Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

How does economic complexity improve energy efficiency? Mechanism discussion and empirical test

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Energy efficiency represents one of the best productive strategies to lessen the effects of global warming and climate change. Similarly, the manufacturing and export of a wide variety of high-tech, knowledge-based items like chemicals and machinery have significant effects on both economic growth and the environment. The main goal of this study is to examine the long-run effects of economic complexity on energy efficiency in 93 countries over the period from 1995 to 2015. The empirical outcomes reveal that economic complexity improves energy efficiency. Specifically, countries that produce and export a wide range of sophisticated products tend to enjoy higher levels of energy efficiency compared to their counterparts who export a limited range of simple products. Moreover, empirical findings suggest that economic growth and population density increase energy efficiency, while trade impedes it. Further empirical investigations from a mediation analysis revealed that about 63% and 38% of the effects of economic complexity on energy efficiency mediate through income inequality reduction and human capital accumulation, respectively. Based on these results, political leaders and governments are provided with solid reasons to pay more attention to improving their productive structures in order to promote energy efficiency and a green future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: Authors’ construction

Fig. 2

Source: Authors’ construction

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data is provided by corresponding author under reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Table 14 in the appendix provides the complete list of countries.

  2. Other related studies on energy efficiency face similar data constraints, which also limit the length of their studies in 2015 or even earlier (See Chen et al. 2019; Yao et al. 2021; Yu and Tang 2023; Yu et al. 2023; Payne et al. 2023).

  3. http://atlas.media.mit.edu.

  4. Although Monte Carlo results show that the properties of the finite sample DOLS estimator are better than those of the FMOLS estimator, we applied the two approaches.

References

  • Adam A, Garas A, Katsaiti MS, Lapatinas A (2023) Economic complexity and jobs: an empirical analysis. Econ Innov New Technol 32(1):25–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Adebayo TS, Altuntaş M, Goyibnazarov S, Agyekum EB, Zawbaa HM, Kamel S (2022a) Dynamic effect of disintegrated energy consumption and economic complexity on environmental degradation in top economic complexity economies. Energy Rep 8:12832–12842

    Google Scholar 

  • Adebayo TS, Rjoub H, Akadiri SS, Oladipupo SD, Sharif A, Adeshola I (2022b) The role of economic complexity in the environmental Kuznets curve of MINT economies: evidence from method of moments quantile regression. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(16):24248–24260

    Google Scholar 

  • Adom PK, Amuakwa-Mensah F (2016) What drives the energy saving role of FDI and industrialization in East Africa? Renew Sustain Energy Rev 65:925–942

    Google Scholar 

  • Agosin MR (2009) Export diversification and growth in emerging economies. CEPAL Rev 97:115–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed Z, Can M, Sinha A, Ahmad M, Alvarado R, Rjoub H (2022) Investigating the role of economic complexity in sustainable development and environmental sustainability. Int J Sust Dev World 29(8):771–783

    Google Scholar 

  • Akadiri SS, Adebayo TS, Asuzu OC, Onuogu IC, Oji-Okoro I (2022) Testing the role of economic complexity on the ecological footprint in China: a nonparametric causality-in-quantiles approach. Energy Environ. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958305X221094573

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albeaik S, Kaltenberg M, Alsaleh M, Hidalgo CA (2017) Improving the economic complexity index. arXiv preprint arXiv:1707.05826

  • Amuakwa-Mensah F, Klege RA, Adom PK, Amoah A, Hagan E (2018) Unveiling the energy saving role of banking performance in Sub-Sahara Africa. Energy Econ 74:828–842

    Google Scholar 

  • Ang BW (2006) Monitoring changes in economy-wide energy efficiency: from energy–GDP ratio to composite efficiency index. Energy Policy 34(5):574–582

    Google Scholar 

  • Azizi Z, Daraei F, Boroujeni AN (2019) The impact of economic complexity on environmental pollution. Econo Dev Policy 7(2):201–219

