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Despite a bourgeoning literature on the existence of a long-run relationship between energy consumption and economic growth, the findings have failed to establish clearly the direction of causation. A growing economy needs more energy, which is exacerbated by growing population. Evidence suggests that financial development can reduce overall energy consumption by achieving energy efficiency. Economic growth and energy consumption in Malaysia have been rising in tandem over the past several years. The three public policy objectives of Malaysia are: economic progress, population growth and financial development. It is of interest to the policymakers to understand the dynamic interrelation among the stated objectives. The paper implements Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration to examine the existence of a long-run relationship among the series: energy consumption, population, aggregate production, and financial development for Malaysia; and tests for Granger causality within the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results suggest that energy consumption is influenced by economic growth and financial development, both in the short and the long-run, but the population-energy relation holds only in the long run. The findings have important policy implications for balancing economic growth vis-à-vis energy consumption for Malaysia, as well as other emerging nations.

Despite a bourgeoning literature on the existence of a long-run relationship between energy consumption and economic growth, the findings have failed to establish clearly the direction of causation. A growing economy needs more energy, which is exacerbated by growing population.

AIMS This study examines the frequency and severity of arrest charges among heroin addicts randomly assigned to either interim methadone maintenance (IM) or to remain on a waiting list for methadone treatment. It was hypothesized that IM participants would have a: 1) lower number of arrests at 6 and 12 months and 2) lower mean crime severity scores at 6 and 12 months post-baseline. METHODS Available official arrest data were obtained for all 319 study participants for a period of 2 years before and after study enrollment. Crime severity ratings of charges were made using an established measure of crime severity. FINDINGS Participants randomly assigned to IM as compared to those on a waiting list had a significant reduction in number of arrests at 6 but not at 12 months from study enrollment. There were no significant differences in whether participants were arrested for a more severe crime but frequency of severe crime was relatively low in both groups. Additional post hoc analyses based on whether participants were in methadone treatment at 4 and 10 months after original random assignment to treatment condition revealed that those participants not in treatment at these follow-up assessment points were significantly more likely to be arrested and to have a higher mean crime severity rating at 12 and 24 months post-baseline assessment. CONCLUSIONS IM as compared to the waiting list condition, had a significant reduction in number of officially- recorded arrests from baseline to 6 months post-baseline. Those who were enrolled in methadone treatment at the 4 and 10 month follow-up assessment, regardless of initial assignment, had fewer arrests at 12 and 24 months post-baseline.

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