IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i20p14870-d1259492.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Influence of Government Ideology on Renewable Energy Consumption in the European Union Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Erdal Arslan

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Selçuk University, 42130 Konya, Turkey)

  • Cuneyt Koyuncu

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Bilecik Seyh Edebali University, 11210 Bilecik, Turkey)

  • Rasim Yilmaz

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Tekirdag Namik Kemal University, 59030 Tekirdag, Turkey)

Abstract

By utilizing the panel quantile regression method and employing unbalanced panel data covering the years between 1972 and 2020, this study examines the impact of government ideology on renewable energy consumption for 26 EU member countries. The estimation results indicated that an increase in the relative power position of right-wing parties in government was correlated with a decrease in renewable energy consumption, whereas a rise in the relative power position of left-wing or center-wing parties in government was associated with an increase in renewable energy consumption across all quantiles evaluated. The estimation results were robust to different indicators of renewable energy consumption and government ideology. The estimation results of this study also indicated statistically significant positive associations between the share of seats in parliament for political parties classified as green and renewable energy consumption, and between the total Christian democratic governing party seats as a percentage of all legislative seats and renewable energy consumption. This result suggests that green parties and Christian democratic parties may be the key driving forces behind the positive coefficients for variables representing left-wing and center-wing parties in our study.

Suggested Citation

  • Erdal Arslan & Cuneyt Koyuncu & Rasim Yilmaz, 2023. "The Influence of Government Ideology on Renewable Energy Consumption in the European Union Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:20:p:14870-:d:1259492
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/14870/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/14870/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hibbs, Douglas A., 1977. "Political Parties and Macroeconomic Policy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(4), pages 1467-1487, December.
    2. Chen, Wenhui & Lei, Yalin, 2018. "The impacts of renewable energy and technological innovation on environment-energy-growth nexus: New evidence from a panel quantile regression," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-14.
    3. Nguyen, Kim Hanh & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2019. "Renewable energy consumption, carbon emissions, and development stages: Some evidence from panel cointegration analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1049-1057.
    4. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2014. "Renewable energy, output, CO2 emissions, and fossil fuel prices in Central America: Evidence from a nonlinear panel smooth transition vector error correction model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 226-232.
    5. Garmann, Sebastian, 2014. "Do government ideology and fragmentation matter for reducing CO2-emissions? Empirical evidence from OECD countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 1-10.
    6. Uzar, Umut, 2020. "Political economy of renewable energy: Does institutional quality make a difference in renewable energy consumption?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 591-603.
    7. Alberto Alesina, 1987. "Macroeconomic Policy in a Two-Party System as a Repeated Game," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(3), pages 651-678.
    8. Cadoret, Isabelle & Padovano, Fabio, 2016. "The political drivers of renewable energies policies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 261-269.
    9. da Silva, Patrícia Pereira & Cerqueira, Pedro André & Ogbe, Wojolomi, 2018. "Determinants of renewable energy growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from panel ARDL," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 45-54.
    10. Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2011. "Growth and renewable energy in Europe: A random effect model with evidence for neutrality hypothesis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 257-263, March.
    11. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2010. "Renewable energy consumption and growth in Eurasia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1392-1397, November.
    12. Apergis, Nicholas & Pinar, Mehmet, 2021. "The role of party polarization in renewable energy consumption: Fresh evidence across the EU countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    13. Sadorsky, Perry, 2009. "Renewable energy consumption and income in emerging economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 4021-4028, October.
    14. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2010. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from a panel of OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 656-660, January.
    15. Chang, Chun Ping & Berdiev, Aziz N., 2011. "The political economy of energy regulation in OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 816-825, September.
    16. Sadorsky, Perry, 2009. "Renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions and oil prices in the G7 countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 456-462, May.
    17. Ackah, Ishmael & Kizys, Renatas, 2015. "Green growth in oil producing African countries: A panel data analysis of renewable energy demand," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1157-1166.
