extant aggregate energy use will, inter

alia, ensure the sustainability of

environment-gross domes-
tic product growth in South Asia.
Keywords
Energy use, energy conservation,
exports, gross domestic product
growth, panel co-integration,
vector error correction model-based
panel causality
Introduction
Economic growth and energy use has
been establishing a kind of causal
relationship
examined in the literature of
Economics and Energy Economics.
The prerequisites of sus-
tainability in socio-economic
development depend on the optimal
energy use in all the
economic sectors of a country.
1
Similarly, energy use contributes its
due input share in
producing national outputs in most of
the developed and developing
economies of the
world. Energy use is also considered
as one of the limiting factors to gross
domestic product
(GDP) growth given the absence of
optimal energy policy set for
economic development.
2,3
This implies that energy use and GDP
has been linked directly and their
nexus is a well-
researched area to be explored further
for designing specific and optimal
energy policy
options for most of the countries of the
world.
There have been documented four
hypotheses (growth, conservation,
neutrality, and
feedback) of energy–GDP nexus with
respect to implementing the energy
conservation
options for accomplishing the
sustainable environment-growth
motive (e.g. Ozturk,
4
Omri,
5
Tiba and Omri
6
for detailed surveys). Amid these four
hypotheses, evidence in
favor of conservation or neurtrality
hypotheses (which assert that causality
runs from
GDP towards energy use or there is no
causality between these two variables
per se, respec-
tively) support the implementation of
energy conservation with
accomplishing the intensi-
fying quest of environment-GDP
growth sustainability. On the contrary,
evidence in favor
of growth or feedback hypotheses
assert that energy reductions via
conservation strategies
of fossil fuels shares in total energy
for controlling the pollution emission
could be imple-
mented at the cost of GDP reduction
and thereby low standards of living in
the economy.
On the part of trade (exports) for
economic growth, the contemporary
literature
highlights trade openness in line with
macroeconomic factors to have
important input
contributions for economic capacity
building and efficient utilization of
resources to develop
an economy (e.g. Grossman and
Helpman,
7
Bahmani-Oskooee,
8
Coe and Helpman,
9
Awokuse,
10
among others). Balassa
11
has documented that export inclination
and export
preferences play a key part in
elucidating the income differences in
relation with labor,
domestic and foreign investments
across economic progress of
economies in the world.
Notwithstanding, the recent literature
considers energy use in significant
relation to the
exports sector specifically focusing
upon the importance of energy use for
economic growth
of an economy. Energy use directly
enhances both real GDP as well as
exportable produc-
tion of an economy to continuously
expand international trade and markets
for a region.
Furthermore, energy use has been
reported to have its dual role via
increasing GDP directly,
2
Energy & Environment 0(0)
on the one hand, and via multiplier
effect of exports indirectly, on the
other hand, to
enhance economic expansion of most
of the economies of the global world.
12–17,52–54
The previous quoted debate implies
that exports and energy use are related
to each other.
The increase in exportable production
implies the probability of significant
increase in
energy use in exportable sector of an
economy. Furthermore, almost all the
layers of
mechanical and industrial outputs are,
in one way or the other, subjective to
efficient and
uninterrupted energy supply and its
due consumption for the promotion
and growth of
industrial sector of an economy.
18
Thus, energy is required in the
operations of machinery
and tools for production, industry
processes and transportation of goods
and services of
exports sector and causes to increase
economic growth.
12,19,20
Nonetheless, there are relatively a few
empirical evidences to relate energy
use, exports,
and GDP growth for some of the
specific regional economies of the
world.
12,15,17,19,21–24
The empirical outcomes of these
studies support the evidence of causal
relationship to exist
between energy use and exports, at
least in one direction, and both of the
mentioned factors
are reported to have strong impacts of
energy conservation on exports and
economic
growth. Giving the paucity of regional
specific empirical work on this very
important eco-
nomic issue, the present study
endeavors to contribute for energy–
GDP–export nexus and
role of implementing energy
conservation options to accomplish
the intensifying quest of
sustainable environment-GDP growth
for South Asia.
