Vertical specialization, global trade and energy consumption for an urban economy: A value added export perspective for Beijing

- The unified framework integrating the value added export and energy consumption is proposed.
- The competitive advantages for sectors in the metropolis are assessed in terms of energy utilization.
- Two definitions of energy intensity are compared to identify impacts of vertical specialization.
- The consequences of downstream and upstream participation for the urban energy consumption are evaluated.

The facilitation of regional trade has boosted the fragmentation in global supply chain, integrating the production, energy and other ecological factors across the regional boundaries by virtue of vertical specialization. The consequences of this trend on urban energy consumption are firstly analyzed by constructing multiregional input-output table and decomposing the value added export in Beijing. Energy consumption per unit of GDP in Beijing is only half of that per unit of value added after adjusting the export by virtue of decomposition techniques and Beijing displays no obvious advantages in energy usage when considering the value added processes. Energy intensive parts of production are relocated outside the metropolis by the downstream and upstream participation in global areas. The results of value added export for energy consumption reveal that the vertical specialization in this metropolis slashes the amount of energy consumption in the city but raises that in the outside. The unified framework by integration of the value added export and energy consumption in this paper could be extended to other related topics.