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Improving energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to address environmental constraints and achieve high-quality economic development. The existing literature suggests that technological progress has an important impact on energy efficiency, but ignores the role of different paths of technological progress. Herein, the impact of different technological progress paths on energy efficiency was analyzed using the dynamic panel data model and the threshold model based on the energy efficiency measurement using the Meta-frontier and Nonradial Directional Distance Function model. The findings of this study were as follows: (1) During the study sample period, a fluctuating upward trend was observed in China's energy efficiency, and there were significant differences in energy efficiency in different regions of China. (2) The energy efficiency in China could be significantly improved by domestic innovation and regional technology diffusion. Even though the imported technologies do not play a significant role in promoting energy efficiency and have no positive effect on the improvement of energy efficiency from the perspective of domestic technology absorption or foreign technology absorption. (3) The eastern and central regions of China improve their energy efficiency through domestic innovation. However, none of the technological progress paths in the western and low-energy-efficiency regions have played a positive role in promoting energy efficiency. (4) The effect of promoting domestic innovation and regional technology diffusion on energy efficiency is gradually increasing with human capital improvement, and the restriction of foreign technology import on energy efficiency has obviously decreased. In a nutshell, different paths of technological progress have differential effects on energy efficiency improvements. Based on the above results, this paper makes some targeted policy recommendations on the choice of technological progress paths to improve energy efficiency in different regions of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) has had a significant impact on rapid economic development and environmental pollution in China. Nonetheless, the underlying mechanism and empirical evidence of FDI impact on carbon emission efficiency have not been systematically explored. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of FDI on carbon emission efficiency via energy intensity, as well as the moderating role of the Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy (LCCP) in the process. We found that: (1) During the study sample period, the average carbon emission efficiency tends to rise, however, there remains a gap between the optimal carbon emission efficiency; (2) FDI is one of the key factors that inhibit the improvement of carbon emission efficiency, with a non-linear relationship between them; (3) FDI indirectly suppresses the improvement of carbon emission efficiency by promoting energy intensity. Nevertheless, the implementation of LCCP has a positive effect on carbon emission efficiency; (4) The implementation of LCCP has improved the negative impact of FDI on carbon emission efficiency, nonetheless, it cannot significantly influence the process that FDI affects carbon emission efficiency through energy intensity. Thus, we propose improvement measures from three aspects, i.e., increasing the introduction of foreign capital, adjusting the energy consumption structure, and expanding the scope of low-carbon cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there were many researches on China Free Trade Pilot Zone (FTZ), however, there was still a lack of research on the effect of the FTZ on trade efficiency. To make up for gaps in research, this paper calculated the trade efficiency of 30 provinces in China with stochastic frontier gravity model, and then empirically tested the policy effect of the FTZ by using the propensity score matching and difference in difference (PSM-DID) method, and further analyzed the inherent mechanism. The results showed that China's general level of trade efficiency was relatively low, while the average trade efficiency in FTZs was significantly higher. The establishment of the FTZ had a significant positive impact on trade efficiency advances. Before and after the establishment of the pilot free trade zone, the difference between the changes in the trade efficiency measurement results of the treated group provinces and the trade efficiency measurement results of the control group provinces showed the characteristics of first increasing and then decreasing, and the policy effect has a certain lag. The establishment of the FTZ significantly reduced the trade cost. The model estimated that the trade efficiency increased by 3.576% for every 1% growth of trade cost, and the policy effect of the FTZ was significantly positive, which verified the existence of the intermediary effect of trade cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free trade zone (FTZ) in China has been demonstrating remarkable achievements since its establishment, yet its effects on the environment in the zones cannot be ignored. However, there is still a lack of research on the impact of the quasi-natural experiment in the China pilot FTZ on China's environment. Based on this, this paper uses panel data from 196 cities in China from 2010 to 2017 and uses the propensity score matching and difference in difference (PSM-DID) model to empirically test the environmental effects of the establishment of the FTZ. The result shows that there is an obvious causal relationship between the establishment of the FTZ and environmental quality. The establishment of the FTZ has exacerbated the environmental pollution problem in the pilot zone. Through a series of robustness tests, it is concluded that the estimated results of the benchmark model are robust. However, after a further study on whether the effect of the FTZ on environment is time varying, it was found that the effects of the FTZ on the environmental pollution in the test zones gradually weakened over time, which means that with the gradual maturity of China's free trade pilot zone, the positive effect on environmental improvement will gradually highlight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]