IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v108y2017icp163-177.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of emission regulation policies on Chinese power firms’ reusable environmental investments and sustainable operations

Author

Listed:
  • Ji, Xiang
  • Li, Guo
  • Wang, Zhaohua

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of emission regulation policies (i.e., emergency response policy versus long-term protection policy) on the investment levels of reusable environmental facilities (e.g., desulphurization pumps) used by coal-fired power plants in China to improve their sustainable operations. To set up a baseline for further analysis and compare the impact of emission regulation policies, an improved framework for performance evaluation of sustainable operations is developed in this study by integrating classical data envelopment analysis (DEA) and exponential learning curve. The proposed mathematical models are applied into an empirical study of 27 major million-kW coal-fired power plants in mainland China. Empirical analysis shows that the interactions among official emission regulation policies, reusable environmental investment (REI), and sustainable operations management of coal-fired power plants in China. Several policy suggestions are provided for power firm managers and policy makers in China. Specifically, we suggest that the Chinese government should implement long-term protection policies in less developed regions instead of emergency response policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Ji, Xiang & Li, Guo & Wang, Zhaohua, 2017. "Impact of emission regulation policies on Chinese power firms’ reusable environmental investments and sustainable operations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 163-177.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:108:y:2017:i:c:p:163-177
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.05.035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517303191
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.05.035?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. Wu, Jie & Lv, Lin & Sun, Jiasen & Ji, Xiang, 2015. "A comprehensive analysis of China's regional energy saving and emission reduction efficiency: From production and treatment perspectives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 166-176.
    2. Chien-Ming Chen & Magali A. Delmas & Marvin B. Lieberman, 2015. "Production frontier methodologies and efficiency as a performance measure in strategic management research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 19-36, January.
    3. Song, Malin & An, Qingxian & Zhang, Wei & Wang, Zeya & Wu, Jie, 2012. "Environmental efficiency evaluation based on data envelopment analysis: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(7), pages 4465-4469.
    4. Wang, Qunwei & Su, Bin & Sun, Jiasen & Zhou, Peng & Zhou, Dequn, 2015. "Measurement and decomposition of energy-saving and emissions reduction performance in Chinese cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 85-92.
    5. Per Andersen & Niels Christian Petersen, 1993. "A Procedure for Ranking Efficient Units in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1261-1264, October.
    6. Chien-Ming Chen & Magali A. Delmas, 2012. "Measuring Eco-Inefficiency: A New Frontier Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1064-1079, October.
    7. Arcos-Vargas, A. & Núñez-Hernández, F. & Villa-Caro, Gabriel, 2017. "A DEA analysis of electricity distribution in Spain: An industrial policy recommendation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 583-592.
    8. Cooper, W. W. & Hemphill, H. & Huang, Z. & Li, S. & Lelas, V. & Sullivan, D. W., 1997. "Survey of mathematical programming models in air pollution management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 1-35, January.
    9. Angappa Gunasekaran & Zahir Irani, 2014. "Sustainable Operations Management: design, modelling and analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 65(6), pages 801-805, June.
    10. Bi, Gong-Bing & Song, Wen & Zhou, P. & Liang, Liang, 2014. "Does environmental regulation affect energy efficiency in China's thermal power generation? Empirical evidence from a slacks-based DEA model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 537-546.
    11. Li, Guo & Zhang, Lijun & Guan, Xu & Zheng, Junjun, 2016. "Impact of decision sequence on reliability enhancement with supply disruption risks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 25-38.
    12. Yu, Shiwei & Zhang, Junjie & Zheng, Shuhong & Sun, Han, 2015. "Provincial carbon intensity abatement potential estimation in China: A PSO–GA-optimized multi-factor environmental learning curve method," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 46-55.
    13. Wang, Ke & Zhang, Xian & Wei, Yi-Ming & Yu, Shiwei, 2013. "Regional allocation of CO2 emissions allowance over provinces in China by 2020," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 214-229.
    14. Atakelty Hailu & Terrence S. Veeman, 2001. "Non-parametric Productivity Analysis with Undesirable Outputs: An Application to the Canadian Pulp and Paper Industry," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(3), pages 605-616.
