Determining the factors driving energy demand in the Sichuan-Chongqing region: an examination based on DEA-Malmquist approach and spatial characteristics.

Since the "China Western Development" plan was initiated in 2000, the Sichuan-Chongqing region has experienced rapid economic growth, especially in the energy segment. However, energy shortage and environmental degradation currently pose a significant hurdle for sustainable development in this region. In the existing literature on factors driving the energy demand, the effect of technological progress on energy demand is discussed as a whole, but few papers have investigated the effect of technological progress from the perspective of its components. Additionally, existing studies have neglected the temporal and spatial aspect of energy demand, thereby generating biased and unreasonable results. Correspondingly, in the current study, the factors driving the per capita energy demand in the Sichuan-Chongqing region over the 2005-2016 period were, to the best of our knowledge, explored for the first time by employing the data envelopment analysis-Malmquist method and spatial dynamic panel model concurrently. The empirical results suggest that an improvement in total factor productivity (TFP) plays a positive but insignificant role in decreasing energy demand. Additionally, there is clear evidence that the effect of TFP on energy demand primarily emerges through spatial spillover effects and their components.