    18. Chang, Chun-Ping & Wen, Jun & Dong, Minyi & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Does government ideology affect environmental pollutions? New evidence from instrumental variable quantile regression estimations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 386-400.
    19. Biresselioglu, Mehmet Efe & Zengin Karaibrahimoglu, Yasemin, 2012. "The government orientation and use of renewable energy: Case of Europe," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 29-37.
    20. Salim, Ruhul A. & Rafiq, Shuddhasattwa, 2012. "Why do some emerging economies proactively accelerate the adoption of renewable energy?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1051-1057.
    21. Xu, Bin & Lin, Boqiang, 2020. "Investigating drivers of CO2 emission in China’s heavy industry: A quantile regression analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    22. Omri, Anis & Nguyen, Duc Khuong, 2014. "On the determinants of renewable energy consumption: International evidence," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 554-560.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Apergis, Nicholas & Pinar, Mehmet, 2021. "The role of party polarization in renewable energy consumption: Fresh evidence across the EU countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    2. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2021. "Determinants of renewable energy consumption: Importance of democratic institutions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 75-83.
    3. Ibrahiem, Dalia M. & Hanafy, Shaimaa A., 2021. "Do energy security and environmental quality contribute to renewable energy? The role of trade openness and energy use in North African countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 667-678.
    4. Vural, Gulfer, 2021. "Analyzing the impacts of economic growth, pollution, technological innovation and trade on renewable energy production in selected Latin American countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 210-216.
    5. Dogan, Eyup & Chishti, Muhammad Zubair & Karimi Alavijeh, Nooshin & Tzeremes, Panayiotis, 2022. "The roles of technology and Kyoto Protocol in energy transition towards COP26 targets: Evidence from the novel GMM-PVAR approach for G-7 countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    6. Li Ma & Die Xu, 2021. "Toward Renewable Energy in China: Revisiting Driving Factors of Chinese Wind Power Generation Development and Spatial Distribution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-13, August.
    7. Bourcet, Clémence, 2020. "Empirical determinants of renewable energy deployment: A systematic literature review," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    8. Omri, Anis & Ben Mabrouk, Nejah & Sassi-Tmar, Amel, 2015. "Modeling the causal linkages between nuclear energy, renewable energy and economic growth in developed and developing countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1012-1022.
    9. Lu, Zhou & Gozgor, Giray & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Padhan, Hemachandra & Yan, Cheng, 2022. "Welfare gains from international trade and renewable energy demand: Evidence from the OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    10. Ben Jebli, Mehdi & Ben Youssef, Slim, 2013. "Economic growth, combustible renewables and waste consumption and emissions in North Africa," MPRA Paper 47765, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Uzar, Umut, 2020. "Political economy of renewable energy: Does institutional quality make a difference in renewable energy consumption?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 591-603.
    12. Baye, Richmond Silvanus & Ahenkan, Albert & Darkwah, Samuel, 2021. "Renewable energy output in sub Saharan Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 705-714.
    13. Nguyen, Kim Hanh & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2019. "Renewable energy consumption, carbon emissions, and development stages: Some evidence from panel cointegration analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1049-1057.
    14. Marra, Alessandro & Colantonio, Emiliano, 2021. "The path to renewable energy consumption in the European Union through drivers and barriers: A panel vector autoregressive approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Kahia, Montassar & Aïssa, Mohamed Safouane Ben & Lanouar, Charfeddine, 2017. "Renewable and non-renewable energy use - economic growth nexus: The case of MENA Net Oil Importing Countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 127-140.
    16. Gozgor, Giray & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Lu, Zhou, 2018. "Energy consumption and economic growth: New evidence from the OECD countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 27-34.
    17. Bernard Olagboyega Muse, 2021. "Analysis of CO2 Emission and Economic Growth as Potential Determinants of Renewable Energy Demand in Nigeria: A Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lags Approach," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(3), pages 510-516.
    18. Acheampong, Alex O. & Dzator, Janet & Savage, David A., 2021. "Renewable energy, CO2 emissions and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa: Does institutional quality matter?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 1070-1093.
    19. Zheng, Shuhong & Yang, Juan & Yu, Shiwei, 2021. "How renewable energy technological innovation promotes renewable power generation: Evidence from China's provincial panel data," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1394-1407.
    20. Aslan, Alper, 2016. "The causal relationship between biomass energy use and economic growth in the United States," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 362-366.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:20:p:14870-:d:1259492. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.