Research on the correlation mechanism between clean energy consumption and economic growth based on panel threshold effect model

Based on clean energy consumption data from various provinces and cities in China from 2003 to 2021, the article employs a panel threshold effect model to examine how clean energy consumption influences economic growth in China, and variables such as labor force, capital, R&D investment intensity, and government intervention are added to the model. The empirical results show that clean energy consumption has a significant dual threshold effect on China's economic growth, and this effect gradually strengthens its impact on China's economic growth at different stages within different threshold intervals. With the continuous improvement of clean energy consumption level, its growth effect on economic growth has a positive and marginal efficiency increasing characteristic. That is, the growth effect of clean energy consumption on economic growth at the national level has an evolutionary process from weak to strong. Meanwhile, some factors such as R&D investment intensity promote this growth effect.