    15. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    16. Nile W. Hatch & David C. Mowery, 1998. "Process Innovation and Learning by Doing in Semiconductor Manufacturing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(11-Part-1), pages 1461-1477, November.
    17. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Han, J.Y., 2010. "Total factor carbon emission performance: A Malmquist index analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 194-201, January.
    18. Li, Wanghong & Li, Zhepeng & Liang, Liang & Cook, Wade D., 2017. "Evaluation of ecological systems and the recycling of undesirable outputs: An efficiency study of regions in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 77-86.
    19. Joseph B. Mazzola & Kevin F. McCardle, 1996. "A Bayesian Approach to Managing Learning-Curve Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(5), pages 680-692, May.
    20. Zhou, P. & Sun, Z.R. & Zhou, D.Q., 2014. "Optimal path for controlling CO2 emissions in China: A perspective of efficiency analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 99-110.
    21. Manel Baucells & Rakesh K. Sarin, 2003. "Group Decisions with Multiple Criteria," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(8), pages 1105-1118, August.
    22. White, Leroy & Lee, Gregory John, 2009. "Operational research and sustainable development: Tackling the social dimension," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(3), pages 683-692, March.
    23. Zhou, P. & Zhang, L. & Zhou, D.Q. & Xia, W.J., 2013. "Modeling economic performance of interprovincial CO2 emission reduction quota trading in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1518-1528.
    24. Suresh Chand & Suresh P. Sethi, 1990. "A Dynamic Lot Sizing Model with Learning in Setups," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 38(4), pages 644-655, August.
    25. Zhou, P. & Zhou, X. & Fan, L.W., 2014. "On estimating shadow prices of undesirable outputs with efficiency models: A literature review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 799-806.
    26. Viswanathan Krishnan, 2013. "Operations Management Opportunities in Technology Commercialization and Entrepreneurship," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 22(6), pages 1439-1445, November.
    27. Chien-Ming Chen, 2014. "Evaluating eco-efficiency with data envelopment analysis: an analytical reexamination," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 214(1), pages 49-71, March.
    28. Tao Li & Suresh P. Sethi & Xiuli He, 2015. "Dynamic Pricing, Production, and Channel Coordination with Stochastic Learning," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 24(6), pages 857-882, June.
    29. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2008. "A survey of data envelopment analysis in energy and environmental studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 1-18, August.
    30. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    31. Liang Liang & Feng Yang & Wade Cook & Joe Zhu, 2006. "DEA models for supply chain efficiency evaluation," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 35-49, July.
    32. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wang, Ao-Dong & Tan, Weiping, 2015. "The impact of China's carbon allowance allocation rules on the product prices and emission reduction behaviors of ETS-covered enterprises," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 176-185.
    33. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika & Ueno, Takahiro, 2010. "Performance analysis of US coal-fired power plants by measuring three DEA efficiencies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1675-1688, April.
    34. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Wang, H., 2012. "Energy and CO2 emission performance in electricity generation: A non-radial directional distance function approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(3), pages 625-635.
    35. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2007. "A mathematical programming approach to constructing composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 291-297, April.
    36. Tone, Kaoru, 2001. "A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 498-509, May.
    37. Emrouznejad, Ali & Parker, Barnett R. & Tavares, Gabriel, 2008. "Evaluation of research in efficiency and productivity: A survey and analysis of the first 30 years of scholarly literature in DEA," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 151-157, September.
    38. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, December.
    39. Wu, Jie & Liang, Liang & Chen, Yao, 2009. "DEA game cross-efficiency approach to Olympic rankings," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 909-918, August.
    40. Scheel, Holger, 2001. "Undesirable outputs in efficiency valuations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(2), pages 400-410, July.
    41. Liang Liang & Jie Wu & Wade D. Cook & Joe Zhu, 2008. "The DEA Game Cross-Efficiency Model and Its Nash Equilibrium," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(5), pages 1278-1288, October.
    42. Zhaolin Hu & Jing Cao & L. Jeff Hong, 2012. "Robust Simulation of Global Warming Policies Using the DICE Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(12), pages 2190-2206, December.
