IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v27y2025i4d10.1007_s10668-023-04270-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Examining the tourism-induced environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for India

Author

Listed:
  • Manu Sharma

    (Alliance University
    Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS))

  • Geetilaxmi Mohapatra

    (Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS))

  • Arun Kumar Giri

    (Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS))

  • Albert Wijeweera

    (Khalifa University of Science and Technology
    Southern Cross University)

  • Clevo Wilson

    (Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology)

Abstract

This paper revisits the debate on the possible impact of tourism sector development on carbon emissions using annual time series data from 1980 to 2019. The present study is a pioneering attempt to estimate the threshold point for tourism-induced environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for India. For this purpose, the autoregressive distributive lag model and block-exogeneity Granger non-causality test have been employed. The empirical results confirm a long-run cointegrating relationship between tourist sector development, real GDP per capita, energy consumption, urbanization and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in India. The results also indicate a positive and significant association between the tourism sector, economic growth, and carbon emissions in the long run and support the tourism-induced EKC hypothesis in India. Further, the study finds a long-run and short-run causal nexus between the variables. The findings also emphasize the need to rely less on the use of fossil fuels and instead transition to green energy production in the tourism industry. Given the size of the tourism industry in India, such practices would make a meaningful contribution to inclusive and sustainable development in the country.

Suggested Citation

  • Manu Sharma & Geetilaxmi Mohapatra & Arun Kumar Giri & Albert Wijeweera & Clevo Wilson, 2025. "Examining the tourism-induced environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 9107-9126, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04270-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-04270-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-04270-1
    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/s10668-023-04270-1?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. Sinha, Avik & Mishra, Shekhar & Sharif, Arshian & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2021. "Does Green Financing help to improve the Environmental & Social Responsibility? Designing SDG framework through Advanced Quantile modelling," MPRA Paper 108150, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    2. 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.
    3. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Smyth, Russell, 2008. "Energy consumption and real GDP in G7 countries: New evidence from panel cointegration with structural breaks," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2331-2341, September.
    4. Cem Ișik & Munir Ahmad & Uğur Korkut Pata & Serdar Ongan & Magdalena Radulescu & Festus Fatai Adedoyin & Engin Bayraktaroğlu & Sezi Aydın & Ayse Ongan, 2020. "An Evaluation of the Tourism-Induced Environmental Kuznets Curve (T-EKC) Hypothesis: Evidence from G7 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-11, November.
    5. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    6. Zivot, Eric & Andrews, Donald W K, 2002. "Further Evidence on the Great Crash, the Oil-Price Shock, and the Unit-Root Hypothesis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 25-44, January.
    7. Sharif, Arshian & Iqbal Godil, Danish & Xu, Bingjie & Sinha, Avik & Abdul Rehman Khan, Syed & Jermsittiparsert, Kittisak, 2020. "Revisiting the Role of Tourism and Globalization in Environmental Degradation in China: Fresh Insights from the Quantile ARDL Approach," MPRA Paper 101156, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    8. Manfred Lenzen & Ya-Yen Sun & Futu Faturay & Yuan-Peng Ting & Arne Geschke & Arunima Malik, 2018. "The carbon footprint of global tourism," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(6), pages 522-528, June.
    9. Itkonen, Juha V.A., 2012. "Problems estimating the carbon Kuznets curve," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 274-280.
    10. Seyi Saint Akadiri & Gizem Uzuner & Ada Chigozie Akadiri & Taiwo Temitope Lasisi, 2021. "Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the case of tourism island states: The moderating role of globalization," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 2846-2858, April.
    11. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Haouas, Ilham & Hoang, Thi Hong Van, 2019. "Economic growth and environmental degradation in Vietnam: Is the environmental Kuznets curve a complete picture?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 197-218.
    12. Khalid Zaman & Mitwali Abd-el. Moemen & Talat Islam, 2017. "Dynamic linkages between tourism transportation expenditures, carbon dioxide emission, energy consumption and growth factors: evidence from the transition economies," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(16), pages 1720-1735, December.
    13. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    14. Serdar Ongan & Cem Işik & Dilek Özdemir, 2017. "The Effects of Real Exchange Rates and Income on International Tourism Demand for the USA from Some European Union Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Madhu Sehrawat & A K Giri, 2015. "Financial development and income inequality in India: an application of ARDL approach," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(1), pages 64-81, January.
    16. Mohamed Amine Boutabba, 2014. "The impact of financial development, income, energy and trade on carbon emissions: Evidence from the Indian economy," Post-Print hal-02877966, HAL.
