In Search of Causal Relationship between FDI, GDP, and Energy Consumption - Evidence from China

Abstract

The balance between economic growth and environmental protection has been the core concern of policy makers in developing countries for the past two decades. This study is one of the few studies to empirically inspect the relationship between economic growth, FDI, and energy consumption over the period 1978-2010 in China. The results reveal that there is a unidirectional Granger causality running from GDP to energy consumption. This suggests that increase of GDP will consume more energy and implementing of the energy conservation policies and energy demand management policies in China may not have negative impact on economic growth. Besides, a bi-directional Granger causality has been found between energy consumption and FDI. This implies that Chinese government should cautiously evaluate the positive and negative effects of FDI inflows and put efforts into making more effective control policies on environmental protection.