  • Baron RM, Kenny DA (1986) The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. J Pers Soc Psychol 51(6):1173

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beaudreau BC (2005) Engineering and economic growth. Struct Chang Econ Dyn 16(2):211–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharya M, Paramati SR, Ozturk I, Bhattacharya S (2016) The effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth: evidence from top 38 countries. Appl Energy 162:733–741

    Google Scholar 

  • Bustos S, Gomez C, Hausmann R, Hidalgo CA (2012) The dynamics of nestedness predicts the evolution of industrial ecosystems. PLoS One 7(11):e49393

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Can M, Ahmed Z (2023) Towards sustainable development in the European Union countries: Does economic complexity affect renewable and non-renewable energy consumption? Sustain Dev 31(1):439–451

    Google Scholar 

  • Can M, Gozgor G (2017) The impact of economic complexity on carbon emissions: evidence from France. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24:16364–16370

    Google Scholar 

  • Can M, Ahmad M, Khan Z (2021) The impact of export composition on environment and energy demand: evidence from newly industrialized countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28(25):33599–33612

    Google Scholar 

  • Can M, Brusselaers J, Mercan M (2022) The effect of export composition on energy demand: A fresh evidence in the context of economic complexity. Rev Dev Econ 26(2):687–703

    Google Scholar 

  • Canh NP, Schinckus C, Thanh SD (2020) The natural resources rents: Is economic complexity a solution for resource curse? Resour Policy 69:101800

    Google Scholar 

  • Cantore N, Calì M, te Velde DW (2016) Does energy efficiency improve technological change and economic growth in developing countries? Energy Policy 92:279–285

    Google Scholar 

  • Celik AK, Oktay E (2019) Modelling households’ fuel stacking behaviour for space heating in Turkey using ordered and unordered discrete choice approaches. Energy Build 204:109466

    Google Scholar 

  • Cerrato M, Sarantis N (2002) The cross sectional dependence puzzle. Guildhall University, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang CP, Lee CC, Berdiev AN (2015) The impact of government ideology on energy efficiency: evidence from panel data. Energ Effi 8(6):1181–1199

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang CP, Wen J, Zheng M, Dong M, Hao Y (2018) Is higher government efficiency conducive to improving energy use efficiency? Evidence from OECD countries. Econ Model 72:65–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen YE, Fu Q, Zhao X, Yuan X, Chang CP (2019) International sanctions’ impact on energy efficiency in target states. Econ Model 82:21–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen M, Sinha A, Hu K, Shah MI (2021) Impact of technological innovation on energy efficiency in industry 4.0 era: moderation of shadow economy in sustainable development. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 164:120521

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen S, Zhang H, Wang S (2022) Trade openness, economic growth, and energy intensity in China. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 179:121608

    Google Scholar 

  • Chou LC, Zhang WH, Wang MY, Yang FM (2020) The influence of democracy on emissions and energy efficiency in America: New evidence from quantile regression analysis. Energy Environ 31(8):1318–1334

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chu LK, Hoang DP (2020) How does economic complexity influence income inequality? New evidence from international data. Econ Anal Policy 68:44–57

    Google Scholar 

  • De Silva S, Hadri K, Tremayne AR (2009) Panel unit root tests in the presence of cross- sectional dependence: finite sample performance and an application. Econom J 12(2):340–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Djeunankan R, Njangang H, Tadadjeu S, Kamguia B (2023) Remittances and energy poverty: Fresh evidence from developing countries. Util Policy 81:101516

    Google Scholar 

  • Doğan B, Saboori B, Can M (2019) Does economic complexity matter for environmental degradation? An empirical analysis for different stages of development. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:31900–31912

    Google Scholar 

  • Doğan B, Ghosh S, Shahzadi I, Balsalobre-Lorente D, Nguyen CP (2022) The relevance of economic complexity and economic globalization as determinants of energy demand for different stages of development. Renew Energy 190:371–384

    Google Scholar 

  • Dong K, Dou Y, Jiang Q (2022) Income inequality, energy poverty, and energy efficiency: Who cause who and how? Technol Forecast Soc Chang 179:121622

    Google Scholar 

  • Eberhardt M, Bond S (2009) Cross-section dependence in nonstationary panel models: a novel estimator.

