Journal Press India^®

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In international business literature, studies purport that population growth leads to high energy consumption. There is, however, no study that measures energy use as a composite index in the region. This paper fills this gap in literature. Across the board, in all five countries, population growth is positive. However, if population growth has a significant, large, and negative correlation with the growth of total energy use and per capita energy use, it implies that the overpopulation argument is not supported across the board in the so called overpopulated developing economies of South Asia. However, if we look at the aggregate growth rate of energy use, it is positive in all five countries. Clearly the growth in per capita energy use is responsible for pushing the aggregate energy use disproportionately. This implies that individual behavioural patterns in energy use are responsible for growth in energy use in the region.

Keywords

Energy use index; PCA; South Asia; International business; Decomposition of growth rate; Behavioural patterns in energy use.

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