Impact of energy security and economic growth on poverty: sample of Sub-Saharan Africa

Given the poverty challenges to sustainable development and its relationship with various macroeconomic factors, the aim of this research is to appraise the implications of energy security, economic growth, trade openness, and foreign direct investment (FDI) on the poverty in Sub-Saharan African (SAA) countries, which are at the forefront of the countries with the highest poverty. The data sample comprises 38 countries from this region, for the period of 2000-2021. The methodology applied consists of the AutoRegressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimator, with Pooled Mean Group (PMG) method in order to examine the short- and long-term relationship between variables. The main findings provide important evidence that the economic growth is not reflected in reduction of poverty in the current economic system of SSA countries, due to the fact that poverty is closely related to income distribution. Therefore, the need to support and redesign the economic growth system in SSA with policies that reduce poverty comes to the fore.