Replication data and code for "Energy Transition and Economic Complexity: The Conditional Role of Absorptive Capacity in Emerging Economies"
Description
The energy transition is often viewed as an opportunity for industrial upgrading, yet its relationship with productive sophistication remains insufficiently understood. Using a balanced panel of 29 emerging economies over 2011-2023 and Method of Moments Quantile Regression, this study examines whether the renewable electricity-economic complexity association varies with countries' development-related capabilities. GDP per capita is used as a broad proxy for accumulated capabilities facilitating absorption of external technologies, rather than a direct measure of absorptive capacity. Renewable electricity is negatively associated with the Economic Complexity Index across the conditional distribution, with larger coefficients at higher quantiles. However, its interaction with GDP per capita is positive throughout, indicating the relationship varies with capability. The estimated marginal effect changes sign within a broad income range centred around USD 14,000-18,000, though this estimate carries substantial uncertainty and should not be read as a precise cut-off point. Government effectiveness is positively associated with economic complexity across quantiles. Robustness analyses support this pattern, though results should be read as statistical associations rather than causal effects. These findings suggest renewable expansion alone may not suffice for productive upgrading, and that its contribution to structural transformation depends on countries' capacity to absorb, adapt and integrate green technologies.
Files
Steps to reproduce
1. Download panel_FINAL_29countries_2011_2023_log_1.xlsx and replication_code.R and place them in the same working directory. 2. Open replication_code.R in R (version 4.x or later). 3. Run the script from start to end. Required packages (readxl, dplyr, plm, car, quantreg, rqpd, punitroots, boot, lmtest, sandwich, ggplot2, tidyr) are installed automatically if missing. 4. The script reproduces all descriptive statistics, panel diagnostics, the main MM-QR estimation, all robustness checks, and all figures reported in the article. 5. Figures are exported as .png files in the working directory. See README.txt for full variable definitions and data sources.
Institutions
- Université Sultan Moulay SlimaneBéni Mellal-Khénifra, Beni Mellal