This paper assesses the effects of energy poverty on household welfare in Togo. We use national survey data using the logit method to assess the determinants of energy poverty and the 2SLS instrumental variable method to analyze its impact on household welfare. Our results show that energy poverty reduces household welfare: a 1% increase in energy poverty is associated with a 0.27% decrease in welfare. This general finding is robust to other ways of measuring well-being and energy poverty. Furthermore, we find that educational attainment is an important channel through which energy poverty reduces well-being. Our results underscore the need for policy decisions to address energy poverty, especially when it comes to improving household welfare.
The study investigates gasoline market in Nigeria, with a view to determining whether or not the subsidy policy dominates other variables in determining the price of gasoline. This will provide an insight on the rationale for removing or retaining the policy. The investigation, covering the period 2010Q1-2023Q4, is carried out by employing appropriate econometric techniques. The estimation results reveal that subsidy is the most dominant variable determining gasoline price in Nigeria, compared to other key economic variables, thus portending severe implications for the economy. The other variables exerted upward pressure on gasoline price to reflect market forces, but their impacts remained less significant compared to subsidy. The findings clearly indicate a situation where enormous public funds are used to subsidize and reduce gasoline price below market-determined level, with severe implications. Such implications include the rich benefiting more than the poor, smuggling and diversion of the product to undesired end-users, drain on public funds needed to provide. social infrastructure, and inefficient allocation of resources in the economy. It is therefore worthwhile to remove the subsidy and invest the resources in social infrastructure. The policy change can enhance economic growth and improve welfare of the society. Although there are short-term adverse effects of the policy change, the economy is more likely to reap greater benefits in the long-run.
African countries are characterised by electricity shortages, which is an impediment not only for its industrialisation process but also for its international competitiveness. The aim of this study is to examine the role of electricity access on the link between industrialisation and bilateral exports. The gravity model was used on 33 SSA countries over the period 2000-2020. The pseudo Poisson maximum likelihood findings with high-dimensional fixed effects estimates showed that industrialisation and access to electricity promote bilateral exports in SSA countries. By using disaggregated electricity data, the results revealed that only urban access to electricity has a significant positive effect on bilateral exports. Finally, the mediation analysis highlighted that urban access to electricity has a significant mediating effect on the industrialisation-intra-African exports relationship. SSA countries need to invest more in electricity infrastructure, not only to make up the current shortfall but also to leverage the full benefits of globalisation.
This study assesses how per capita income (PCI) impacts energy infrastructure investment (EII) in Ghana. Utilizing historical time series data from several sources, correlation analysis gauged the relationship between variables. Multiple regressions were then run to predict how PCI, alongside the domestic savings rate, impact EII. Results demonstrate a positive correlation among all variables. Specifically, PCI is shown to significantly stimulate EII, underscoring the dependency of energy infrastructure investments on income levels. These findings also address indicator 7.b.1 of target 7.b of the seventh Sustainable Development Goal, fostering informed decision-making in sustainable development agendas.
The attainment of sustainable development goals mostly depends on economic and environmental factors. In line with this rationale, this study aims to analyze the effect of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, globalization, economic freedom, and trade openness on the load capacity factor (LCF). The outcomes demonstrate that renewable energy usage increases environmental sustainability both in the short and long run. However, non-renewable energy leads to the deterioration of the environmental quality by decreasing LCF both in the short run and long run. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that economic expansion degrades environmental quality both in the short and long run, with the long-run effect being insignificant. This study also finds that globalization mitigates LCF in the long term, but an insignificant reverse relationship is detected in the short run. In the short run, trade openness has a negative impact on LCF, but in the long run, it has a positive impact on LCF. Furthermore, the study reveals that the role of economic freedom on LCF is negative.
