EXPLAINING THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION PORTFOLIO IN A CROSS-SECTION OF COUNTRIES: ARE THE BRICs DIFFERENT? 1

This paper uses disaggregated data from a broad cross-section of countries to empirically assess differences in energy consumption profiles. We find empirical support for the energy ladder hypothesis, which contends that as an economy develops, it transitions away from a heavier reliance on traditio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLaw and business review of the Americas Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 553 - 583
Main Author Arseneau, David M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dallas Southern Methodist University 01.10.2012
Subjects
Energy consumption
Hypotheses
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Summary:This paper uses disaggregated data from a broad cross-section of countries to empirically assess differences in energy consumption profiles. We find empirical support for the energy ladder hypothesis, which contends that as an economy develops, it transitions away from a heavier reliance on traditional fuel sources towards an increase in the use of modern commercial energy sources. We also find empirical support for the hypothesis that structural transformation - the idea that as an economy matures, it transforms away from agriculture-based activity into industrial activity and, finally, fully matures into a service-oriented economy - is an important driver for the distribution of end-use energy consumption. But, even when these two hypotheses are taken into account, we continue to find evidence suggesting that the patterns of energy consumption and generation in the BRIC economies are importantly different from those of other economies. But these differences are not systematic; in fact, there appear to be large differences in the energy consumption portfolios of each of these four rapidly growing economies.
ISSN:1571-9537