There are various novel rationales to
conduct this study. Firstly, the
available literature
on the dynamics of energy–GDP–
export nexus identifies that there exist
only three stud-
ies
15,16,18
up till now and more studies are
needed for further empirical evidence
in South
Asia. Secondly, there is somewhat a
lack of coordination in the region
especially for devel-
oping efficient energy resources and
the region is characterized by a much
lower per capita
energy use and GDP as compared to
that of developed countries.
25
The aggregate energy use
of South Asia is variegated de facto
with relatively a large share of fossil
fuels consumption
(almost 70%, International Energy
Agency (IEA)
26
) and therein causing huge carbon
emis-
sions. Thus, a further assessment is
needed for exploring the extent and
nature of energy
conservation empirically vis-a-vis its
due role in reduction of carbon
emissions and socio-
economic development. This will also
help to conform to the targets of Paris
agreements
(2015) for lowering the globalized
temperature via developing insights of
cutting the share of
fossil fuels-based energy sources and
developing the environmental friendly
energy sources
in comprehensive and collective
means. Thirdly, the proposed model
contributes to the
applied underpinnings in state-of-the-
art energy–GDP–exports nexus by
employing both
the first-generation and second-
generation panel co-integration/unit
root tests and dynamic
ordinary least square (OLS)/common
correlated effect (CCE) methods in the
region.
Notwithstanding, the extant studies on
energy–GDP–exports nexus lack on
the grounds
of employing second-generational
tests in panel sense for South Asia.
These calculated
estimates of panel are super consistent
as compare to single country estimates
as well as
to first-generation panel methods.
27–29
Also, panel data modeling instead of
single country
time series improves power of unit
root as well as of co-integration and
calculation of long-
run elasticities/error correction
mechanism provides pertinent
information relative to just
conducting/reporting the causality
analysis.
12,30–32
Furthermore, it has been corroborated
that employing aggregate production
function reduces omitted variable bias
and accommo-
dates for complementarities between
energy and other inputs.
2,32
Fourthly, the roles of
intricate environmental strategies are
of great concern because no single
country can control
carbon emissions via reducing fossil
fuels sources of energy independently
from the rest of
Shakeel and Ahmed 3
the world/region. The dependence and
need of cooperated/concerted
endeavors for sustain-
able environment concerns highlights
the importance of panel data analysis
among the
nations of the world generally and
among the South Asian countries
specifically.
Notwithstanding, the previous
discussion unequivocally delineates
that intriguing ques-
tions of energy conservation via
cutting the extant fossil fuel-based
energy use needs to be
addressed with respect to economic
factors per se for a carbon-less and
economically more
developed South Asia. Therefore, the
present study aims to assess the
significance of energy
conservation via reducing fossil fuels-
based energy (dominant share in total
energy of South
Asia) for a clean sustainable
environment and their due impacts
upon the export expansion
and sustainability of economic growth.
The framework of aggregate
production function
has been employed in panel data
setting of five major South Asian
countries.
a
The empirical
estimates of this study contribute in
devising optimal and viable policy
options on sustain-
able basis, inter alia, promoting
alternate green/efficient energy
options, socio-economic
development, exports expansion, and
therein high standards of living in the
region.
The track for the rest of this study is as
follows. The “Overview of energy
sector in South
Asia” section summarizes the
overview of energy sector in South
Asian perspective and the
“Literature review” section has
explored very relevant literature
related to the topic of
investigation of this study. The
“Empirical models and data
description” section describes
theoretical framework and data
description in brief. The “Econometric
methodology” sec-
tion presents and describes the
contemporary methodological
underpinnings of this study.
The estimated results and empirical
findings are discussed in the
“Empirical results and
discussion” section of this study.
Lastly, the “Concluding remarks and
policy implications”
section contains concluding remarks
and some of the policy
recommendations and impli-
cations for devising a viable energy
policy options for South Asia.
Overview of energy sector in
South Asia
Economic and population growth in
South Asia has led a rise in energy use
sinc
Introduction

