Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The impact of energy efficiency and renewable energy on GDP growth: new evidence from RALS-EG cointegration test and QARDL technique

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Energy Efficiency Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In recent years, energy has been observed as a major driver of promoting economic growth. While energy is significant in enhancing economic growth, non-renewable energy has been blamed for its devastating effects on the environment, since it emits carbon dioxide. Thus, recent studies have encouraged the use of renewable energy, as an alternative source of energy, which is environmentally friendly. Energy efficiency, the wise utilization of energy without wasting it and producing the maximum possible output per each unit employed, is vital for economic growth. However, there is still a dearth in the literature, on how energy efficiency impacts economic growth, hence the present research’s originality. The current research employs panel data of the emergency seven economies from 1990 to 2019, to investigate the effect of energy efficiency on economic growth. The emerging economies have in recent years emerged from being developing countries to becoming emerging economies through the vast use of energy in enhancing economic growth of their nations, a good example is China. Secondly, the research uses Residual Augmented Least Square-Engle and Granger to test cointegration, and Quantile Autoregressive Distributive Lag technique to ascertain the association among the series, which are the most contemporary models of data analysis and gives more robust findings. The research outcomes allude that labor, capital, non-renewable energy, carbon emissions, energy use, renewable energy, and energy efficiency gives significant positive effect on gross domestic product. We recommend the use of renewable energy which promotes economic growth and reduces the emissions of carbon-dioxide.

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

Access this article

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data used in this paper is secondary data and was retrieved from the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/.

Abbreviations

3SLS :

Three-stage least squares

ADF :

Augmented Dickey-Fuller

ARDL :

Autoregressive distributive lag

BRICS :

Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

CAP :

Capital

CE :

Carbon emissions

CO 2 :

Carbon dioxide

DOLS :

Dynamic ordinary least squares

ECOG :

Economic growth

EE :

Energy efficiency

EG :

Engle and Granger

EU :

Energy use

FDI :

Foreign direct investment

FE :

Fixed effects

FMOLS :

Fully modified ordinary least squares

GDP :

Gross domestic product

GFCF :

Gross fixed capital formation

GMM :

Generalized method of moments

LF :

Labor force

NRE :

Non-renewable energy

QARDL :

Quantile autoregressive distributive lag

OLS :

Ordinary least squares

RALS :

Residual augmented least square

RE :

Renewable energy

SDGs :

Sustainable Development Goals

SO 2 :

Sulfur dioxide

UN :

United Nations

USD :

United States dollars

References

  • Adebayo, T. S. (2021). Do CO2 emissions, energy consumption and globalization promote economic growth? Empirical evidence from Japan. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(26), 34714–34729.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adedoyin, F. F., Ozturk, I., Agboola, M. O., Agboola, P. O., & Bekun, F. V. (2021). The implications of renewable and non-renewable energy generating in Sub-Saharan Africa: The role of economic policy uncertainties. Energy Policy, 150, 112115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adom, P. K., Agradi, M., & Vezzulli, A. (2021). Energy efficiency-economic growth nexus: What is the role of income inequality? Journal of Cleaner Production, 310, 127382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Afroz, R., & Muhibbullah, M. (2021). Dynamic linkages between non-renewable energy, renewable energy and economic growth through nonlinear ARDL approach: Evidence from Malaysia.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmad, M., Jabeen, G., Irfan, M., Mukeshimana, M. C., Ahmed, N., & Jabeen, M. (2020a). Modeling causal interactions between energy investment, pollutant emissions, and economic growth: China study. Biophysical Economics and Sustainability, 5(1), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmad, M., Zhao, Z. Y., Irfan, M., Mukeshimana, M. C., Rehman, A., Jabeen, G., & Li, H. (2020b). Modeling heterogeneous dynamic interactions among energy investment, SO2 emissions and economic performance in regional China. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(3), 2730–2744.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, S., Alam, K., Sohag, K., Gow, J., Rashid, A., & Akter, M. (2019). Renewable and non-renewable energy use and its relationship with economic growth in Myanmar. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 26(22), 22812–22825.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, F., Kousar, S., Pervaiz, A., Trinidad-Segovia, J. E., del Pilar Casado-Belmonte, M., & Ahmed, W. (2021). Role of green innovation, trade and energy to promote green economic growth: A case of South Asian Nations. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1–15.

