The renewable energy consumption and growth in the G-7 countries: Evidence from historical decomposition method

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the time-varying effects of renewable energy consumption on economic growth and vice versa for the G-7 countries. To this end, the historical decomposition method with bootstrap is utilized. The findings show that the effect of economic growth on renewable energy consumption is highly time-varying and strongly positive during the whole analysis period for Germany, Italy and the United States. Although the result is usually analogous in most periods for Canada, France, Japan and the United Kingdom, the contribution of economic growth on renewable energy consumption is reversed in some periods. Additionally, the effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth shows remarkable time-variations for all the G-7 countries, but does not produce a consistent direction of effect over the entire analysis period. For Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, renewable energy consumption appears to be a driving force for economic growth during nearly in the whole time period after early 1990s. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.