Energy efficiency in transition: do market-oriented economic reforms matter?

Nepal, Rabindra (2011): Energy efficiency in transition: do market-oriented economic reforms matter?

Abstract

Global climate change and security of supply concerns pose significant challenges for sustainable development as well as the need to improve energy efficiency in transition and developing economies. Meanwhile, economic theory suggests that market-based economic policies and reforms are crucial for accelerating energy efficiency in developing and transition countries. Hence, this paper analyses the impacts of several market-oriented economic reforms on energy efficiency in the transition countries. The transition countries experienced a rapid marketization process that saw their economies transformed from central planning towards more market based economies since the early 1990s. The econometric results from the bias corrected fixed-effect analysis (LSDVC) suggest that both large and small scale privatisation process has been the sole driver of energy efficiency in transition countries. However, the lack of suitable institutions to support overall-market reforms implies that other market based economic reforms remain ineffective in improving energy efficiency in transition countries.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: market reforms, energy efficiency, transition countries, institutions
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q54 - Climate ; Natural Disasters and Their Management ; Global Warming; P - Economic Systems > P2 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies > P28 - Natural Resources ; Energy ; Environment; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C33 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models

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