Renewable energy and economic growth: A panel data analysis for OECD countries

The rapid increase in the world population and the progress in the economic growth of countries are constantly increasing the need for energy. Considering that fossil-based energy resources are not distributed evenly throughout the world, access to resources by countries that do not have enough of these resources causes great costs in their economies. On the other hand, in countries that have sufficient energy resources, the continuity of resources raises problems such as the damage they cause to the environment and the height of costs. In the first section, information about non-renewable energy sources and renewable energy sources are given. In the second chapter, the effects of renewable energy on economic growth, employment and foreign trade are discussed. In the third section, two semi-serial groups were formed with the data obtained from the statistical databases of the World Bank. In the first series group, the GDP per capita series was used as an indicator of economic growth, and the renewable energy consumption series was used as an indicator of renewable energy demand. A panel data set covering the 1990-2019 period has been created for the sample group of the study for 35 OECD Countries. In the second series group, the GDP per capita series was used as an indicator of economic growth and the renewable electricity generation series was used as an indicator of renewable energy supply. A panel data set covering the period of 1990-2015 has been created for the 35 OECD Countries, which constitute the sample group of the study and the first sample. Renewable energy supply and energy demand is located in the axis of the concept of energy, in this study, renewable energy, renewable energy supply and demand, and used as an indicator of economic growth, GDP per capita by applying the panel causality test to analyze whether there is a relationship between the short-term is intended. To put the performance of research which covered 35 OECD countries economic growth, GDP per capita; the supply and demand of renewable energy to determine, respectively, as a percentage of total electricity production of renewable electricity generation (reout) and as a percentage of total final energy consumption, renewable energy consumption (recoun) variables were used. KEYWORDS: Renewable Energy, Economic Growth, OECD Countries, Panel Data Analysis.