Energy consumption and economic growth in Asian economies: A more comprehensive analysis using panel data

This paper applies the most recently developed panel unit root, heterogeneous panel cointearation and panel-based error correction models to re-investigate co-movement and the causal relationship between energy consumption and real GDP within a multivariate framework that includes capital stock and labor input for 16 Asian countries during the 1971-2002 period. It employs the production side model (aggregate production function). The empirical results fully support a positive long-run cointegrated relationship between real GDP and energy consumption when the heterogeneous country effect is taken into account. It is found that although economic growth and energy consumption lack short-run causality, there is long-run unidirectional causality running from energy consumption to economic growth. This means that reducing energy consumption does not adversely affect GDP in the short-run but would in the long-run; thus, these countries should adopt a more vigorous energy policy. Furthermore, we broaden the investigation by dividing the sample countries into two cross-regional Groups, namely the APEC and ASEAN groups, and even more important results and implications emerge. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.