Urbanization and transport energy consumption in African countries.

Abstract

Transport energy use contributes to pollution, so it generates negative externalities. This paper analyzes the effect of urbanization on the transport final energy consumption in African countries. To that end, the paper applies the panel threshold regression (PTR) model for a panel of 25 African countries over the period 1992-2017. The findings show that there is a significant positive relationship between total and per capita transport energy consumption and the share of the urban population in the total population. Thus, urbanization fosters transport energy consumption, either per capita energy consumption or total energy consumption. Therefore, the results from this study suggest that African countries should promote sustainable urbanization in terms of transportation.