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on China |
| By: | Zhang, Lin; Adom, Philip Kofi |
| Abstract: | This study examines the energy efficiency transitions in China using provincial data covering the period 2003–2015. Sustainable progress in energy efficiency achievements is beneficial to energy insecurity and the achievement of the Paris Agreement. This article combines the stochastic frontier method with the panel Markov-switching regression to model energy efficiency transitions. Estimated energy efficiency scores showed significant regional and provincial heterogeneity. Also, while human capital development, urbanization, and foreign direct investment promote energy efficiency, price and income per capita reduce it. The transition probabilities indicate that the high energy-efficient state is less sustainable, and the movement towards the frontier seems less persistent than movement from the frontier. Thus, it appears that China is not making sustainable progress in energy efficiency. The unsustainable nature of the high energy-efficient state suggests that in China, there are weak energy efficiency efforts and energy efficiency policies lack robustness. |
| Keywords: | Energy efficiency transitions, Panel Markov, Stochastic frontier, China |
| JEL: | O4 O47 Q4 Q40 Q43 Q48 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:94797&r=all |
| By: | Gao, Yanyan; Qu, Zhaopeng |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we test the conventional wisdom in developing countries of ‘more children, more happiness’ by exploiting the cohort and provincial variations of elderly parents exposed to the one-child policy in China. Using nationally representative survey data from the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitude Survey, the results from both the ordinary least square and two-stage least square methods find that more children can enhance elderly parents’ subjective well-being (SWB) measured with either life satisfaction or depression mood. The effect is channelled by raising their satisfaction with children and receiving in-kind transfers from children. The heterogeneity analysis also shows that the effect of children on parents’ life satisfaction is heterogenous to sex composition, first-birth gender, and parents' age. Our study provides new causal evidence of the impact of fertility on elderly parents’ SWB from a developing economy. |
| Keywords: | children,happiness,life satisfaction,elderly parents,depression,China |
| JEL: | J13 J14 I18 I31 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:366&r=all |
| By: | Zhou, W.; Moncaster, A.; Reiner, D.; Guthrie, P. |
| Abstract: | Building lifetime and stock turnover are both key determinants in modelling building energy and carbon. However in China, aside from anecdotal claims that urban residential buildings are generally short-lived, there are no recent official statistics, and empirical data are extremely limited. We present a system dynamics model where survival analysis is used to characterise the dynamic interplay between new construction, aging, and demolition of residential buildings in urban China. The uncertainties associated with building lifetime were represented using a Weibull distribution, whose shape and scale parameters were calibrated based on official statistics on floor area up to 2006. The calibrated Weibull lifetime distribution allowed us to estimate the dynamic stock turnover of Chinese urban residential buildings for 2007 to 2017. We find that the average lifetime of urban residential buildings was around 34 years, and the overall residential stock size reached 23.7 billion m 2 in 2017. The resultant age-specific sub-stocks provide a baseline for the overall stock, which—along with the calibrated Weibull lifetime distribution—can be used in further modelling and for analysis of policies to reduce the whole-life embodied and operational energy and CO 2 emissions in Chinese residential buildings. |
| Keywords: | building stock, survival analysis, lifetime distribution, system dynamics |
| JEL: | C61 O18 R21 |
| Date: | 2019–07–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1967&r=all |
| By: | Xiaojia Bao; Jianan Li; Puyang Sun |
| Date: | 2019–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wyi:wpaper:002477&r=all |
| By: | Zhang, Lin; An, Yao |
| Abstract: | This study employs Vector Auto-regression model with Generalized Response Impulse Function to analyse the dynamic nexus between economic growth and the industrial environmental pollution intensity for six specific pollutants in Shanxi province of China from 1995 to 2015. The results show there exists bi-directional effects, with stronger impact running from economic development to industrial pollution is stronger. We also find Shanxi government shows significant capacity in the management of industrial solid waste and waste gas. The provincial government has higher capacity in controlling Sulfur Dioxide compared to soot/dust. Our results verify the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve through dynamic interactions between industrial pollution intensity and economic growth impulse. Three out of the six environmental pollution intensity responses are in the shape of inverted U curve. There are exceptions for three pollutants: N curve for Chemical Oxygen Demand and U curve for solid waste and waste gas. |
| Keywords: | Environmental pollution intensity; Economic growth; Government capacity; Industrial pollutions control; Environmental Kuznets Curve |
| JEL: | Q00 Q56 Q58 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:94796&r=all |
| By: | Hou, Yang; Wu, Manling |
| Abstract: | The efficiency of investment affects the future development of the enterprises. The relevant literature on the corporate investment shows that the information asymmetry and the conflict of agency between the executives and the shareholders of the enterprises have a significant influence on the investment decision-makings. This study uses data of Chinese SOEs to analyze the factors affecting the efficiency of capital allocation of these Chinese SOEs from the perspective of free cash flow, ownership structure, agency costs, financing constraints and government intervention. The results of this study show that the phenomenon of over-investment is relatively obvious among the Chinese state-controlled listed enterprises. The results also show that substantial free cash flow, relatively high ownership concentration and government intervention are the major factors that lead to the over-investment in these Chinese state-owned listed companies. At the meantime, the financing constraints play a positive role in restraining the over-investment of Chinese SOEs, but their effect is quite weak. Moreover, the distortions of the senior executives’ value goals lead to the failure of executive compensation mechanism and the construction of a proper governance system needs to begin with the property rights relations. |
| Keywords: | Over-investments Chinese SOEs Capital Allocation Free Cash Flow |
| JEL: | G31 G32 |
| Date: | 2019–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:94839&r=all |
| By: | Mouganie, Pierre (American University of Beirut); Wang, Yaojing (Peking University) |
| Abstract: | Women have historically been underrepresented in STEM majors and occupations, a gap that has persisted over time. There are concerns that this is related to academic choices made at an earlier age. The purpose of this paper is to examine how social environment affects women's STEM choices as early as high school. Using administrative data from China, we find that exposure to high-performing female peers in mathematics increases the likelihood that women choose a science track during high school, while more high-performing males decrease this likelihood. We also find that peer quality has persistent effects on college outcomes. Overall, there is little evidence of peer effects for boys. Our results suggest that girls doing well in mathematics provide an affirmation effect that encourages female classmates to pursue a STEM track. |
| Keywords: | STEM, peer quality, gender peer effects, China |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12455&r=all |
| By: | Steven Shuye Wang (School of Business, Renmin University of China); Kuan Xu (Department of Economics, Dalhousie University); Hao Zhang (Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria) |
| Date: | 2019–07–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dal:wpaper:daleconwp2019-02&r=all |