Does technological innovation improve energy-environmental efficiency? New evidence from China’s transportation sector

The rapid modernization of the transportation sector has greatly escalated many problems, especially the high energy consumption and vehicle exhaust pollution. How to reduce pollution in the transportation sector has attracted widespread attention in recent years. Based on a balanced panel dataset of 30 Chinese provinces spanning the period of 2005–2017, this study attempts to investigate the influence of technological innovation on the energy-environmental efficiency of the transportation sector (EETS) using the spatial econometric approach. The empirical results suggest that first, transportation-related technological innovation and EETS exhibited obvious hot spots and cold spots at the provincial level in China. Second, technological innovation could facilitate the energy-environmental efficiency of transportation sector in China. Third, one province developing transportation-related technological innovations might promote EETS in its neighboring provinces. Fourth, the transportation-related technological innovation in eastern China could boost EETS, while the transportation-related technological innovation in central and western China had a rebound effect on EETS. One possible innovation is that this study extends the relationship between technological innovation and energy-environmental efficiency to the transportation sector.