The effect of democracy on energy efficiency in European countries

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics.

Variable	Definition	Mean	Std. Dev.	Min	Max
Labor Force	Total labor force (unit: ten thousand).	983.938	137.287	15.328	7707.350
Capital Formation	Gross capital formation (constant 2010 US$, unit: on hundred million dollar).	1212.682	1709.642	77.328	7329.624
GDP	GDP at market prices (constant 2010 US$, unit: on hundred million dollar)	5629.275	8183.469	34.514	35772.300
Energy	Energy use (kg of oil equivalent) per $1000 GDP	143.790	79.697	57.288	607.909
MVA	The proportion of a country's manufacturing value added in GDP.	17.806	5.384	5.058	33.901
Capita	GDP per capita (constant 2010 US$, unit: dollar).	30658	22784	946	110001
Price Level	Price level ratio of PPP conversion factor (GDP) to the market exchange rate	0.863	0.359	0.152	1.678
Freedom House Index	Democracy measure that derives from Freedom House.	0.901	0.192	0	1
ICRG Index	Democracy measure that derives from the International Country Risk Guide.	0.901	0.169	0	1
Polity Index	Democracy measure that derives from the Polity IV project.	0.949	0.137	0	1
Energy Efficiency	The estimated energy emission efficiency in equation (1)(1) $$\ln \left({1/\mathrm{E}}_{\mathrm{it}}\right)={\mathrm{\beta }}_0+{\mathrm{\beta }}_K\ln \left(K_{it}\right)+{\mathrm{\beta }}_L\ln \left(L_{it}\right)+{\mathrm{\beta }}_Y\mathrm{l}\mathrm{n}\left({\mathit{GDP}}_{it}\right)+{\mathrm{\beta }}_{KL}\ln \left(K_{it}\right)\ln \left(L_{it}\right)+{\mathrm{\beta }}_{\mathrm{KY}}\ln \left(K_{it}\right)\ln \left({\mathit{GDP}}_{it}\right)+{\mathrm{\beta }}_{LY}\ln \left(L_{it}\right)\ln \left({\mathit{GDP}}_{it}\right)+{\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{it}}-{\mathrm{u}}_{\mathrm{it}}$$(1)	0.643	0.201	0.141	0.981
Countries (N = 35)	Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta , Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

Data Source: World Development Indicators; Freedom House, ICRG, Polity IV project.

Source: this study.

Table 2. The average of energy efficiency in different period each region in European countries.

Regions	1990-1993	1994-1997	1998-2001	2002-2005	2006-2009	2010-2013
North	0.569	0.538	0.499	0.502	0.501	0.518
East	N.A	N.A	0.366	0.412	0.478	0.487
Center	0.739	0.635	0.661	0.653	0.686	0.708
West	0.627	0.624	0.623	0.617	0.649	0.686
South	0.749	0.787	0.778	0.784	0.833	0.859
Total	0.654	0.653	0.615	0.614	0.654	0.676

Source: this study.

Table 3. OLS estimations using WDI data (1990-2013).

	Energy Efficiency
Dependent Variable	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
Freedom House	0.270***	0.267***	0.219***	0.219***
Index	(0.039)	(0.040)	(0.053)	(0.053)
MVA			−0.007***	−0.008***
			(0.001)	(0.002)
ln(Capita)			0.045***	0.080***
			(0.018)	(0.020)
Price Level			−0.135***	−0.263***
			(0.045)	(0.056)
Year Dummies	No	Yes	No	Yes
Constant	0.404***	0.428***	0.248*	0.137
	(0.036)	(0.073)	(0.130)	(0.147)
N	669	669	669	669
R square	0.067	0.080	0.110	0.136

Standard errors in parentheses,.

* p<.1,

** p < 0.05,

*** p < 0.01.

Source: this study.

Figure 1. OLS and quantile regression results using energy efficiency as the dependent variable. Source: this study.

Table 4. Quantile regression results.

	Energy Efficiency
Dependent Variable	(1) Q0.1	(2) Q0.3	(3) Q0.5	(4) Q0.7	(5) Q0.9
Freedom House	0.132*	0.179***	0.223*	0.162**	0.214***
Index	(0.078)	(0.046)	(0.124)	(0.065)	(0.017)
MVA	−0.002	−0.006***	−0.009**	−0.017***	−0.007***
	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.003)	(0.002)	(0.001)
ln(Capita)	0.085*	0.081***	0.103**	0.171***	0.022**
	(0.043)	(0.020)	(0.047)	(0.025)	(0.009)
Price Level	−0.236*	−0.239***	−0.256*	−0.415***	−0.111***
	(0.138)	(0.056)	(0.132)	(0.076)	(0.030)
Year Dummies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Constant	−0.161	−0.018	−0.111	0.309	0.667***
	(0.036)	(0.143)	(0.343)	(0.203)	(0.045)
N	669	669	669	669	669
R square	0.126	0.119	0.077	0.120	0.094

Standard errors in parentheses.

* p<.1,

** p < 0.05,

*** p < 0.01.

Source: this study.

Table 5. Robust analysis, alternative measures of democracy.

