The Dynamic Effect of High-Tech Industries’ R&D Investment on Energy Consumption

Abstract

High-tech industries are characterized by strong technology, low energy consumption, and low pollution. Among these high-tech industries, five sectors (pharmaceutical industry, aerospace industry, electronic and communication equipment industry, computer and office equipment industry, and medical equipment industry) are selected for our study; and R&D investment is an important support for the development of high-tech industries. How do research and development (R&D) investments affect energy consumption in high-tech industries? Are these effects all positive? What are the differences in the impacts for different types of high-tech sectors or in different regions? And why? To analyze these issues, state space mode is an appropriate method which presented a dynamic process, accurately estimating the parameters at each time nod. We used this model to analyze the impact of five high-tech sectors’ research and development (R&D) investments on energy consumption in the four regions of China from 1998 to 2016. Some conclusions are drawn from the research: (1) Pharmaceutical industry has a negative influence on energy consumption in all regions. Compared with other types of high-tech industries, the pharmaceutical industry consumes a higher degree of energy. (2) In the east, middle, and northeast of China, a gap remains between scientific research and production due to the lack of high-tech personnel in the aerospace industry, which lead to a weak effects on energy consumption in these regions (3) For the electronic and communication equipment industry and computer and office equipment industry, the continuous inflow of funds and talent has led to greater competition pressure and excess production capacity in some developed areas. This accounts for the fact that the two industries’ R&D investment is beneficial to the reduction of energy consumption in the western regions. (4) The densely populated eastern region has a large demand for health services, leading to an increased demand for medical equipment. That is why the R&D of medical equipment industry have significantly reduced the energy consumption in the east regions than in the other regions.