Analysis of energy efficiency and its influencing factors in China's transport sector

With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, demand for transportation has increased dramatically, which cause high energy consumption in the transport sector. Energy conservation and emission reduction is currently a long and arduous task for China. Thus, it is of great significance to study the inter-provincial energy efficiency and its influencing factors in China's transport sector. We use the new energy efficiency model that integrates output growth and energy conservation to measure provincial energy efficiency in China's transport sector. The results show that energy efficiency shows a distinctly ladder-like distribution with the eastern province having the highest level, followed by the central and western provinces, and the energy efficiency gap among the provinces is narrowing. In addition, we use the censored model and truncated model to analyze the relevant factors impacting energy efficiency and propose relevant policy recommendations on how to improve energy efficiency. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.