آیا توسعه مالی باعث افزایش مصرف انرژی میشود؟ نقش صنعتی سازی و شهرنشینی در تونس

This paper assesses the relationship among energy consumption, financial development, economic growth, industrialization and urbanization in Tunisia from 1971 to 2008. The autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach to cointegration and Granger causality tests is employed for the analysis. The result confirms the existence of long-run relationship among energy consumption, economic growth, financial development, industrialization and urbanization in Tunisia. Long-run bidirectional causalities are found between financial development and energy consumption, financial development and industrialization, and industrialization and energy consumption. Hence, sound and developed financial system that can attract investors, boost the stock market and improve the efficiency of economic activities should be encouraged in the country. Nevertheless, promoting industrialization and urbanization can never be left out from the process of development. We add light to policy makers with the role of financial development, industrialization and urbanization in the process of economic development.

The objective of this paper is to assess the relationship among energy consumption, financial development, economic growth, industrialization and urbanization in Tunisia. Being one of the fastest growing economies in the North African region, Tunisia is an interesting case study as it faces energy shortage in fulfilling its growing energy needs. It is also important to investigate the direction of causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. If the causality runs from economic growth to energy consumption, energy conservation policies should be encouraged in reducing CO2 emissions. On the other hand, the energy reduction policies may have inverse impact on economic growth if energy consumption Granger causes economic growth.

The literature on financial development–economic growth nexus enlightens us on the importance of finance in economic activities while the energy literature relates the role of energy in enhancing economic growth. In a free market system, entrepreneurs translate their ideas to actions with the assistant of finance. A financially developed system provides an appropriate way to reallocate financial resources in high return investment projects. Hence, investment stimulates economic growth, which in turn raises the demand for energy. This paper attempts to verify the reasoning that is intuitively appealing in the case of Tunisia. Our empirical evidences confirm that cointegration exists among the variables. We also find that financial development, economic growth, industrialization and urbanization increase energy consumption in Tunisia, especially in the long-run. Granger causality test reveals long-run bidirectional causal relationship between financial development and energy consumption, financial development and industrialization, and industrialization and energy consumption. Hence, sound and developed financial system that can attract investors, boost the stock market and improve the efficiency of economic activities should be encouraged in the country. Nevertheless, promoting industrialization and urbanization can never be left out from the process of development.