Comparative Research of Total-Factor Energy Efficiency in BRICS Based on DEA and Tobit Models
“金砖国家”全要素能源效率的比较研究——基于DEA-Tobit模型

Energy and technology are regarded as two important factors for the development of economy. Under the background of low-carbon economy, growth of energy consumption has become a serious problem and the friction caused by contest over energy resources has also grown in intensity and frequency. Therefore, improvement of energy efficiency has become an urgent task for a nation which is willing to develop its economy. Take the BRICS ( Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) for example, they have become a group with rapid economic development and significant role in economy field. At the same time, the demand of energy has also been increasing rapidly with economic development. Therefore, it is meaningful to do some researches on how to improve the energy efficiency of BRICS. With consumption of primary energy, capital stock, total employees and technology as input indices and GDP as output index, this paper has selected the BRICS'panel data from 2003 to 2010 to evaluate the total-factor energy efficiency in the five countries by using input-oriented super-efficiency DEA model and compare the differences among their energy efficiencies. Then, it has analyzed the influences of technical progress, industrial structure and structure of energy consumption to the total-factor energy efficiency of BRICS from the viewpoints of technology, economic structure and energy factor based on Tobit model. The empirical results show that: 1) The BRICS'total-factor energy efficiency exhibits a low level on the whole but there are significant differences among them, i.e. Brazil's total-factor energy efficiency is the highest among the five nations, followed by South Africa and India, China and Russia are positioned in the third, the fourth and the last respectively; 2) There exists significant negative correlations between energy efficiency and industrial structure and structure of energy consumption, i.e. the higher the ratios of the secondary industry and raw coal consumption are, the lower the total-factor energy efficiency is; 3) Structure of energy consumption has relatively greater impact on all the five countries, and optimizing economic structure only has relatively greater impact on China and India. In general, BRICS have great potential of energy saving and their total-factor energy efficiency can definitely be further improved. In addition, BRICS should improve their total-factor energy efficiency from the aspects of technical progress, economic structure and energy factors based on their own conditions, thus strengthening their economic competitive advantages under the background of low-carbon economy.