The Threshold Financial Development and Energy Consumption in Iran

Energy as a necessary consumption good for households and as a necessary input for producers has a very important role in economic growth. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between financial development and energy consumption in Iran. For this purpose, by using the structural time series method and a quadratic specification of financial development, the effect of financial development on energy consumption in economy of Iran during the 1974-2012 period has been tested. The results indicate that financial development index has a nonlinear and threshold impact on energy consumption. In other words, before the threshold level of financial development, financial development index has a significant and negative impact on energy consumption but after the threshold level, financial development index has a positive and significant impact on energy consumption. Also, unobservable variables such as technology somehow have explained the changing of energy consumption. Furthermore, the estimation results indicate that the price of energy has a significant and negative impact on energy consumption while real GDP per capita, and urbanization rate have a significant and positive impact on energy consumption.