Switching towards coal or renewable energy? The effects of financial capital on energy transitions

Rohan Best

Departmental Working Papers from The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics

Abstract: Does a country's stock of financial capital affect its ability to achieve energy transitions? This paper uses data for up to 137 countries for the period 1998-2013 to investigate the importance of financial capital for changes in the use of each energy type. I find that financial capital supports transition to more capital-intensive energy types. For high-income countries, financial capital facilitates transitions from fossil fuels to modern renewable energy sources, especially wind. Both private credit from banks and domestic private debt securities support greater shares of wind energy. For lower-income countries, financial capital supports progression from biomass towards fossil fuel energy sources such as coal. I also find that countries with larger stocks of financial capital are more likely to move to more capital-intensive electricity generation systems.

Keywords: energy; financial capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O11 O13 Q42 Q43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-reg
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (98)

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Journal Article: Switching towards coal or renewable energy? The effects of financial capital on energy transitions (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pas:papers:2017-02

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