Investigating the Relationships between Renewable Energy Consumption, Socio-Economic Factors and Health: A PVAR Analysis from MENA Net Oil Importing Countries

Abstract

In this paper, we tried to contribute to the previous literature by analyzing the relationship between renewable energy consumption, socio-economic factors and health in the presence of a stringent environmental policy and lobbying power. Using a Panel Vector Auto-Regressive (PVAR) technique, we specifically examine the role of the government effectiveness and the lobbying pressure in moderating the impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions, economic growth and health factor considering the case of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Net Oil Importing Countries (NOICs) from 1996 to 2019. Our analysis shows that (i) environmental policy stringency and good governance will induce a rise in the level of renewable energy consumption; (ii) lobbying power and interest groups discourage the renewable energy sector’s development since the add in economic growth of these economies is not oriented towards renewable energy projects; (iii) a rise in renewable energy consumption, perhaps generated by renewable energy policies, should favor the improvement of public health. Finally, the political implications of the findings are summarized and discussed.