The Impact of Natural Resource Rent and Governance Quality on Energy Intensity in Fuel Exporting Countries

The purpose of the present study is to examine two hypotheses implying the importance of the resource rent and the governance quality interactive effect on determining energy intensity. Based on the first hypothesis, the resource rent (governance quality) independently increases (decreases) the energy intensity, while according to the second one, the energy intensity is affected by the interaction of the two mentioned factors and in this line, the final effect of the resource rent and the governance quality on the energy intensity may be strengthened or weakened. These hypotheses have been tested by employing GMM for 58 fuel exporting countries including Iran during the time period 1998-2015. The results confirm the hypotheses and verify the vital role of the governance quality in affecting the rent on the energy intensity. The findings of this paper indicate that the independent impact of the resource rent and the governance quality on the energy intensity is positive and negative, respectively. Furthermore, based on the interactive effect, the positive impact of the resource rent becomes weaker while improving the governance quality. On the other hand, the effect of the governance quality on the energy intensity is negative even in the presence of the resource rent that shows the essential role of this factor in determining of the energy intensity.