A Causal Nexus of Energy Consumption, Private Investment, Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation: Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

The importance of private investment in the growth process of a country cannot be denied, however, its relationship with environmental degradation has not got much attention from researchers yet. The present study is an attempt to divert the attention of researchers and policy makers to the association with private investment and environmental degradation. The time series data was used from 1975 to 2017. The data was taken from WDI. To analyze the causal link among environmental degradation, private investment, energy consumption and economic growth, Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model is used. Granger causality test is employed for knowing the course of causality in the variables. The results of the VAR model suggest that if an innovation of one standard deviation occurs from outside, it takes about 12 years for CO2 emissions, 9 years for private investment, 10 years for energy consumption and about 8years for economic growth to adjust. Moreover, the results show that most of the variation in all variables is explained by their own. Granger causality test identifies four unilateral causalities in the variables running from CO2 emissions to economic growth while the consumption of energy to CO2 emissions, energy consumption to economic growth while from economic growth to private investment. The study recommends policy makers to make environmental friendly policies regarding consumption of energy, private investment and also economic growth.