 457-481, October.
    39. Dong, Xiucheng & Pi, Guanglin & Ma, Zhengwei & Dong, Cong, 2017. "The reform of the natural gas industry in the PR of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 582-593.
    40. Paltsev, Sergey & Zhang, Danwei, 2015. "Natural gas pricing reform in China: Getting closer to a market system?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 43-56.
    41. Xu, Shang & Allen Klaiber, H., 2019. "The impact of new natural gas pipelines on emissions and fuel consumption in China," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 49-62.
    42. Yin Feng & Jinhua Cheng & Jun Shen & Han Sun, 2019. "Spatial Effects of Air Pollution on Public Health in China," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 229-250, May.
    43. W. M. Corden, 1957. "The Calculation Op The Cost Op Protection," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 33(64), pages 29-51, April.
    44. Arzaghi, Mohammad & Squalli, Jay, 2015. "How price inelastic is demand for gasoline in fuel-subsidizing economies?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 117-124.
    45. Shao, Shuai & Guo, Longfei & Yu, Mingliang & Yang, Lili & Guan, Dabo, 2019. "Does the rebound effect matter in energy import-dependent mega-cities? Evidence from Shanghai (China)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C), pages 212-228.
    46. Zhu, Shuai & Song, Malin & Lim, Ming Kim & Wang, Jianlin & Zhao, Jiajia, 2020. "The development of energy blockchain and its implications for China's energy sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    47. Hu, Wenhao & Ho, Mun S. & Cao, Jing, 2019. "Energy consumption of urban households in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sha, Ru & Li, Jinye & Ge, Tao, 2021. "How do price distortions of fossil energy sources affect China's green economic efficiency?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    2. Miao, Xiaoyu & Wang, Qunwei & Dai, Xingyu, 2022. "Is oil-gas price decoupling happening in China? A multi-scale quantile-on-quantile approach," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 450-470.
    3. Wu, Liangpeng & Xu, Chengzhen & Zhu, Qingyuan & Zhou, Dequn, 2024. "Multiple energy price distortions and improvement of potential energy consumption structure in the energy transition," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 362(C).
    4. Li, Fengyun & Zhang, Junxia & Li, Xingmei, 2023. "Energy security dilemma and energy transition policy in the context of climate change: A perspective from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    5. Qiao, Qiao & Zeng, Xianhai & Lin, Boqiang, 2024. "Mitigating wind curtailment risk in China: The impact of subsidy reduction policy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 368(C).
    6. Sun, Xiepeng & Zhang, Xiaolei & Lv, Jiang & Chen, Xiaotao & Hu, Longhua, 2023. "Experimental study on the buoyant turbulent diffusion flame height of various intermittent levels," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 351(C).
    7. Wang, Xiaolin & Lu, Xiangyi & Chen, Jun & Hu, Xiangping, 2024. "The border effects and choices of competitive strategies of the provincial natural gas markets in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lin, Boqiang & Li, Zhensheng, 2020. "Analysis of the natural gas demand and subsidy in China: A multi-sectoral perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    2. Gong, Chengzhu & Wu, Desheng & Gong, Nianjiao & Qi, Rui, 2020. "Multi-agent mixed complementary simulation of natural gas upstream market liberalization in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    3. Wang, Qunwei & Zhou, Bo & Zhang, Cheng & Zhou, Dequn, 2021. "Do energy subsidies reduce fiscal and household non-energy expenditures? A regional heterogeneity assessment on coal-to-gas program in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    4. Gao, Yanyan & Zheng, Jianghuai, 2022. "Clearing the air through pipes? An evaluation of the air pollution reduction effect of China's natural gas pipeline projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    5. Jia, Weidong & Gong, Chengzhu & Pan, Kai & Yu, Shiwei, 2023. "Potential changes of regional natural gas market in China amidst liberalization: A mixed complementarity equilibrium simulation in 2030," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    6. Luo, Guoliang & Liu, Shanshan & Yan, Xiaohui & Guo, Yiwei, 2021. "Institutional constraints to China's low carbon transition: A case study of China's coal-to-gas program," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 121-135.
    7. Du, Kerui & Liu, Xueyue & Zhao, Cheng, 2023. "Environmental regulation mitigates energy rebound effect," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    8. Li, Zhen & Wu, Baijun & Wang, Danyang & Tang, Maogang, 2022. "Government mandatory energy-biased technological progress and enterprises' environmental performance: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of cleaner production standards in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    9. Liu, Cenjie & Fang, Jiayu & Xie, Rui, 2021. "Energy policy and corporate financial performance: Evidence from China's 11th five-year plan," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    10. Li, Lanlan & Luo, Xuan & Zhou, Kaile & Xu, Tingting, 2018. "Evaluation of increasing block pricing for households' natural gas: A case study of Beijing, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 162-172.
    11. Xu, Shang & Zhang, Jun, 2023. "The welfare impacts of removing coal subsidies in rural China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    12. Yang, Zhenbing & Shi, Qingquan & Lv, Xiangqiu & Shi, Qi, 2022. "Heterogeneous low-carbon targets and energy structure optimization: Does stricter carbon regulation really matter?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 329-343.
    13. Xiang, Hongjin & Kuang, Yanxiang, 2020. "Who benefits from China’s coal subsidy policies? A computable partial equilibrium analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    14. Liu, Donghua & Ren, Shenggang & Li, Wenming, 2022. "SO2 emissions trading and firm exports in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    15. Liu, Chang & Lin, Boqiang, 2018. "Analysis of the changes in the scale of natural gas subsidy in China and its decomposition factors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 37-44.
    16. Liu, Guixian & Dong, Xiucheng & Jiang, Qingzhe & Dong, Cong & Li, Jiaman, 2018. "Natural gas consumption of urban households in China and corresponding influencing factors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 17-26.
    17. Boute, Anatole & Fang, Mandy Meng, 2022. "China's textbook approach to regulatory reform of the natural gas market," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    18. Wang, Shubin & Sun, Shaolong & Zhao, Erlong & Wang, Shouyang, 2021. "Urban and rural differences with regional assessment of household energy consumption in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    19. Chen, Ying, 2023. "Environmental regulation, local labor market, and skill heterogeneity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    20. Li, Zhi & Zhao, Qing & Guo, Hong & Huang, Ruting, 2024. "Impact of fossil fuel subsidies on energy-saving technological change in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:282:y:2021:i:pa:s0306261920316032. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.