Impact of Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction Policy Means Coordination on Economic Growth: Quantitative Evidence from China

To understand the general relationship between Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction (ECER) policy means coordination (PMC) and economic growth, this paper quantitatively investigates the impact on economic growth of differing PMCs. ECER policies from 1978 to 2013 in China are quantified across two dimensions of policy power and policy means, and then, PMC degrees are designed as independent variables and incorporated into a modified Cobb−Douglas production model. While determining the cointegration relationships by using a unit root test, a cointegration test and a stability test, cointegration equation is conducted by using quantitative data to explore the economic growth effects of PMC in China. The government’s use of PMC in China is also analyzed and ranked. The empirical results show that there is a long-term cointegration relationship among the variables from 1978 to 2013. Additionally, the effects of the different PMCs on economic growth show significant discrepancies and each PMC usage ranking is also found to be significantly different, thereby implying that the use of different PMCs by the Chinese government needs to be further perfected.