There is no such thing as a low-energy rich country, claims one popular Twitter Visualization. This repo examines these claims, focusing on African countries. Given that most of the poor countries in the world are African(1), we should be able to show that they consume less energy than more affluent countries. Using Open Source Databases, we test the following hypotheses:
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As a country's energy generation and consumption increase, other economic indicators associated with wealth, such as GDP per Capita or the Life Expectancy at birth, follow suit.
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With the exception of Powerful countries that control their currencies such as the US with the dollar(the federal reserve can control the money supply i.e the amount of currency circulating in the economy), countries that export more than they import are wealthier, and their currencies are more stable.
- UN Commtrade database
- Atlas for Economic Complexity data
- International Financial Statistics. https://data.imf.org/?sk=4c514d48-b6ba-49ed-8ab9-52b0c1a0179b. Accessed 03-24-2024
Figure 1. Access to Electricity
Figure 2. Historical Exchange rate of African Currency versus the US Dollar.
Figure 3. US Broad Money Supply(Billions of 1982-84 Dollars, Seasonally Adjusted)
