Renewable energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from a panel of OECD countries

This study examines the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth for a panel of twenty OECD countries over the period 1985–2005 within a multivariate framework. Given the relatively short span of the time series data, a panel cointegration and error correction model is employed to infer the causal relationship. The heterogeneous panel cointegration test reveals a long-run equilibrium relationship between real GDP, renewable energy consumption, real gross fixed capital formation, and the labor force with the respective coefficients positive and statistically significant. The Granger-causality results indicate bidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in both the short- and long-run.     

OECD国家可再生能源的发展

以国际能源署(IEA)的报告为基础，介绍了OECD(经济合作与发展组织)国家可再生能源的发展情况，包括可再生能源在一次能源供应中的地位和可再生能源发电情况，并分别介绍了各类可再生能源发电的进展及其主要的发展国家状况。     

Energy consumption and economic growth for selected OECD countries: Further evidence from the Granger causality test in the frequency domain

This paper aims to reexamine the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth for 20 OECD countries. To that end, we employ a Granger causality test in the frequency domain which allows us to distinguish short (temporary) and long-run (permanent) causality. The empirical results could be summarized as following. First, in terms of causality running from GDP to energy consumption, there is a temporary relationship for Australia, Austria, Canada, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK, the USA, and a permanent relationship for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, and the USA. Second, in terms of causality running from energy consumption to GDP, there is a temporary relationship for Austria, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal, and a permanent relationship for Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Japan, and Portugal. The main implication of our finding is that the energy policies should take into consideration not only the causality direction between economic growth and energy consumption but also whether it is temporal or permanent and furthermore authorities must design policy actions accordingly.     

Human capital and energy consumption: Evidence from OECD countries

We examine the effect of human capital on energy consumption for a panel of OECD economies over the period 1965–2014. Our preferred results, which account for cross-sectional dependence and structural breaks, suggest that a one standard deviation increase in human capital reduces aggregate energy consumption by 15.36%. When we distinguish between clean and dirty energy consumption, we find that human capital generates significant positive externalities for the environment. Specifically, we find that a one standard deviation increase in human capital is associated with a 17.33% decrease in dirty energy consumption and an 85.54% increase in clean energy consumption. Our findings reinforce the social benefits of investing in human capital and suggest a promising avenue for energy conservation without impeding economic growth.     

Renewable energy consumption and economic growth in newly industrialized countries: Evidence from asymmetric causality test

In this study, the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in newly industrialized countries is examined for the period from 1971 to 2011. In previous studies, the causal relationship between variables was performed by the validity of the assumption of positive shocks. This study employs the asymmetric causality approach to investigate the relationship between positive and negative shocks of variables. The results reveal that negative shocks in renewable energy consumption causes positive shocks in real GDP for South Africa and Mexico; negative shocks in renewable energy consumption causes negative shocks in real GDP for India. In addition, the neutrality hypothesis is confirmed for Brazil and Malaysia.     

Coal consumption and economic growth: Evidence from a panel of OECD countries

This study examines the relationship between coal consumption and economic growth for 25 OECD countries within a multivariate panel framework over period 1980–2005. The Larsson et al. (2001) panel cointegration test indicates there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between real GDP, coal consumption, real gross fixed capital formation, and the labor force. The respective coefficients for real gross fixed capital formation and the labor force are positive and statistically significant whereas the coefficient for coal consumption is negative and statistically significant. The results of the panel vector error correction model reveal bidirectional causality between coal consumption and economic growth in both the short- and long-run; however, the bidirectional causality in the short-run is negative.     

Nuclear energy consumption and economic growth in OECD countries: Cross-sectionally dependent heterogeneous panel causality analysis

The purpose of this study is to determine the direction causality between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth in OECD countries. The empirical model that includes capital and labor force as the control variables is estimated for the panel of fourteen OECD countries during the period 1980–2007. Apart from the previous studies in the nuclear energy consumption and economic growth relationship, this study utilizes the novel panel causality approach, which allows both cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity across countries. The findings show that there is no causality between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth in eleven out of fourteen cases, supporting the neutrality hypothesis. As a sensitivity analysis, we also conduct Toda–Yamamoto time series causality method and find out that the results from the panel causality analysis are slightly different than those from the time-series causality analysis. Thereby, we can conclude that the choice of statistical tools in analyzing the nature of causality between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth may play a key role for policy implications.     

The relationship between energy consumption, energy prices and economic growth: time series evidence from Asian developing countries

This paper estimates the causal relationships between energy consumption and income for India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, using cointegration and error-correction modelling techniques. The results indicate that, in the short-run, unidirectional Granger causality runs from energy to income for India and Indonesia, while bidirectional Granger causality runs from energy to income for Thailand and the Philippines. In the case of Thailand and the Philippines, energy, income and prices are mutually causal. The study results do not support the view that energy and income are neutral with respect to each other, with the exception of Indonesia and India where neutrality is observed in the short-run.     

