The impact of industrial robot on green total factor energy efficiency under the "resource curse" perspective: Evidence from cities in China.
Journal:
Journal of environmental management
Published Date:
May 8, 2025
Abstract
The extensive adoption of industrial robotics across China has sparked significant interest in whether their deployment can effectively drive the transition towards more sustainable urban energy consumption patterns. This paper examines whether the industrial robots adoption can promote the improvement of green total factor energy efficiency and its mechanism based on the perspective of "resource curse" using the data of Chinese cities from 2006 to 2019. It is found that industrial robot adoption can improve green total factor energy efficiency, which is mainly reflected in the cities with higher adoption of industrial robots and higher level of human capital. The mechanism analysis shows that industrial robots can not only promote industrial agglomeration, but also improve the city's technological innovation capacity, especially the green technology innovation capacity to promote the green total factor energy efficiency. Based on the analysis from the perspective of "resource curse", it is concluded that compared with non-resource cities, industrial robot adoption has a relatively stronger effect on industrial agglomeration and technological innovation capacity of resource cities, which is the reason for the "resource curse" phenomenon of the green total factor energy efficiency enhancement effect of industrial robot adoption. This paper emphasizes the importance of leveraging industrial robotics to enhance green energy utilization, and explore its effective path in promoting the green utilization of energy in resource cities.