Energy consumption, economic growth and financial development: exploring the empirical linkages for India

This study investigates the relationship between energy consumption, economic growth and financial development in India by using the annual data for the period 1971-2009. An application of Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration results suggest that energy consumption is positively and significantly impacted by proportion of urban population in total population, while the same is negatively and significantly impacted by financial development, economic growth and proportion of industrial output in total output. The cointegration results also further suggest that an increase in proportion of urban population adversely influences economic growth, whereas energy use positively influences economic growth. The findings have significant policy implications for the Indian economy as we find energy use positively impacts on economic growth, suggesting that India is harnessing on the effective use of energy. However, it is recommended that India needs to be cautious in the effective use of energy in proper channels.