Output,renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and international trade: Evidence from a panel of 69 countries

This paper uses panel cointegration techniques to examine the causal relationship between output, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, and international trade for a sample of 69 countries during the period 1980–2010. In the short-run, Granger causality tests show that there is a bidirectional causality between output and trade (exports or imports), a bidirectional causality between non-renewable energy and trade, and a one way causality running from renewable energy to trade. In the long-run, a bidirectional causality between renewable energy and trade, is noticed. Our long-run ordinary least squares (OLS), fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimates suggest that renewable, non-renewable energy consumption and trade have a positive and statistically significant impact on economic growth. Our energy policy recommendations are the following: i) any non-renewable energy policy should take into account the importance of international trade, ii) more renewable energy use should be encouraged by national and international competent authorities in order to increase international economic exchanges and promote economic growth without harming the environment, and iii) increasing trade is a good vehicle for renewable energy technology transfer and contributes to increase renewable energy consumption in the long-run, thus contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.     

An investigation of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth nexus using industrial and residential energy consumption

Our study shows that links between economic growth and energy consumption (both expressed in per capita terms) differed for renewables and non-renewables for income panels over the period 1971 to 2011. Renewables are mainly found to support the neutrality hypothesis. Only renewable totals in low and lower middle income (LLMI) countries are found to drive economic growth. The feedback, growth and conservative hypotheses strongly feature with non-renewables (total and industrial). Our results are derived by linking different definitions of energy consumption with economic growth for 89 countries divided into LLMI; upper middle income (UMI); and high income (HI) panels.     

The relationship between energy and economic growth: Empirical evidence from 66 countries

In this study, we use dynamic panel data models to examine the impact of electricity and non-electricity variables on economic growth for a global panel consisting of 66 countries. The time component of our dataset is 1986–2005 inclusive. We also estimate this relationship for four regional panels; namely, East/South Asian and the Pacific region, Europe and Central Asian region, Latin America and Caribbean region, and Sub-Saharan, North Africa and Middle Eastern region. In total, we use six proxies for energy. The empirical analysis is based on a sound theoretical framework, in that we draw on growth theory and augment the classical growth model, which consists of inflation, capital stock, labour force and trade, with energy. Generally, the results on the impact of energy are mixed.     

Non-renewable and renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions in OECD countries: A comparative analysis

This paper attempts to explore the determinants of CO₂ emissions using the STIRPAT model and data from 1980 to 2011 for OECD countries. The empirical results show that non-renewable energy consumption increases CO₂ emissions, whereas renewable energy consumption decreases CO₂ emissions. Further, the results support the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve between urbanisation and CO₂ emissions, implying that at higher levels of urbanisation, the environmental impact decreases. Therefore, the overall evidence suggests that policy makers should focus on urban planning as well as clean energy development to make substantial contributions to both reducing non-renewable energy use and mitigating climate change.     

Nuclear energy consumption, oil prices, and economic growth: Evidence from highly industrialized countries

This study utilizes the Johansen cointegration technique, the Granger non-causality test of Toda and Yamamoto (1995), the generalized impulse response function, and the generalized forecast error variance decomposition to examine the dynamic interrelationship among nuclear energy consumption, real oil price, oil consumption, and real income in six highly industrialized countries for the period 1965-2008. Our empirical results indicate that the relationships between nuclear energy consumption and oil are as substitutes in the U.S. and Canada, while they are complementary in France, Japan, and the U.K. Second, the long-run income elasticity of nuclear energy is larger than one, indicating that nuclear energy is a luxury good. Third, the results of the Granger causality test find evidence of unidirectional causality running from real income to nuclear energy consumption in Japan. A bidirectional relationship appears in Canada, Germany and the U.K., while no causality exists in France and the U.S. We also find evidence of causality running from real oil price to nuclear energy consumption, except for the U.S., and causality running from oil consumption to nuclear energy consumption in Canada, Japan, and the U.K., suggesting that changes in price and consumption of oil influence nuclear energy consumption. Finally, the results observe transitory initial impacts of innovations in real income and oil consumption on nuclear energy consumption. In the long run the impact of real oil price is relatively larger compared with that of real income on nuclear energy consumption in Canada, Germany, Japan, and the U.S.     

Electricity consumption and economic growth: evidence from Korea

This paper investigates the short- and long-run causality issues between electricity consumption and economic growth in Korea by using the co-integration and error-correction models. It employs annual data covering the period 1970–2002. The overall results show that there exists bi-directional causality between electricity consumption and economic growth. This means that an increase in electricity consumption directly affects economic growth and that economic growth also stimulates further electricity consumption.     

