Research on the dynamic evolution and influence factors of industrial energy efficiency in China Yangtze River Economic Belt

Improving the Yangtze River Economic Belt's industrial energy efficiency is not only an important measure to alleviate China's energy shortages but also a drive to promote green economic development. The Super-EBM model, Malmquist productivity index, exploratory spatial data analysis, and Spatial Dubin model are used in this article to investigate the spatial-temporal dynamic development characteristics and influencing factors of industrial energy efficiency in 108 cities of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2011 to 2020. The findings demonstrate that the industrial energy efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and its three urban agglomerations went through three stages, including the “oscillation period,” “stability period,” and “enhancement period,” and decreases from east to west in the spatial dimension. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration has the highest industrial energy efficiency, followed by the Middle-reach Yangtze River urban agglomeration, and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration is the lowest. Further, this article identifies seven influencing factors including government intervention, industrial structure, degree of openness, R&D investment, urbanization, economic development, and environmental regulation. This article provides suggestions for industrial energy efficiency improvement.