پرویز حاجیانی

Background: Increased energy consumption has become one of the most important environmental and industrial economic issues. Today moving towards economic development without taking into consider energy seems an impossible task. In developing countries, in addition to the role of energy as the main factor in production, it’s considered a source of national income. Aim: This study conducted in order to investigate the impact of trade liberalization on energy consumption based on the Antweiler et al. (2001) model using panel data over the period of 1990-2013 for the following countries in the Middle East: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Turkey; tested. Methodology: The methodology used is using panel data model. According to the characteristics of the data in this thesis, used panel unit root tests and panel co-integration test are used. In addition, to determine the appropriate specification of different models F and Hausman diagnostic tests are used. Conclusions: Capital to labor ratio has a negative and significant impact on energy consumption. Trade and interaction of trade with relative income has a positive and significant effect on energy consumption. The positive and significant coefficient of trade intensity interaction and relative income per capita that represents environmental regulations indicate that environmental regulations don’t have a significant impact on reducing energy consumption in the selected countries. In addition, the results show income per capita has the inconsistent effect on energy consumption.