Does economic growth stimulate energy consumption? The role of human capital and R&D expenditures in China

Muhammad Shahbaz, Malin Song, Shabbir Ahmad and Xuan Vinh Vo

Energy Economics, 2022, vol. 105, issue C

Abstract: This study evaluates the link between human capital, energy consumption, and economic growth using data for the Chinese economy from 1971 to 2018. To test the cointegration relationship between disaggregated energy, human capital, and economic growth, a bounds testing approach is applied by taking the structural breaks into consideration. The estimated results confirm that these variables are integrated. Further, human capital accumulation has a statistically significant negative effect on all types of energy consumption. We note a positive link between energy usage and economic growth. However, a significant negative relationship is found between R&D expenditures, and energy consumption. The results also show a one-way causal effect of human capital on all forms of energy consumption. However, the association between economic growth, dirty energy usage, and clean energy usage remains interdependent, indicating a feedback effect. Further, energy consumption and R&D exhibit bidirectional causal relationship.

Keywords: Human capital; Energy consumption; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988321005193
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Does Economic Growth Stimulate Energy Consumption? The Role of Human Capital and R&D Expenditures in China (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:105:y:2022:i:c:s0140988321005193

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105662

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().