Sectoral Electricity Consumption and Economic Growth: The Time Difference Case of China, 2006–2015

Unlike existing studies focused on the causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth at the macro level, this paper uses monthly data from January 2006 to December 2015 and applies the correlation coefficient, as well as Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, to study the time difference relationship between sectoral electricity consumption and economic growth. The empirical results draw some main findings as follows: First, the time difference relationships show diversity at the sector level but will form a kind of overall characteristic between economic growth and total electricity consumption. Secondly, not all sectors have a remarkable correlation between sectoral electricity consumption and economic growth as only part of them have reasonable values to describe the time difference relationship. Thirdly, the results present both diversity and aggregation at the industry level, while lagging sectors mainly concentrate in the manufacturing industry. The relationship between sectoral electricity consumption and economic growth can be further explored and described from a new perspective based on the results. Further, the trend of economic development and sectoral electricity consumption can be predicted to help policy-makers formulate proper policies.