exEXAMINING THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION INTENSITY OF THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR WITH AN EMPHASIS ON ENERGY PRICES

چکیده مقاله

One of the significant events in the energy sector in the past decades has been the drastic reduction in energy consumption intensity in developed countries, which can be attributed to the presence of manufacturing industries with high technology and efficiency that have the most optimal use of production factors, such as energy. However, developing countries have a lower share of renewable energies, lower efficiency in energy consumption and the tendency of the industrial production is towards low-tech products with high-energy consumption. The high intensity of energy consumption in the production of industrial products is a phenomenon developing countries such as Iran face. For a better understanding of energy-saving behavior, researchers have studied the factors affecting the degree of energy consumption intensity, especially in high-demand sectors with the potential for energy saving, so that they can control it by applying appropriate policies. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the factors affecting the energy consumption intensity in the industry during sector during 1979-2015. The model of the study has been estimated using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and the factors affecting the energy consumption intensity of the industrial sector have been analyzed in this model. Model estimation using co-integration method shows that the increase in energy prices reduces the energy consumption intensity of the industrial sector. The technology coefficient (capital to labor ratio of industrial sector) in this model shows that the increase of technology during this period has had a significant role in reducing energy consumption intensity of the industrial sector. The producer price index has a direct and significant effect on the energy consumption intensity of the industrial sector, showing that the increase in the price index of other inputs will replace the energy instead of other inputs. In addition, the effect of industrial exports on the energy consumption intensity of the industrial sector has been negative and significant, showing that import industrial goods are less energy consuming. The positive relationship between the level of industrial per ca pita production and energy consumption intensity shows that energy efficiency in the industry has decreased with increase in production.