Human capital and energy consumption: Evidence from OECD countries

By Yao Yao, Kris Ivanovski, J. Inekwe, Russell Smyth *. Energy Economics, 2019

309 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We examine the effect of human capital on energy consumption for a panel of OECD economies over the period 1965–2014. Our preferred results, which account for cross-sectional dependence and structural breaks, suggest that a one standard deviation increase in human capital reduces aggregate energy consumption by 15.36%. When we distinguish between clean and dirty energy consumption, we find that human capital generates significant positive externalities for the environment. Specifically, we find that a one standard deviation increase in human capital is associated with a 17.33% decrease in dirty energy consumption and an 85.54% increase in clean energy consumption. Our findings reinforce the social benefits of investing in human capital and suggest a promising avenue for energy conservation without impeding economic growth.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Environmental Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/601e80678abbbfc0af09ca513ce12f759fbe39ce