Energy security dimensions and economic growth in Non-OECD Asia: An analysis on the role of institutional quality with energy policy implications

Energy demand and supply shortages are major energy policy concerns for energy security and growth of developing economies. This study, therefore, examines the energy security and economic growth nexus of 14 non-OECD Asia countries (located in the SAARC and ASEAN regions) for the period 1996 to 2019. We estimate five different energy security measures for non-renewable energy sources to empirically investigate this nexus. These energy security measures focus on the energy availability, developability and accessibility dimensions. We employ the Panel corrected standard error (PCSE) estimator to investigate the influence of energy security indicators on growth. For robustness testing, alternative estimation methods are applied in investigating this relationship. We also assess the moderating effect of six institutional quality variables to explore the detrimental effect of energy security indicators on economic growth. The endogeneity problem is addressed by employing the panel system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results reveal that an increase in the non-renewable energy demand-supply ratio will intensify energy insecurity and reduce economic growth in the region. Therefore, policymakers should shift their focus on energy supply security by investing more in green energy sources.