Nexus between energy security and role of women in politics: Evidence from BRICS countries

This study scrutinizes the impact of women's participation in politics (WP) on energy security (ES) in BRICS countries. In order to cover ES in multiple dimensions, the study employs three indicators, namely, primary energy production (ES1), the ratio of primary energy production per capita to primary energy consumption per capita (ES2), and energy intensity of primary energy (ES3). The novel quantile-on-quantile kernel-based regularized least squares approach is adopted to provide quantile-based estimates. Considering the findings related to the WP-ES1 nexus across the quantiles, the results show that WP leads to higher ES1 in Brazil, Russia, India, and China, whereas WP has a heterogeneous impact on ES1 in South Africa. In the context of the WP-ES2 nexus across quantiles, the study also reports that WP increases ES2 in BRICS countries, whilst the relationship is relatively weak in Russia. Regarding the results of the WP-ES3 nexus across the quantiles, the study concludes that an increase in WP is responsible for a surge in ES in Russia, India, China, and South Africa. However, the WP-ES3 nexus in Brazil portrays heterogeneous findings across quantiles. The study provides a set of policy recommendations.