Factors that drive energy use in Africa: panel data evidence from selected Sub‐Sahara African countries

Abstract

Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries need adequate energy to achieve socio‐economic growth and development. According to recent statistics, only 30 per cent of the entire population have access to power, making the region the highest in the world with people without access to electricity. This is in sharp contrast with the abundant energy resources available, which could be harnessed to provide the needed energy. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the determinants of aggregate energy demand in SSA. Reliable secondary macroeconomic and energy data were collected from publicly available and widely used databases. The study uses a panel cointegration technique to examine the determinants of energy demand in SSA, over the period from 1980 to 2014, for selected countries in the region. Our results reveal that income is the predominant factor behind the increase in energy demand in SSA, with the highest elasticity. Furthermore, energy demand in SSA conforms to a priori expectations of a negative price elasticity. The results are in line with the theory of demand. Significantly, we also find that urbanisation an important role for energy demand. Stringent energy conservation policy and other recommendations flow from the findings.

Towards Ecological Sustainability: Assessing Dynamic Total-Factor Ecology Efficiency in Africa

“…Gui et al [44] measured ecological efficiency along China's Yangtze River economic belt by adopting the SFA framework. In Africa, however, there are several past energy efficiency studies that apply the SFA methodology [45][46][47][48]. Few studies, such as [12][13][14], adopted the DEA framework to assess Africa's energy efficiency.…”

Measuring Dynamic Energy Efficiency in Africa: A Slack‐Based DEA Approach

“…In other jurisdictions, energy efficiency studies that applied the DEA modeling techniques are omnipresent, for instance, in US 39 ; in APEC economies 43 ; in China 44–47 ; OECD economies 48,49 ; Japan 50 ; and in India 51,52 . Among the African economies, there exists a research gap relative to the above‐mentioned prior studies, which were conducted in developed, Asian countries and high‐income countries where the context is completely different, although there are some important energy efficiency studies carried out in Africa 2,5,53–56 . Moreover, despite their contributions—those studies do not consider the dynamic implications of undesirable output (CO 2 emissions) and carryover factors effect over time.…”

“…51,52 Among the African economies, there exists a research gap relative to the above-mentioned prior studies, which were conducted in developed, Asian countries and high-income countries where the context is completely different, although there are some important energy efficiency studies carried out in Africa. 2,5,[53][54][55][56] Moreover, despite their contributions-those studies do not consider the dynamic implications of undesirable output (CO 2 emissions) and carryover factors effect over time. The projection/adjustment analysis of the slack was also ignored in those studies.…”

Energy Prices, Income and Electricity Consumption in Africa: The Role of Technological Innovation

“…For example, the electricity consumptiongrowth nexus literature has established the fact that per capita income correlates with per capita electricity consumption in most OECD countries and emerging economies in Asia (Ahmad andIslam, 2011 andSalisu et al, 2018). In contrast, studies on African countries show both low per capita electricity consumption and low per capita income (Mehara, 2007: Olomola, 2007Fondja, 2013 andKolawole, 2017). In some cases, African countries with large energy deposit also have low energy consumption because of low income (Yu and Chai, 1985), price distortion (Bekhet and Yusop, 2009 and Asafu-Adjaye, 2010) and low technological innovation (Tang and Tan, 2012).…”