Journal of Applied Economic Research
ISSN 2712-7435
A Cross-Country Examination of Mineral Import Demand and Wind Energy Generation: Empirical Insights from Leading Mineral Importers
Md. Monirul Islam
Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, Russia
University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract
The relevance of this research lies in the utilization of mineral goods as critical industrial inputs for the manufacture of renewable energy machinery, which has sparked an increase in demand and prices for essential minerals. The purpose of the study is to examine the import-demand function for metallic mineral goods by applying the quantiles via moments (MM-QR) approach, considering the potential heterogeneity across the sample of the top 5 mineral-consuming (importing) nations. The dataset, covering the years 1996-2021, is analysed to test the hypothesis regarding the influence of wind production capacity on mineral-import requirements, considering the price of mineral goods, exchange rates, and income growth. We observe a monotonic favourable response of mineral import demands to wind power generation across all quantiles. However, when considering the quadratic form of wind energy generation, the mineral import demand shows a monotonic reverse trend as the size of wind energy generation expands. Our results reveal the unexpected finding of a monotonic positive effect of copper prices on mineral import demand, which contradicts the Marshallian price theorem. Conversely, the reaction of mineral imports to exchange rates remains consistently positive without modulation. Additionally, we observe a non-monotonic association between the income factor and mineral imports, indicating that the mineral import response to economic growth remains positive until a specific threshold is reached, beyond which it tends to stabilize. The theoretical and practical significance of these findings lies in boosting mineral goods trade to advance the clean energy transition goal for a decarbonized global environment.
Keywords
mineral import; installed wind capacity; MM-QR approach; top five mineral importing countries.
JEL classification
F12, F47, F64References
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF Code: 23-18-01065).
About Authors
Md. Monirul Islam
Researcher, School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, Russia (620002, Yekaterinburg, Mira street, 19); Associate Professor, Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Management, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh (E-33, Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Agargaon, Dhaka – 1207); ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9818-1676 e-mail: monirul.islam@bigm.edu.bd
For citation
Islam, M.M. (2024). A Cross-Country Examination of Mineral Import Demand and Wind Energy Generation: Empirical Insights from Leading Mineral Importers. Journal of Applied Economic Research, Vol. 23, No. 1, 6-32. doi.org/10.15826/vestnik.2024.23.1.001
Article info
Received January 4, 2024; Revised February 12, 2024; Accepted February 25, 2024.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/vestnik.2024.23.1.001
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