  • Edziah BK, Sun H, Anyigbah E, Li L (2021) Human capital and energy efficiency: evidence from developing countries. Am J Ind Bus Manag 11(6):599–610

    Google Scholar 

  • Eide ER, Showalter MH (1999) Factors affecting the transmission of earnings across generations: a quantile regression approach. J Hum Resour 253–267

  • Fang J, Gozgor G, Mahalik MK, Padhan H, Xu R (2021) The impact of economic complexity on energy demand in OECD countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28(26):33771–33780

    Google Scholar 

  • Filipović S, Verbič M, Radovanović M (2015) Determinants of energy intensity in the European Union: A panel data analysis. Energy 92:547–555

    Google Scholar 

  • Filippini M, Zhang L (2016) Estimation of the energy efficiency in Chinese provinces. Energ Effi 9(6):1315–1328

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredriksson PG, Vollebergh HR, Dijkgraaf E (2004) Corruption and energy efficiency in OECD countries: theory and evidence. J Environ Econ Manag 47(2):207–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh S, Doğan B, Can M, Shah MI, Apergis N (2023) Does economic structure matter for income inequality? Qual Quant 57(3):2507–2527

  • Gnangnon SK (2021) Economic complexity and poverty in developing countries. Econ Aff 41(3):416–429

  • Güneri B, Yalta AY (2021) Does economic complexity reduce output volatility in developing countries? Bull Econ Res 73(3):411–431

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann D (2014) Economic complexity and human development: how economic diversification and social networks affect human agency and welfare. Taylor & Francis

  • Hartmann D, Guevara MR, Jara-Figueroa C, Aristarán M, Hidalgo CA (2017) Linking economic complexity, institutions, and income inequality. World Dev 93:75–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Hausmann R, Hidalgo C (2011) The network structure of economic output. J Econ Growth 16(4):309–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Hausmann R, Rodrik D (2003) Economic development as self-discovery. J Dev Econ 72(2):603–633

    Google Scholar 

  • Hausmann R, Hwang J, Rodrik D (2007) What you export matters. J Econ Growth 12(1):1–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Hausmann R, Hidalgo CA, Bustos S, Coscia M, Simoes A (2014) The atlas of economic complexity: mapping paths to prosperity. Mit Press

  • Hidalgo CA, Hausmann R (2009) The building blocks of economic complexity. Proc Natl Acad Sci 106(26):10570–10575

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hidalgo CA, Klinger B, Barabási AL, Hausmann R (2007) The product space conditions the development of nations. Science 317(5837):482–487

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • IEA (2014) Capturing the multiple benefits of energy efficiency. A guide to quantifying the value added. IEA, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264220720-en.

  • Jin T (2022) Impact of heat and electricity consumption on energy intensity: a panel data analysis. Energy 239:121903

    Google Scholar 

  • Kazemzadeh E, Fuinhas JA, Shirazi M, Koengkan M, Silva N (2023) Does economic complexity increase energy intensity? Energ Effi 16(4):1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan H, Khan U, Khan MA (2020) Causal nexus between economic complexity and FDI: Empirical evidence from time series analysis. Chin Econ 53(5):374–394

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraft J, Kraft A (1978) On the relationship between energy and GNP. J Energy Dev 401–403

  • Lapatinas A (2016) Economic complexity and human development: a note. Econ Bull 36(3):1441–1452

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavezzi A (2003) Smith, Marshall and Young on division of labour and economic growth. Eur J Hist Econ Thought 10(1):81–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Caous E, Huarng F (2020) Economic complexity and the mediating effects of income inequality: Reaching sustainable development in developing countries. Sustainability 12(5):2089