Economic growth and energy use has been establishing a kind of causal relationship

examined in the literature of Economics and Energy Economics. The prerequisites of sus-

tainability in socio-economic development depend on the optimal energy use in all the

economic sectors of a country.Similarly, energy use contributes its due input share in

producing national outputs in most of the developed and developing economies of the

world. Energy use is also considered as one of the limiting factors to gross domestic product

(GDP) growth given the absence of optimal energy policy set for economic development.
This implies that energy use and GDP has been linked directly and their nexus is a well-

researched area to be explored further for designing specific and optimal energy policy

options for most of the countries of the world.There have been documented four hypotheses (growth,
conservation, neutrality, andfeedback) of energy–GDP nexus with respect to implementing the energy
conservation options for accomplishing the sustainable environment-growth motive (e.g. Ozturk,

for detailed surveys). Amid these four hypotheses, evidence infavor of conservation or neurtrality
hypotheses (which assert that causality runs from GDP towards energy use or there is no causality
between these two variables per se, respec-tively) support the implementation of energy conservation
with accomplishing the intensi-fying quest of environment-GDP growth sustainability. On the contrary,
evidence in favorof growth or feedback hypotheses assert that energy reductions via conservation
strategies of fossil fuels shares in total energy for controlling the pollution emission could be imple-

mented at the cost of GDP reduction and thereby low standards of living in the economy.On the part of
trade (exports) for economic growth, the contemporary literature highlights trade openness in line with
macroeconomic factors to have important input contributions for economic capacity building and
efficient utilization of resources to develop an economy (e.g. Grossman and Helpman

has documented that export inclination and export preferences play a key part in elucidating the income
differences in relation with labor,domestic and foreign investments across economic progress of
economies in the world.Notwithstanding, the recent literature considers energy use in significant
relation to the exports sector specifically focusing upon the importance of energy use for economic
growth of an economy. Energy use directly enhances both real GDP as well as exportable produc-

tion of an economy to continuously expand international trade and markets for a region.

Furthermore, energy use has been reported to have its dual role via increasing GDP directly,

2Energy & Environment 0(0) on the one hand, and via multiplier effect of exports indirectly, on the other
hand, to enhance economic expansion of most of the economies of the global world.The previous
quoted debate implies that exports and energy use are related to each other.The increase in exportable
production implies the probability of significant increase in energy use in exportable sector of an
economy. Furthermore, almost all the layers of mechanical and industrial outputs are, in one way or the
other, subjective to efficient and uninterrupted energy supply and its due consumption for the
promotion and growth of industrial sector of an economy.Thus, energy is required in the operations of
machinery and tools for production, industry processes and transportation of goods and services of

exports sector and causes to increase economic growth.Nonetheless, there are relatively a few empirical
evidences to relate energy use, exports, and GDP growth for some of the specific regional economies of
the world.The empirical outcomes of these studies support the evidence of causal relationship to exist

between energy use and exports, at least in one direction, and both of the mentioned factors are
reported to have strong impacts of energy conservation on exports and economic growth. Giving the
paucity of regional specific empirical work on this very important economic issue, the present study
endeavors to contribute for energy–GDP–export nexus and role of implementing energy conservation
options to accomplish the intensifying quest of sustainable environment-GDP growth for South Asia.
There are various novel rationales to conduct this study. Firstly, the available literature on the dynamics
of energy–GDP–export nexus identifies that there exist only three stud-ies up till now and more studies
are needed for further empirical evidence in South Asia. Secondly, there is somewhat a lack of
coordination in the region especially for developing efficient energy resources and the region is
characterized by a much lower per capita energy use and GDP as compared to that of developed
countries.

