IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v164y2022ics0301421522001185.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Will fiscal decentralization stimulate renewable energy development? Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Chenxi
  • Zhou, Dequn
  • Wang, Qunwei
  • Ding, Hao
  • Zhao, Siqi

Abstract

Carbon neutrality is a widespread target for many countries to mitigate the climate change. Clean power is expected to be the fastest-growing energy in the next decades. In this context, renewable energy development is a significant road for energy transition. Recently, more and more central governments worldwide grant relevant responsibilities of environment protection to subnational governments. This paper focuses on the impact of fiscal decentralization on renewable energy development in China, which is currently one of the largest market for renewable energy development. The results show that fiscal development has positive effects on renewable energy development. Although Chinese provinces have variety of local environmental, institutional and social conditions, the “race to the top” approach still occurs. This research reveals the role of fiscal decentralization in renewable energy development and provides important policy implications for renewable energy development considering fiscal decentralization. It fills the gap between former research and current situation of renewable energy development on different regions' devolution features. Specifically, this study takes different regions’ economic development situations and environment protection pressures into consideration. It provides implications on how to keep the balance of environment protection and economic development for different regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Chenxi & Zhou, Dequn & Wang, Qunwei & Ding, Hao & Zhao, Siqi, 2022. "Will fiscal decentralization stimulate renewable energy development? Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:164:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522001185
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421522001185
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112893?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. Fell, Harrison & Kaffine, Daniel T., 2014. "Can decentralized planning really achieve first-best in the presence of environmental spillovers?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 46-53.
    2. Hilary Sigman, 2014. "Decentralization and Environmental Quality: An International Analysis of Water Pollution Levels and Variation," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 90(1), pages 114-130.
    3. Daniel L. Millimet, 2003. "Assessing the Empirical Impact of Environmental Federalism," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 711-733, November.
    4. Wang, Ying & Zhang, Dayong & Ji, Qiang & Shi, Xunpeng, 2020. "Regional renewable energy development in China: A multidimensional assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    5. Olivier Blanchard & Andrei Shleifer, 2001. "Federalism With and Without Political Centralization: China Versus Russia," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(4), pages 1-8.
    6. Przychodzen, Wojciech & Przychodzen, Justyna, 2020. "Determinants of renewable energy production in transition economies: A panel data approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    7. Aguirre, Mariana & Ibikunle, Gbenga, 2014. "Determinants of renewable energy growth: A global sample analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 374-384.
    8. Alarenan, Shahad & Gasim, Anwar A. & Hunt, Lester C., 2020. "Modelling industrial energy demand in Saudi Arabia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    9. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2013. "Energy policymaking in Denmark: Implications for global energy security and sustainability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 829-839.
    10. Zhang, Xiliang & Ruoshui, Wang & Molin, Huo & Martinot, Eric, 2010. "A study of the role played by renewable energies in China's sustainable energy supply," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 4392-4399.
    11. Fang, Debin & Zhao, Chaoyang & Yu, Qian, 2018. "Government regulation of renewable energy generation and transmission in China’s electricity market," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 775-793.
    12. He, Qichun & Sun, Meng, 2014. "Does fiscal decentralization promote the inflow of FDI in China?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 361-371.
    13. Yu, Feifei & Guo, Yue & Le-Nguyen, Khuong & Barnes, Stuart J. & Zhang, Weiting, 2016. "The impact of government subsidies and enterprises’ R&D investment: A panel data study from renewable energy in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 106-113.
    14. Fredriksson, Per G. & Wollscheid, Jim R., 2014. "Environmental decentralization and political centralization," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 402-410.
    15. Plutshack, Victoria & Sengupta, Subhanjan & Sahay, Arunaditya & Viñuales, Jorge E., 2019. "New and renewable energy social enterprises accessing government support: Findings from India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 367-378.
    16. Zhang, Kun & Zhang, Zong-Yong & Liang, Qiao-Mei, 2017. "An empirical analysis of the green paradox in China: From the perspective of fiscal decentralization," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 203-211.
    17. Cheng, Shulei & Fan, Wei & Chen, Jiandong & Meng, Fanxin & Liu, Gengyuan & Song, Malin & Yang, Zhifeng, 2020. "The impact of fiscal decentralization on CO2 emissions in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    18. Zhang, Xiaobo, 2006. "Fiscal decentralization and political centralization in China: Implications for growth and inequality," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 713-726, December.
    19. Adrian Smith, 2007. "Emerging in between: the multi-level governance of renewable energy in the English regions," SPRU Working Paper Series 159, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    20. Wang, Ying & Chen, Xiangyuan, 2020. "Natural resource endowment and ecological efficiency in China: Revisiting resource curse in the context of ecological efficiency," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    21. Kozlova, Mariia & Collan, Mikael, 2020. "Renewable energy investment attractiveness: Enabling multi-criteria cross-regional analysis from the investors’ perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 382-400.