Threshold effect of the economic growth rate on the renewable energy development from a change in energy price: Evidence from OECD countries

This paper uses a panel threshold regression (PTR) model to investigate the influence that energy prices have on renewable energy development under different economic growth rate regimes. The empirical data are obtained from each of the OECD member-countries over the period from 1997 to 2006. We show that there is one threshold in the regression relationship, which is 4.13% of a one-period lag in the annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate. The consumer price index (CPI), in so far as it relates to variations in energy, is significantly positively correlated with the contribution of renewables to energy supply in the regime with higher-economic growth, but there is no relationship in the regime with lower economic growth. Therefore, countries characterized by high-economic growth are able to respond to high energy prices with increases in renewable energy use, while countries characterized by low-economic growth countries tend to be unresponsive to energy price changes when they come to their level of renewable energy.     

Interpreting the dynamic nexus between energy consumption and economic growth: Empirical evidence from Russia

Research on the nexus between energy consumption and economic growth is a fundamental topic for energy policy making and low-carbon economic development. Russia proves the third largest energy consumption country in the world in recent years, while little research has shed light upon its energy consumption issue till now, especially its energy–growth nexus. Therefore, this paper empirically investigates the dynamic nexus of the two variables in Russia based on the state space model. The results indicate that, first of all, Russia's energy consumption is cointegrated with its economic growth in a time-varying way though they do not have static or average cointegration relationship. Hence it is unsuitable to merely portrait the nexus in an average manner. Second, ever since the year of 2000, Russia's energy efficiency has achieved much more promotion compared with that in previous decades, mainly due to the industrial structure adjustment and technology progress. Third, among BRIC countries, the consistency of Russia's energy consumption and economic growth appears the worst, which suggests the complexity of energy–growth nexus in Russia. Finally, there exists bi-directional causality between Russia's energy consumption and economic growth, though their quantitative proportional relation does not have solid foundation according to the cointegration theory.     

Renewable energy and macroeconomic efficiency of OECD and non-OECD economies

This article analyzes the effects of renewable energy on the technical efficiency of 45 economies during the 2001–2002 period through data envelopment analysis (DEA). In our DEA model, labor, capital stock, and energy consumption are the three inputs and real GDP is the single output. Increasing the use of renewable energy improves an economy's technical efficiency. Conversely, increasing the input of traditional energy decreases technical efficiency. Compared to non-OECD economies, OECD economies have higher technical efficiency and a higher share of geothermal, solar, tide, and wind fuels in renewable energy. However, non-OECD economies have a higher share of renewable energy in their total energy supply than OECD economies.     

Renewable energy alternatives for developed countries

This paper examines renewable energy alternatives in developed countries: environmental mechanisms; future energy alternatives; green electricity marketing and its potential; pricing; and limitations on the eve of open access. It discusses objectives in electricity restructuring; the role of resources planning in forming long range energy environmental policies; feasibility of electricity trading mechanisms; green marketing in the United States and Australia; green energy offers in Canada; and the results of green pricing programs in Europe and the United States. The role of existing and planned mechanisms to achieve environmental benefits in restructured electricity markets are reviewed. Technological and institutional challenges of achieving real, long-term reductions in carbon dioxide and other emissions from the electric sector are discussed. Factors associated with infrastructure turnover together with technology development and deployment are addressed, where attention is given to policies which promote highly integrated and coordinated reductions in emissions. The paper then focuses on the green pool and trends in power marketing where status of competitive markets, green pricing programs for franchise customers, green power products for contestable customers, credibility of green power marketing, and public policy for renewable energy technologies in competitive markets are discussed. It then reviews green energy in Ontario on the eve of open access, and shows there is a market for green energy if customers have a choice     

Renewable energy options: What could developing countries expect from them?

In order to make a realistic assessment of the energy alternatives for the developing world, the present conditions of the developing region, consisting of Africa and Asia (excluding South Africa, Japan and China), are studied first. Highlights include: low commercial energy consumption (0.2 kW/cap), heavy dependence on oil and noncommercial energy, and especially poor conditions of the rural energy supply.Since fossil fuels need to be conserved and nuclear energy is not an option for many of the developing countries, what renewable options could bring is evaluated in detail. Socio-techno-economic parameters for developing and employing renewable energy sources are identified for biogas, wood plantation, solar, and hydropower. The study concludes that the developing countries could obtain 35% of the energy in 2030 with the low-demand scenario of 0.9 kW/cap. However, with the high-demand scenario of 1.4 kW/cap, active policies in nuclear energy and fossil fuels as well would be required.     

Renewable energy consumption,CO2 emissions and oil prices in the G7 countries

Economic and societal issues related to energy security and global warming is placing greater emphasis on the consumption of renewable energy. This paper presents and estimates an empirical model of renewable energy consumption for the G7 countries. Panel cointegration estimates show that in the long term, increases in real GDP per capita and CO₂ per capita are found to be major drivers behind per capita renewable energy consumption. These results are robust across two different panel cointegration estimators. Oil price increases have a smaller although negative impact on renewable energy consumption. Deviations from equilibrium are driven mostly by the error correction term as opposed to short term shocks. Short term deviations from the long term equilibrium take anywhere from between 1.3 years (France) and 7.3 years (Japan) to correct.