Towards a Political Economy of Renewable Energy: Does Democracy and Globalization Matter for Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs)

Abstract

Renewable energy policy is one of the remarkable parts of the sustainable development path. However, the political-economic dimension of renewable energy policies is not so much widely discussed. Besides, democracy and globalization are essential factors affecting renewable energy. Hence, this paper examines the relationship between renewable energy consumption, democracy, and globalization in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) during the period 1995-2021. Economic growth and CO2 emissions are used as control variables in the model. The study employs the panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) estimation technique to quantify the relationship between renewable energy consumption, democracy, and globalization by including economic growth and CO2 emissions. The findings from the PVAR analysis suggest that participatory democracy and globalization positively affect renewable energy consumption, while liberal democracy, economic growth, and CO2 emissions have a negative impact on it. Furthermore, the PVAR Granger causality test outcomes indicate an interactive causal relationship between variables.