The aggregate energy use of South Asia is variegated de facto with relatively a large share of fossil fuels
consumption (almost 70%, International Energy Agency (IEA)) and therein causing huge carbon emis-

sions. Thus, a further assessment is needed for exploring the extent and nature of energy

conservation empirically vis-a-vis its due role in reduction of carbon emissions and socio-

economic development. This will also help to conform to the targets of Paris agreements

(2015) for lowering the globalized temperature via developing insights of cutting the share of

fossil fuels-based energy sources and developing the environmental friendly energy sources

in comprehensive and collective means. Thirdly, the proposed model contributes to the

applied underpinnings in state-of-the-art energy–GDP–exports nexus by employing both

the first-generation and second-generation panel co-integration/unit root tests and dynamic

ordinary least square (OLS)/common correlated effect (CCE) methods in the region.

Notwithstanding, the extant studies on energy–GDP–exports nexus lack on the grounds

of employing second-generational tests in panel sense for South Asia. These calculated

estimates of panel are super consistent as compare to single country estimates as well as

to first-generation panel methods.Also, panel data modeling instead of single country

time series improves power of unit root as well as of co-integration and calculation of long-

run elasticities/error correction mechanism provides pertinent information relative to just

conducting/reporting the causality analysis.Furthermore, it has been corroborated

that employing aggregate production function reduces omitted variable bias and accommo-

dates for complementarities between energy and other inputs.Fourthly, the roles of

intricate environmental strategies are of great concern because no single country can control

carbon emissions via reducing fossil fuels sources of energy independently from the rest of

the world/region. The dependence and need of cooperated/concerted endeavors for sustain-

able environment concerns highlights the importance of panel data analysis among the

nations of the world generally and among the South Asian countries specifically.
Notwithstanding, the previous discussion unequivocally delineates that intriguing ques-

tions of energy conservation via cutting the extant fossil fuel-based energy use needs to be

addressed with respect to economic factors per se for a carbon-less and economically more

developed South Asia. Therefore, the present study aims to assess the significance of energy

conservation via reducing fossil fuels-based energy (dominant share in total energy of South

Asia) for a clean sustainable environment and their due impacts upon the export expansion

and sustainability of economic growth. The framework of aggregate production function

has been employed in panel data setting of five major South Asian countries.

The empirical estimates of this study contribute in devising optimal and viable policy options on sustain-

able basis, inter alia, promoting alternate green/efficient energy options, socio-economic

development, exports expansion, and therein high standards of living in the region.

The track for the rest of this study is as follows. The “Overview of energy sector in South

Asia” section summarizes the overview of energy sector in South Asian perspective and the

“Literature review” section has explored very relevant literature related to the topic of

investigation of this study. The “Empirical models and data description” section describes

theoretical framework and data description in brief. The “Econometric methodology” sec-

tion presents and describes the contemporary methodological underpinnings of this study.

The estimated results and empirical findings are discussed in the “Empirical results and

discussion” section of this study. Lastly, the “Concluding remarks and policy implications”

section contains concluding remarks and some of the policy recommendations and impli-

cations for devising a viable energy policy options for South Asia.

