Technological and financial development as drivers of Latin America's energy transition

V. Benfica and A.C. Marques

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 237, issue PB

Abstract: Transitioning to clean energy is a challenge for Latin American countries whose socio-economic realities require economic development and environmental sustainability to be carefully balanced. To drive this energy transition, it is essential that funding and technological innovation align with local contexts. This study aims to assess the implementation of the energy transition in Latin America from 2015 to 2020. To do this a performance indicator is developed that uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and employs data on areas such as patents and financial development as inputs. Subsequently, a Fractional Regression Model (FRM) is used to explore the socio-economic factors influencing this performance and examine its determinants. The results demonstrate significant variations in energy transition outcomes across the sample, with Brazil and Peru consistently achieving maximum DEA scores. Financial development was found to attract capital for the energy transition, with Brazil leading in the Financial Markets Development Index during the period studied. High population density was found to negatively impact energy transition across all FRM model specifications. Negative correlations between gross fixed capital formation and the level of energy transition suggest that there is lower investment in renewable energy in countries with less efficient transitions. Additionally, investment in R&D was only positively and statistically significant in efficient countries.

Keywords: DEA; Fractional regression model; Energy transition; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148124017324
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:renene:v:237:y:2024:i:pb:s0960148124017324

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.121664

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

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