The Impact of Renewable Energy and Economic Complexity on Carbon Emissions in BRICS Countries under the EKC Scheme

Nuno Leitão, Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente and José María Cantos-Cantos
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Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente: Department of Political Economy and Public Finance, Economic and Business Statistics and Economic Policy, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 16002 Cuenca, Spain
José María Cantos-Cantos: Department of Political Economy and Public Finance, Economic and Business Statistics and Economic Policy, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 45002 Toledo, Spain

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-15

Abstract: Economic complexity makes it possible to assess the development of the countries, the relations of innovation, and the differentiation of products. The article considers the links between the hypotheses of the Kuznets environmental curve and economic complexity using panel data for the group of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) from 1990 to 2015. As an econometric strategy, this study considered the panel fully modified least squares (FMOLS), panel dynamic least squares (DOLS), fixed effects (FE), and Panel Quantile Regression. The empirical results showed that economic complexity, income per capita, renewable energy, and carbon dioxide emissions are integrated with the first difference when applying the unit root test. The arguments of Pedroni and Kao cointegration tests were also used. According to these results, the variables used in this research are cointegrated in the long run. The results validated the arguments of the EKC hypothesis, i.e., the income per capita and squared income per capita are positively and negatively correlated with CO 2 emissions. Moreover, economic complexity and renewable energy aim to improve environmental damage and climate change.

Keywords: panel data; economic complexity; renewable energy; innovation and climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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