ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND GDP IN ASEAN COUNTRIES: BOOTSTRAP-CORRECTED PANEL AND TIME SERIES CAUSALITY TESTS

This study reexamines the relationship between energy consumption per capita and real GDP per capita for Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand using both panel data causality which is taking into account cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity among the countries and time series causality tests for the period 1971–2009. The findings indicate that taking into account cross-sectional dependence has a substantial effect on the achieved results. The conservation hypothesis is supported for Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Although a bidirectional relation is found in the case of Thailand, since there is no positive effect of energy consumption on GDP, the conservation hypothesis is supported. In the pattern of Singapore, the neutrality hypothesis is supported. In addition, the increase in investment and labor force lead to more energy consumption in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.