IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/empeco/v60y2021i3d10.1007_s00181-019-01787-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tourism, economic growth, and tourism-induced EKC hypothesis: evidence from the Mediterranean region

Author

Listed:
  • Jing Gao

    (Capital University of Economics and Business)

  • Wen Xu

    (Capital University of Economics and Business)

  • Lei Zhang

    (York University)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship among CO2 emissions, energy consumption, economic growth and tourism development using data for a panel of 18 Mediterranean countries over the period 1995–2010. The findings from cointegrating polynomial regression indicate that the tourism-induced environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is confirmed for three out of nine countries for which cointegration tests suggest a long-run equilibrium relationship between the examined variables. A group of causalities have been found for the Mediterranean countries. In particular, our results demonstrate bidirectional causality between GDP and tourism development for the Northern Mediterranean countries, while for the southern and global panel we document one-way causality running from tourism development to economic growth. We also show unidirectional causality running from tourism to CO2 emissions across regions. The empirical results suggest that Mediterranean countries should place more emphasis on tourism development, sustainable tourism in particular, given the potential relationship among tourism development, GDP and CO2 emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jing Gao & Wen Xu & Lei Zhang, 2021. "Tourism, economic growth, and tourism-induced EKC hypothesis: evidence from the Mediterranean region," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 1507-1529, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:60:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s00181-019-01787-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-019-01787-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00181-019-01787-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00181-019-01787-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ang, James B., 2007. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and output in France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 4772-4778, October.
    2. Halicioglu, Ferda, 2009. "An econometric study of CO2 emissions, energy consumption, income and foreign trade in Turkey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1156-1164, March.
    3. Chatziantoniou, Ioannis & Filis, George & Eeckels, Bruno & Apostolakis, Alexandros, 2013. "Oil prices, tourism income and economic growth: A structural VAR approach for European Mediterranean countries," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 331-341.
    4. Wagner, Martin, 2008. "The carbon Kuznets curve: A cloudy picture emitted by bad econometrics?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 388-408, August.
    5. Ramesh Durbarry, 2004. "Tourism and Economic Growth: The Case of Mauritius," Tourism Economics, , vol. 10(4), pages 389-401, December.
    6. Juan Gabriel Brida & Lionello F. Punzo & Wiston Adrián Risso, 2011. "Research Note: Tourism as a Factor of Growth – the Case of Brazil," Tourism Economics, , vol. 17(6), pages 1375-1386, December.
    7. Pao, Hsiao-Tien & Tsai, Chung-Ming, 2010. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in BRIC countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7850-7860, December.
    8. Zhang, Lei & Gao, Jing, 2016. "Exploring the effects of international tourism on China's economic growth, energy consumption and environmental pollution: Evidence from a regional panel analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 225-234.
    9. Katircioglu, Salih Turan & Feridun, Mete & Kilinc, Ceyhun, 2014. "Estimating tourism-induced energy consumption and CO2 emissions: The case of Cyprus," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 634-640.
    10. Katircioglu, Salih Turan, 2014. "International tourism, energy consumption, and environmental pollution: The case of Turkey," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 180-187.
    11. Lee, Jung Wan & Brahmasrene, Tantatape, 2013. "Investigating the influence of tourism on economic growth and carbon emissions: Evidence from panel analysis of the European Union," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 69-76.
    12. Cameron, Samuel, 1994. "A review of the econometric evidence on the effects of capital punishment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 23(1-2), pages 197-214.
    13. Tugcu, Can Tansel, 2014. "Tourism and economic growth nexus revisited: A panel causality analysis for the case of the Mediterranean Region," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 207-212.
    14. Pedroni, Peter, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic And Finite Sample Properties Of Pooled Time Series Tests With An Application To The Ppp Hypothesis," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 597-625, June.
    15. Suri, Vivek & Chapman, Duane, 1998. "Economic growth, trade and energy: implications for the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 195-208, May.
    16. Paresh Kumar Narayan, 2004. "Economic Impact of Tourism on Fiji's Economy: Empirical Evidence from the Computable General Equilibrium Model," Tourism Economics, , vol. 10(4), pages 419-433, December.
    17. Jacint Balaguer & Manuel Cantavella-Jorda, 2002. "Tourism as a long-run economic growth factor: the Spanish case," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(7), pages 877-884.
    18. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    19. Bruno Eeckels & George Filis & Costas Leon, 2012. "Tourism Income and Economic Growth in Greece: Empirical Evidence from Their Cyclical Components," Tourism Economics, , vol. 18(4), pages 817-834, August.
    20. Joakim Westerlund, 2007. "Testing for Error Correction in Panel Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 709-748, December.
    21. Dumitrescu, Elena-Ivona & Hurlin, Christophe, 2012. "Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1450-1460.
