How heterogeneous industrial agglomeration impacts energy efficiency subject to technological innovation:Evidence from the spatial threshold model

The relationship between industrial agglomeration (IA) and energy efficiency (EE) is significant for China to promote high-quality urban economic development and achieve China's dual carbon goals. Since technological innovation (TI) and green TI (GTI) are vital elements in the evolution of socioeconomic change and green development, this study employs a spatial threshold model to explore the technology innovation dependency of the influence of heterogeneous IA on EE based on prefecture-level city panel data of the manufacturing sector from 2006 to 2014 in China. This study finds that diversified IA (DIA) has a spatial threshold impact on EE subject to TI or GTI, while specialized IA (SIA) does not. DIA has significant positive direct, spillover, and overall effects on EE at the high TI and GTI thresholds. The distance attenuation feature is evident in the spatial spillover effect of DIA on EE. DIA impacts EE through its spatial effects on labor pooling, knowledge spillovers, and input sharing. The findings offer insights into the development of IA patterns and the enhancement of EE.