Does Standards Harmonization Reduce Energy Intensity? Evidence from Chinese Industrial Firms

This study proposes a novel mapping approach that links China’s national standards with international standards, enabling the measurement of the degree of harmonization between Chinese and international standards at the sector level. Using a sample constructed by matching this indicator with Chinese industrial firm data, the paper empirically examines the impact of standards harmonization on firms’ energy intensity. The baseline results show that a one-unit increase in standards harmonization reduces average firm energy intensity by 0.0387 units, equivalent to approximately 32.5% of the sample mean, indicating a statistically significant reduction. This finding remains robust to instrumental variable estimation, difference-in-differences estimation, and a series of other robustness checks. Mechanism analysis indicates that standards harmonization lowers energy intensity by expanding firms’ output value, reducing fixed costs, and promoting the import of intermediate goods. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that standards harmonization significantly reduces energy intensity in private enterprises, whereas it has no statistically significant effect in state-owned enterprises. Moreover, the intensity-reducing effect is stronger in high-energy-consuming industries than in low-energy-consuming ones. Finally, reductions in trade policy uncertainty amplify the effect of standards harmonization on lowering energy intensity.