LAUSR

Abstract This study aims at investigating regional heterogeneity of China's energy efficiency in the “new normal”. A model combining meta-frontier method and super SBM is proposed, which has higher discriminatory power under the group frontier. The energy efficiencies of the eastern, central, western and northeastern China and each provinces were estimated during 2006–2016. We also discussed the technology gaps of different regions, the changes in energy efficiency, and the main influencing factors of energy efficiency. The results show that the highest energy efficiency lied in eastern China. Surprisingly, the technology levels of central and western China have improved rapidly. Furthermore, as China enters a “new normal” period, more regions showed a strong decoupling relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. Meanwhile, the regression results indicate that both state intervention and market openness had negative impacts on energy efficiency in different study periods. Finally, according to the local conditions of different regions, several policy recommendations to promote China's regional energy efficiency improvement are proposed.