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee CC, Chang CP (2008) Energy consumption and economic growth in Asian economies: a more comprehensive analysis using panel data. Resour Energy Econ 30(1):50–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee K-K, Vu TV (2019) Economic complexity, human capital and income inequality: a cross-country analysis. Jpn Econ Rev 71(4):695–718

    Google Scholar 

  • Li M, Du W (2021) Can Internet development improve the energy efficiency of firms: Empirical evidence from China. Energy 237:121590

    Google Scholar 

  • Li T, Li X, Liao G (2022) Business cycles and energy intensity. Evidence from emerging economies. Borsa Istanb Rev 22(3):560–570

    Google Scholar 

  • Liddle B (2012) The importance of energy quality in energy intensive manufacturing: evidence from panel cointegration and panel FMOLS. Energy Econ 34(6):1819–1825

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z, Zhang H, Zhang YJ, Qin CX (2020) How does income inequality affect energy efficiency? Empirical evidence from 33 Belt and Road Initiative countries. J Clean Prod 269:122421

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu H, Peng C, Chen L (2022) The impact of OFDI on the energy efficiency in Chinese provinces: Based on PVAR model. Energy Rep 8:84–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Machado JA, Silva JS (2019) Quantiles via moments. J Econom 213(1):145–173

    Google Scholar 

  • Maggioni D, Turco AL, Gallegati M (2016) Does product complexity matter for firms’ output volatility? J Dev Econ 121:94–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Majeed MT, Mazhar M, Samreen I, Tauqir A (2022) Economic complexities and environmental degradation: Evidence from OECD countries. Environ Dev Sustain 24(4):5846–5866

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariani MS, Vidmer A, Medo M, Zhang YC (2015) Measuring economic complexity of countries and products: which metric to use? Eur Phys J B 88(11):1–9

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maruta AA, Banerjee R (2021) Does energy aid improve energy efficiency in developing countries? Empir Econ 61(1):355–388

    Google Scholar 

  • Mary S, Shaw K, Colen L, y Paloma SG (2020) Does agricultural aid reduce child stunting? World Dev 130:104951

    Google Scholar 

  • Mealy P, Teytelboym A (2022) Economic complexity and the green economy. Res Policy 51(8):103948

  • Merlin ML, Chen Y (2021) Analysis of the factors affecting electricity consumption in DR Congo using fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR) estimation approach. Energy 232:121025

  • Metcalf GE (2008) An empirical analysis of energy intensity and its determinants at the state level. Energy J 29:1–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Milanovic B (2012) Global income inequality by the numbers: in history and now--an overview--. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper (6259)

  • Mills EFEA, Dong J, Yiling L, Baafi MA, Li B, Zeng K (2021) Towards sustainable competitiveness: How does financial development affect dynamic energy efficiency in Belt & Road economies? Sustain Prod Consum 27:587–601

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosteller F, Tukey JW (1977) Data analysis and regression. A second course in statistics. Addison-Wesley series in behavioral science: quantitative methods.

  • Movahedi M, Shahbazi K, Farid SH (2022) The effect of government expenditure on energy intensity: a panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) approach. Int J Global Energy Issues 44(4):292–310

    Google Scholar 

  • Nachane DM, Nadkarni RM, Karnik AV (1988) Co-integration and causality testing of the energy–GDP relationship: a cross-country study. Appl Econ 20(11):1511–1531

    Google Scholar 

  • Nan S, Huo Y, You W, Guo Y (2022) Globalization spatial spillover effects and carbon emissions: What is the role of economic complexity? Energy Econ 112:106184

    Google Scholar 

  • Nguyen CP, Nguyen B, Tung BD, Su TD (2021) Economic complexity and entrepreneurship density: A non-linear effect study. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 173:121107

