Modelling the role of industrial structure adjustment on China's energy efficiency: Insights from technology innovation

Due to uncoordinated economic progress, China's regional gap concerning energy efficiency (EE) is noticeable. However, industrial structure adjustments can be reorganized as a promising way to prioritize the green and lowcarbon transition. Aiming to understand how regional EE can be achieved through industrial structure adjustment, this study empirically investigates the role of industrial structure adjustment in increasing interprovincial EE from a technology innovation perspective. Unlike previous studies, the primary analytical framework is anchored on a spatio-temporal domain. Specifically, we observe that industrial structure rationalization and industrial structure adjustment not only directly influence local EE but also indirectly exert a positive effect on EE improvements in adjacent provinces. The same implications are also valid when addressing the EE-ICT nexus. Further mechanism analysis shows that technology innovation positively moderates industrial structure adjustment to EE enhancements, with regional heterogeneity being all-important. We find that the non-linear effect of industrial structure adjustment on EE is conditioned by technology innovation. Increasing R&D input intensity could significantly change the impacts of industrial structure adjustments on EE efficiency.