  • Akpanke, T. A., Deka, A., Ozdeser, H., & Seraj, M. (2023). Does foreign direct investment promote renewable energy use? An insight from West African countries. Renewable Energy Focus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ref.2022.11.007

  • Akram, R., Chen, F., Khalid, F., Huang, G., & Irfan, M. (2021). Heterogeneous effects of energy efficiency and renewable energy on economic growth of BRICS countries: A fixed effect panel quantile regression analysis. Energy, 215, 119019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akram, R., Umar, M., Xiaoli, G., & Chen, F. (2022). Dynamic linkages between energy efficiency, renewable energy along with economic growth and carbon emission. A case of MINT countries an asymmetric analysis. Energy Reports, 8, 2119–2130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alexeev, M., & Chih, Y. Y. (2021). Energy price shocks and economic growth in the US: A state-level analysis. Energy Economics, 98, 105242.

  • Ali, Q., Raza, A., Narjis, S., Saeed, S., & Khan, M. T. I. (2020a). Potential of renewable energy, agriculture, and financial sector for the economic growth: Evidence from politically free, partly free and not free countries. Renewable Energy, 162, 934–947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ali, M., Raza, S. A., & Khamis, B. (2020b). Environmental degradation, economic growth, and energy innovation: Evidence from European countries. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(22), 28306–28315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alper, A. E., Alper, F. O., Ozayturk, G., & Mike, F. (2022). Testing the long-run impact of economic growth, energy consumption, and globalization on ecological footprint: New evidence from Fourier bootstrap ARDL and Fourier bootstrap Toda–Yamamoto test results. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1–16.

  • Apeaning, R. W. (2021). Technological constraints to energy-related carbon emissions and economic growth decoupling: A retrospective and prospective analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 291, 125706.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arain, H., Sharif, A., Akbar, B., & Younis, M. (2020). Dynamic connection between inward foreign direct investment, renewable energy, economic growth and carbon emission in China: Evidence from partial and multiple wavelet coherence. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(32), 40456–40474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashraf, J., Luo, L., & Anser, M. K. (2021). Do BRI policy and institutional quality influence economic growth and environmental quality? An empirical analysis from South Asian countries affiliated with the Belt and Road Initiative. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1–14.

  • Asiedu, B. A., Hassan, A. A., & Bein, M. A. (2021). Renewable energy, non-renewable energy, and economic growth: Evidence from 26 European countries. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(9), 11119–11128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Asif, M., Bashir, S., & Khan, S. (2021). Impact of non-renewable and renewable energy consumption on economic growth: Evidence from income and regional groups of countries. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(29), 38764–38773.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aslan, A., Altinoz, B., & Özsolak, B. (2021). The nexus between economic growth, tourism development, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in Mediterranean countries. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(3), 3243–3252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aydin, M. (2022). The impacts of political stability, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on tourism in Turkey: New evidence from Fourier Bootstrap ARDL approach. Renewable Energy.

  • Bakhsh, K., Akmal, T., Ahmad, T., & Abbas, Q. (2022). Investigating the nexus among sulfur dioxide emission, energy consumption, and economic growth: Empirical evidence from Pakistan. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29(5), 7214–7224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balaguer, L., Escudero, A., & Martín-Duque, J. F. (2015). The historical reference in restoration ecology: Re-defining a cornerstone concept. Journal 2, 6(8), 12–20.

