Examining the effect of economic complexity on energy justice

Abstract

A clean and healthy environment is necessary to achieve other Sustainable Development Goals. Policymakers must find ways to minimize carbon dioxide emissions and global warming before the Sustainable Development era expires. These ills are compounded by chronic inequalities in access to clean energy and the distribution of energy infrastructure, costs, and benefits. This underscores the importance of examining, addressing, and preventing various inequalities in the energy sector. Thus, this paper endeavours to examine probably for the first time the effect of economic complexity on energy justice in a panel of 62 countries over the past decade. The measure of energy justice in this study is a rarely used indicator constructed from a range of 21 sub indicators. We also use three sub-indices of energy justice: distributive justice, procedural justice, and restorative justice. The empirical analyses based on a range of robust estimation approaches consistently provide strong evidence that, on average, economic complexity improves energy justice and its three sub components. Finally, the results from the mediation analysis show that the positive effect of economic complexity on energy justice mediates through income, and human capital. Based on these results, some policy recommendations are made for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 7, 8, and 16.