Trade and energy consumption in the OPEC countries

Over the past 50 years many economies have experienced large increases in their international trade volume,national income and energy consumption. in 2010,the world gdp growth rate was 3.6%. in the same year,the rate of international trade growth in developed countries was 12.9% and in the developing countries and common-interest countries combined together growth was 16.7%. total energy consumption in the world increased from 8,132 million tons in 1990 to 11,099 million tons in 2007. all these bring up an interesting question: how increases in international trade influence energy consumption in different countries. this study uses panel data estimation techniques to examine the impact of international trade on energy consumption in a sample of ten opec countries during 1985 to 2009. we also examine the impact of gdp and energy prices on energy consumption. the results show a statistically significant relationship between energy consumption and trade. therefore,an increase in trade affects energy demand in these countries. this could have implications for energy as well as environmental policies. © 2015 statistical economic and social research and. all rights reserved.