    Google Scholar 

  • Otsuka A (2020) Energy intensity and population density in Japan. Environmental Economics and Computable General Equilibrium Analysis. Springer, Singapore, pp 233–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Oumbé HT, Djeunankan R, Ndzana AM (2023) Does information and communication technologies affect economic complexity? SN Bus Econ 3(4):1–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozturk I, Al-Mulali U, Solarin SA (2019) The control of corruption and energy efficiency relationship: an empirical note. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26(17):17277–17283

    Google Scholar 

  • Pakere I, Blumberga D, Kamenders A, Vītoliņš V (2021) Does district heating tariff motivate energy efficiency improvement? Energy Rep 7:410–418

    Google Scholar 

  • Paramati SR, Shahzad U, Doğan B (2022) The role of environmental technology for energy demand and energy efficiency: Evidence from OECD countries. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 153:111735

    Google Scholar 

  • Park JY (1992) Canonical cointegrating regressions. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society 119–143

  • Payne JE, Truong HHD, Chu LK, Doğan B, Ghosh S (2023) The effect of economic complexity and energy security on measures of energy efficiency: Evidence from panel quantile analysis. Energy Policy 177:113547

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pedroni P (1999) Critical values for cointegration tests in heterogenous panels with multiple regressors. Oxford Bull Econ Stat S1(61):653–670

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedroni P (2004) Panel cointegration. Asymptotic and finite sample properties of pooled time series tests with an application to the PPP hypothesis. Econom Theor 20(3):597–625

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH (2004) General diagnostic tests for cross section dependence in panels. Available at SSRN572504

  • Phillips PC, Hansen BE (1990) Statistical inference in instrumental variables regression with I (1) processes. Rev Econ Stud 57(1):99–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Poncet S, De Waldemar FS (2013) Export upgrading and growth: the prerequisite of domestic embeddedness. World Dev 51:104–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Qureshi MI, Khan NU, Rasli AM, Zaman K (2015) The battle of health with environmental evils of Asian countries: promises to keep. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22:11708–11715

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero JP, Gramkow C (2021) Economic complexity and greenhouse gas emissions. World Dev 139:105317

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadeghi P, Shahrestani H, Kiani KH, Torabi T (2020) Economic complexity, human capital, and FDI attraction: A cross country analysis. Int Econ 164:168–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadorsky P (2013) Do urbanization and industrialization affect energy intensity in developing countries? Energy Econ 37:52–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarafidis V, Wansbeek T (2012) Cross-sectional dependence in panel data analysis. Economet Rev 31(5):483–531

    Google Scholar 

  • Saraswati A, Hartono D, Indriyani W (2022) The impact of FDI on energy intensity: a spatial econometric analysis of Indonesian provinces. J Environ Stud Sci 12(4):853–869

  • Sehrawat M, Singh SK (2021) Do corruption and income inequality play spoilsport in the energy efficiency-growth relationship in BRICS countries? J Quant Econ 19(4):727–746

    Google Scholar 

  • Shahbaz M, Lean HH (2012) Does financial development increase energy consumption? The role of industrialization and urbanization in Tunisia. Energy Policy 40:473–479

    Google Scholar 

  • Shahbaz M, Loganathan N, Zeshan M, Zaman K (2015) Does renewable energy consumption add in economic growth? An application of auto-regressive distributed lag model in Pakistan. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 44:576–585

    Google Scholar 

  • Shahbaz M, Raghutla C, Chittedi KR, Jiao Z, Vo XV (2020) The effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth: evidence from the renewable energy country attractive index. Energy 207:118162

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheinbaum C, Ruíz BJ, Ozawa L (2011) Energy consumption and related CO2 emissions in five Latin American countries: changes from 1990 to 2006 and perspectives. Energy 36(6):3629–3638

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobel M (1982) The mediating roles of disgust sensitivity and danger expectancy in relation to hand washing behaviour. Sociol Methodol 13:290–312

    Google Scholar 

  • Spatafora MN, Anand R, Mishra MS (2012) Structural transformation and the sophistication of production. International Monetary Fund

