What drives the energy saving role of FDI and industrialization in East Africa?

Analysis of the unconditional impacts of foreign direct inflows (FDIs) and industrialization on energy intensity does not show the hidden roles of some economic conditions such as income and trade openness. In this study, we focused on the conditional impacts of FDIs and industrialization on energy productivity using a panel data consisting of thirteen (13) East African countries covering 1980–2011. The baseline result shows that higher income and a well-integrated economy are pro-energy productive, but FDIs and intense industrialization are anti-energy productive in the sub-region. This result remains robust even when we exclude the high income group and control for income group effects.