Stochastic convergence in US disaggregated gas consumption at the sector level

Abstract In order to assess how seasonality affects disparities in natural gas consumption among sectors, this paper aims to study the pattern of convergence in natural gas consumption in a sample of 11 sectors in the United States between January 1973 and February 2017. In addition to the full sample, the existence of convergence is also examined in five subsets of sectors: residential, commercial, industrial, transport and electric power. By using various types of unit root tests, empirical results provide significant support for the convergence of disaggregated natural gas consumption across sectors in the United States. Another important finding of this paper is that natural gas consumption, despite being convergent, is very persistent.