Nuclear energy, renewable energy and economic growth in Pakistan: Evidence from non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model

This paper investigates asymmetric effects of renewable and nuclear energy on economic growth by extending production function along with labor and capital for Pakistan's economy. Paper utilises nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model with the yearly data of 1990-2016 to extract reliable facts. Results reveal the presence of asymmetric co-integration among variables. Results offer evidence of positive and negative shocks to renewable and nuclear energy variables will have positive impact on economic growth. Further, capital formation contributes positive to economic growth. Addition to this, two more conventional models have been constructed to investigate asymmetric impacts of economic growth, oil prices, oil consumption and CO2 emissions on nuclear and renewable energy consumption. Results reveal that oil consumption leads to a negative impact on renewable energy consumption while it is neutral for nuclear energy consumption. Oil price was having neutral impact on renewable and nuclear energy consumption. Policy suggestions are given based on empirical results. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.