Abstrait

Research on the evolution trends and influencing factors of the regional difference in China’s energy consumption

Yan-dong Zhang, Tao Zhao

With the help of Theil index and panel data from 1986 to 2011, the evolution trends are comparatively researched, including three kinds of Theil index. The influencing factors of energy intensity are also studied by econometric model. The results show that Theil index from energy consumption and population continues to decline, becoming the smallest in the three, meaning that the match degree between energy consumption and population is increasing and the energy-saving targets of energy intensity is more challenging than the ones of energy consumption per capita. The difference from within region is the main resource to the overall regional difference. Western region is the main reason to the difference from within region exceeding the other regions. Urbanization is the key factor to the energy intensity difference. Further research needs to be done for western region because there is more unique characteristic