Conditional convergence in energy consumption per capita of OPEC member countries: evidence from non‐linearity tests

• Author: Hooi Hooi Lean,Sakiru Adebola Solarin
• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/opec.12132

Conditional convergence in energy

consumption per capita of OPEC member

countries: evidence from non-linearity tests

Sakiru Adebola Solarin* and Hooi Hooi Lean**

*Faculty of Business, Multimedia University Malaysia, Room 2011, 75450 Melaka, Malaysia. Email:

sasolarin@mmu.edu.my

**Economics Program, School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. Email:

learnmy@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper examines the convergence of energy consumption in Organization of the Petroleum

Exporting Countries (OPEC) countries. A new non-linear unit root test is principally utilized in the

convergence analysis. We support the convergence of energy consumption in the OPEC member

countries. Convergence of energy consumption is associated with the call for energy conservation

policies, in order to improve energy efficiency and reduce global greenhouse emissions.

1. Introduction

In the literature of energy economics, Narayan and Smyth (2007) were the first to test the

integration properties of energy consumption. Thereafter, Mishra et al. (2009), Lean and

Smyth (2009), Apergis and Payne (2010), Gil-Alana et al. (2010), Ozturk and Aslan

(2011), Wang et al. (2016) and Shahbaz et al. (2015) and many others expanded upon

this body of work.

1

A seminal paper by Meng et al. (2013) that examined the

conditional convergence of energy consumption inspired debates in this particular area.

The authors supported the convergence for per capita energy use among 25 OECD

countries. Using the confidence interval method, Fallahi and Voia (2015) re-examined

the convergence of per capita energy consumption in the same sample. Lean et al.

(2016) examined the conditional convergence of per capita petroleum consumption in

both aggregate and disaggregate petroleum consumption at the sectoral level in the

United States. Both studies provided results that supported the convergence hypothesis.

Besides the United States, Mishra and Smyth (2014, 2016) supported the convergence of

energy consumption in five ASEAN countries and among sectors in Australia

respectively. Solarin et al. (2018) used fractional integration approach to examine the

hypothesis of convergence in renewable energy consumption of 27 OECD countries.

The study provided support for convergence hypothesis in 14 OECD countries.

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