Does natural gas consumption follow a nonlinear path over time? Evidence from 50 US States

This study is the first attempt to investigate the stationarity of natural gas consumption for 50 US states by employing nonlinear unit root test over the period 1960-2008. We concluded that natural gas consumption in approximately over 60% of states follow a nonlinear behavior. While for 27 US states, natural gas consumption is a non-stationary process, then any shock to natural gas consumption is likely to be permanent and such policies will have a permanent impact, for the rest of 23 states natural gas consumption is a stationary process that any shock to natural gas consumption is to be transitory. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.