Productive energy use and economic growth: Energy, physical and human capital relationships

Maria Pablo-Romero () and Antonio Sánchez-Braza

Energy Economics, 2015, vol. 49, issue C, 420-429

Abstract: Ecological and biophysical economists and historians of economics consider that availability of energy inputs has played a key role in driving economic growth in industrialized and emerging economies. Nevertheless, being very sensitive to structural characteristics or stages of economic development, the strength of this link differs among countries. This study analyzes the role of energy in economic growth from a geographical standpoint by estimating an aggregate translog production function, with human and physical capital and productive energy use as production factors, within a growth framework. Panel data of 38 major countries for the period from 1995 to 2007 were used. The strength of the link between energy and growth is analyzed for the whole sample and the following relevant country groups: OECD, BRIC, NAFTA, East Asian, East European and EU15 countries. Obtained results show that the calculated productivity elasticities with respect to energy use are positive for all country groups. BRIC countries have higher elasticities, around 0.37, and EU15 countries have lower elasticities, around 0.12. Weak substitutability relationships between energy and capital are observed for all groups, except for BRIC and East European countries, which show complementarity relationships.

Keywords: Translog function; Substitutability; Energy use; Human capital; Physical capital; Panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 E22 J24 O40 O50 Q43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (56)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988315001024
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:49:y:2015:i:c:p:420-429

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2015.03.010

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().