Energy efficiency evaluation, technology gap ratio, and determinants of energy productivity change in developed and developing G20 economies: DEA super-SBM and MLI approaches

This study employed Slack-based measure (SBM), Meta-frontier analysis, and Malmquist-Luenberger index (MLI) approaches to measure energy efficiency (EE), production technology heterogeneity, and energy productivity variation and its main determinants in developed and developing G20 countries for the period 1995-2020. The study's findings are: (i) Average EE for G20 countries is 0.8577, but still has an improvement potential of 14.23 percent. (ii) Developed countries have a higher average EE than developing (0.8927 > 0.8290). Results further revealed that energy efficiency scores in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the US, the UK, and Korea are>1. (iii) Technology gap ratio (TGR) value in developed countries is higher than in developing (0.9869 > 0.6801), indicating that developed countries have advanced energy technologies superiority. The average MLI is less than one, showing a decline in energy productivity mainly due to a decline in technical efficiency, as EC < TC. (iv) Developed G20 countries get 0.64 percent aggregate growth in energy productivity as their MLI score is 1.0064, mainly due to technological growth (TC = 1.0161). Developing G20 countries, on the other hand, witnessed a decline in their energy productivity during 1995-2020, as MLI = 0.9925 > 1, designating that, on average, there is a 0.75 % decline in MLI.(c) 2023 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.