Renewable energy investment in China's new demonstration cities: A quasi-natural experiment

IF 3.8 3区经济学 Q3 ENERGY & FUELS

Utilities Policy Pub Date : 2025-06-14 DOI:10.1016/j.jup.2025.101996

Jiazhen Ren , Ying Liu , Yida Ren , Ping Zhang

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Abstract

Renewable energy investment (REI) plays a vital role in the country's transition toward a cleaner energy mix. To optimize environmental policy and enhance energy supply stability, China has implemented the New Energy Demonstration Cities (NEDC) initiative. This analysis utilizes panel data from China's A-share listed companies, spanning 2000 to 2023, and conducts a quasi-natural experiment on the NEDC initiative—viewed as a comprehensive policy intervention—to evaluate its impact on REI and explore the underlying mechanisms. The results show that NEDC policies significantly stimulate REI, leading to a 57.44 % increase in investment. Mechanism analysis reveals that these policies promote REI mainly by easing financing constraints, increasing government subsidies, and reducing information asymmetry. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that the positive effects of NEDC policies on REI are more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises and large firms. The findings offer important policy implications for advancing China's green, low-carbon, and sustainable development goals.

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中国新示范城市的可再生能源投资：准自然实验

可再生能源投资（REI）在该国向清洁能源结构过渡的过程中发挥着至关重要的作用。为优化环境政策，提高能源供应稳定性，中国实施了新能源示范城市（NEDC）计划。本分析利用2000年至2023年中国a股上市公司的面板数据，对NEDC倡议（被视为一项综合政策干预）进行了准自然实验，以评估其对REI的影响并探讨其潜在机制。结果表明，新经济开发区政策显著刺激了再投资，带动投资增长57.44%。机制分析表明，这些政策主要通过缓解融资约束、增加政府补贴和减少信息不对称来促进REI。异质性分析进一步表明，新经济发展政策对REI的积极影响在非国有企业和大型企业中更为明显。研究结果为推进中国的绿色、低碳和可持续发展目标提供了重要的政策启示。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Utilities Policy ENERGY & FUELS-ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

10.00%

发文量

审稿时长

66 days

期刊介绍： Utilities Policy is deliberately international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral. Articles address utility trends and issues in both developed and developing economies. Authors and reviewers come from various disciplines, including economics, political science, sociology, law, finance, accounting, management, and engineering. Areas of focus include the utility and network industries providing essential electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater, solid waste, communications, broadband, postal, and public transportation services. Utilities Policy invites submissions that apply various quantitative and qualitative methods. Contributions are welcome from both established and emerging scholars as well as accomplished practitioners. Interdisciplinary, comparative, and applied works are encouraged. Submissions to the journal should have a clear focus on governance, performance, and/or analysis of public utilities with an aim toward informing the policymaking process and providing recommendations as appropriate. Relevant topics and issues include but are not limited to industry structures and ownership, market design and dynamics, economic development, resource planning, system modeling, accounting and finance, infrastructure investment, supply and demand efficiency, strategic management and productivity, network operations and integration, supply chains, adaptation and flexibility, service-quality standards, benchmarking and metrics, benefit-cost analysis, behavior and incentives, pricing and demand response, economic and environmental regulation, regulatory performance and impact, restructuring and deregulation, and policy institutions.