Internet usage, renewable energy, electricity consumption and economic growth: Evidence from developed countries

Taha Zaghdoudi

Economics Bulletin, 2017, vol. 37, issue 3, 1612-1619

Abstract: Using a dataset of 31 developed countries over the period of 1990-2015 we empirically investigate the relationship between Internet usage, renewable energy, electricity consumption and economic growth. Panel autoregressive distributed lag method (ARDL) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares method (DOLS) are applied to test this relation. Results from ARDL estimates reveal that Internet usage and economic growth have a positive and significant long-run effect on electric power consumption. Results, also indicate that renewable energy has a negative and significant effect on electricity consumption. Otherwise, only economic growth has positive and significant effect on electricity consumption in the short-run. This paper supports the view that developed countries still dependent to nonrenewable energy use to support their economic growth and to meet the increasing electricity demand from Internet usage. Moreover, by supporting investment in renewable energy and green IT developed countries can increase renewable electricity production and mitigate pollution.

Keywords: Electricity consumption; Internet usage; Renewable energy; Economic growth; Panel ARDL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 Q4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-07-16
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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