Spatial Conditional Β-convergence Analysis of Society-wide Energy Efficiency Based on Technological Diffusion

There is an energy efficiency gap among Chinese different regions.How to reduce the difference is becoming a hot issue in the energy economy.Based on the panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2010,this paper used the spatial error conditional β-convergence model to estimate the effects of technological diffusion on society-wide energy efficiency convergence.The results are as follows: ①society-wide energy efficiency in China from 2000 to 2010 has three stages: the upside from 2000 to 2002,the downside from 2002 to 2005 and the upside again from 2005 to 2010.In the third period,the rate of growth is the fastest,so its experience is worth referring;② society-wide energy efficiency absolute β-convergence can be separated into three phases from convergence to divergence;③society-wide energy efficiency has spatial dependence and its growth rate is insignificant,but the positive effect of spatial factors on society-wide energy efficiency β-convergence is gathering strength;④society-wide energy efficiency can be provided over 1.8 times by the overall technological diffusion and grows over time;⑤foreign direct investment had an adverse effect on society-wide energy efficiency and its speed of convergence;⑥the impact of technology diffusion on society-wide energy efficiency is different in the three periods,and the effect of technology import and inflow to domestic technical market on the convergence of societywide energy efficiency was not significant.Therefore,the introduction of foreign capital is the important measure to reduce the gap in regional society-wide energy efficiency.