CONCLUSION

Conclusion and implication

Specifically, the estimated findings of
first-generation and second-generation
methods indi-
cate the presence of significant panel
error correction relationship among
the variables in
both the exports-added and exports-
excluded models conforming to the
evidence of long run
equilibrium association. Nonetheless,
the value of error correction term in
export-added
energy production function is
demonstrating an evidence-based
existence of a relatively
strong convergence mechanism as
compared to export-excluded energy
production function
for South Asia. Exclusively, the
empirically estimated long-run DOLS
coefficient of Model 2
depicts that labor and capital are
positively contributing to the GDP of
the selected econ-
omies of South Asia. The coefficients
of energy use and exports are found
statistically
insignificant; nonetheless, these two
variables are noteworthy through their
contribution
in adjustment dynamic via error
correction mechanism. This implies
that exports play a
coherent role in assessing the
dynamics of energy use and real GDP
growth in South Asia.
This also implies that shocks coming
from say energy conservation policies
to change fossil
fuels consumption have a permanent
impact on the environment as well as
on long-run
economic growth (see, e.g. Smyth and
Narayan
31
).
The analysis of panel VECM-based
causality test shows a substantial long-
run causal
relationship running from energy use
and exports towards the real GDP. The
findings imply
that changes in the growth of exports
and energy are significant in
explaining the growth of
GDP in the region. Moreover, a
feedback relationship is also witnessed
between the energy
use and real GDP in short run as well
as in long run. It implies for the
presence of odd
relationship to exist between
implementing energy conservation via
reducing the dominant
fossil fuel share in total energy and
triggering the economic growth. It
also implies that
higher economic growth increases the
demand for more energy use and
therein a continuous
supply/production of energy is pivotal
for production in the region. Thus,
there is a trade-
off between sustainable economic
growth and low-carbon emission
provided the extant high
share of fossil fuels in aggregate
energy.
Likewise, the estimated results imply
that reduction in energy use will cause
downward
curtailing the GDP growth directly
and it will also reduce the exports
growth indirectly via
the reduction in real GDP of the
region. The implications recommend
for trade promotion
strategies to enhance economic growth
via trade multiplier effects for raising
the living
standards and reducing the balance of
payment woes, of the most populous
region of the
world. Furthermore, the exports and
GDP changes are also found
significant in explaining
the changes in the energy use in the
long run implying that growth in both
exports and GDP
will increase the growth of energy use.
The study explored that sustainable
energy use
(irrespective of high fossil fuels share
in aggregate energy) and exports are
sin qua non
for economic growth in South Asia
implying for the significance of
exports in energy–
GDP nexus.
Policy guidelines
Summing up the recondite
information, it has been empirically
proved that for realizing the
quest of sustainable environment-GDP
growth through implementing the
energy conserva-
tion via reducing the fossil fuels
consumption (the largest share of
aggregate energy use)
could only be implemented at the cost
of reduced economic growth and
exports growth in
South Asia. There is a serious caution
in implementing fossil fuels (oil, coal,
gas)-based
16 Energy & Environment 0(0)
energy reduction measures, without
building new environment
friendly/green energy units
for a sustainable energy use, due to
their adversarial impact on economic
development in
South Asia. The findings also
recommend the ways of energy
conservation via adopting,
adapting, and indigenizing the modern
energy efficient machinery/equipment
into the econ-
omy instead of obsolete/inefficient
energy apparatuses causing high
consumption of energy.
Moreover, there is an immense need
of consolidation and partnership amid
the members of
countries for the
development/implementation of
environment friendly technologies like
solar, wind, geo thermal and other
renewable sources. Notwithstanding,
there is huge poten-
tial of energy conservation via such
kind of renewable energy measures in
the region which
should be implemented and
substituted for fossil fuels-based
energy sources instead of
reducing the extant aggregate energy
use. These kinds of concerted strides
on regional
and country levels are imperative and
inevitable to achieve the environment-
GDP growth
sustainability in South Asia.
Future prospect
This study has attempted to observe
fronts or challenges of assessing the
energy–GDP–
exports nexus and therein importance
of energy conservation in a panel of
South Asian
region. However, the analysis for want
of disaggregated data on the use of
energy input by
sectors, it is not of much help in
estimating the contribution of various
energy components
in the sectoral outputs. This is an
important area for pursuing by the
researchers. In view of
the rising importance of energy in the
production, services and household
sectors and the
ever increasing costs disaggregated
analysis of energy input by sectors
with more advanced
second generational panel methods
with structural breaks should help in
developing insights
especially for South Asia.
Notwithstanding, this kind of analysis
is left as a future prospect.
Acknowledgements
We are thankful to the anonymous referees
for their useful comments. We are also
thankful to Dr
Abdul Salam, Professor and Chair State
Bank at the Department of Economics,
Punjab University
Lahore, Pakistan, for his patient guidance
during the entire analysis and supervision
