Revisiting coal consumption and output nexus in China and India: A frequency domain approach

Dependency on coal consumption to maintain energy security is common to the majority of developing countries where the coal is found in abundance. China and India are the leaders in coal consumption from the developing countries group, so establishing a relationship between the coal consumption and the economic growth for these two will derive useful lessons for policy-makers. This paper re-examines the causal relationship between coal consumption and economic growth in China and India for the period 1969-2013, for the first time using a frequency domain-based Granger causality test proposed by Brietung and Candelon (2006). The empirical results support unidirectional causality running from coal consumption to economic growth for both China and India. The findings of this paper provide important policy implications for energy policies and strategies for these two countries under study.