Assessing the impact of energy efficiency and the sharing economy on sustainable economic development in China: A QARDL analysis from 1991 to 2020

The growing importance of energy efficiency and the sharing economy as critical drivers of sustainable economic development (SED) has garnered significant attention, particularly in rapidly industrializing economies like China. This study explores the impact of these factors on SED in China over the period 1991–2020. Utilizing the Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag (QARDL) model and the augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test, the analysis examines secondary data to capture the dynamic relationships among energy efficiency, sharing economy usage, sharing economy value, urbanization, industrialization, and population growth. The findings reveal that energy efficiency has a positive impact on SED, with an elasticity of 0.765 in the first quantile and 0.894 in the fourth quantile, indicating that its influence intensifies in higher development scenarios. Sharing economy usage shows significant short- and long-term effects, with coefficients ranging from 0.546 to 0.874 across quantiles, emphasizing its critical role in resource optimization. Urbanization and industrialization contribute positively, with coefficients of 0.983 and 0.763, respectively, highlighting their importance in balancing economic growth with sustainability. The study underscores the need for integrated policies promoting energy efficiency and expanding the sharing economy to achieve sustainable development, offering actionable insights for policymakers to align economic strategies with environmental objectives.