The European Union’s Technological and Economic Development : A Study on Production of Renewable Energy

Abstract: This thesis answer the two main questions, firstly, the role of technological development in the production of RE with special reference to investment subsidy in supporting schemes and research and development (R&D). Investment subsidies in supporting schemes and R&D are widely used to promote RE technology and considered economical, efficient instruments than regulation approach. Secondly, the study investigates the relationship between the production of RE and the economic development. Panel data for twelve European Union (EU) countries are analysed for the period 1990 to 2013. The study uses a Cobb Douglas production function to estimate the EU's rational behaviour of investment subsidy between supporting schemes and R&D. For the estimation techniques, the study uses the unit root test, cointegration test, and dynamic pooling average group (PMG) model. The selection of the PMG model is based on the results of diagnostic tests, i.e. cross-sectional dependence, heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, and Hausman. Furthermore, the cointegration test confirms that in the long-run all the variables move together to achieve equilibrium. The PMG model confirms the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable. Thus, it is concluded that the investment subsidies in supporting schemes have a positive and significant effect on the production of renewable energy in the long-run. However, the investment subsidy in research and development also has a positive but insignificant effect on the production of renewable energy in the long-run. Based on the long-run result, thus the study suggests that it is more rational to invest subsidy in supporting schemes than in R&D. In order to find the relationship between the production of RE and economic development, the result of the study confirms that economic development has a positive and significant impact on the production of renewable energy both in the short-and long-run. In addition, the test of the causality confirms the bidirectional relationship between production of RE and economic development. The bidirectional relationship states that both energy and economic growth are associated and complement each other.