Do Investments in Women’s Education and Social Integration Matter for Clean Energy Technologies?

This study offers an SDG-5-centered analysis of the co-movement and lead–lag relationships between clean energy technologies (CET) and key socioeconomic and institutional drivers, namely, women’s education and skills development (WE), democratic governance (DEM), financial development (FD), and social globalization (SOG). Using quarterly data for the United States from 2000 to 2024, the study applies wavelet-based techniques to capture time–frequency dynamics that are essential for understanding innovation systems and sustainability transitions. The findings reveal clear time-horizon heterogeneity. CET, economic growth, and financial development display stronger medium- to long-term volatility, while women’s education, democracy, and social globalization evolve more gradually. Wavelet coherence shows episodic linkages: women’s education supports CET in the medium term, social globalization and financial development strengthen after 2013–2014, and democracy aligns with CET in the mid-2010s. Multiple coherence indicates joint co-movement at 3–8-quarter horizons, and wavelet-based Granger causality reveals short-run financial adjustment with medium- to long-run bidirectional interactions. Overall, the results show that clean energy transitions are shaped by gender equality, institutions, and finance alongside technological and economic factors, supporting policies that integrate women’s education with institutional and financial reforms to advance an inclusive clean energy transition.