  • Balsalobre-Lorente, D., & Leitão, N. C. (2020). The role of tourism, trade, renewable energy use and carbon dioxide emissions on economic growth: evidence of tourism-led growth hypothesis in EU-28. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(36), 45883–45896.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banga, C., Deka, A., Kilic, H., Ozturen, A., & Ozdeser, H. (2022). The role of clean energy in the development of sustainable tourism: does renewable energy use help mitigate environmental pollution? A panel data analysis. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29(39), 59363–59373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banga, C., Deka, A., Ringim, S. H., Mustapha, A. S., Özdeşer, H., & Kilic, H. (2023). The nexus between tourism development, environmental quality and economic growth. Does renewable energy help in achieving carbon neutrality goal? International Journal of Energy Sector Management.

  • Bayar, Y., & Gavriletea, M. D. (2019). Energy efficiency, renewable energy, economic growth: Evidence from emerging market economies. Quality & Quantity, 53(4), 2221–2234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baz, K., Cheng, J., Xu, D., Abbas, K., Ali, I., Ali, H., & Fang, C. (2021). Asymmetric impact of fossil fuel and renewable energy consumption on economic growth: A nonlinear technique. Energy, 226, 120357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, B., & Fischer, D. (2013). Promoting renewable electricity generation in emerging economies. Energy Policy, 56, 446–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Behera, J., & Mishra, A. K. (2020). Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth in G7 countries: Evidence from panel autoregressive distributed lag (P-ARDL) model. International Economics and Economic Policy, 17(1), 241–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bekun, F. V., Emir, F., & Sarkodie, S. A. (2019). Another look at the relationship between energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and economic growth in South Africa. Science of the Total Environment, 655(6), 759–765.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ben Mbarek, M., Saidi, K., & Rahman, M. M. (2018). Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, environmental degradation and economic growth in Tunisia. Quality & Quantity, 52(3), 1105–1119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ben Youssef, S. (2020). Non-resident and resident patents, renewable and fossil energy, pollution, and economic growth in the USA. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(32), 40795–40810.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhat, J. A. (2018). Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption—Impact on economic growth and CO2 emissions in five emerging market economies. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 25(35), 35515–35530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bilgili, F., Kuşkaya, S., Ünlü, F., & Gençoğlu, P. (2022). Export quality, economic growth, and renewable-nonrenewable energy use: Non-linear evidence through regime shifts. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1–19.

  • Boukhelkhal, A. (2021). Energy use, economic growth and CO2 emissions in Africa: Does the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis exist? New evidence from heterogeneous panel under cross-sectional dependence. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 1–28.

  • Bouyghrissi, S., Berjaoui, A., & Khanniba, M. (2021). The nexus between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in Morocco. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(5), 5693–5703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bulut, U., & Apergis, N. (2021). A new methodological perspective on the impact of energy consumption on economic growth: Time series evidence based on the Fourier approximation for solar energy in the USA. GeoJournal, 86(4), 1969–1980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Can, H., & Korkmaz, O. (2019). The relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth: The case of Bulgaria. International Journal of Energy Sector Management, 13(3), 573–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Y., Mamon, R., Spagnolo, F., & Spagnolo, N. (2022). Renewable-energy and economic growth: A Markov-switching approach. Energy, 123089.

  • Cho, J. S., Kim, T. H., & Shin, Y. (2015). Quantile cointegration in the autoregressive distributed-lag modeling framework. Journal of econometrics, 188(1), 281-300.

  • Cobb, C. W., & Douglas, P. H. (1928). A theory of production. American Economic Review, 18(Supplement), 139–165 JSTOR 1811556.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Oliveira, H. V. E., & Moutinho, V. (2022). Do renewable, non-renewable energy, carbon emission and KOF globalization influencing economic growth? Evidence from BRICS’countries. Energy Reports, 8, 48–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deka, A., & Dube, S. (2021). Analyzing the causal relationship between exchange rate, renewable energy and inflation of Mexico (1990–2019) with ARDL bounds test approach. Renewable Energy Focus, 37, 78–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deka, A., Cavusoglu, B., & Dube, S. (2022a). Does renewable energy use enhance exchange rate appreciation and stable rate of inflation? Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1–10.

