Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program
We study firm responses to a large-scale energy efficiency program in China, focusing on the quality of reporting and compliance outcomes. Using statistical methods to detect data manipulation in compliance reports, we find evidence that firms deliberately exaggerated performance during the first ph...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE)
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129746 |
| _version_ | 1826207747085959168 |
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| author | Karplus, Valerie Jean Shen, Xingyao Zhang, Da |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Karplus, Valerie Jean Shen, Xingyao Zhang, Da |
| author_sort | Karplus, Valerie Jean |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We study firm responses to a large-scale energy efficiency program in China, focusing on the quality of reporting and compliance outcomes. Using statistical methods to detect data manipulation in compliance reports, we find evidence that firms deliberately exaggerated performance during the first phase of the program (2006-2010), suggesting the high compliance rate was overstated. In its second phase (2011-2015), the number of firms in the program expanded by an order of magnitude, and the compliance rate decreased. We develop a simple model to show how the observed increase in non-compliance is consistent with reduced misreporting. Statistical tests find no evidence of manipulation in the second phase. Larger firms, especially those not controlled by the state, and firms in cities with relatively low growth were more likely to report non-compliance, which suggests a role for state control and local protectionism in shaping compliance decisions. Based on our findings, we offer several lessons for future program design. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:54:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/129746 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:54:19Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1297462022-10-01T17:54:06Z Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program Karplus, Valerie Jean Shen, Xingyao Zhang, Da Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society We study firm responses to a large-scale energy efficiency program in China, focusing on the quality of reporting and compliance outcomes. Using statistical methods to detect data manipulation in compliance reports, we find evidence that firms deliberately exaggerated performance during the first phase of the program (2006-2010), suggesting the high compliance rate was overstated. In its second phase (2011-2015), the number of firms in the program expanded by an order of magnitude, and the compliance rate decreased. We develop a simple model to show how the observed increase in non-compliance is consistent with reduced misreporting. Statistical tests find no evidence of manipulation in the second phase. Larger firms, especially those not controlled by the state, and firms in cities with relatively low growth were more likely to report non-compliance, which suggests a role for state control and local protectionism in shaping compliance decisions. Based on our findings, we offer several lessons for future program design. U.S. Department of Energy (Award DE-EI0001908) 2021-02-11T21:08:46Z 2021-02-11T21:08:46Z 2020-10 2021-02-10T18:31:41Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0195-6574 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129746 Karplus, Valerie J. et al. "Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program." Energy Journal 41, 4 (October 2020): dx.doi.org/10.5547/01956574.41.4.vkar © 2018 International Association for Energy Economics en http://dx.doi.org/10.5547/01956574.41.4.vkar Energy Journal Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) Other repository |
| spellingShingle | Karplus, Valerie Jean Shen, Xingyao Zhang, Da Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program |
| title | Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program |
| title_full | Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program |
| title_fullStr | Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program |
| title_full_unstemmed | Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program |
| title_short | Herding Cats: Firm Non-Compliance in China’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Program |
| title_sort | herding cats firm non compliance in china s industrial energy efficiency program |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129746 |
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