THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRIES: PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

Energy has an important position in social and economical development, economic growth of countries and raising quality of life of people. Effects of energy consumption on economic growth differ from country to country depending on economic structure and economic growth process of country. For this reason there is no exact opinion related to direction of causality relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. In the literature there are four hypotheses (growth, protective, objectivity, feedback) that explain the relationship that the point in the question. This study examines the relationship between per capita energy consumption and growth in Gross National Product in the Central Asian countries.In the study had worked with a 26-year panel data set covering the years 1991-2016 of the Central Asian countries.According to results of the study, there is a bi-directional causality between energy consumption and economic growth in the Central Asian countries. This situation shows that the feedback hypothesis is valid in these countries