Increasing the productivity of manufacturing firms in Cameroon in a sustainable way: Renewable or non-renewable energy?

  • Received August 7, 2022;
    Accepted September 15, 2022;
    Published September 27, 2022
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ee.13(1).2022.03
  • Article Info
    Volume 13 2022, Issue #1, pp. 28-37
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The question of what energy form should guarantee firm productivity in the future is becoming increasingly important, considering the risk that the gradual depletion of the world’s non-renewable energy reserves poses to the continuity of productivity. This study aims to assess the effect of individual energy forms on productivity growth of manufacturing firms in Cameroon. This paper uses a two-stage stochastic frontier method to determine the energy form that is most likely to ensure the continuity of the productivity of manufacturing firms in Cameroon in the next few years. The data for the study came from the Annual Enterprise Surveys (EAE) conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon (NIS) from 2012 to 2019. The analysis data constitute a panel of 288 representative firms. Factors that primarily explain firm productivity were value-added, renewable and non-renewable energy, capital, labor, and raw materials. The study analyzed the entire manufacturing industry, agri-food sector, and other manufacturing industries. Despite being a group estimate, individual firms are taken into account. Across the manufacturing industry in Cameroon, the results indicate that renewable energy is the most advantageous form. Indeed, this form would cause a 9.27% increase in productivity for a one percentage point increase. However, as the impact coefficients are insignificant, it is difficult to assess the contribution of non-renewable energy to firm productivity.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to sincerely thank Atanase Yene for his invaluable support in this work, helpful comments, and suggestions on the previous draft of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies, and views are the authors’ sole responsibility.

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    • Figure 1. Evolution of industrial value-added (% GDP)
    • Figure 2. Evolution of manufacturing firms’ average energy consumption in Cameroon (2012 and 2019)
    • Table 1. Descriptive statistics of explanatory variables of the productivity growth of manufacturing firms in Cameroon
    • Table 2. Summary of correlations between the study variables
    • Table 3. Estimates of the effect of the form of energy on the productivity of manufacturing firms in Cameroon
    • Conceptualization
      Nguenda Anya Saturnin Bertrand, Koumou Landry Etienne
    • Formal Analysis
      Nguenda Anya Saturnin Bertrand
    • Methodology
      Nguenda Anya Saturnin Bertrand
    • Project administration
      Nguenda Anya Saturnin Bertrand
    • Supervision
      Nguenda Anya Saturnin Bertrand
    • Validation
      Nguenda Anya Saturnin Bertrand
    • Writing – original draft
      Nguenda Anya Saturnin Bertrand, Koumou Landry Etienne
    • Writing – review & editing
      Nguenda Anya Saturnin Bertrand, Koumou Landry Etienne
    • Data curation
      Koumou Landry Etienne
    • Investigation
      Koumou Landry Etienne
    • Software
      Koumou Landry Etienne