Volume 19, No. 3, 2022
The Impact Of Renewable Electricity Generation On Gross State Product At The State Level
Reem Alqahtani
Abstract
This essay studies the impact of the REN and NREN on the real GSP per capita for a panel of 50 states over the period of 1990 to 2017. This essay uses data at the state level because each state has structurally different economies, consumption of energy, and production of energy. Moreover, this essay makes a distinction between whether a state produces oil or does not produce oil to see if the impact of REN is positive or not on both non-oil-producing states and oil-producing states. By using fixed effect estimation with state-fixed effects and time-fixed effects to estimate the impact of REN and NREN on real GSP per capita for all states, this essay finds that REN has a statistically significant and positive impact on real GSP per capita of all states. However, NREN has a negative and statistically significant impact on real GSP per capita of the 50 states. Also, the effect of REN, when it is the only energy generation for the electricity sector in the model, is greater than its effect when there is both REN and NREN in the model. These results are consistent with this essay’s assumptions.
Pages: 1764-1777
Keywords: Dependence on fossil fuels to generate energy is the main contribution to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which leads to climate change (Ferroukhi et al. 2016, 13036).