of PhD disser-
tation of the first author from where the
idea of the extant study emerged.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential
conflicts of interest with respect to the
research, authorship and/or
publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this
article.
ORCID iD
Muhammad Shakeel
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2709-5014
Shakeel and Ahmed 17
Specifically, the estimated findings of first-generation and second-generation methods indi-
cate the presence of significant panel error correction relationship among the variables in
both the exports-added and exports-excluded models conforming to the evidence of long run
equilibrium association. Nonetheless, the value of error correction term in export-added
energy production function is demonstrating an evidence-based existence of a relatively
strong convergence mechanism as compared to export-excluded energy production function
for South Asia. Exclusively, the empirically estimated long-run DOLS coefficient of Model 2
depicts that labor and capital are positively contributing to the GDP of the selected econ-
omies of South Asia. The coefficients of energy use and exports are found statistically
insignificant; nonetheless, these two variables are noteworthy through their contribution
in adjustment dynamic via error correction mechanism. This implies that exports play a
coherent role in assessing the dynamics of energy use and real GDP growth in South Asia.
This also implies that shocks coming from say energy conservation policies to change fossil
fuels consumption have a permanent impact on the environment as well as on long-run
economic growth (see, e.g. Smyth and Narayan
31
).
The analysis of panel VECM-based causality test shows a substantial long-run causal
relationship running from energy use and exports towards the real GDP. The findings imply
that changes in the growth of exports and energy are significant in explaining the growth of
GDP in the region. Moreover, a feedback relationship is also witnessed between the energy
use and real GDP in short run as well as in long run. It implies for the presence of odd
relationship to exist between implementing energy conservation via reducing the dominant
fossil fuel share in total energy and triggering the economic growth. It also implies that
higher economic growth increases the demand for more energy use and therein a continuous
supply/production of energy is pivotal for production in the region. Thus, there is a trade-
off between sustainable economic growth and low-carbon emission provided the extant high
share of fossil fuels in aggregate energy.
Likewise, the estimated results imply that reduction in energy use will cause downward
curtailing the GDP growth directly and it will also reduce the exports growth indirectly via
the reduction in real GDP of the region. The implications recommend for trade promotion
strategies to enhance economic growth via trade multiplier effects for raising the living
standards and reducing the balance of payment woes, of the most populous region of the
world. Furthermore, the exports and GDP changes are also found significant in explaining
the changes in the energy use in the long run implying that growth in both exports and GDP
will increase the growth of energy use. The study explored that sustainable energy use
(irrespective of high fossil fuels share in aggregate energy) and exports are sin qua non
for economic growth in South Asia implying for the significance of exports in energy–
GDP nexus.
Policy guidelines
Summing up the recondite information, it has been empirically proved that for realizing the
quest of sustainable environment-GDP growth through implementing the energy conserva-
tion via reducing the fossil fuels consumption (the largest share of aggregate energy use)
could only be implemented at the cost of reduced economic growth and exports growth in
South Asia. There is a serious caution in implementing fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas)-based
16 Energy & Environment 0(0)
energy reduction measures, without building new environment friendly/green energy units
for a sustainable energy use, due to their adversarial impact on economic development in
South Asia. The findings also recommend the ways of energy conservation via adopting,
adapting, and indigenizing the modern energy efficient machinery/equipment into the econ-
omy instead of obsolete/inefficient energy apparatuses causing high consumption of energy.
Moreover, there is an immense need of consolidation and partnership amid the members of
countries for the development/implementation of environment friendly technologies like
solar, wind, geo thermal and other renewable sources. Notwithstanding, there is huge poten-
tial of energy conservation via such kind of renewable energy measures in the region which
should be implemented and substituted for fossil fuels-based energy sources instead of
reducing the extant aggregate energy use. These kinds of concerted strides on regional
and country levels are imperative and inevitable to achieve the environment-GDP growth
sustainability in South Asia.
Future prospect
This study has attempted to observe fronts or challenges of assessing the energy–GDP–
exports nexus and therein importance of energy conservation in a panel of South Asian
region. However, the analysis for want of disaggregated data on the use of energy input by
sectors, it is not of much help in estimating the contribution of various energy components
in the sectoral outputs. This is an important area for pursuing by the researchers. In view of
the rising importance of energy in the production, services and household sectors and the
ever increasing costs disaggregated analysis of energy input by sectors with more advanced
second generational panel methods with structural breaks should help in developing insigh