    22. Cheng, Zhonghua & Li, Lianshui & Liu, Jun, 2020. "Natural resource abundance, resource industry dependence and economic green growth in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    23. Lin, Nan, 2011. "Capitalism in China: A Centrally Managed Capitalism (CMC) and Its Future," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 63-96, March.
    24. Bourcet, Clémence, 2020. "Empirical determinants of renewable energy deployment: A systematic literature review," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    25. Yang, Xiaohui & Yan, Ji & Tian, Kun & Yu, Zihao & Yu Li, Rebecca & Xia, Senmao, 2021. "Centralization or decentralization? the impact of different distributions of authority on China's environmental regulation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    26. Xunpeng Shi & Hengsi Chen & Yang Yu & Fushuan Wen, 2018. "Development of variable renewable energy policy in developing countries: a case study of Sri Lanka," International Journal of Public Policy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 14(1/2), pages 10-29.
    27. Xu, Xiaofeng & Wei, Zhifei & Ji, Qiang & Wang, Chenglong & Gao, Guowei, 2019. "Global renewable energy development: Influencing factors, trend predictions and countermeasures," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    28. Musall, Fabian David & Kuik, Onno, 2011. "Local acceptance of renewable energy--A case study from southeast Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3252-3260, June.
    29. Mawejje, Joseph, 2019. "Natural resources governance and tax revenue mobilization in sub saharan Africa: The role of EITI," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 176-183.
    30. Smith, Adrian, 2007. "Emerging in between: The multi-level governance of renewable energy in the English regions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6266-6280, 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. Qiu, Rui & Xu, Jiuping & Zeng, Ziqiang & Chen, Xin & Wang, Yinhai, 2022. "Carbon tax policy-induced air travel carbon emission reduction and biofuel usage in China," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    2. Fuquan Zhao & Fanlong Bai & Xinglong Liu & Zongwei Liu, 2022. "A Review on Renewable Energy Transition under China’s Carbon Neutrality Target," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-27, November.
    3. Jiang, Ke & Chen, Xueqing & Wang, Feng, 2024. "How to escape the dilemma of carbon emission reduction policies implementation under Chinese fiscal decentralization?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    4. Maxwell Chukwudi Udeagha & Marthinus Christoffel Breitenbach, 2023. "The Role of Fiscal Decentralization in Limiting CO2 Emissions in South Africa," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 1-30, September.
    5. Yaru Wang & Guitao Qiao & Mahmood Ahmad & Dan Yang, 2023. "Modeling the Impact of Fiscal Decentralization on Energy Poverty: Do Energy Efficiency and Technological Innovation Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Xia, Wanjun & Murshed, Muntasir & Khan, Zeeshan & Chen, Zhenling & Ferraz, Diogo, 2022. "Exploring the nexus between fiscal decentralization and energy poverty for China: Does country risk matter for energy poverty reduction?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    7. Sun, Jiaqi & Li, Ping & Wang, Yunqiao, 2024. "Policy tools for sustainability: Evaluating the effectiveness of fiscal measures in natural resource efficiency," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. Maxwell Chukwudi Udeagha & Marthinus Christoffel Breitenbach, 2023. "Revisiting the nexus between fiscal decentralization and CO2 emissions in South Africa: fresh policy insights," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-46, December.
    9. Wenwei Lian & Bingyan Wang & Tianming Gao & Xiaoyan Sun & Yan Zhang & Hongmei Duan, 2022. "Coordinated Development of Renewable Energy: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-20, September.
    10. Behera, Puspanjali & Behera, Biswanath & Sethi, Narayan, 2024. "Assessing the impact of fiscal decentralization, green finance and green technology innovation on renewable energy use in European Union countries: What is the moderating role of political risk?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    11. Yinuo Wang & Fengxiu Zhou & Huwei Wen, 2023. "Does Environmental Decentralization Promote Renewable Energy Development? A Local Government Competition Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.
    12. Xu, Zhiwei & Li, Jiaqi & Hua, Xia & Ren, Pengyue, 2024. "Is the tone of the government-controlled media valuable for capital market? Evidence from China's new energy industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    13. Atems, Bebonchu & Mette, Jehu & Lin, Guoyu & Madraki, Golshan, 2023. "Estimating and forecasting the impact of nonrenewable energy prices on US renewable energy consumption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    14. Lai, Aolin & Wang, Qunwei, 2024. "How coal de-capacity policy affects renewable energy development efficiency? Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    15. Tang, Xinmeng & Zhou, Xiaoguang, 2023. "Impact of green finance on renewable energy development: A spatiotemporal consistency perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 320-337.
    16. Xiaolei Yang & Shuiying Zhong, 2022. "The Combined Effect of Environmental Policies on China’s Renewable Energy Development: A Multi-Perspective Study Based on Semiparametric Regression Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-15, December.
    17. Zhou, Fangkezi & Pan, Yinghao & Wu, Jie & Xu, Chengzhen & Li, Xingchen, 2024. "The impact of green finance on renewable energy development efficiency in the context of energy security: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 803-816.
