Using the ARDL-ECM Approach to Explore the Nexus Among Urbanization, Energy Consumption, and Economic Growth in Jiangsu Province, China

To better understand the relationship of the urban, economic, and energy systems in Jiangsu, the most well-developed province in China, the nexus of urbanization, energy consumption, and economic growth is explored. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing is applied to examine the cointegration relationship of the variables. After confirming the long-run equilibrium among the variables, the short-run and long-run coefficients are estimated by ARDL error-correction model (ARDL-ECM). We find that Jiangsu is an energy-dependent economy at the present time while urbanization has become a growth engine for her economic development. Suggestions for reducing energy usage while keeping the economy growing at a proper speed during urbanization are also presented.