Exploring the impact of macro-determinant factors on energy resource depletion: Evidence from a worldwide cross-country panel data analysis

The depletion of energy resources stands out as one of humanity's major challenges. Therefore, understanding the determinant factors that could potentially affect the depletion rate of energy resources is emerging as one of the main research interests of academics in this field, and this study intends to contribute by filling this gap. This paper aims to investigate the influence of different factors that can be categorised into six main categories, such as education, governance quality, sustainability, technological advancements, economic development, and health expenditures, on the depletion of energy resources in a large sample of 132 countries clustered according to their income level, for a 14-year period (2007–2020). To this end, we propose six composite indices that we developed to capture each of the six categories of macroeconomic factors. Following the panel data analysis conducted for each cluster of countries, classified based on World Bank income classification, our findings suggest that the most determinant factors for the energy depletion rate are education (for upper-middle income), governance quality (for high-income), technology advancements (for low-income), economic development (for high, upper-middle, and low-income), and health expenditures and diseases (for high, lower-middle, and low-income countries).