Investigating the nexus among resource curse, energy transition and sustainable development: Evidence from a global panel data

This study is interested in modeling the nexus among resource curse, energy transition and sustainable development in 137 economies around the world using multi-variate panel data analysis over the period 1995 to 2018. We employ the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) dynamic panel technique to estimate the long-run and short-run relationships among the variables. In the empirical tests, a variety of panel data estimators are utilized. In addition, Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality test is conducted to test the direction of causality. The findings suggest that in the long run, an increase in natural resources significantly contributes to the energy transition, while in the short run, it significantly inhibits it. Thus, natural resources are an effective stimulus for the energy transition, but most economies have not yet reached the turning point and are in a period of resource curse due to the lack of effective ways to achieve this shift. Under the global sample, natural resources have a significant long-run positive impact on sustainable development. Also, Granger causality tests report a two-way causal relationship between the two. This finding enhances the confidence of policymakers in natural resources. Moreover, the positive impact of the energy transition on sustainable development encourages the surveyed economies to increase the adoption of renewable energy. On this basis, some pertinent policy recommendations are proposed.