  • Deka, A., Ozdeser, H., & Seraj, M. (2022b). The effect of GDP, renewable energy and total energy supply on carbon emissions in the EU-27: New evidence from panel GMM. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1–11.

  • Deka, A., Ozdeser, H., & Seraj, M. (2023). The impact of oil prices, financial development and economic growth on renewable energy use. International Journal of Energy Sector Management.

  • Dogan, E., Altinoz, B., Madaleno, M., & Taskin, D. (2020). The impact of renewable energy consumption to economic growth: A replication and extension of Inglesi-Lotz (2016). Energy Economics, 90, 104866.

  • Doğanlar, M., Mike, F., Kızılkaya, O., & Karlılar, S. (2021). Testing the long-run effects of economic growth, financial development and energy consumption on CO2 emissions in Turkey: new evidence from RALS cointegration test. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(25), 32554–32563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eicke, L., & Weko, S. (2022). Does green growth foster green policies? Value chain upgrading and feedback mechanisms on renewable energy policies. Energy Policy, 165, 112948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emir, F., & Karlilar, S. (2022). Application of RALS cointegration test assessing the role of natural resources and hydropower energy on ecological footprint in emerging economy. Energy & Environment, 0958305X211073807.

  • Engle, R. F., & Granger, C. W. (1987). Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 251–276.

  • Gyimah, J., Yao, X., Tachega, M. A., Hayford, I. S., & Opoku-Mensah, E. (2022). Renewable energy consumption and economic growth: New evidence from Ghana. Energy, 248, 123559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Im, K. S., & Schmidt, P. (2008). More efficient estimation under non-normality when higher moments do not depend on the regressors, using residual augmented least squares. Journal of Econometrics, 144(1), 219–233.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Karaaslan, A., & Camkaya, S. (2022). The relationship between CO2 emissions, economic growth, health expenditure, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption: Empirical evidence from Turkey. Renewable Energy.

  • Lee, H., Lee, J., & Im, K. (2015). More powerful cointegration tests with non-normal errors. Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, 19(4), 397–413.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Li, J., & Colombier, M. (2009). Managing carbon emissions in China through building energy efficiency. Journal of Environmental Management, 90(8), 2436–2447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahapatra, B., & Irfan, M. (2021). Asymmetric impacts of energy efficiency on carbon emissions: A comparative analysis between developed and developing economies. Energy, 227, 120485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mankiw, N. G. (2010). Macroeconomics, (7th Int. ed.).

  • Naimoğlu, M. (2022). Impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on economic growth in Mexico: A RALS-EG cointegration test approach. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 17(2), 502–518.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakhli, M. S., Shahbaz, M., Jebli, M. B., & Wang, S. (2022). Nexus between economic policy uncertainty, renewable & non-renewable energy and carbon emissions: Contextual evidence in carbon neutrality dream of USA. Renewable Energy, 185, 75–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Namahoro, J. P., Nzabanita, J., & Wu, Q. (2021). The impact of total and renewable energy consumption on economic growth in lower and middle-and upper-middle-income groups: Evidence from CS-DL and CCEMG analysis. Energy, 237, 121536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Okumus, I., Guzel, A. E., & Destek, M. A. (2021). Renewable, non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth nexus in G7: Fresh evidence from CS-ARDL. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28, 56595–56605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran, M. H. (2015). Testing weak cross-sectional dependence in large panels. Econometric Reviews, 34(6–10), 1089–1117.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran, M. H., Shin, Y., & Smith, R. P. (1997). Pooled estimation of long-run relationships in dynamic heterogeneous panels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran, M. H., Shin, Y., & Smith, R. P. (1999). Pooled mean group estimation of dynamic heterogeneous panels. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 94(446), 621–634.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran, M. H., Shin, Y., & Smith, R. J. (2001). Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 16(3), 289–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierdzioch, C., Risse, M., & Rohloff, S. (2015). Cointegration of the prices of gold and silver: RALS-based evidence. Finance Research Letters, 15, 133–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ponce, P., & Khan, S. A. R. (2021). A causal link between renewable energy, energy efficiency, property rights, and CO2 emissions in developed countries: A road map for environmental sustainability. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(28), 37804–37817.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qin, Y., Tong, F., Yang, G., & Mauzerall, D. L. (2018). Challenges of using natural gas as a carbon mitigation option in China. Energy Policy, 117, 457–462.

