Electricity Consumption and Economic Growth in WAEMU Countries: an Empirical Analysis using Panel Data

This paper analyzes the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth, as well as the determinants of this relationship, in the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) over the period from 1990 to 2018. The results obtained from the Autoregressive Lagged Model (ARDL) show that, in the long run, economic growth, the degree of international openness, and gross fixed capital formation explain electricity consumption. In the short run, no variable affects this consumption. Furthermore, in the country-by-country model, the results indicate differentiated effects. They show, in the long and short term, the absence of the effects of economic growth on electrical energy consumption.