A Comparative Analysis of Residential Energy Consumption in Urban and Rural China: Determinants and Regional Disparities

Residential energy consumption (REC) has become increasingly important in constructing an energy-saving and environment-friendly society in China. The main purpose of this study is to provide a more in-depth analysis of the determinants of REC from an urban-rural segregation perspective, and quantify the contributions of individual determinants to the regional disparities of REC. Based on the extended STIRPAT (the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology) model, seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) estimation is employed to examine the impacts of various determinants of urban REC per capita (URECP) and rural REC per capita (RRECP) in a sample of China’s 30 provinces over the period 2007–2016. Then, following the results of SUR, this paper tries to explore the reasons for interprovincial disparities of URECP and RRECP by using the Shapley value decomposition. The empirical results show that income level and heating lead to an increase in URECP, while other factors, including the share of natural gas, average temperature, child dependency ratio and gross dependency ratio, significantly decrease URECP. In terms of RRECP, it is shown that old-age dependency ratio, income level and the share of coal consumption positively influence RRECP, while average temperature has a negative effect on RRECP. Specially, the effect of gross dependency ratio on RRECP is positive, indicating the non-working-age population causes more energy use than the working-age population in rural areas. According to the Shapley decomposition, rather than social-economic variables, climate and heating factors contribute the most to the interprovincial differences in URECP. Furthermore, it is found that income level is the most important factor accounting for inter-provincial differences in RRECP. The findings of this research are of great interest, not only to scholars in REC-related fields, but also to decision makers.

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Spatiotemporal Patterns and Influencing Mechanism of Urban Residential Energy Consumption in China

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14133864 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (13) ◽

pp. 3864

Author(s):

Qiucheng Li ◽

Jiang Hu ◽

Bolin Yu

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Energy Use ◽

Decomposition Analysis ◽

Theil Index ◽

Residential Energy ◽

Residential Energy Consumption ◽

Index Method ◽

Inequality Measures ◽

Influencing Mechanism ◽

Per Capita

The residential sector has become the second largest energy consumer in China. Urban residential energy consumption (URE) in China is growing rapidly in the process of urbanization. This paper aims to reveal the spatiotemporal dynamic evolution and influencing mechanism of URE in China. The spatiotemporal heterogeneity of URE during 2007–2018 is explored through Kernel density estimation and inequality measures (i.e., Gini coefficient, Theil index, and mean logarithmic deviation). Then, with several advantages over traditional index decomposition analysis approaches, the Generalized Divisia Index Method (GDIM) decomposition is employed to investigate the impacts of eight driving factors on URE. Furthermore, the national and provincial decoupling relationships between URE and residential income increase are studied. It is found that different provinces’ URE present a significant agglomeration effect; the interprovincial inequality in URE increases and then decreases during the study period. The GDIM decomposition results indicate the income effect is the main positive factor driving URE. Besides, urban population, residential area, per capita energy use, and per unit area energy consumption positively influence URE. By contrast, per capita income, energy intensity, and residential density have negative effects on URE. There is evidence that only three decoupling states, i.e., weak decoupling, strong decoupling, and expansive negative decoupling, appear in China during 2007–2018. Specifically, weak decoupling is the dominant state among different regions. Finally, some suggestions are given to speed up the construction of energy-saving cities and promote the decoupling process of residential energy consumption in China. This paper fills some research gaps in urban residential energy research and is important for China’s policymakers.

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Exploring the Changing Gap of Residential Energy Consumption per Capita in China and the Netherlands: A Comparative Analysis of Driving Forces

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12114634 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 4634

Author(s):

Hongguang Nie ◽

René Kemp ◽

Véronique Vasseur

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

The Netherlands ◽

High Speed ◽

Energy Intensity ◽

Driving Forces ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Residential Energy ◽

Residential Energy Consumption ◽

Energy Mix ◽

Per Capita

This paper brings out some remarkable differences between China as a developing country experiencing high economic growth and the Netherlands as a developed country by examining the driving forces behind the evolution of residential energy consumption per capita (RECpc) in the two countries in the period from 2001 to 2015. The components we analysed are income, energy-intensity, weather and energy-mix effects. The most remarkable result is the changing effect of energy intensity in China: during 2001–2007 energy intensity increased, and decreased afterward. The changes reflected changes in material circumstances: the shift to relative energy intensive goods and of saturation of energy demand for heating and cooling. In the Netherlands, the declining energy intensity, warmer winters and the more diversified energy mix decreased RECpc by 511.39, 58.81 and 1.08 kgce, respectively. Although the income growth both increased RECpc in the two countries, the relatively high-speed increasing income in China narrowed the RECpc gap between the two countries. This study implies that the opposite changes in RECpc in developing and developed countries are due to the different development stages reached by the countries. Policy suggestions are being offered to deal with the different circumstances, as revealed through this study.

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Deconstructing the ‘Rosenfeld Curve’: Why is Per Capita Residential Energy Consumption in California so Low?

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.1720229 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Anant Sudarshan

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Residential Energy ◽

Residential Energy Consumption ◽

Per Capita

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The Link Between Demography and Labour Markets in sub-Saharan Africa

10.19088/k4d.2021.011 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Evert-jan Quak

Keyword(s):

Labour Markets ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Low Fertility ◽

Dependency Ratio ◽

Female Labour ◽

Labour Participation ◽

Working Age ◽

Per Capita ◽

Working Age Population ◽

Sub Saharan

This rapid review synthesises the literature from academic, policy, and knowledge institution sources on how demography affects labour markets (e.g. entrants, including youth and women) and labour market outcomes (e.g. capital-per-worker, life-cycle labour supply, human capital investments) in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. One of the key findings is that the fast-growing population in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to affect the ability to get productive jobs and in turn economic growth. This normally happens when workers move from traditional (low productivity agriculture and household businesses) sectors into higher productivity sectors in manufacturing and services. In theory the literature shows that lower dependency ratios (share of the non-working age population) should increase output per capita if labour force participation rates among the working age population remain unchanged. If output per worker stays constant, then a decline in dependency ratio would lead to a rise in income per capita. Macro simulation models for sub-Saharan Africa estimate that capital per worker will remain low due to consistently low savings for at least the next decades, even in the low fertility scenario. Sub-Saharan African countries seem too poor for a quick rise in savings. As such, it is unlikely that a lower dependency ratio will initiate a dramatic increase in labour productivity. The literature notes the gender implications on labour markets. Most women combine unpaid care for children with informal and low productive work in agriculture or family enterprises. Large family sizes reduce their productive labour years significantly, estimated at a reduction of 1.9 years of productive participation per woman for each child, that complicates their move into more productive work (if available). If the transition from high fertility to low fertility is permanent and can be established in a relatively short-term period, there are long-run effects on female labour participation, and the gains in income per capita will be permanent. As such from the literature it is clear that the effect of higher female wages on female labour participation works to a large extent through reductions in fertility.

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