Does innovation save more energy? Evidence from Chinese Firms

How to improve energy efficiency is vital under the dual carbon target, and has been one of the central topics for economists and policymakers. Relying on the novel merged data at the firm level in China, we investigate the role of innovation activities on firms’ energy usage. The results show that innovation indeed promotes energy efficiency, and further, the patent with higher quality shows larger promotion effect. In addition, this paper provides heterogeneity tests, and find that the promotion effect of patent on energy efficiency is only valid for state-owned, private, and foreign firms. Meanwhile, the marginal effect is highest in western area but lowest in the eastern area. Then, we examine the mechanism of the energy-saving effect, and that effect is more pronounced in high-tech and high-pollution industries. The policy implication is obvious that the speed up of innovation-led growth can benefit the energy efficiency improvement.