IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v40y2019i1_supplp277-296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Directed Technical Change, Capital Intensity Increase and Energy Transition: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Dong Wang
  • Amin Mugera
  • Ben White

Abstract

This paper analyses the causes of China’s energy transition since 1978 when the economic reform policy was launched. We aim to determine if increasing capital intensity in the Chinese economy is driving a shift in the energy mix towards modern energy sources, such as solar electricity. The empirical investigation is based on national level time series data from 1978 to 2015. The results of a Granger Causality test show that increasing capital intensity causes transition to modern energy in the long run, but not vice versa. The impulse-response analysis, based on the Johanson cointegration and vector error correction model (VECM), verifies that capital intensity determines energy transition in the long-run and the adjustment period to an exogenous shock from capital intensity is around five years. This is in line with China’s National Five-year Plans which often introduce major shifts in energy and industrial policy. We conclude China’s energy transition is driven by capital deepening and biased technical change towards capital-intensive modern energy in the long run. The rate of change is increased by exogenous investment shocks partly as a result of policy initiatives introduced by China’s Five Year Plans.

Suggested Citation

  • Dong Wang & Amin Mugera & Ben White, 2019. "Directed Technical Change, Capital Intensity Increase and Energy Transition: Evidence from China," The Energy Journal, , vol. 40(1_suppl), pages 277-296, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:40:y:2019:i:1_suppl:p:277-296
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.40.SI1.dwan
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.40.SI1.dwan
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.40.SI1.dwan?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Prudence Dato, 2018. "Investment in Energy Efficiency, Adoption of Renewable Energy and Household Behavior: Evidence from OECD Countries," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    2. Ruttan, Vernon W., 2000. "Technology, Growth, and Development: An Induced Innovation Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195118711.
    3. Mohammed Umar & Jauhari Dahalan, 2016. "An Application of Asymmetric Toda Yamamoto Causality on Exchange Rate-inflation Differentials in Emerging Economies," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(2), pages 420-426.
    4. Allen,Robert C., 2009. "The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521868273, November.
    5. Toda, Hiro Y. & Phillips, Peter C. B., 1993. "The spurious effect of unit roots on vector autoregressions : An analytical study," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 229-255, October.
    6. Astrid Kander & Paolo Malanima & Paul Warde, 2013. "Power to the People: Energy in Europe over the Last Five Centuries," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10138.
    7. Jin Zhang & David C. Broadstock, 2016. "The Causality between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth for China in a Time-varying Framework," The Energy Journal, , vol. 37(1_suppl), pages 29-54, January.
    8. Granger, C. W. J. & Newbold, P., 1974. "Spurious regressions in econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 111-120, July.
    9. Johansen, Soren, 1995. "Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774501.
    10. Best, Rohan, 2017. "Switching towards coal or renewable energy? The effects of financial capital on energy transitions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 75-83.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. José Luis Martínez-González & Jordi Suriñach & Gabriel Jover & Javier Martín-Vide & Mariano Barriendos-Vallvé & Enric Tello, 2020. "Assessing climate impacts on English economic growth (1645–1740): an econometric approach," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 233-249, May.
    2. Levent, Korap, 2007. "Modeling purchasing power parity using co-integration: evidence from Turkey," MPRA Paper 19584, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Lego, Brian & Gebremedhin, Tesfa & Cushing, Brian, 2000. "A Multi-Sector Export Base Model of Long-Run Regional Employment Growth," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(2), pages 192-197, October.
    4. Valérie Mignon & Christophe Hurlin, 2007. "Une synthèse des tests de cointégration sur données de panel," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 180(4), pages 241-265.
    5. Caner Demir, 2019. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Stock Market Fluctuations: The Case of BIST-100," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14, February.
    6. Pär Österholm, 2005. "The Taylor Rule: A Spurious Regression?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 217-247, July.
    7. Geweke, J. & Joel Horowitz & Pesaran, M.H., 2006. "Econometrics: A Bird’s Eye View," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0655, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    8. Levent KORAP, 2008. "Exchange Rate Determination Of Tl/Us$:A Co-Integration Approach," Istanbul University Econometrics and Statistics e-Journal, Department of Econometrics, Faculty of Economics, Istanbul University, vol. 7(1), pages 24-50, May.
    9. Pierre Siklos & Ben Kwok, 1999. "Stock returns and inflation: a new test of competing hypotheses," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(6), pages 567-581.
    10. Ali Darrat & Fatima Al-Shamsi, 2005. "On the path of integration in the Gulf region," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(9), pages 1055-1062.
    11. Darko, Christian Kwasi, 2015. "Determinants of Economic Growth in Ghana," EconStor Preprints 123098, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    12. Esther Stroe-Kunold & Joachim Werner, 2009. "A drunk and her dog: a spurious relation? Cointegration tests as instruments to detect spurious correlations between integrated time series," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 43(6), pages 913-940, November.
    13. David F. Hendry & Katarina Juselius, 2001. "Explaining Cointegration Analysis: Part II," The Energy Journal, , vol. 22(1), pages 75-120, January.
    14. Ibrahiem, Dalia M. & Hanafy, Shaimaa A., 2021. "Do energy security and environmental quality contribute to renewable energy? The role of trade openness and energy use in North African countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 667-678.
    15. Ghosh, Sucharita & Enami, Ali, 2015. "Do refugee-immigrants affect international trade? Evidence from the world's largest refugee case," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 291-307.
    16. Michał Majsterek, 2012. "Cointegration Analysis in the Case of I(2) – General Overview," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 4(4), pages 215-252, December.
    17. Fahmida Khatun & Syed Yusuf Saadat & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2019. "FINANCE FOR SDGs: Addressing Governance Challenge of Aid Utilisation in Bangladesh," CPD Working Paper 125, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    18. Fouquet, Roger, 2014. "Long run demand for energy services: income and price elasticities over two hundred years," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59070, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Ahmet Faruk Aysan & Asad Ul Islam Khan & Humeyra Topuz, 2021. "Bitcoin and Altcoins Price Dependency: Resilience and Portfolio Allocation in COVID-19 Outbreak," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-13, April.
    20. Piotr Wdowiński, 2011. "Model monetarny kursu równowagi złoty/euro: analiza kointegracyjna," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 67-86.

    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:sae:enejou:v:40:y:2019:i:1_suppl:p:277-296. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.