This study assesses the long-run relationship and short-run dynamics between foreign direct investment (FDI) and energy consumption in China. Applying the bounds testing approach to annual data from 1982 to 2012, we find that a stable FDI-energy nexus exists in the long run and a 1% increase in FDI reduces energy consumption by 0.21%.However, this study shows a positive association between FDI and energy consumption in the short run, attributing to the dominance of the scale effect. Our results remain robust to different measurements and estimators. It is suggested that the Chinese government shall support the inward FDI in the tertiary and energy sectors and strengthen local absorptive capacities to fully internalize FDI-related knowledge spillovers in energy conservation.

This article investigates the dynamic relationship between human capital and energy consumption using Chinese provincial data over the period 1990-2010. Considering for cross-sectional dependence and parameter heterogeneity across space and over time, we identify a significant and negative human capital-energy consumption relationship in China. Specifically, we find that a 1% increase in human capital reduces energy consumption by a range between 0.18% and 0.45%. Furthermore, this negative relationship can be attributed to stronger accumulation of post-school human capital in eastern China. This finding suggests that energy conservation in China could be achieved by improving post-school human-capital components such as on-the-job training, experience and learning-by-doing.