Politická ekonomie 2025, 73(2) Special Issue I:215-242 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.1470

Country-level Risk and Green Energy Transition: Evaluating Political Risk and Human Capital in OECD Economies

Xinling Wang ORCID...1, Yufei Gan ORCID...2, Yun Zhou ORCID...3, Dingwen Si4, Xiangying Cui ORCID...5, Jiale Yan ORCID...6
1 Department of English Studies, Beijing International Studies University, Beijing, China
2 School of Finance, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
3 School of Economics and Management, Yuxi Agriculture Vocation-Technical College, China
4 China Energy Research Society, Beijing, China
5 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
6 Irvine Valley College, Irvine, CA, USA

In today's rapidly evolving world, the transition towards green energy remains momentous in attaining ecological sustainability. In this respect, the present study intends to elucidate factors influencing the green energy transition in OECD economies from 2004 to 2020. We use several diagnostic measures to validate the heterogeneity of slopes and cross-sectional dependence in the panel. Nevertheless, cointegration exists between the study variables, such as green energy, political risk, economic risk, financial risk, human capital, eco-innovation and energy efficiency. Using fixed effect and random effect approaches, we conclude that political risk, human capital and energy efficiency are significant and leading drivers of green energy transition in the region. However, economic expansion, financial risk and economic risk are significant barriers to transitioning towards green energy in the selected economies. The outcomes are robust, as authenticated by linear regression with a heteroskedastic panel-corrected standard error approach. We recommend the minimization of political, financial and economic risk, while improvements in environment-related R&D investment could further boost the transition process towards green energy.

Keywords: Green energy transition, political risk, human capital, financial risk, economic risk, eco-innovation, energy efficiency, economic growth
JEL classification: F43, O13, Q43

Received: December 22, 2023; Revised: October 7, 2024; Accepted: October 29, 2024; Prepublished online: November 25, 2024; Published: April 29, 2025  Show citation

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Wang, X., Gan, Y., Zhou, Y., Si, D., Cui, X., & Yan, J. (2025). Country-level Risk and Green Energy Transition: Evaluating Political Risk and Human Capital in OECD Economies. Politická ekonomie, 73(Spec.issue I.), 215-242. doi: 10.18267/j.polek.1470
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