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Summary: This paper examines the role of foreign trade in the consumption of energy in Czechoslovakia through a bottom‐up approach in accounting for energy embodied in trade with manufactured goods. It provides a unique analysis of annual changes in energy embodied in trade in a country characterized by changing political regimes. On the whole, Czechoslovakia has been a net exporter of energy throughout the twentieth century with an average 12% of domestic energy consumption embodied in exports. The role of central planning was found to have a significant effect on the absolute levels of energy embodied in trade, which reached its peak in 1972, when Czechoslovakia had net exports of embodied energy of 29 gigajoules per capita, well above those of Sweden in 1970 or China in 2013. Increased product specialization with a shift toward heavy industrial goods also had a clear impact on the composition of energy embodied in exports. Despite this development, the energy intensity curve of Czechoslovakia does not change substantially when adjusted for foreign trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-ownership has often been discussed as one of the major causes of poor industrial energy efficiency performance. This paper utilizes long-run historical data on the energy and material use in one specific industrial sector – the iron and steel production – in countries with both central-planning and market-based system, with a particular focus on former Czechoslovakia paralleled with the developments in China. Czechoslovak productive efficiency of the iron and steel sector fluctuated below the energy efficiency frontier. Until the early 1970s, the country’s iron sector was one of the least efficient ones in our sample. It was, however, during the decades of 1970s and 1980s that efficiency measures were adopted and the energy efficiency of the Czechoslovak iron and steel sector increased significantly to, despite of a priori expectations, reach the energy efficiency frontier. Empirical results for other planned economies show similar development of catching-up to the market economies, particularly in the iron production sector during 1980s. A pattern of efficiency convergence was identified. In China, despite its move toward more market oriented economy, the productive efficiency lagged behind as recently as in 2000 (20–35 percent below the efficiency frontier). The relatively late adoption of energy conservation programs and the persistent government control of the sector in certain provinces slowed down the efficiency improvements. In the socialist economies of Eastern Europe, though, central-planners were able to achieve satisfactory productivity increases, primarily driven by efficiency and saving policies and adjustments in existing technology. It is likely, that as was the case of Eastern Europe, the adoption of vigorous energy policies with clearly defined targets accompanied by monitoring and supervision, will have a tremendous impact on the energy intensity as well as the absolute energy use of the sector in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Czechoslovak productive efficiency of the iron and steel sector fluctuated below the energy efficiency frontier. Until early 1970s, the country's iron sector was one of the least efficient ones in our sample. It was, however, during the decades of 1970s and 1980s that efficiency measures were adopted and the energy efficiency of the Czechoslovak iron and steel sector increased significantly to, despite of a priori expectations, reach the energy efficiency frontier. Empirical results for other planned economies show similar development of catching-up to the market economies, particularly in the iron production sector. Central-planning was thus able to achieve satisfactory productivity increases, primarily driven by efficiency enhancements and in spite of the slow adoption of new technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]