Causality Relation between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth and Employment in Iranian Economy

Energy as an important production factor has significant effects on economic growth. Identifying the relationship between energy and economic growth can help to improve governmental energy policies. Applying ARDL and ECM methods, this paper examines the longrun and shortrun causality relationships between (1) energy consumption and economic growth and (2) energy consumption and employment in various economic sectors of Iranian economy for the period 1971-2003. The results show that there is a longrun and shortrun unidirectional causality relationship from energy consumption to economic growth, a shortrun unidirectional causality relationship from economic growth to natural gas consumption, a unidirectional causality relationship from energy consumption to value added in industrial sector and shortrun and longrun unidirectional causality relationship from electricity consumption to value added in agricultural sector.