    22. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2021. "General diagnostic tests for cross-sectional dependence in panels," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 13-50, January.
    23. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    24. Torras, Mariano & Boyce, James K., 1998. "Income, inequality, and pollution: a reassessment of the environmental Kuznets Curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 147-160, May.
    25. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Chien, Mei-Se, 2008. "Structural breaks, tourism development, and economic growth: Evidence from Taiwan," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 77(4), pages 358-368.
    26. A. Lanza & F. Pigliaru, 1999. "Why Are Tourism Countries Small and Fast-Growing?," Working Paper CRENoS 199906, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    27. Lokman Gunduz & Abdulnasser Hatemi-J, 2005. "Is the tourism-led growth hypothesis valid for Turkey?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(8), pages 499-504.
    28. Peter Pedroni, 1999. "Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 653-670, November.
    29. Tang, Chor Foon & Abosedra, Salah, 2014. "The impacts of tourism, energy consumption and political instability on economic growth in the MENA countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 458-464.
    30. Lantz, V. & Feng, Q., 2006. "Assessing income, population, and technology impacts on CO2 emissions in Canada: Where's the EKC?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 229-238, May.
    31. Jalil, Abdul & Mahmud, Syed F., 2009. "Environment Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: A cointegration analysis for China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5167-5172, December.
    32. Kao, Chihwa, 1999. "Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 1-44, May.
    33. Dogan, Eyup & Aslan, Alper, 2017. "Exploring the relationship among CO2 emissions, real GDP, energy consumption and tourism in the EU and candidate countries: Evidence from panel models robust to heterogeneity and cross-sectional depen," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 239-245.
    34. Peter Pedroni, 2001. "Purchasing Power Parity Tests In Cointegrated Panels," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(4), pages 727-731, November.
    35. Martin Wagner, 2015. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve, Cointegration and Nonlinearity," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 948-967, September.
    36. Pedroni, Peter, 1999. "Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(0), pages 653-670, Special I.
    37. Wagner, Martin & Hong, Seung Hyun, 2016. "Cointegrating Polynomial Regressions: Fully Modified Ols Estimation And Inference," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(5), pages 1289-1315, October.
    38. Moomaw, William R. & Unruh, Gregory C., 1997. "Are environmental Kuznets curves misleading us? The case of CO2 emissions," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 451-463, November.
    39. Bichaka Fayissa & Christian Nsiah & Bedassa Tadesse, 2011. "Research Note: Tourism and Economic Growth in Latin American Countries – Further Empirical Evidence," Tourism Economics, , vol. 17(6), pages 1365-1373, December.
    40. Nikolaos Dritsakis, 2004. "Tourism as a Long-Run Economic Growth Factor: An Empirical Investigation for Greece Using Causality Analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 10(3), pages 305-316, September.
    41. Choi, In & Saikkonen, Pentti, 2010. "Tests For Nonlinear Cointegration," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 682-709, June.
    42. Bimonte, Salvatore, 2002. "Information access, income distribution, and the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 145-156, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ekonomou, George & Halkos, George, 2023. "Is tourism growth a power of environmental‘de -degradation’? An empirical analysis for Eurozone economic space," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1016-1029.
    2. Wilman‐Santiago Ochoa‐Moreno & Byron Quito & Daniel E. Enríquez & José Álvarez‐García, 2022. "Evaluation of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in a tourism development context: evidence for 15 Latin American countries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2143-2155, July.
    3. Guillermo Vázquez Vicente & Victor Martín Barroso & Francisco José Blanco Jiménez, 2021. "Sustainable Tourism, Economic Growth and Employment—The Case of the Wine Routes of Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Atif Jahanger & Yang Yu & Ashar Awan & Muhammad Zubair Chishti & Magdalena Radulescu & Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente, 2022. "The Impact of Hydropower Energy in Malaysia Under the EKC Hypothesis: Evidence From Quantile ARDL Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, July.
    5. Pavlos Stamatiou, 2022. "Modeling Electricity Consumption for Growth in an Open Economy," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(2), pages 154-163, March.
    6. Atif Jahanger & Muhammad Usman & Daniel Balsalobre‐Lorente, 2022. "Linking institutional quality to environmental sustainability," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1749-1765, December.
    7. Mohd Alsaleh & Zhengyong Yang & Tinggui Chen & A. S. Abdul‐Rahim, 2023. "Unveiling the linkage between hydropower growth and tourism sustainability in EU27 region: An empirical analysis," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1704-1719, June.
    8. Sofi, Arfat Ahmad & Bhat, Mohammad Younus & Ahmad, Laraib & Aara, Ruhi Refath & Aswani, RS, 2022. "Renewable energy and transitioning towards sustainable tourism: Inferences from kernel density and nonparametric approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 963-975.
    9. Fredrick Oteng Agyeman & Ma Zhiqiang & Mingxing Li & Agyemang Kwasi Sampene & Malcom Frimpong Dapaah & Emmanuel Adu Gyamfi Kedjanyi & Paul Buabeng & Yiyao Li & Saifullah Hakro & Mohammad Heydari, 2022. "Probing the Effect of Governance of Tourism Development, Economic Growth, and Foreign Direct Investment on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Africa: The African Experience," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-24, June.