    18. Ge, Tao & Ding, Ziqi & Lu, Xiaoya & Yang, Keling, 2023. "Spillover effect of energy intensity targets on renewable energy consumption in China: A spatial econometric approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    19. 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. Meng Lingyan & Ze Zhao & Haider Ali Malik & Asif Razzaq & Hui An & Marria Hassan, 2022. "Asymmetric impact of fiscal decentralization and environmental innovation on carbon emissions: Evidence from highly decentralized countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(4), pages 752-782, June.
    2. Umar, Muhammad & Ji, Xiangfeng & Safi, Adnan & Afshan, Sahar, 2024. "Decentralization, institutional quality, and carbon neutrality: Unraveling the nexus in China's pursuit of sustainable development," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1238-1249.
    3. Cheng, Shulei & Fan, Wei & Chen, Jiandong & Meng, Fanxin & Liu, Gengyuan & Song, Malin & Yang, Zhifeng, 2020. "The impact of fiscal decentralization on CO2 emissions in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    4. Sun, Yunpeng & Gao, Pengpeng & Razzaq, Asif, 2023. "How does fiscal decentralization lead to renewable energy transition and a sustainable environment? Evidence from highly decentralized economies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1064-1074.
    5. Lida Han & Xi Wu & Peng Tang, 2023. "Does Environmental Decentralization Affect the Supply of Urban Construction Land? Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, March.
    6. Sailian Xia & Daming You & Zhihua Tang & Bo Yang, 2021. "Analysis of the Spatial Effect of Fiscal Decentralization and Environmental Decentralization on Carbon Emissions under the Pressure of Officials’ Promotion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Shan, Shan & Ahmad, Munir & Tan, Zhixiong & Adebayo, Tomiwa Sunday & Man Li, Rita Yi & Kirikkaleli, Dervis, 2021. "The role of energy prices and non-linear fiscal decentralization in limiting carbon emissions: Tracking environmental sustainability," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    8. Dogan, Eyup & Chishti, Muhammad Zubair & Karimi Alavijeh, Nooshin & Tzeremes, Panayiotis, 2022. "The roles of technology and Kyoto Protocol in energy transition towards COP26 targets: Evidence from the novel GMM-PVAR approach for G-7 countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    9. Sun, Yunpeng & Guan, Weimin & Razzaq, Asif & Shahzad, Mohsin & Binh An, Nguyen, 2022. "Transition towards ecological sustainability through fiscal decentralization, renewable energy and green investment in OECD countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 385-395.
    10. Xianpu Xu & Shan Li, 2022. "Neighbor-Companion or Neighbor-Beggar? Estimating the Spatial Spillover Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on China’s Carbon Emissions Based on Spatial Econometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-26, August.
    11. Avri Eitan & Gillad Rosen & Lior Herman & Itay Fishhendler, 2020. "Renewable Energy Entrepreneurs: A Conceptual Framework," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-23, May.
    12. Xiangfeng Ji & Muhammad Umar & Shahid Ali & Wajid Ali & Kai Tang & Zeeshan Khan, 2021. "Does fiscal decentralization and eco‐innovation promote sustainable environment? A case study of selected fiscally decentralized countries," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 79-88, January.
    13. Cheng, Ya & Awan, Usama & Ahmad, Shabbir & Tan, Zhixiong, 2021. "How do technological innovation and fiscal decentralization affect the environment? A story of the fourth industrial revolution and sustainable growth," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    14. Xu, Jie & Lv, Tao & Hou, Xiaoran & Deng, Xu & Li, Na & Liu, Feng, 2022. "Spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors of renewable energy production in China: A spatial econometric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    15. Yang, Xiaohui & Yan, Ji & Tian, Kun & Yu, Zihao & Yu Li, Rebecca & Xia, Senmao, 2021. "Centralization or decentralization? the impact of different distributions of authority on China's environmental regulation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    16. Iqbal, Shahid & Wang, Ying & Ali, Sharafat & Haider, Muhammad Afaq & Amin, Nabila, 2023. "Shifting to a green economy: Asymmetric macroeconomic determinants of renewable energy production in Pakistan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 234-241.
    17. Lin, Boqiang & Zhou, Yicheng, 2021. "How does vertical fiscal imbalance affect the upgrading of industrial structure? Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    18. Yuping Deng & Yanrui Wu & Helian Xu, 2022. "Emission Reduction and Value-added Export Nexus at Firm Level," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 22-19, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    19. Iulia Lupu & Gheorghe Hurduzeu & Radu Lupu & Maria-Floriana Popescu & Camelia Gavrilescu, 2023. "Drivers for Renewable Energy Consumption in European Union Countries. A Panel Data Insight," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 25(63), pages 380-380, April.
    20. Zhao, Desen & Dou, Yao & Tong, Lu, 2022. "Effect of fiscal decentralization and dual environmental regulation on green poverty reduction: The case of China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(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:enepol:v:164:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522001185. 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.