This study discusses the various hypotheses associated with the causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth along with a survey of the empirical literature. The survey focuses on country coverage, variables selected and model specification, econometric approaches, various methodological issues, and empirical results. The results for the specific countries surveyed show that 31.15% supported the neutrality hypothesis; 27,87% the conservation hypothesis; 22.95% the growth hypothesis; and 18.03% the feedback hypothesis. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.