Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is effective to improve fuel economy of spark-ignition gasoline engines, but the detailed mechanism needs to be further investigated. In this paper, an in-depth analysis of the effects of cooled EGR on the fuel conversion efficiency of a boosted, spark-ignited, direct-injection, gasoline engines operated at the full, medium and low loads is conducted with the engine experiment and 1-D cycle simulation based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. For all the operating loads, EGR increases the ratio of specific heat of working gas, reduces the fraction of heat transfer through the combustion chamber walls, and improves the pumping work during the gas exchanging stroke. Besides, EGR may replace the fuel enrichment at high load, advance the combustion phasing and increase the degree of constant volume heat release at the medium and high loads. As a result, about 1.1-4.1% improvements in the brake thermal efficiency are obtained by the 12-17% EGR at different loads. Despite the increased fraction of combustion-generated irreversibility (destruction in availability or exergy), the fraction of indicated work in the total availability increases with EGR for all the operating loads. Among the influencing factors, the effect of reduction in the heat transfer loss owing to EGR is dominant in improvement of the fuel conversion efficiency at constant air-fuel ratio, while replacement of the fuel enrichment with EGR is most effective at full load. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.