  • Stock JH, Watson MW (1993) A simple estimator of cointegrating vectors in higher order integrated systems. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society 783–820

  • Stojkoski V, Utkovski Z, Kocarev L (2016) The impact of services on economic complexity: Service sophistication as route for economic growth. PLoS One 11(8):e0161633

    Google Scholar 

  • Vona F, Patriarca F (2011) Income inequality and the development of environmental technologies. Ecol Econ 70(11):2201–2213

    Google Scholar 

  • Vu TV (2020) Economic complexity and health outcomes: a global perspective. Soc Sci Med 265:113480

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang J, Dong K (2019) What drives environmental degradation? Evidence from 14 Sub-Saharan African countries. Sci Total Environ 656:165–173

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang EZ, Lee CC, Li Y (2022) Assessing the impact of industrial robots on manufacturing energy intensity in 38 countries. Energy Econ 105:105748

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerlund J (2005) New simple tests for panel cointegration. Economet Rev 24(3):297–316

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerlund J (2007) Testing for error correction in panel data. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69(6):709–748

  • World Bank (2022) World development indicators. Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator

  • Xin-gang Z, Shu-ran H (2020) Does market-based electricity price affect China’s energy efficiency? Energy Econ 91:104909

  • Xin-gang Z, Yuan-feng Z, Yan-bin L (2019) The spillovers of foreign direct investment and the convergence of energy intensity. J Clean Prod 206:611–621

    Google Scholar 

  • Yao X, Yasmeen R, Hussain J, Shah WUH (2021) The repercussions of financial development and corruption on energy efficiency and ecological footprint: Evidence from BRICS and next 11 countries. Energy 223:120063

    Google Scholar 

  • Yin L, Gui J, Zeng Z (2019) Improving energy efficiency of multimedia content dissemination by adaptive clustering and D2D multicast. Mobile Information Systems, 2019

  • Yu Y, Tang K (2023) Does financial inclusion improve energy efficiency? Technol Forecast Soc Chang 186:122110

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu C, Long H, Zhang X, Tu C, Tan Y, Zhou Y, Zang C (2023) Regional integration and city-level energy efficiency: Evidence from China. Sustain Cities Soc 88:104285

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuan C, Liu S, Wu J (2009) Research on energy-saving effect of technological progress based on Cobb-Douglas production function. Energy Policy 37(8):2842–2846

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang F, Huang K (2017) The role of government in industrial energy conservation in China: Lessons from the iron and steel industry. Energy Sustain Dev 39:101–114

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang XP, Cheng XM, Yuan JH, Gao XJ (2011) Total-factor energy efficiency in developing countries. Energy Policy 39(2):644–650

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou Q, Li T, Gong L (2022) The effect of tax incentives on energy intensity: evidence from China’s VAT reform. Energy Econ 108:105887

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhu S, Li R (2017) Economic complexity, human capital and economic growth: empirical research based on cross-country panel data. Appl Econ 49(38):3815–3828

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments to enhance the research’s merit. Any remaining errors is our responsibility.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Dschang School of Economics and Management (DSEM), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon

    Ronald Djeunankan

  2. Faculty of Economics and Management (LAREFA), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon

    Henri Njangang & Honoré Tékam

Authors
  1. Ronald Djeunankan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Henri Njangang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Honoré Tékam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Ronald Djeunankan: conceptualisation, methodology, data curation, validation, formal analysis, writing-original draft preparation. Henri Njangang: conceptualisation, validation and editing. Honoré Tékam: validation, reviewing and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald Djeunankan.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

None.

Consent for publication

None.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Roula Inglesi-Lotz

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 12, 13, and 14

Table 12 Correlation matrix
Full size table
Table 13 Descriptive statistics
Full size table
Table 14 List of countries (93)
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Djeunankan, R., Njangang, H. & Tékam, H. How does economic complexity improve energy efficiency? Mechanism discussion and empirical test. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 96906–96925 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28920-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28920-z

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation