Political Stability, Economic Risk, and Renewable Energy Technology Innovation: International Evidence

Renewable energy technology innovation (RETI) is essential for addressing climate change and ensuring energy security, but the impact of political stability on RETI remains underexplored. Using panel data for 65 countries from 2002 to 2022, this paper systematically examines the direct and indirect effects of political stability on RETI, along with the substitution effect of economic risk on political stability, by integrating economic risk into the analysis. The results show that (1) political stability has a significant contribution to RETI, which still holds after robustness tests and the exclusion of endogeneity. (2) Mechanism analysis reveals that political stability influences RETI via three channels: financial stability, industrial stability, and R&D stability. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that political stability contributes more significantly to RETI in countries facing higher economic risks. A lower economic risk also promotes RETI and partially substitutes for political stability. The findings offer key insights for maintaining political stability and advancing RETI.