Comparing energy use structures: An input-output decomposition analysis of large economies

- Germany and United Kingdom decreased their use of energy inputs.
- Brazilian production structure changes contributed for the increase of energy inputs.
- Income effect seems more important than price effect to explain household energy consumption.
- There are similarities on how structural changes affect developing and developed countries.
- There are countries where changes in the production structure explain more about change in energy consumption.

In this paper, we aim to assess how the changes in aspects of demand impact the use of energy in the developing economies of Brazil, China, and India and the developed economies of Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. To achieve this objective, we use input-output matrices for the years 1995 and 2005 by applying a structural decomposition analysis. We find the following: Brazil is the only country where technology has a positive impact on energy. Germany and the United Kingdom decrease their use of energy over the sample period. China and the United Kingdom are the only countries where the use of renewable inputs decreases; and, in Brazil, China, and the United States, the use of coal increases. When we change the focus of our analysis from aggregated to disaggregated results, these countries can be lined up differently in terms of development in relation to their wealth and energy use.