Examining the Foreign direct investment, Renewable energy consumption, and economic growth nexus in MENA countries: A bootstrap ARDL evidence

Abstract

This study examines the relationship among foreign direct investment, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth for seven Middle East and North Africa countries over the period 1980–2017 using the bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag test. The long run analysis reveals evidence of cointegraion among FDI inflows, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth in all countries except Iran and Turkey, where real GDP is used as the dependent variable. A similar result is observed in economies, with the exception of Mauritania when FDI inflow is treated as a dependent variable. Whereas, when RE is taken as a dependent variable, cointegration does occur in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. In regards to the direction of causality, the analysis provides varied results among diverse variable for various countries. In this context, this study recommends increasing public awareness and attention in the advantages of renewable energy and clean technologies.