Does alternative energy usage converge across Oecd countries?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there exists a significant convergence process in the share of alternative energy use across 28 OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries over the 1971–2015 period. Since energy resources are scarce and the most widely used energy sources might be harmful to the environment, seeking the productive, efficient and cleaner energy types becomes more important. Moreover, international institutions and agreements on the environment strongly recommend using these types of energy sources. From this point of view, the study suggests that these efforts on increasing the share of alternative energy use will cause a convergence process between countries. The findings obtained from the difference- and system-GMM (generalized method of moments) estimations reveal that there is a statistically significant convergence process across OECD countries and it is also observed that the speed of convergence is even higher when the country-specific economic and social factors are controlled. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd