Date
2010
Dewey
Economie de la terre et des ressources naturelles
Sujet
Energy intensity; Pair-wise test; Unit-root test; Stationarity test; Structural break; Convergence
JEL code
C32; O40; Q43; Q50
Journal issue
Ecological Economics
Volume
69
Number
3
Publication date
2010
Article pages
641-650
Publisher
Elsevier
Author
Le Pen, Yannick
Sévi, Benoît
Type
Article accepté pour publication ou publié
Abstract (EN)
This paper evaluates the convergence of energy intensities for a group of 97 countries in the period 1971–2003. Convergence is tested using a recent method proposed by Pesaran (2007) [Pesaran, M.H., 2007. A pair-wise approach to testing for output and growth convergence. Journal of Econometrics 138, 312–355] based on the stochastic convergence criterion. An advantage of this method is that results do not depend on a benchmark against which convergence is assessed. It gives more robust results. Applications of several unit-root tests as well as a stationarity test uniformly reject the global convergence hypothesis. Locally, for Middle East, OECD and Europe sub-groups, non-convergence is less strongly rejected. The introduction of possible structural breaks in the analysis only marginally provides more support to the convergence hypothesis.