IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v53y2019i4d10.1007_s11135-019-00841-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the nonlinear relationship between energy consumption and economic development in China: new evidence from panel data threshold estimations

Author

Listed:
  • Xiao-Ying Dong

    (Beijing Institute of Technology
    Beijing Institute of Technology
    Sustainable Development Research Institute for Economy and Society of Beijing)

  • Qiying Ran

    (Xinjiang University
    Xinjiang University)

  • Yu Hao

    (Beijing Institute of Technology
    Beijing Institute of Technology
    Sustainable Development Research Institute for Economy and Society of Beijing
    Beijing Key Lab of Energy Economics and Environmental Management)

Abstract

According to China’s thirteenth “Five-Year Plan (2016–2020)”, the economic and social transition to the sustainable style has become the consensus of the Chinese government and the academic world. Given the important role of energy in China’s economic and social development, it is quite important to understand the effects of energy consumption on economic development. Despite a large body of literature in this field, very few studies have investigated the nonlinear relationship between the two. Based on the neoclassical growth model and the Cobb–Douglas production function, the present study uses the panel threshold regression model and provincial panel data covering the period 1985–2014 to investigate whether a nonlinear relationship exists between energy consumption and economic growth. The estimation results indicate that, although there is no evidence for such a nonlinear relationship for the whole nation, a single threshold exists for both eastern and noneastern regions; however, the elasticity of GDP with respect to energy consumption does not vary significantly either before and after the threshold is reached. Therefore, as China’s economy enters the phase of “new normal,” with a relatively lower growth rate, sufficient and reliable energy input is still required to maintain reasonable and sustainable economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiao-Ying Dong & Qiying Ran & Yu Hao, 2019. "On the nonlinear relationship between energy consumption and economic development in China: new evidence from panel data threshold estimations," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1837-1857, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:53:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s11135-019-00841-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-019-00841-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-019-00841-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-019-00841-5?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. Yuan, Jia-Hai & Kang, Jian-Gang & Zhao, Chang-Hong & Hu, Zhao-Guang, 2008. "Energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from China at both aggregated and disaggregated levels," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 3077-3094, November.
    2. Zhang, Dayong, 2008. "Oil shock and economic growth in Japan: A nonlinear approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2374-2390, September.
    3. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Khan, Saleheen & Tahir, Mohammad Iqbal, 2013. "The dynamic links between energy consumption, economic growth, financial development and trade in China: Fresh evidence from multivariate framework analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 8-21.
    4. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Da, Ya-Bin, 2015. "The decomposition of energy-related carbon emission and its decoupling with economic growth in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1255-1266.
    5. Hansen, Bruce E., 1999. "Threshold effects in non-dynamic panels: Estimation, testing, and inference," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 345-368, December.
    6. Wagner, Martin, 2008. "The carbon Kuznets curve: A cloudy picture emitted by bad econometrics?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 388-408, August.
    7. Zao Sun & Chun-Ping Chang & Yu Hao, 2017. "Fiscal decentralization and China’s provincial economic growth: a panel data analysis for China’s tax sharing system," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 2267-2289, September.
    8. Dong, Xiao-Ying & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Would income inequality affect electricity consumption? Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 215-227.
    9. Qunyong Wang, 2015. "Fixed-effect panel threshold model using Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 15(1), pages 121-134, March.
    10. Chiou-Wei, Song Zan & Chen, Ching-Fu & Zhu, Zhen, 2008. "Economic growth and energy consumption revisited -- Evidence from linear and nonlinear Granger causality," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 3063-3076, November.
    11. Dergiades, Theologos & Martinopoulos, Georgios & Tsoulfidis, Lefteris, 2013. "Energy consumption and economic growth: Parametric and non-parametric causality testing for the case of Greece," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 686-697.
