Economic growth, financial development, urbanisation and electricity consumption nexus in UAE

Abstract

This study aims to explore the relationship between economic growth, urbanisation, financial development and electricity consumption in United Arab Emirates for the period 1975–2011. The ARDL bounds testing approach is employed to examine the long-run relationship between the variables in the presence of structural breaks. The VECM Granger causality is applied to investigate the direction of causal relationships between the variables. Our empirical exercise validated the cointegration between the series in the case of United Arab Emirates. Further, results reveal that an inverted U-shaped relationship is found between economic growth and electricity consumption. Financial development adds in electricity consumption. The relationship between urbanisation and electricity consumption is also an inverted U-shaped. This implies that urbanisation increases electricity consumption initially and, after a threshold level of urbanisation, electricity demand falls. The causality analysis finds feedback hypothesis between economic growth and electricity consumption, i.e. economic growth and electricity consumption are interdependent. The bidirectional causality is found between financial development and electricity consumption. Economic growth and urbanisation Granger cause each other. The feedback hypothesis is also found between urbanisation and financial development, financial development and economic growth, and the same is true for electricity consumption and urbanisation.