Co-Integration and Causality Testing of the Energy–GDP Relationship: A Cross-Country Study

Abstract

In this paper, the energy–GDP relationship (in per capita terms) is analysed for a sample of 16 countries, over the time period 1950–51 to 1984–85. Co-integration theory is first used to test whether a long-run equilibrium relation exists between the two variables. After co-integration has been established, causality measures are constructed to quantify various types of feedback between energy and GDP for each country. It is then examined whether the causality measures are longitudinally related to certain basic economic indicators of the countries in the sample.