    12. Huang, Bwo-Nung & Hwang, M.J. & Yang, C.W., 2008. "Causal relationship between energy consumption and GDP growth revisited: A dynamic panel data approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 41-54, August.
    13. Jushan Bai & Pierre Perron, 1998. "Estimating and Testing Linear Models with Multiple Structural Changes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(1), pages 47-78, January.
    14. Zao Sun & Chun-Ping Chang & Yu Hao, 2017. "Erratum to: Fiscal decentralization and China’s provincial economic growth: a panel data analysis for China’s tax sharing system," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 2291-2291, September.
    15. Wang, Shaojian & Fang, Chuanglin & Guan, Xingliang & Pang, Bo & Ma, Haitao, 2014. "Urbanisation, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions in China: A panel data analysis of China’s provinces," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 738-749.
    16. Fang, Yiping, 2011. "Economic welfare impacts from renewable energy consumption: The China experience," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 5120-5128.
    17. Zhang, Chuanguo & Lin, Yan, 2012. "Panel estimation for urbanization, energy consumption and CO2 emissions: A regional analysis in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 488-498.
    18. Sharif Hossain, Md., 2011. "Panel estimation for CO2 emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, trade openness and urbanization of newly industrialized countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 6991-6999.
    19. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Hye, Qazi Muhammad Adnan & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Leitão, Nuno Carlos, 2013. "Economic growth, energy consumption, financial development, international trade and CO2 emissions in Indonesia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 109-121.
    20. Du, Julan & Zhang, Yifei, 2018. "Does One Belt One Road initiative promote Chinese overseas direct investment?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 189-205.
    21. Alper, Aslan & Oguz, Ocal, 2016. "The role of renewable energy consumption in economic growth: Evidence from asymmetric causality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 953-959.
    22. Liu, Yiming & Hao, Yu & Gao, Yixuan, 2017. "The environmental consequences of domestic and foreign investment: Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 271-280.
    23. Hao, Yu & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2015. "When does the turning point in China's CO2 emissions occur? Results based on the Green Solow model," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(6), pages 723-745, December.
    24. Chiou-Wei, Song-Zan & Zhu, Zhen & Chen, Sheng-Hung & Hsueh, Sheng-Pin, 2016. "Controlling for relevant variables: Energy consumption and economic growth nexus revisited in an EGARCH-M (Exponential GARCH-in-Mean) model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 391-399.
    25. Long, Xingle & Naminse, Eric Yaw & Du, Jianguo & Zhuang, Jincai, 2015. "Nonrenewable energy, renewable energy, carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth in China from 1952 to 2012," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 680-688.
    26. Shi, Hao & Huang, Shaoqing, 2014. "How Much Infrastructure Is Too Much? A New Approach and Evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 272-286.
    27. Anthony N. Rezitis & Shaikh Mostak Ahammad, 2015. "The Relationship between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth in South and Southeast Asian Countries: A Panel Vector Autoregression Approach and Causality Analysis," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 5(3), pages 704-715.
    28. Demurger, Sylvie, 2001. "Infrastructure Development and Economic Growth: An Explanation for Regional Disparities in China?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 95-117, March.
    29. Nie, Pu-yan & Yang, Yong-cong, 2016. "Effects of energy price fluctuations on industries with energy inputs: An application to China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 329-334.
    30. Bölük, Gülden & Mert, Mehmet, 2014. "Fossil & renewable energy consumption, GHGs (greenhouse gases) and economic growth: Evidence from a panel of EU (European Union) countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 439-446.
    31. Zhang, Qianxue & Liao, Hua & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Does one path fit all? An empirical study on the relationship between energy consumption and economic development for individual Chinese provinces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 527-543.
    32. Yuan, Chaoqing & Liu, Sifeng & Wu, Junlong, 2009. "Research on energy-saving effect of technological progress based on Cobb-Douglas production function," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2842-2846, August.
    33. Dai, Hancheng & Masui, Toshihiko & Matsuoka, Yuzuru & Fujimori, Shinichiro, 2011. "Assessment of China's climate commitment and non-fossil energy plan towards 2020 using hybrid AIM/CGE model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2875-2887, May.
    34. Kasman, Adnan & Duman, Yavuz Selman, 2015. "CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, trade and urbanization in new EU member and candidate countries: A panel data analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 97-103.