    10. Buket Altinoz & Alper Aslan, 2022. "New insight to tourism-environment nexus in Mediterranean countries: evidence from panel vector autoregression approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 12263-12275, October.
    11. Afshan, Sahar & Ozturk, Ilhan & Yaqoob, Tanzeela, 2022. "Facilitating renewable energy transition, ecological innovations and stringent environmental policies to improve ecological sustainability: Evidence from MM-QR method," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 151-160.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tiba, Sofien & Frikha, Mohamed, 2019. "The controversy of the resource curse and the environment in the SDGs background: The African context," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 437-452.
    2. Abdul Rauf & Ilhan Ozturk & Fayyaz Ahmad & Khurram Shehzad & Abbas Ali Chandiao & Muhammad Irfan & Saira Abid & Li Jinkai, 2021. "Do Tourism Development, Energy Consumption and Transportation Demolish Sustainable Environments? Evidence from Chinese Provinces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-23, November.
    3. Olimpia Neagu, 2019. "The Link between Economic Complexity and Carbon Emissions in the European Union Countries: A Model Based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-27, August.
    4. Kais Saidi & Mohammad Mafizur Rahman, 2021. "The link between environmental quality, economic growth, and energy use: new evidence from five OPEC countries," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 3-20, March.
    5. Wenjing Zhang & Hengzhou Xu, 2017. "Exploring the causal relationship between carbon emissions and land urbanization quality in China using a panel data analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1445-1462, August.
    6. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Driha, Oana M. & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik, 2020. "The effects of tourism and globalization over environmental degradation in developed countries," MPRA Paper 100092, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Zheng Fang & Bihong Huang & Zhuoxiang Yang, 2020. "Trade openness and the environmental Kuznets curve: Evidence from Chinese cities," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(10), pages 2622-2649, October.
    8. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasreen, Samia & Ahmed, Khalid & Hammoudeh, Shawkat, 2017. "Trade openness–carbon emissions nexus: The importance of turning points of trade openness for country panels," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 221-232.
    9. Chien-Ming Wang & Tsung-Pao Wu, 2022. "Does tourism promote or reduce environmental pollution? Evidence from major tourist arrival countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 3334-3355, March.
    10. Abdelaziz Boukhelkhal, 2022. "Energy use, economic growth and CO2 emissions in Africa: does the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis exist? New evidence from heterogeneous panel under cross-sectional dependence," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 13083-13110, November.
    11. Ioannis Kostakis, 2020. "Is Tourism a Key Factor for Economic Growth? Fresh Evidence from South Europe Using Panel Cointegration and PVAR Analyses," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 6(2), pages 123-138, December.
    12. Kasman, Adnan & Duman, Yavuz Selman, 2015. "CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, trade and urbanization in new EU member and candidate countries: A panel data analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 97-103.
    13. Iftikhar Yasin & Nawaz Ahmad & M. Aslam Chaudhary, 2020. "Catechizing the Environmental-Impression of Urbanization, Financial Development, and Political Institutions: A Circumstance of Ecological Footprints in 110 Developed and Less-Developed Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 621-649, January.
    14. Chen, Ping-Yu & Chen, Sheng-Tung & Hsu, Chia-Sheng & Chen, Chi-Chung, 2016. "Modeling the global relationships among economic growth, energy consumption and CO2 emissions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 420-431.
    15. Ben Jebli, Mehdi & Ben Youssef, Slim & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2013. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: The Role of Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy Consumption and Trade Openness," MPRA Paper 51672, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Yilmaz Bayar & Laura Diaconu (Maxim) & Andrei Maxim, 2020. "Financial Development and CO 2 Emissions in Post-Transition European Union Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-15, March.
    17. Francisco García-Lillo & Eduardo Sánchez-García & Bartolomé Marco-Lajara & Pedro Seva-Larrosa, 2023. "Renewable Energies and Sustainable Development: A Bibliometric Overview," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, January.
    18. Yonglian Wang & Lijun Wang & Han Liu & Yongjing Wang, 2021. "The Robust Causal Relationships Among Domestic Tourism Demand, Carbon Emissions, and Economic Growth in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
    19. Bo Yang & Minhaj Ali & Shujahat Haider Hashmi & Mohsin Shabir, 2020. "Income Inequality and CO 2 Emissions in Developing Countries: The Moderating Role of Financial Instability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.
    20. Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal & Yaseen, Muhammad Rizwan & Ali, Qamar, 2019. "Nexus between financial development, tourism, renewable energy, and greenhouse gas emission in high-income countries: A continent-wise analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 293-310.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tourism-induced EKC hypothesis; Cointegrating polynomial regressions; Panel causality; Economic growth; Mediterranean countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:60:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s00181-019-01787-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.