Can environmental regulations enhance efficiency? Empirical study for Chinas thermal power industry

摘要

From the perspective of energy efficiency, the paper analyzes the environmental regulations on efficiency of the thermal power industry in China’s 30 provinces in the year of 2004, including the autonomous regions and municipalities. Excluding the environmental effects and the statistical noise, the paper studies the relationship between the level of environmental regulations and the efficiency of China’s thermal power with non-regulations, weak-regulations and strong-regulations. The results demonstrate that environmental regulations can improve the efficiency of China’s thermal power as a whole. However, this theory is not suitable for every region. The study concludes three different developing modes: environmentally- friendly mode influenced by internal forces, weak environmentally-friendly mode and environmentally-friendly mode created by external forces. The paper suggests three different regulations in correspondence to the three modes.