Resource Misallocation and Energy-Related Pollution

Abstract

Developing countries face the conflict between economic development and environmental protection. Resource misallocation will not only affect the effectiveness of economic development, but also have environmental impacts. Based on two large-scale enterprise databases in China, this paper measured the level of enterprise resource allocation, and further used empirical research methods to investigate the environmental impact of enterprise resource misallocation and specific mechanisms. The results show that the low efficiency of resource allocation will harm the quality of China’s environment. Further investigation, resource misallocation is accompanied by an increase in total energy input, a decrease in the labor-to-energy ratio and the capital-to-energy ratio, and a loss of energy efficiency, which in turn affects the environmental performance of enterprises. China is the largest developing country in the world, and research on China’s environmental and economic issues is important. The conclusions of this paper can provide experience and suggestions for other developing countries to improve environmental quality and promote sustainable development from the perspective of resource misallocation.

How does financial openness affect pollution emission of industrial enterprises?—Empirical evidence from the entry of foreign banks in China

“…Thirdly, the shares of capital and energy in the production functions of different industries are not the same. Because of their requirements of production conditions, heavy industry firms require a larger proportion of capital input and energy input (He & Qi, 2021), while light industry firms usually require a larger proportion of labor input. The production nature of heavy industrial enterprises determines that their pollution emissions are more severe, especially those of the electric power industry and the heat production and supply industry (Peng et al, 2023).…”

“…The likely reason is that light industry refers mainly to industries producing consumer and handicraft goods, which require a higher proportion of labor inputs. However, heavy industry refers to industries that produce components that are important for the national economy, such as raw material industries and processing industries and have a higher demand for capital and energy inputs (He & Qi, 2021). In this context, the pollution reduction dividend for heavy industry firms is more pronounced as FO affects the ease of access to finance more.…”

Digitalization, resource misallocation and low-carbon agricultural production: evidence from China

“…The persistent resource misallocation not only hinders economic development, but also leads to ecological degradation (He and Qi, 2021). Few studies are available to examine the interlinkage between resource misallocation and agricultural carbon emissions but can be broadly categorized as single-factor and multi-factor misallocation.…”

Impact of China Railway Express on Regional Resource Mismatch—Empirical Evidence from China

“…On this basis, some scholars conducted a comparative analysis of the degree of resource misallocation among different countries [13,14]. In terms of the causes of resource misallocation, the existing literature believes that the interaction of various factors in economic activities leads to the result of resource misallocation [15]. Different scholars have conducted a lot of research on this based on different dimensions.…”