This study investigates the role of economic well-being and economic freedom as drivers of renewable energy consumption using the share of renewables in total energy consumption in Africa. To achieve this, the study employs a panel data of 32 African countries over the period 1996-2017. To deal with identification challenges associated with panel time-series data, we use the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares econometric technique.

Renewable energy (RE) has a strong synergy with some of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), thus its successful deployment can potentially result in an impact on these SDGs. In this study, we examine the synergy effect of renewable electricity on selected SDGs via the electricity prices for the European Union (EU) countries. Using panel data and a two-step estimation approach, our findings indicate a strong synergy effect between renewable electricity prices, SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth).

The study estimates the effects of oil revenues on economic growth through financial markets development channel. Using a Panel VAR framework, we determine the proportional contribution of government oil revenue investment and private oil revenue investment among a sample of 83 oil-producing countries during the period, 1990–2015. Also, a two-step system GMM is used to estimate the effect of oil revenues on economic growth conditional on financial markets development.

In this study, using hourly data from a representative sample of Swedish households on standard tariffs, we investigate the welfare and emission implications of moving to a mandatory dynamic pricing scheme. We allow demand during different hours of a day to affect utility differently, and account for the derived nature of electricity demand by explicitly accounting for the services (end-use demands) that drive hourly electricity demand.

Highlights

• Consumption of firewood decreases while charcoal and LPG increases with land-use change/intensity The factors that determine the choice of energy included Land-use change/intensity and the livelihood activities.

• Sustainable energy policy should embrace energy stacking and strongly encourage reforestation.

Achieving the SDG7 goal, among other things, requires doubling efforts in energy efficiency improvements. However, in Africa, the progress has been slow, proving difficult for the continent to achieve the target set for 2030. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of government expenditure (conditioned on external debt finance) on fossil fuel energy efficiency in 28 African countries, using data from 1988 to 2016.

Abstract

This article estimates the effect of financial development on electricity consumption for economies with above and below mean human capital index in 45 African countries. The study applied the simultaneous system GMM estimator (adjusted for cross-sectional dependence) and the Aiken and West slope difference test. We performed further robustness checks, such as sample sensitivity analysis to address potential outlier problem. The result showed that the total effect of financial development on electricity consumption is negative, but the direct and indirect effects are different.

The growth-induced effects of financial development have been well-established in the empirical literature, as well as the significance of financial development to energy demand behavior. However, the empirical evidence on the relationship between financial development and energy intensity remains sparse in the literature. Given the multifaceted nature of the effects of financial development, the proposed relationship seems a complex one and warrants an empirical investigation.