    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. Jie Wu & Zhixin Chen & Xiang Ji, 2020. "Sustainable trade promotion decisions under demand disruption in manufacturer-retailer supply chains," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 290(1), pages 115-143, July.
    2. Huang, Youxing & Xu, Qi & Zhao, Yanping, 2021. "Short-run pain, long-run gain: Desulfurization investment and productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    3. Liu, Liyun & Zhao, Zhenzhi & Zhang, Mingming & Zhou, Dequn, 2022. "Green investment efficiency in the Chinese energy sector: Overinvestment or underinvestment?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Gang Dong & Jing Zhu & Jin Li & Handong Wang & Yuvraj Gajpal, 2019. "Evaluating the Environmental Performance and Operational Efficiency of Container Ports: An Application to the Maritime Silk Road," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Ji, Xiang & Li, Guo & Wang, Zhaohua, 2017. "Allocation of emission permits for China’s power plants: A systemic Pareto optimal method," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 607-619.
    6. Chang, Kai & Ding, Jiehuan & Lou, Qichun & Li, Zesheng & Yang, Jiahui, 2021. "The impact of capital leverage on green firms’ investment: New evidence regarding the size and age effects of Chinese green industries," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    7. Sharma, Gagan Deep & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Talan, Gaurav & Jain, Mansi, 2021. "Revisiting the sustainable versus conventional investment dilemma in COVID-19 times," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    8. Ji, Xiang & Wu, Jie & Liang, Liang & Zhu, Qingyuan, 2018. "The impacts of public sustainability concerns on length of product line," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(1), pages 16-23.
    9. Ying-jie Song & Fu-wei Ma & Jing-ya Qu, 2020. "Impacts of Cultural Diversity on Carbon Emission Effects: From the Perspective of Environmental Regulations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-13, August.
    10. Xiang Ji & Jie Wu & Qingyuan Zhu & Jiasen Sun, 2019. "Using a hybrid heterogeneous DEA method to benchmark China’s sustainable urbanization: an empirical study," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 278(1), pages 281-335, July.
    11. Wu, Peng & Wang, Yiqing & Chiu, Yung-ho & Li, Ying & Lin, Tai-Yu, 2019. "Production efficiency and geographical location of Chinese coal enterprises - undesirable EBM DEA," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    12. Sun, Jiasen & Li, Guo & Wang, Zhaohua, 2018. "Optimizing China’s energy consumption structure under energy and carbon constraints," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 57-72.
    13. Dianfa Wu & Zhiping Yang & Ningling Wang & Chengzhou Li & Yongping Yang, 2018. "An Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model and AHP Weighting Uncertainty Analysis for Sustainability Assessment of Coal-Fired Power Units," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-27, May.
    14. Sun, Jiasen & Yuan, Yang & Yang, Rui & Ji, Xiang & Wu, Jie, 2017. "Performance evaluation of Chinese port enterprises under significant environmental concerns: An extended DEA-based analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 75-86.
    15. Haonan Zhang & Xingping Zhang & Jiahai Yuan, 2020. "Coal power in China: A multi‐level perspective review," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(6), November.
    16. Li, Aijun & Zhang, Aizhen & Huang, Huijie & Yao, Xin, 2018. "Measuring unified efficiency of fossil fuel power plants across provinces in China: An analysis based on non-radial directional distance functions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 549-561.
    17. Peng, Fei & Zhou, Shibiao & Peng, Langchuan & Mao, Defeng, 2023. "The effect of economic incentives on corporate environmental investment: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing listed firms," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(4).
    18. Li, Jizi & Ku, Yaoyao & Yu, Yue & Liu, Chunling & Zhou, Yuping, 2020. "Optimizing production of new energy vehicles with across-chain cooperation under China’s dual credit policy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    19. Li, Mengjie & Du, Weijian, 2022. "Opening the black box of capacity governance: Environmental regulation and capacity utilization of microcosmic firms in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    20. Wang, Yongpei & Yan, Weilong & Komonpipat, Supak, 2019. "How does the capacity utilization of thermal power generation affect pollutant emissions? Evidence from the panel data of China's provinces," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 440-451.

