Search

Many countries have considered energy subsidies, with both successes and failures. Energy subsidies often have failed to achieve their stated objective of advancing national economic, social, and technological progress. Budgetary savings from the removal of energy subsidies and the resulting upsurge in energy prices may induce the adoption of innovative technologies in a country. The economic impact of energy subsidies has been analyzed for many countries in the literature. However, this issue with energy technology innovation using panel analysis has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, this study is intended to discover the effect of energy subsidies on energy technology innovation in the 25 highest energy subsidy-providing countries for the period of 2010–2020, employing advanced econometric approaches. The results confirm that energy subsidies and energy technology innovation are significantly cointegrated, and the removal of energy subsidies stimulates technological innovation, which induces the adoption of a renewable-based polygeneration system. The policy implication of this paper suggests going for further innovations in energy subsidy reforms for sustainability and technological innovation for polygeneration that may contribute to clean, sustainable, and affordable energy for all (SDG-7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of remittance income on energy consumption and the economy between 1976 and 2019 in the four highest remittance recipient nations of South Asia. The detailed analysis explores long-run and directional relationships utilizing stationary tests, the panel cointegration test, dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS), fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), and Granger causality tests using a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The study reveals the presence of long-run relationships among remittances, energy consumption, GDP and urbanization. Cointegrating regression identifies that remittance income, economic growth and urbanization individually have a positive and significant effect on energy consumption in the long-run. Results showed that a 1% increase in remittance income results in a 0.045% increase in energy consumption. Among nations analyzed, this effect was found to be strongly dominant in case of Bangladesh and Pakistan. The statistically significant and negative coefficient of the error correction term confirms long-run causality from remittance, GDP, and urbanization toward energy consumption. Variance decomposition analysis demonstrated that energy usage is heavily impacted by remittance inflows among studied variables. Policy implications of this study suggest that higher remittance inflows will increase energy consumption in South Asian countries, engendering positive economic growth and sustainable development. Image 1 • The effects of remittance on energy consumption studied for South Asian countries. • Novel statistical approaches applied to explore the causality and direction between remittance income and energy use. • Remittance income provides a potential stimulus toward national investments and ensures reliable and clean energy sources. • It is evidence that 1% raise in remittance income results in a 0.045% increase in energy consumption in the long run. • Policy makers can formulate strategic plans for migrant workers to ensure affordable clean energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]