Electricity Use and Economic Growth in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Abstract

Electricity Use and Economic Growth in Kazakhstan

Mergenbayev Adil Kayirdinovich Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program College of Engineering Seoul National University

Kazakhstan is a young country. It declared itself an independent country only on December 16, 1991, but its economy is now the largest in Central Asia. Kazakhstans economy is influenced by many factors. One of these is the electricity activity. Much research has been done to find the relationship between the electricity use and economic growth of different countries, but in the case of Kazakhstan, this problem has not been sufficiently researched mostly due to data limitations. This study attempted to investigate the causal relationship between the electricity activity and the economic growth of the Republic of Kazakhstan, from its independence until the present, by applying the unit root test and the VAR and vector error correction model (VECM) of the Granger causality model. In addition, it was investigated in this study if the electricity activity is different from the consumption of other energy sources and from the total energy use without electricity in terms of their relation with economic growth, based on other studies.