    35. Wang, S.S. & Zhou, D.Q. & Zhou, P. & Wang, Q.W., 2011. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in China: A panel data analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 4870-4875, September.
    36. Tang, Chor Foon & Tan, Bee Wah & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2016. "Energy consumption and economic growth in Vietnam," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1506-1514.
    37. Dhakal, Shobhakar, 2009. "Urban energy use and carbon emissions from cities in China and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4208-4219, November.
    38. Inglesi-Lotz, Roula, 2016. "The impact of renewable energy consumption to economic growth: A panel data application," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 58-63.
    39. Alshehry, Atef Saad & Belloumi, Mounir, 2015. "Energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth: The case of Saudi Arabia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 237-247.
    40. Ouyang, Yaofu & Li, Peng, 2018. "On the nexus of financial development, economic growth, and energy consumption in China: New perspective from a GMM panel VAR approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 238-252.
    41. Begum, Rawshan Ara & Sohag, Kazi & Abdullah, Sharifah Mastura Syed & Jaafar, Mokhtar, 2015. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption, economic and population growth in Malaysia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 594-601.
    42. Shan, Yuli & Liu, Jianghua & Liu, Zhu & Xu, Xinwanghao & Shao, Shuai & Wang, Peng & Guan, Dabo, 2016. "New provincial CO2 emission inventories in China based on apparent energy consumption data and updated emission factors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 742-750.
    43. Zhang, Chuanguo & Xu, Jiao, 2012. "Retesting the causality between energy consumption and GDP in China: Evidence from sectoral and regional analyses using dynamic panel data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1782-1789.
    44. Zhang, Jianling & Wang, Guoshun, 2008. "Energy saving technologies and productive efficiency in the Chinese iron and steel sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 525-537.
    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. Faris Alshubiri & Mohamed Elheddad & Syed Ahsan Jamil & Nassima Djellouli, 2021. "The impacts of financial depth and foreign direct investment on the green and non-green energy consumption of OPEC members," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(6), pages 1-29, June.
    2. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Shafiullah, Muhammad & Khalid, Usman & Song, Malin, 2020. "A nonparametric analysis of energy environmental Kuznets Curve in Chinese Provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Chai, Jingxia & Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu, 2022. "Planned economic growth and controlled energy demand: How do regional growth targets affect energy consumption in China?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    4. Daiva Makutėnienė & Algirdas Justinas Staugaitis & Bernardas Vaznonis & Gunta Grīnberga-Zālīte, 2023. "The Relationship between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth in the Baltic Countries’ Agriculture: A Non-Linear Framework," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-22, February.
    5. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2020. "Decomposing Scale and Technique Effects of Economic Growth on Energy Consumption: Fresh Evidence in Developing Economies," MPRA Paper 102111, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 27 Jul 2020.
    6. Muhammad Abrar Ul Haq & Muhammad Atif Nawaz & Farheen Akram & Vinodh K. Natarajan, 2020. "Theoretical Implications of Renewable Energy using Improved Cooking Stoves for Rural Households," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(5), pages 546-554.
    7. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha & Andreas Kontoleon, 2022. "Decomposing scale and technique effects of economic growth on energy consumption: Fresh evidence from developing economies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 1848-1869, April.
    8. Katarzyna Kocur-Bera & Szymon Czyża, 2023. "Socio-Economic Vulnerability to Climate Change in Rural Areas in the Context of Green Energy Development—A Study of the Great Masurian Lakes Mesoregion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-24, February.
    9. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Ahmad, Shabbir & Jiao, Zhilun & Wang, Zhaohua, 2021. "Role of FDI in Decomposing of Scale and Technique Effects on China’s Energy Consumption," MPRA Paper 111231, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    10. Anam Javaid & Rukhsana Kalim & Muhammad Shahid Hassan, 2024. "The Role of Human Capital in Strengthening Energy Mix-Climate Change Relation: A Study of Selected Low and High Vulnerable Economies," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(1), pages 209-221.
    11. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha & Shabbir Ahmad & Zhilun Jiao & Zhaohua Wang, 2023. "Role of foreign direct investment in decomposing of scale and technique effects on China's energy consumption," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 3370-3385, July.

