This study investigates the effects of increasing real energy prices on technical environmental efficiency in Iran using a directional distance function. To achieve this purpose, six variables are used, namely labor, capital stock, energy consumption, real energy price, industrial value added, and environmental cost index, for the period 2009–2015. Moreover, two indexes for industrial environmental cost and real energy price are introduced. The environmental cost index is derived from the pollution cost of six types of emissions (NO_x, SO₂, CO_2, CO, CH₄, SPM) produced by 23 industries. The results show that the real energy price and distance function have an inverse relationship. Specifically, higher real energy prices cause industries to move toward using more energy-efficient technologies and more technical environmental efficiency. This study is one of the few studies that have evaluated the environmental effects of targeted subsidy law or energy price liberalization in Iran and demonstrates that an increase in real energy prices would lead to improved environmental technical efficiency.

这项研究使用定向距离函数研究了实际能源价格上涨对伊朗技术环境效率的影响。为了实现这一目的，使用了六个变量，即2009-2015年期间的劳动力，资本存量，能源消耗，实际能源价格，工业增加值和环境成本指数。此外，还介绍了工业环境成本和实际能源价格两个指标。环境成本指数是从六种排放物（NO _x，SO ₂，CO _2， CO，CH ₄，SPM）由23个行业生产。结果表明，实际能源价格与距离函数成反比关系。具体而言，较高的实际能源价格导致行业转向使用更多的节能技术和更多的技术环境效率。这项研究是评估伊朗有针对性的补贴法或能源价格自由化对环境的影响的少数研究之一，并证明了实际能源价格的上涨将导致改善的环境技术效率。