INTERNATIONAL ENERGY JOURNAL

Volume 21, No. 02, Month JUNE, Year 2021, Pages 225 - 234

Analyzing the linkage between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in west africa

Maman Ali M. Moustapha, Qian Yu, Benjamin A. Danqauh

Abstract Download PDF

This study investigates the short-run and long-run relationships between renewable energy consumption and economic growth within the framework of the production function in fifteen West African countries from 2000 to 2018. The study was based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag- Bounds test approach (ARDL) and vector error correction model (VECM) to examine the Granger causality between the variables. The results of the ADRL model confirm the presence of cointegration among the variables. The findings confirm that in the short-run renewable energy consumption has an insignificant impact on economic growth. However, in the long-run has a significant and positive impact on economic growth as well as a unidirectional causality running from renewable energy consumption to economic growth. Within the global framework, the study implies that the use of renewable energy in the process of economic growth is highly significant. Therefore, findings imply further policies and support to promote renewable energy would be necessary for economic development in West Africa.

Keywords

ARDL bound test, Economic growth, Energy consumption, Renewable energy, West African countries

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