	Energy Efficiency
Dependent Variable	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
ICRG Index	0.310***	0.314***
	(0.054)	(0.054)
Polity Index			0.313***	0.315***
			(0.059)	(0.060)
MVA	−0.006***	−0.007***	−0.007***	−0.007***
	(0.054)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
ln(Capita)	0.059***	0.095***	0.038**	0.057***
	(0.016)	(0.018)	(0.015)	(0.018)
Price Level	−0.168***	−0.302***	−0.061	−0.132**
	(0.044)	(0.055)	(0.041)	(0.053)
Year Dummies	No	Yes	No	Yes
Constant	0.404***	−0.078	0.160	0.084
	(0.036)	(0.141)	(0.118)	(0.136)
N	680	638	680	638
R square	0.143	0.171	0.169	0.184

Standard errors in parentheses.

* p<.1,

** p < 0.05,

*** p < 0.01.

Source: this study.

Table 6. Robust analysis, quantile regression results.

	Energy Efficiency
Dependent Variable	(1) Q0.1		(2) Q0.3		(3) Q0.5		(4) Q0.7		(5) Q0.9
ICRG Index	0.174***		0.221***		0.338***		0.246***		0.128**
	(0.058)		(0.065)		(0.097)		(0.068)		(0.054)
Polity Index		0.130**		0.205***		0.153		0.217***		0.535***
		(0.057)		(0.045)		(0.125)		(0.075)		(0.047)
MVA	−0.001	−0.004**	−0.005**	−0.003**	−0.008***	−0.010***	−0.134***	−0.015***	−0.006***	−0.005***
	(0.003)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.001)
ln(Capita)	0.091**	0.063**	0.085***	0.064***	0.110***	0.116***	0.184***	0.126***	0.066***	−0.001
	(0.043)	(0.029)	(0.027)	(0.019)	(0.033)	(0.037)	(0.020)	(0.020)	(0.016)	(0.011)
Price Level	−0.253*	−0.118	−0.240***	−0.127**	−0.329***	−0.229**	−0.425***	−0.275***	−0.201***	−0.052
	(0.139)	(0.080)	(0.076)	(0.054)	(0.098)	(0.110)	(0.060)	(0.064)	(0.048)	(0.037)
Year Dummies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Constant	−0.239	−0.064	−0.121	−0.071	−0.246	−0.201	−0.582***	−0.103	0.378***	0.475***
	(0.296)	(0.192)	(0.189)	(0.129)	(0.251)	(0.281)	(0.163)	(0.171)	(0.142)	(0.105)
N	680	638	680	638	680	638	680	638	680	638
R square	0.136	0.189	0.132	0.128	0.105	0.084	0.146	0.125	0.097	0.135

Standard errors in parentheses.

* p<.1,

** p < 0.05,

*** p < 0.01.

Source: this study.

Table 7. Robust analysis, autoregressive estimation.

	Energy Efficiency
Dependent Variable	PW	CO	PW	CO	PW	CO
Approach	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
Freedom House	0.623**	0.629**
Index	(0.262)	(0.268)
ICRG Index			−0.518*	−0.577
			(0.247)	(0.366)
Polity Index					0.829**	0.891*
					(0.406)	(0.424)
MVA	−0.001	0.001	−0.013***	−0.014**	−0.005	−0.003
	(0.006)	(0.006)	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.005)	(0.006)
ln(Capita)	0.003	−0.002	0.163**	0.186**	0.004	−0.010
	(0.041)	(0.045)	(0.059)	(0.070)	(0.043)	(0.048)
Price Level	0.074*	0.072	0.036	0.040	0.094**	0.087*
	(0.039)	(0.041)	(0.044)	(0.045)	(0.042)	(0.043)
Year	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Constant	−6.639	−7.591	−2.858	−1.292	−5.883	−7.605
	(3.642)	(4.841)	(3.268)	(4.981)	(3.646)	(4.430)
N	24	23	24	23	24	23
$\mathrm{\rho }$	0.751	0.768	0.745	0.791	0.692	0.664
Durbin-Watson statistic	1.876	1.921	1.757	1.576	1.892	1.849
R square	0.974	0.618	0.973	0.602	0.973	0.613

Standard errors in parentheses.

* p<.1,

** p < 0.05,

*** p < 0.01.

Source: this study.

Table 8. Robust analysis, fixed effect.

	Energy Efficiency
Dependent Variable	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
Freedom House	0.162**	0.216***
Index	(0.064)	(0.061)
ICRG Index			0.097***	0.109***
			(0.031)	(0.031)
Polity Index					0.351***	0.362***
					(0.120)	(0.125)
MVA	−0.002	−0.002*	−0.001	−0.002*	−0.003**	−0.003***
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
ln(Capita)	0.152***	0.214***	0.164***	0.229***	0.144***	0.189***
	(0.017)	(0.021)	(0.015)	(0.020)	(0.015)	(0.021)
Price Level	0.020	0.006	0.015	0.006	0.033***	0.012
	(0.013)	(0.027)	(0.013)	(0.027)	(0.013)	(0.031)
Year Dummies	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Country Dummies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Constant	−1.002***	−1.586***	−1.067	−1.636***	−1.090***	−1.477***
	(0.156)	(0.209)	(0.150)	(0.204)	(0.163)	(0.210)
N	669	669	680	680	638	638
R square	0.045	0.050	0.060	0.060	0.105	0.101

Standard errors in parentheses.

* p<.1,

** p < 0.05,

*** p < 0.01.

Source: this study.