Nuclear energy consumption and economic growth: A panel data analysis

This study attempts to examine the systematic relationship between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth. In particular, the existence of an inverted-U relationship between the two is investigated. To this end, we employ a panel data analysis with fixed effect or random-effect models using the set of data from twenty five countries for the year 1990-2008. The results show that a statistically significant inverted-U relationship between per capita consumption of nuclear energy and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is found. However, the level of per capita GDP at the peak point of per capita nuclear energy consumption is estimated to be 38,145 in 2005 international constant dollars, which is much larger than economic scales of sampled countries. Therefore, as per capita GDP grows, per capita nuclear energy consumption is predicted to increase in the future until eventually reaching the peak.