Does renewable energy policy work? Evidence from a panel data analysis.

Abstract This paper develops a fixed effect model to evaluate the effect of renewable energy policy using a panel dataset covering 29 countries during the period of 2000–2015. The renewable energy policy system in this paper includes seven aggregate policies and twelve specific ones. The empirical results indicate that four of seven aggregate policies, including fiscal and financial incentives, market-based instruments, policy support, and research, development and deployment, are demonstrated to be significant to the improvement of renewable energy capacity. Meanwhile, three of twelve specific policies, including price policy, grants and subsidies, and strategic planning, have positive effects on renewable energy development. This paper assesses the aggregate and specific policies in the same analysis framework, and the empirical results determined that synergy effects existed among specific policies. The empirical results also indicate that the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol in 2005 has had positive impacts on renewable energy development in typical countries. Highlights • Panel data study on the effectiveness of RE policies to promote RE development. • Four of seven aggregate policies are positively significant to RE capacity increase especially Market-based instruments and RD&D. • Three of twelve specific policies have significant positive effects on RE capacity especially price policy. • Synergy effects do exist among specific policies in renewable energy increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]