    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. Xiang Ji & Jiasen Sun & Qunwei Wang & Qianqian Yuan, 2019. "Revealing Energy Over-Consumption and Pollutant Over-Emission Behind GDP: A New Multi-criteria Sustainable Measure," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 1391-1421, December.
    2. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min, 2016. "Research fronts in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 33-45.
    3. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    4. Mardani, Abbas & Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras & Streimikiene, Dalia & Jusoh, Ahmad & Khoshnoudi, Masoumeh, 2017. "A comprehensive review of data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach in energy efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1298-1322.
    5. Meng, Fanyi & Su, Bin & Thomson, Elspeth & Zhou, Dequn & Zhou, P., 2016. "Measuring China’s regional energy and carbon emission efficiency with DEA models: A survey," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1-21.
    6. Yongjun Li & Wenhui Hou & Weiwei Zhu & Feng Li & Liang Liang, 2021. "Provincial carbon emission performance analysis in China based on a Malmquist data envelopment analysis approach with fixed-sum undesirable outputs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 304(1), pages 233-261, September.
    7. Xiang Ji & Jie Wu & Qingyuan Zhu & Jiasen Sun, 2019. "Using a hybrid heterogeneous DEA method to benchmark China’s sustainable urbanization: an empirical study," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 278(1), pages 281-335, July.
    8. Yu, Dejian & He, Xiaorong, 2020. "A bibliometric study for DEA applied to energy efficiency: Trends and future challenges," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    9. Feng, Chao & Zhang, Hua & Huang, Jian-Bai, 2017. "The approach to realizing the potential of emissions reduction in China: An implication from data envelopment analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 859-872.
    10. Woo, Chungwon & Chung, Yanghon & Chun, Dongphil & Seo, Hangyeol & Hong, Sungjun, 2015. "The static and dynamic environmental efficiency of renewable energy: A Malmquist index analysis of OECD countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 367-376.
    11. Du, Limin & Hanley, Aoife & Wei, Chu, 2015. "Estimating the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve of CO2 Emissions in China: Provincial Panel Data Analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 217-229.
    12. Ma-Lin Song & Ron Fisher & Jian-Lin Wang & Lian-Biao Cui, 2018. "Environmental performance evaluation with big data: theories and methods," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 270(1), pages 459-472, November.
    13. Sun, Jiasen & Li, Guo & Wang, Zhaohua, 2018. "Optimizing China’s energy consumption structure under energy and carbon constraints," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 57-72.
    14. Barnabé Walheer, 2020. "Output, input, and undesirable output interconnections in data envelopment analysis: convexity and returns-to-scale," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 284(1), pages 447-467, January.
    15. Jeanneaux, Philippe & Latruffe, Laure, 2016. "Modelling pollution-generating technologies in performance benchmarking: Recent developments, limits and future prospects in the nonparametric frameworkAuthor-Name: Dakpo, K. Hervé," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(2), pages 347-359.
    16. Jie Wu & Qingyuan Zhu & Pengzhen Yin & Malin Song, 2017. "Measuring energy and environmental performance for regions in China by using DEA-based Malmquist indices," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 715-735, October.
    17. Chiu, Yung-Ho & Lee, Jen-Hui & Lu, Ching-Cheng & Shyu, Ming-Kuang & Luo, Zhengying, 2012. "The technology gap and efficiency measure in WEC countries: Application of the hybrid meta frontier model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 349-357.
    18. Chen, Chien-Ming, 2013. "A critique of non-parametric efficiency analysis in energy economics studies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 146-152.
    19. Chen, Nengcheng & Xu, Lei & Chen, Zeqiang, 2017. "Environmental efficiency analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Zone using super efficiency data envelopment analysis (SEDEA) and tobit models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 659-671.
    20. Sahoo, Nihar R. & Mohapatra, Pratap K.J. & Sahoo, Biresh K. & Mahanty, Biswajit, 2017. "Rationality of energy efficiency improvement targets under the PAT scheme in India – A case of thermal power plants," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 279-289.

    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:enepol:v:108:y:2017:i:c:p:163-177. 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/locate/enpol .

    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.