Influence of FDI quality on energy efficiency in China based on seemingly unrelated regression method.

How to use foreign direct investment (FDI) to achieve sustainable development of resources, environment and economy in China has become an increasingly important proposition. Previous studies mainly focused on the relationship between FDI quantity and energy efficiency, and neglected the important role of FDI quality in improving energy efficiency. Based on the panel data on 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2016, this paper uses slacks-based measure data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) method to estimate energy efficiency, and then uses seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) method to empirically study the influence of FDI quality on energy efficiency. The results are presented as follows: (1) From the national level view, FDI quality plays a significant role in promoting China's energy efficiency; (2) From the regional-level view, FDI quality plays a significant role in promoting China's energy efficiency in coastal and inland areas, but its role in the inland area is significantly greater than that in the coastal area. The results indicate that China should make full use of the opportunity of global economic integration and pay more attention to the improvement of FDI quality, so as to promote energy efficiency and low-carbon economic development. • The important role of FDI quality in improving energy efficiency is studied. • SUR method is used to avoid autocorrelation between data sections. • SBM-DEA method is used to estimate energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]