An empirical analysis of China's energy efficiency from both static and dynamic perspectives

• We analyze China's energy efficiency from both static and dynamic perspectives.
• The global DEA (data envelopment analysis) method is utilized in this paper.
• Technical progress is the key factor for the change of China's energy efficiency.
• There are significant differences in energy efficiency of different regions in China.
• Western area is China's promising growth engine of energy efficiency in the future.

Utilizing the global DEA (data envelopment analysis), this paper analyzes China's energy efficiency from both static and dynamic perspectives based on China's provincial panel data for the period of 2001–2010. We present the evolution of energy efficiency in China from 2001 to 2010, and identify the key factors influencing the energy efficiency from the aspects of technical progress, productive scale and management level. The results show that there was an overall declining trend for China's energy efficiency from 2001 to 2005, and technical regress and the decrease in scale efficiency were the main reasons for this decline. Then an overall rising trend appeared during 2005–2010, and technical progress was the most important motivation for this increase. Moreover, among the three main regions in China, the eastern China was leading in the energy efficiency during the sample period, while the energy efficiency in western China fell far behind since the beginning. And the energy efficiency in central China was in the middle. This indicates that west region may be China's promising growth engine of energy efficiency in the future, and further technical progress is thought to be the key motivation for this improvement.