The human development relies on renewable energy: evidence from Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this research is to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between human development and renewable energy. The time-series data are collected over the period 1992-2015 for the case of Turkey. Turkey is observed since it is considered to be one of the fastest growing energy markets in the world. In addition, Turkey reports impressive growth in terms of human development. In order to conduct empirical research we have applied time-series econometrics including Johansen test for cointegration and Granger causality test. The stationarity of variables is also tested. The Johansen cointegration test confirms that the null hypothesis on no co-integration (r = 0) is rejected by both the maximum eigenvalue and trace statistics. This indicates the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between economic terms of interest. Additionally, Granger causality test reports a unidirectional relationship between the economic terms of interest clearly indicating that renewable energy tends to contribute to human development. Human development is not found to foster the renewable energy in terms of Turkey. The findings of this paper suggest that Turkish decision makers need to make a stronger effort in order to foster renewable energy since it is found to have a significant contribution to the main dimensions of human development.