Abstract
In this paper we test for convergence in access to clean energy and clean technology among nations in order to study the economic determinants of access to clean energy and clean technologies. This is important because without access to clean fuels, no global development strategy can be environmentally sustainable. After obtaining an estimated convergence rate under a conditional β -convergence model, we use a more sophisticated club convergence econometric framework and ultimately reject the hypothesis of β -convergence in favor of subgroups exhibiting intra-group convergence tendencies that are distinct from the other groups. We then employ a club convergence algorithm which groups the 93 nations studied into 8 convergence clubs based on characteristics including the percentage of the population with access to clean energy in the household and the growth rate of this percentage. Evidence that household access to clean energy and clean technology is tied to economic development and institutional quality is provided by showing that the convergence clubs not only reflect distinct strata in access to clean energy but are also strongly tied to important indicators of institutional quality.
Highlights
Two of the most pressing issues today are increasing access to electricity in the developing world and transitioning from fossil fuels to clean alternatives on a global scale
We find that the convergence clubs represent distinct groups of countries which differ across combinations of income, economic growth and institutional characteristics and that institutional quality contributes to the spread of clean fuels and clean technologies for cooking throughout a nation
In this paper we studied the dynamics of access to clean fuels and clean technologies for cooking at the household level
Summary
Two of the most pressing issues today are increasing access to electricity in the developing world and transitioning from fossil fuels to clean alternatives on a global scale. The variable of interest in this paper, the percentage of people with access to clean fuels and clean technologies for cooking in the household, is a measure of the ability of each nation to establish the widespread implementation of electricity derived from clean power sources This metric offers insight into how well each nation is addressing the second problem for reducing carbon emissions by telling us the percentage of the population with in-house access to technologies which are capable of using energy from clean fuels [5]. We find that the convergence clubs represent distinct groups of countries which differ across combinations of income, economic growth and institutional characteristics and that institutional quality contributes to the spread of clean fuels and clean technologies for cooking throughout a nation Using these findings, we address the role of institutions in helping to improve policy making regarding access to and use of cleanly sourced energy, especially in the developing world. We present and discuss the data used before detailing the processes of conditional convergence and club convergence along with the results we obtain from each approach and a discussion of their socioeconomic implications
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