Journal of Business & Economic Policy

The Role of Education on Renewable Energy Use: Evidence From Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood Estimations
Ömer ÖZÇİÇEK, Fatma AĞPAK

Abstract
In this paper, the role of education level on the nonhydro renewable energy use is analyzed with regard to two different indicators. Theoretically, education level of a society is a key determinant of renewable energy demand and supply in that economy. In highly educated societies, enviromental awareness and social acceptance of renewable energy is expected to be high and so is renewable energy demand. On the supply side, it has been reported that higher levels of scientific knowledge and know-how facilitate innovation and diffusion of renewable energy technologies. In this study, these theoretical arguments are examined using a sample of 62 countries spanning the period of 1990-2014. To overcome exceed zero problem pseudo Poisson maximum likelihood technique is applied. The findings suggest that education level is positively related to renewable energy participation at the 1% level. Furthermore, the impact of higher levels of education is found to be stronger than the lower levels.

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