Notes
a. Smyth and Narayan
32
discussed the reasons to use panel data
analysis instead of country-based
analysis when country data are not
available for a long time. They also
documented a gold
standard of 150 years for country-based
analysis suggested by Stern and Enflo
48
and Vaona.
49
b. See Pesaran et al.
38
for details.
c. See Pesaran
40
for details.
d. See Westerlund
43
and Persyn and Westerlund
50
for details.
e. Both of these estimates can be
calculated in Stata12 or higher version.
f. Pesaran CD
51
test also confirm the CD across countries
for these variables.
g. The analyses are also calculated with
disaggregating the energy into oil, coal,
and gas in the
proposed models. The results of all these
models endorsed the findings of aggregate
energy use
based models in South Asia. See Appendix
1.
References
1. Bluszcz A. European economies in
terms of energy dependence. Qual Quant
2017; 51: 1531–1548.
2. Stern DI. A multivariate cointegration
analysis of the role of energy in the US
macroeconomy.
Energy Econ 2000; 22: 267–283.
3. Stern DI. Economic growth and energy.
Encycl Energy 2004; 2: 35–51.
4. Ozturk I. A literature survey on energy-
growth nexus. Energy Policy 2010; 38:
340–349.
5. Omri A. An international literature
survey on energy-economic growth nexus:
evidence from
country-specific studies. Renewable
Sustainable Energy Rev 2014; 38: 951–
959.
6. Tiba S and Omri A. Literature survey on
the relationships between energy,
environment and
economic growth. Renewable Sustainable
Energy Rev 2008; 69: 1129–1146.
7. Grossman GM and Helpman E.
Endogenous innovation in the theory of
growth. J Econ Perspect
1991; 8: 23–44.
8. Bahmani-Oskooee M. Export growth
and economic growth: an application of
cointegration and
error-correction modeling. J Developing
Areas 1993; 27: 535–542.
9. Coe T and Helpman E. International
R&D spillovers. Eur Econ Rev 1995; 39:
859–887.
10. Awokuse TO. Trade openness and
economic growth: is growth export-led or
import-led? Appl
Econ 2008; 40: 161–173.
11. Balassa B. Exports and economic
growth: further evidence. J Dev Econ
1978; 5: 181–189.
12. Sadorsky P. Energy consumption,
output and trade in South America. Energy
Econ 2012; 34:
476–488.
13. Shahbaz M, Lean HH and Farooq A.
Natural gas consumption and economic
growth in Pakistan.
Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev 2013;
18: 87–94.
14. Shahbaz M, Nasreen S, Ling CH, et al.
Causality between trade openness and
energy consump-
tion: what causes what in high, middle and
low income countries. Energy Policy 2014;
70:
126–143.
15. Hossain S. Multivariate granger
causality between economic growth,
electricity consumption,
exports and remittance for the panel of
three SAARC countries. Eur Sci J 2014; 8:
347–376.
16. Shakeel M and Iqbal MM. Energy
consumption and GDP with the role of
trade in South Asia. In:
2014 International conference on energy
systems and policies (ICESP), Air
University, Islamabad,
Pakistan, 2014, pp.1–5. Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
(IEEE).
17. Raza SA, Shahbaz M and Nguyen DK.
Energy conservation policies, growth and
trade perfor-
mance: evidence of feedback hypothesis in
Pakistan. Energy Policy 2015; 80: 1–10.
18. Shakeel M, Iqbal MM and Majeed MT.
Energy consumption, trade and GDP: a
case study of
South Asian countries. Pakistan Dev Rev
2014; 53: 461–476.
19. Sadorsky P. Trade and energy
consumption in the Middle East. Energy
Econ 2011; 33:
739–749.
18 Energy & Environment 0(0)
20. Lean HH and Smyth R. Electricity
consumption, output, and trade in Bhutan.
In: ADB South
Asia working paper series no. 34,
