Shuddhasattwa Rafiq

Determinants of renewable energy adoption in China and India: a comparative analysis

This article examines the dynamic relationships among output, carbon emission and renewable energy generation of India and China during the period 1972 to 2011 using a multivariate vector error correction model (VECM). The results for India reveal unidirectional short-run causality from carbon emission to renewable energy generation and from renewable energy generation to output, whereas in the long run, the variables have bidirectional causality. Causalities in China give a rather different scenario, with a short-run unidirectional causality from output to renewable energy and from carbon emission to renewable energy generation. In the long run, for China, unidirectional causality is found from output to renewable energy generation, while bidirectional causality is found between carbon emission and renewable energy generation.

The linkage between energy consumption and income in six emerging economies of Asia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the short‐ and long‐run causal relationship between energy consumption and gross domestic product (GDP) of six emerging economies of Asia. The importance of identifying the direction of causality emanates from its relevance in national policy‐making issues regarding energy conservation.Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs co‐integration and vector error correction modeling along with generalized impulse response functions and varience decomposition tests to check the robustness of the findings.Findings – The empirical results show that there exists unidirectional short‐ and long‐run causality running from energy consumption to GDP for China, uni‐directional short‐run causality from output to energy consumption for India, whilst bi‐directional short‐run causality for Thailand. Neutrality between energy consumption and income is found for Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines. Both the generalized variance decompositions and impulse response funct...

Agriculture, trade openness and emissions: an empirical analysis and policy options

This article investigates the impact of sectoral production allocation, energy usage patterns and trade openness on pollutant emissions in a panel consisting of high-, medium- and low-income countries. Extended STIRPAT (Stochastic Impact by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology) and EKC (Environmental Kuznets Curve) models are conducted to systematically identify these factors driving CO2 emissions in these countries during the period 1980–2010. To this end, the study employs three different heterogeneous, dynamic mean group-type linear panel models and one nonlinear panel data estimation procedure that allows for cross-sectional dependence. While affluence, nonrenewable energy consumption and energy intensity variables are found to drive pollutant emissions in linear models, population is also found to be a significant driver in the nonlinear model. Both service sector and agricultural value-added levels play a significant role in reducing pollution levels, whereas industrialisation increases pollution levels. Although the linear model fails to track any significant impact of trade openness, the nonlinear model finds trade liberalisation to significantly affect emission reduction levels. All of these results suggest that economic development, and especially industrialisation strategies and environmental policies, need to be coordinated to play a greater role in emission reduction due to trade liberalisation.

Energy, unemployment and trade

ABSTRACT This article investigates the dynamic relationships among sectoral economic activities, macro expenditure patterns, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and unemployment in 41 countries from 1980 to 2014. The state of the art econometric techniques, both linear and non-linear panel and time series estimation techniques are used. The results show that industrialization, services sector, government expenditure and trade openness play a positive role in reducing unemployment, while agriculture and renewable energy consumption increase unemployment. This might be, in part, due to recent technological advancements and large capital intensive investments in agriculture and renewable energy sectors. Therefore, dedicated social and labour market policies need to be adopted to complement greening economic policies.