Energy consumption and economic growth: assessing the evidence from Greece

This paper attempts to shed light into the empirical relationship between energy consumption and economic growth, for Greece (1960-1996) employing the vector error-correction model estimation. ne vector specification includes energy consumption, real GDP and price developments, the latter taken to represent a measure of economic efficiency. The empirical evidence suggests that there is a long-run relationship between the three variables, supporting the endogeneity of energy consumption and real output. These findings have important policy implications, since the adoption of suitable structural policies aiming at improving economic efficiency can induce energy conservation without impeding economic growth. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.