The Effects of Human Capital and Technical Factors on Energy Efficiency Based on Regional Panel Data

Based on the data of twenty-eight provinces from 2000 to 2010, this paper calculated the total-factor energy efficiency of every sector, encompassing the east, the middle and the west. Besides this, based on the perspective of human capital, this paper introduces the variables of human capital, together with the technical factors, to the difference generalized moment model (diff-GMM), and studies the effects of human capital and technical factors on energy efficiency. By comparing the index of three major economic districts, we find there is a decreased tendency from the east to the west. The east has the highest total-factor energy efficiency, the middle comes second, and the west ranks third. The results also show that technical progress, pure technical efficiency, scale efficiency have a negative correlation with energy efficiency; the lagged average years of education have obvious effect on energy efficiency. Consequently, in order to improve energy efficiency, we should import advanced technology, increase the scale advantages and allocate human capital reasonably.