Time-Frequency Co-Movements Between Biomass Energy Consumption and Human Development in Brics Countries

This paper aims to investigate the influence of biomass energy consumption on human development in BRICS countries in the frequency-time domain using the wavelet frameworks. Specifically, the wavelet coherency method of Rua (2013) and the wavelet-Granger causality test of Olayeni (2016) are utilized to quantify the strength and direction of causal relationships through time and across various frequencies simultaneously. The empirical findings uncovered that the causal linkages between human development and biomass energy consumption in the BRICS countries are not homogeneous in different time and frequency scales. We also discover the strong relationship between the two variables in China, Russia, Brazil, and South Africa after the global financial crisis 2008 at low and medium frequencies, while this connection is somewhat low in India over the sample period. This study suggests the importance of biomass energy for human development in BRICS countries.