Investigating the Impact of Export Diversity Index and Financial Development on Electricity Consumption in Agricultural Businesses with Fuzzy Coefficients

In recent decades, the issue of energy demand and the factors affecting it has become a very controversial. A Survey of energy consumption in Iranian agricultural businesses shows that in recent years, along with increasing production and increasing the mechanization coefficient, the consumption of various energy carriers, including electricity, has increased. In several studies the factors affecting electricity consumption in the agricultural sector have been studied, using econometric methods. However, due to the limitations of classical regression methods, in this study the fuzzy method has been used to investigate the effect of export diversity index and financial development on electricity consumption of agricultural businesses during the period 1970-2019. The application of fuzzy regression has been due to the flexibility of this model and the lack of assumptions limiting classical regression methods. The results show that the variable of agricultural production has the greatest impact on electricity consumption in this sector. Also, the variables of export diversity index and financial development in the upper and lower bounds had a positive and significant effect on increasing electricity consumption in the agricultural sector. Therefore, identifying the variables affecting agricultural electricity demand and examining the extent of their impact on electricity consumption, it can be used to make appropriate decisions and policies to optimize energy consumption with the aim of economic development and production growth of agricultural businesses.