Energy poverty and economic development: evidence from BRICS economies

Abstract

In the development concern, all countries are started increasing production of energy across the world. All countries have started expansion of access to electricity across the nation. As a result, their economic growth significantly progress by increasing the share of access to electricity (energy use). Hence, the aim of this research is to examine the impact of access to electricity on economic development across five emerging countries, spanning the period 1990–2018 and by using the panel modelling methodology. The results of long-run elasticities reveal that access to electricity play a considerable role in promoting economic development across five emerging countries. Furthermore, the results on panel causality tests show the presence of unidirectional causality running from economic development to access to electricity in the short run. However, the study also estimates long-run elasticities for individual economies. This individual country empirical result also shows that access to electricity has a substantial positive impact on economic development for each of the countries. Finally, the empirical findings suggest that governments should act effectively in providing access to electricity for higher economic development in these countries.