December 2014. Mandaluyong City: Asian
Development Bank.
21. Narayan PK and Smyth R. Multivariate
Granger causality between electricity
consumption,
exports and GDP: evidence from a panel
of Middle Eastern countries. Energy Policy
2009; 37:
229–236.
22. Lean HH and Smyth R. On the
dynamics of aggregate output, electricity
consumption and
exports in Malaysia: evidence from
multivariate Granger causality tests. Appl
Energy 2010; 87:
1963–1971.
23. Lean HH and Smyth R. Multivariate
Granger causality between electricity
generation, exports,
prices and GDP in Malaysia. Energy 2010;
35: 3640–3648.
24. Dedeo
glu D and Kaya H. Energy use, exports,
imports and GDP: new evidence from the
OECD
countries. Energy Policy 2013; 57: 469–
476.
25. ESCAP UN. Economic and social
survey of Asia and the Pacific. London:
United Nations
Publication, 2015.
26. International Energy Agency (IEA).
Energy balances of non-OECD countries.
Paris, France:
International Energy Agency, 2011.
27. Narayan PK and Smyth R. Energy
consumption and real GDP in G7
countries: new evidence
from panel cointegration with structural
breaks. Energy Econ 2008; 30: 2331–
2341.
28. Narayan PK, Narayan S and Popp S. A
note on the long-run elasticities from the
energy con-
sumption–GDP relationship. Appl Energy
2010; 87: 1054–1057.
29. Pedroni P. Panel cointegration
techniques and open challenges. In: Panel
data econometrics.
Cambridge, MA: Academic Press, 2019,
pp. 251–287.
30. Narayan PK and Wong P. A panel data
analysis of the determinants of oil
consumption: the case
of Australia. Appl Energy 2009; 86: 2771–
2775.
31. Narayan PK and Popp S. The energy
consumption-real GDP nexus revisited:
Empirical evidence
from 93 countries. Econ Model 2012; 29:
303–308.
32. Smyth R and Narayan PK. Applied
econometrics and implications for energy
economics research.
Energy Econ 2015; 50: 351–358.
33. Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Prime energy statistics in Asia and Pacific
(1990–2009).
Publications/Annual Reports, 2013.
34. World Bank. World development
indicator,
http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports
.aspx?
Code=NY.GDP.MKTP.CD&id=1ff4a498
&report_name=Popular-
Indicators&populartype=
series&ispopular=y (2018/2019, accessed
28 December 2019).
35. Farhani S, Shahbaz M, Arouri M, et al.
The role of natural gas consumption and
trade in
Tunisia’s output. Energy Policy 2014; 66:
677–684.
36. Tsiotras A and Estache A. In the short
run, energy efficiency concerns and trade
protection hurt each
other and growth, but in the long run, not
necessarily so: 1980–2010 Latin American
Evidence (No.
ECARES 2014-38). Brussels, Belgium:
Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2014.
37. Feenstra RC, Inklaar R and Timmer
MP. The next generation of the Penn
World Table. Am Econ
Rev 2015; 105: 3150–3182.
38. Pesaran MH, Ullah A and Yamagata T.
A bias adjusted LM test of error cross-
section indepen-
dence. Econ J 2008; 11: 105–127.
39. Im KS, Pesaran MH and Shin Y. 1997.
Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous
panels. Mimeo,
Department of Applied Economics,
University of Cambridge.
40. Pesaran MH. A simple panel unit root
test in the presence of cross-section
dependence. J Appl
Econ 2007; 22: 265–312.
41. Pedroni P. Critical values for
cointegration tests in heterogeneous panels
with multiple regressors.
Oxford Bull Econ Stat 1999; 61: 653–670.
42. Pedroni P. Panel cointegration:
asymptotic and finite sample properties of
pooled time series tests
with an application to the PPP hypothesis.
Econ Theory 2004; 20: 597–625.
Shakeel and Ahmed 1