  • Rahman, M. M., & Sultana, N. (2022). Impacts of institutional quality, economic growth, and exports on renewable energy: Emerging countries perspective. Renewable Energy, 189, 938–951.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Razzaq, A., Sharif, A., Najmi, A., Tseng, M. L., & Lim, M. K. (2021). Dynamic and causality interrelationships from municipal solid waste recycling to economic growth, carbon emissions and energy efficiency using a novel bootstrapping autoregressive distributed lag. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 166, 105372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romer, P. M. (1990). Endogenous technological change. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5, Part 2), S71–S102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salim, R. A., & Rafiq, S. (2012). Why do some emerging economies proactively accelerate the adoption of renewable energy? Energy Economics, 34(4), 1051–1057.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shafiullah, M., Miah, M. D., Alam, M. S., & Atif, M. (2021). Does economic policy uncertainty affect renewable energy consumption? Renewable Energy, 179, 1500–1521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shahbaz, M., Lahiani, A., Abosedra, S., & Hammoudeh, S. (2018). The role of globalization in energy consumption: A quantile cointegrating regression approach. Energy Economics, 71, 161–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sohag, K., Chukavina, K., & Samargandi, N. (2021). Renewable energy and total factor productivity in OECD member countries. Journal of Cleaner Production, 296, 126499.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solow, R. M. (1956). A contribution to the theory of economic growth. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 70(1), 65–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun, J., Guo, X., Wang, Y., Shi, J., Zhou, Y., & Shen, B. (2022). Nexus among energy consumption structure, energy intensity, population density, urbanization, and carbon intensity: A heterogeneous panel evidence considering differences in electrification rates. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29, 19224–19243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Z., Yen-Ku, K., Li, Z., An, N. B., & Abdul-Samad, Z. (2022). The transition of renewable energy and ecological sustainability through environmental policy stringency: Estimations from advance panel estimators. Renewable Energy, 188, 70–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zakari, A., Khan, I., Tan, D., Alvarado, R., & Dagar, V. (2022). Energy efficiency and sustainable development goals (SDGs). Energy, 239, 122365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, D., Mohsin, M., Rasheed, A. K., Chang, Y., & Taghizadeh-Hesary, F. (2021). Public spending and green economic growth in BRI region: mediating role of green finance. Energy Policy, 153, 112256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, X., Jia, M., Altuntaş, M., Kirikkaleli, D., & Hussain, M. (2022). Transition to renewable energy and environmental technologies: The role of economic policy uncertainty in top five polluted economies. Journal of Environmental Management, 313, 115019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zweifel, P. Z., Praktiknjo, A. P., & Erdmann, G. E. (2017). Energy economics: Theory and applications. Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

AD: writing—original draft. MOK: revised the manuscript; writing—review; investigation; software. MS: conceptualization, methodology. FT: visualization, data curation. HO: editing, supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abraham Deka.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

Not Applicable

Consent to participate

Not Applicable

Consent to publish

The authors guarantee that this manuscript has not been previously published in other journals and is not under consideration by other journals. The authors also guarantee that this manuscript is original and is their own work.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

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

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

Kadir, M.O., Deka, A., Ozdeser, H. et al. The impact of energy efficiency and renewable energy on GDP growth: new evidence from RALS-EG cointegration test and QARDL technique. Energy Efficiency 16, 46 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-023-10130-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-023-10130-8

Keywords

Navigation