The energy burden: the depencence on energy imports of the OECD countries

Abstract

In this bachelor’s thesis, we are going to analyse whether the ease of access to energy had an impact on economic growth using a sample of the OECD member countries. We are also going to make a comparative analysis of the situation of Spain and the rest of OECD member countries. Data has been obtained from United Nations COMTRADE database and Maddison Project database. We find strong evidence that countries with more difficulties to access energy had a worse economic performance than those which have an easier access. A panel model with random effects is done in order to test for net energy imports coverage effect on GDP growth.