The relationship among economic growth, CO2 emissions, and energy use in the APEC countries: a panel VAR approach

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship among economic growth, carbon dioxide emissions, and energy use for 19 APEC countries over the 1960–2013 years. Using a panel VAR technique, a three-variable VAR is estimated. Empirical findings illustrate that no causal relationship emerges between real GDP and energy use. Thus, our empirical evidence is in line with the “neutrality hypothesis.” Moreover, panel cointegration tests show that a long-run equilibrium relationship is questionable for the APEC countries. Granger causality analyses confirm our previous results, since in nine countries any causal relationship between GDP and energy is found.