Output, renewable energy consumption and trade in Africa

Ben Jebli, Mehdi and Ben Youssef, Slim (2013): Output, renewable energy consumption and trade in Africa.

Abstract

We use panel cointegration techniques to examine the relationship between renewable energy consumption, trade and output in a sample of 11 African countries covering the period 1980-2008. The results from panel error correction model reveal that there is evidence of bidirectional causality between output and exports and between output and imports in both the short-run and the long-run. However, in the short-run, there is no evidence of causality between output and renewable energy consumption and between trade (exports or imports) and renewable energy consumption. In the long-run, the FMOLS panel approach estimation shows that renewable energy consumption and trade (exports or imports) have a statistically significant and positive impact on output. Policies recommendations are that, in the long-run, international trade enables African countries to benefit from technology transfer and to build the human and physical capacities needed to produce more renewable energies, which in turn increases their output.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Renewable energy consumption; International trade; Africa; Panel cointegration.
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C33 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F14 - Empirical Studies of Trade; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q4 - Energy > Q42 - Alternative Energy Sources; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q4 - Energy > Q43 - Energy and the Macroeconomy

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