İstanbul Gelişim Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (Oct 2019)
Could Nuclear Energy Production and Economic Growth Relationship for Developed Countries Be An Incentive for Developing Ones?: A Panel ARDL Evidence Including Cointegration Analysis
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop policy recommendations for indebted developing countries which have big balance of payment deficits due to high energy costs. For this reasons, the study initialy explores developed countries’ nuclear energy policies and hence, to guide developing countries (especially for Turkey and similar countries) who can adopt alternative energy resources to reach a sustainable and higher GDP per capita and to protect themselves against energy price volatilities. Therefore, in available theoretical studies, developing countries, also named as middle income countires whose GDP per capita is lower than developed countries, have been searching for different strategies to catch up the wealth level of developed countires from the aspect of catch-up effect in the Growth Theory. In the context of cross sectional and time series data, the paper anlaysis all available retroperspective panel data method which uses time interval between 1977-2014 for 14 developed and developing countires. The study employs Panel ARDL approach to serve the aim of the study. According to the emprical results, as expected, vector error correction coefficient was founded negaitvely and accepted numerical interval. Therefore, test results indicate that there has been significant and positive relationship between the increment of nuclear share in electricity production and GDP per capita. Countries, especially dependent on raw materials, can reduce reliance on energy import with nuclear energy sources, then they will have a stabilizer for a reasonable level of current deficits which may be necessary for economic growth. In conclusion, the results also indicates that nucluear energy production in developing countries can stimulate economic growth by lowering energy import related production costs in favor of country-wide producers.
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