    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. Tiba, Sofien & Omri, Anis, 2017. "Literature survey on the relationships between energy, environment and economic growth," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1129-1146.
    2. Usama Al-Mulali & Ilhan Ozturk & Hooi Lean, 2015. "The influence of economic growth, urbanization, trade openness, financial development, and renewable energy on pollution in Europe," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 79(1), pages 621-644, October.
    3. Sofien, Tiba & Omri, Anis, 2016. "Literature survey on the relationships between energy variables, environment and economic growth," MPRA Paper 82555, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Sep 2016.
    4. Fang, Zheng & Chen, Yang, 2017. "Human capital, energy, and economic development – Evidence from Chinese provincial data," RIEI Working Papers 2017-03, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Research Institute for Economic Integration.
    5. Hao, Yu & Wang, Ling'ou & Zhu, Lingyun & Ye, Minjie, 2018. "The dynamic relationship between energy consumption, investment and economic growth in China's rural area: New evidence based on provincial panel data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 374-382.
    6. Rahman, Mohammad Mafizur & Velayutham, Eswaran, 2020. "Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption-economic growth nexus: New evidence from South Asia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 399-408.
    7. Ahmad, Nisar & Aghdam, Reza FathollahZadeh & Butt, Irfan & Naveed, Amjad, 2020. "Citation-based systematic literature review of energy-growth nexus: An overview of the field and content analysis of the top 50 influential papers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Pengyan Zhang & Jianjian He & Xin Hong & Wei Zhang & Chengzhe Qin & Bo Pang & Yanyan Li & Yu Liu, 2017. "Regional-Level Carbon Emissions Modelling and Scenario Analysis: A STIRPAT Case Study in Henan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Hoang, Thi Hong Van & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Roubaud, David, 2017. "Energy consumption, financial development and economic growth in India: New evidence from a nonlinear and asymmetric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 199-212.
    10. Antonakakis, Nikolaos & Chatziantoniou, Ioannis & Filis, George, 2015. "Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions, and Economic Growth: A Moral Dilemma," MPRA Paper 67422, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Zhang, Qianxue & Liao, Hua & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Does one path fit all? An empirical study on the relationship between energy consumption and economic development for individual Chinese provinces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 527-543.
    12. Smyth, Russell & Narayan, Paresh Kumar, 2015. "Applied econometrics and implications for energy economics research," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 351-358.
    13. Destek, Mehmet Akif, 2016. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth in newly industrialized countries: Evidence from asymmetric causality test," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 478-484.
    14. Farzana Sharmin & Mohammed Robayet Khan & Mohammed Robayet Khan, 2016. "A Causal Relationship between Energy Consumption, Energy Prices and Economic Growth in Africa," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 6(3), pages 477-494.
    15. Saša Obradović & Nemanja Lojanica, 2019. "Does environmental quality reflect on national competitiveness? The evidence from EU-15," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(4), pages 559-585, June.
    16. Antonakakis, Nikolaos & Chatziantoniou, Ioannis & Filis, George, 2017. "Energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth: An ethical dilemma," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 808-824.
    17. Dong, Xiao-Ying & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Would income inequality affect electricity consumption? Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 215-227.
    18. Junsheng Ha & Pei-Pei Tan & Kim-Leng Goh, 2018. "Linear and nonlinear causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in China: New evidence based on wavelet analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-21, May.
    19. Le, Thai-Ha & Nguyen, Canh Phuc, 2019. "Is energy security a driver for economic growth? Evidence from a global sample," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 436-451.
    20. Nasre Esfahani, Mohammad & Rasoulinezhad, Ehsan, 2016. "Revisiting the relationships between non-renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions and economic growth in Iran," MPRA Paper 71124, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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:spr:qualqt:v:53:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s11135-019-00841-5. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.