• Energy Research

Abstract This study evaluates the effectiveness of the environmental policy on residential natural gas use (RNGU) incorporating the role of economic, demographic and environmental factors in the context of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. To this end, the study applies the Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lags (CS-ARDL) approach to analyse panel time-series data ranging from 1980 to 2016. The analysis demonstrates the environmental policy is an effective tool in reducing RNGU. This study also finds that energy price and income negatively and positively influence RNGU respectively in the long run. Demographic factors e.g. population, population density and elderly population ratio augment RNGU in the long run. A rise in temperature is inversely associated with RNGU in the long run. Based on the empirical evidence this study emphasizes on the proper implementation of the undertaken environmental policies towards the sustainable development agendas.

The Saudi economy ought to maintain a significant amount of foreign exchange reserves due to the pegged exchange rate regime. As a hydrocarbon economy, we measure the dynamic response of external assets and liabilities of banks to the international oil price in Saudi Arabia. In the presence of extreme observations, we apply sophisticated frameworks, including cross-quantilograms, quantile-on-quantile and TVP-VAR approaches, to analyze weekly time-series data from 1993 to 2021. Our results from the cross-quantilogram and quantile-on-quantile frameworks demonstrate that foreign assets and liabilities responded asymmetrically to the volatilities of international oil prices under the bullish and bearish states of the market over different memories. The TVP-VAR results indicate that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi economy encountered negative net foreign assets, which occurred mainly as a significant plague of international oil prices. Our findings are robust under different estimators.

Saudi Arabia sets an ambitious plan to install 58.7 GW renewable capacity along with several mitigation measures. For the smooth accomplishment of undertaken projects, the role of the financial market is crucial. This paper investigates the role of financial development in explaining the low carbon economy (LCE), incorporating the role of innovation in the context of Saudi Arabia, where fossil fuel contributes almost 100% share of the total energy mix. We apply the standard, asymmetric, and quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Approaches to analyse our time-series data from 1981 to 2016 (both yearly and monthly forms). Our empirical analysis demonstrates that finance asymmetrically fosters the carbon economy, but it helps to achieve a low carbon economy through the channel of innovation under different economic circumstances. Our empirical evidence reinforces the role of the financial market in overcoming the financial constraints for launching green projects.

This study aims to investigate the dynamic relationship between renewable and non-renewable energies, CO2 intensity and economic growth for the period of 1990-2016 using a case study of Myanmar. Autoregressive distributed lag, dynamic OLS, fully modified OLS and Gregory-Hansen co-integration are applied to analyse a time series dataset over the specified time period. The analysis shows that total energy use plays an insignificant role in promoting economic growth. However, decomposition analysis reveals that only renewable energy use significantly promotes, whereas non-renewable energy negatively influences, economic growth. Furthermore, non-renewable energy use is counterproductive in the presence of technological inefficiency, and the size of the overall labour force fosters economic growth. Overall results are robust under different estimation scenarios, including structural break, endogeneity and mixed order of integration. This study presents a new avenue of knowledge by investigating the role of decomposed energy use and technological efficiency in promoting economic growth in the context of Myanmar. Results emphasise the production and use of renewable energy to achieve sustainable economic development in Myanmar.

In this study, we investigate whether outbound foreign direct investment (OFDI) either augments or impedes domestic public and private investment, incorporating the role of institutional quality into the context of developed and emerging countries. To this end, we apply a cross-sectional-autoregressive-distributed lag (CS-ARDL) approach to analyze panel data from the period 1996–2017. Our empirical findings suggest that OFDI augments private capital formation for developed countries. Institutional quality (IQ) is found to be a driving factor that promotes private capital formation in the established economies of developed countries. However, OFDI has a negative association with the public capital formation in the established economies of developed countries, while IQ has a positive association with it. In the context of emerging economies, OFDI is found to be too insignificant to have an effect on private and public capital formation. Interestingly, IQ has a detrimental effect on both private and public capital formation in emerging economies. Our findings are robust. The empirical findings of this study imply that institutional quality should continue to be improved in developed countries, while it should surpass a certain threshold for emerging economies to promote domestic capital formation.

Abstract This study examined the empirical effects of economic growth, electricity consumption, foreign direct investment (FDI), and financial development on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Kuwait using time series data for the period 1980–2013. To achieve this goal, we applied the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and found that cointegration exists among the series. Findings indicate that economic growth, electricity consumption, and FDI stimulate CO2 emissions in both the short and long run. The VECM Granger causality analysis revealed that FDI, economic growth, and electricity consumption strongly Granger-cause CO2 emissions. Based on these findings, the study recommends that Kuwait reduce emissions by expanding its existing Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage plants; capitalizing on its vast solar and wind energy; reducing high subsidies of the residential electricity scheme; and aggressively investing in energy research to build expertise for achieving electricity generation efficiency.