Faik Bilgili

Long Run Elasticities of Demand for Natural Gas: OECD Panel Data Evidence

Natural gas consumption has been analyzed intensively especially within the last three decades due to its growing environmental and economical impacts among other consumption goods. This article aims at first observing the outputs of literature evidence regarding the demand for natural gas and, second, estimating the parameters of function for natural gas consumption. To this end, this article employs the panel data for eight Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries to seek responses of per capita natural gas consumption to per capita income and natural gas price. Therefore, panel unit root tests, panel cointegration analyses and panel ordinary least squares (OLS), fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimations are conducted to obtain long-run parameter estimates of the function. Throughout analyses of cointegration, FMOLS, and DOLS regressions with homogeneous and heterogeneous variance-covariance structures, this work obtains slightly higher than unit elasticities together with expected signs throughout majority of estimations for the period of 1979–2006.

The influence of biomass energy consumption on CO2 emissions: a wavelet coherence approach

In terms of today, one may argue, throughout observations from energy literature papers, that (i) one of the main contributors of the global warming is carbon dioxide emissions, (ii) the fossil fuel energy usage greatly contributes to the carbon dioxide emissions, and (iii) the simulations from energy models attract the attention of policy makers to renewable energy as alternative energy source to mitigate the carbon dioxide emissions. Although there appears to be intensive renewable energy works in the related literature regarding renewables’ efficiency/impact on environmental quality, a researcher might still need to follow further studies to review the significance of renewables in the environment since (i) the existing seminal papers employ time series models and/or panel data models or some other statistical observation to detect the role of renewables in the environment and (ii) existing papers consider mostly aggregated renewable energy source rather than examining the major component(s) of aggregated renewables. This paper attempted to examine clearly the impact of biomass on carbon dioxide emissions in detail through time series and frequency analyses. Hence, the paper follows wavelet coherence analyses. The data covers the US monthly observations ranging from 1984:1 to 2015 for the variables of total energy carbon dioxide emissions, biomass energy consumption, coal consumption, petroleum consumption, and natural gas consumption. The paper thus, throughout wavelet coherence and wavelet partial coherence analyses, observes frequency properties as well as time series properties of relevant variables to reveal the possible significant influence of biomass usage on the emissions in the USA in both the short-term and the long-term cycles. The paper also reveals, finally, that the biomass consumption mitigates CO2 emissions in the long run cycles after the year 2005 in the USA.

Convergence Analysis of Oil and Diesel Prices for Industries and Households in the European Region

The European Union (EU) aims at increasing the competitiveness in EU markets via single prices for each commodity and service. Energy products are the basic necessary commodities for both production and consumption. This article examines light fuel oil and automotive diesel prices in some EU countries, among other energy prices, to reveal if traditional EU oil and diesel prices move towards an equilibrium single price. Employing panel data sets for industry oil price, household oil price, industry diesel price and household diesel price, this study reveals convergence in prices for panels through Lagrange Multiplier unit root tests with structural breaks. On the other hand, it also observed non-convergence for some individual EU members from the related panels. The speed of adjustment is another important issue together with convergence by itself. To this end, this work observes the half-lives of deviations of prices from their equilibrium levels as well and concludes that oil prices converge faster than diesel prices do.

The causality between FDI and sector-specific production in Turkey: evidence from threshold cointegration with regime shifts

ABSTRACT This article considers bidirectional nonlinear cointegration relation between FDI and industrial output in Turkey. The data cover the monthly period 2005:1–2013:10 for the time series of total industrial production, 36 sub-industrial sectors’ production and FDI. Following nonlinear threshold cointegration and VECMs, the article yields that (i) total industrial production and nine sub-industrial productions have positive long-run impact on FDI with significant error corrections, (ii) six sub-industrial productions have short-term influence on FDI, (iii) FDI has long-run positive impulse on total industrial production and nine sub-industrial productions with some significant error corrections and (iv) FDI affects four sub-industrial productions in the short run as well as in the long run. The results of VECMs from (i) also reveal that the all short-term adjustment parameters are found significant and powerful in 10 typical regimes (Regime-1s) and in 5 extreme regimes (Regime-2s). Finally, the outcome of VECMs from (iii) yields that short-term adjustment parameters are found significant and powerful in two typical regimes and in four extreme regimes. Eventually, considering FDI’s positive impact in the short and long run, this article suggests that policymakers promote specifically the FDI inflows to the sectors of intermediate goods, manufacture of beverages, manufacture of rubber and plastic and manufacture of other nonmetallic mineral products.

The Nexus Between Biomass – Footprint and Sustainable Development

Abstract Sustainable development is to meet today’s needs without depriving future generation’s ability to meet their needs. Therefore, sustainable development path consists of interconnected and interrelated systems in which intergenerational/overlapping generational welfare is optimized. In recent times, the increasing negative impacts of global warming and/or climate change on environmental sustainability has become an important research topic within relevant literature. The ecological footprint (EF) indicator attracts great attention in the relevant literature to observe and analyze the environmental sustainability. This variable, then, has become one of the most prominent indicators of environmental sustainability throughout theoretical and empirical researches of environmental issues. The regarding literature indicates as well that the renewable resources, e.g., the biomass usage, might have significant impact on environmental sustainability. This study analyzes the nexus between biomass energy, ecological footprint (EF) indicator, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) emissions through (i) panel causality analyses, (ii) panel causality tests considering country-specific causalities, (iii) panel fixed and random effect estimations based on the error corrections, (iv) panel FMOLS and DOLS estimations, and, (v) panel ARDL estimations through long term and short term specifications. The variables of Fuel, Gas, and GDP are also employed within these specifications as control variables to be able to reach efficient, unbiased and consistent estimators. This paper, hence, conducts the estimations first (i) by considering GHG environmental sustainability indicator, and, later, (ii) by employing EF as environmental sustainability indicator within regarding models to observe the possible potential determinants’ impacts on environmental sustainability. The paper, eventually, reveals that (i) the biomass usage diminishes GHG and EF, (ii) The GHG (EF) intensifies EF (GHG). This paper is expected to provide researchers and policy makers with possible energy policies to mitigate the negative impact of global warming in the World for environmental sustainability.

Is there deterministic, stochastic, and/or club convergence in ecological footprint indicator among G20 countries?

Ecological footprint has been widely accepted as an indicator of environmental performance in recent years since it considers carbon dioxide emissions, the collapse of fisheries, the change in land use, and deforestation. This paper investigates, if exists, the convergence in per capita ecological footprint among G20 countries by employing the annual data for the period 1961 to 2014. A bootstrap-based panel KPSS test with structural breaks and club convergence test are carried out. Eventually, this paper is expected to contribute to the literature of natural resources and ecology/environment by (1) monitoring the panel variable of ecological footprint, (2) launching stochastic and deterministic convergence analyses, and (3) estimating the club convergence parameters. In conclusion, the confirmative results in favor of environmental convergence are obtained by exhibiting the stochastic and deterministic convergences and deriving the output of merging clubs.