The Impacts of Technology Shocks on Sustainable Development from the Perspective of Energy Structure—A DSGE Model Approach

Abstract

Considering that the effect of different types of energy on sustainable development differs, the optimization of energy structure is commonly seen as a decisive factor for sustainable development. In this study, we focus on energy structure and construct a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) analysis framework including the environment, society, and the economy. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of different technology shocks on sustainable development when the proportion of clean energy is separately set at 10%, 20%, and 40%. To demonstrate the conclusions of the DSGE analysis framework, we construct the sustainability index and measure the relationship between the sustainability index scores and the proportion of clean energy of 68 countries in 2017, and the R2 of the linear relationship between the sustainability index score and the proportion of clean energy was 0.30. Results show that the technology shock of clean energy exhibits more benefits for sustainable development than that of non-clean energy. Moreover, we find that the optimization of the energy structure can be helpful for the enhancement of sustainable development capacity. This study is helpful to expand the DSGE analysis framework from the perspective of energy structure. This study also provides effective ways and reference suggestions for local governments to optimize energy structure and improve sustainable development capability.