Driving factors of China's energy productivity and its spatial character: Evidence from 248 cities

Energy productivity is a key indicator to evaluate energy efficiency. However, few researchers focus on China's energy productivity at the city level or its spatial patterns. The aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants and spatial character of changes to China's energy productivity at the city level. The change in energy productivity is decomposed using a distance function approach, and its spatial character is identified through exploratory spatial data analysis, based on data from 248 cities between 2010 and 2014. The study revealed that China's overall energy productivity exhibited a downward trend caused primarily by the effects of technological and technical efficiency changes at the city level. Additionally, significant spatial autocorrelation existed in energy productivity, although most cities did not show significant spatial clustering. Based on the above results, we provide relevant suggestions for policymakers.