    17. Kemal Eyuboglu & Umut Uzar, 2020. "The impact of tourism on CO2 emission in Turkey," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(13), pages 1631-1645, July.
    18. Cem Işik & Eyüp Doğan & Serdar Ongan, 2017. "Analyzing the Tourism–Energy–Growth Nexus for the Top 10 Most-Visited Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-13, October.
    19. Liu, Yaping & Sadiq, Farah & Ali, Wajahat & Kumail, Tafazal, 2022. "Does tourism development, energy consumption, trade openness and economic growth matters for ecological footprint: Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve and pollution haven hypothesis for Pakistan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    20. Zaman, Khalid & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Loganathan, Nanthakumar & Raza, Syed Ali, 2016. "Tourism development, energy consumption and Environmental Kuznets Curve: Trivariate analysis in the panel of developed and developing countries," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 275-283.
    21. Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2013. "Does financial instability increase environmental degradation? Fresh evidence from Pakistan," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 537-544.
    22. Peeters, Paul & Dubois, Ghislain, 2010. "Tourism travel under climate change mitigation constraints," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 447-457.
    23. Al-Mulali, Usama & Saboori, Behnaz & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2015. "Investigating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in Vietnam," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 123-131.
    24. Madhu Sehrawat & A K Giri, 2015. "Financial development and income inequality in India: an application of ARDL approach," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(1), pages 64-81, January.
    25. 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.
    26. Boutabba, Mohamed Amine, 2014. "The impact of financial development, income, energy and trade on carbon emissions: Evidence from the Indian economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 33-41.
    27. Manfred Lenzen & Ya-Yen Sun & Futu Faturay & Yuan-Peng Ting & Arne Geschke & Arunima Malik, 2018. "Author Correction: The carbon footprint of global tourism," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(6), pages 544-544, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Anh-Tu Nguyen & Shih-Hao Lu & Phuc Thanh Thien Nguyen, 2021. "Validating and Forecasting Carbon Emissions in the Framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve: The Case of Vietnam," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-38, May.
    2. Muhammed Ashiq Villanthenkodath & Mohd Arshad Ansari & Muhammad Shahbaz & Xuan Vinh Vo, 2022. "Do tourism development and structural change promote environmental quality? Evidence from India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 5163-5194, April.
    3. Ahmad, Ashfaq & Zhao, Yuhuan & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Bano, Sadia & Zhang, Zhonghua & Wang, Song & Liu, Ya, 2016. "Carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth: An aggregate and disaggregate analysis of the Indian economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 131-143.
    4. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Haouas, Ilham & Hoang, Thi Hong Van, 2019. "Economic growth and environmental degradation in Vietnam: Is the environmental Kuznets curve a complete picture?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 197-218.
    5. Asif Razzaq & Arshian Sharif & Paiman Ahmad & Kittisak Jermsittiparsert, 2021. "Asymmetric role of tourism development and technology innovation on carbon dioxide emission reduction in the Chinese economy: Fresh insights from QARDL approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 176-193, January.
    6. 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.
    7. Sudeshna Ghosh, 2022. "Effects of tourism on carbon dioxide emissions, a panel causality analysis with new data sets," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 3884-3906, March.
    8. Myo Myo Htike & Anil Shrestha & Makoto Kakinaka, 2022. "Investigating whether the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis holds for sectoral CO2 emissions: evidence from developed and developing countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12712-12739, November.
    9. Keerti Manisha & Inderpal Singh & Vishal Chettry, 2025. "Investigating and analyzing the causality amid tourism, environment, economy, energy consumption, and carbon emissions using Toda–Yamamoto approach for Himachal Pradesh, India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 8731-8766, April.
    10. Pata, Ugur Korkut & Ertugrul, Hasan Murat, 2023. "Do the Kyoto Protocol, geopolitical risks, human capital and natural resources affect the sustainability limit? A new environmental approach based on the LCC hypothesis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasir, Muhammad Ali & Roubaud, David, 2018. "Environmental degradation in France: The effects of FDI, financial development, and energy innovations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 843-857.
    12. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2emissions: a literature survey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(1), pages 106-168, January.
    13. Arunava Bandyopadhyay & Soumen Rej & Kashif Raza Abbasi & Ashar Awan, 2023. "Nexus between tourism, hydropower, and CO2 emissions in India: fresh insights from ARDL and cumulative fourier frequency domain causality," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(10), pages 10903-10927, October.
    14. Siddhartha Pradeep, 2022. "Role of monetary policy on CO2 emissions in India," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-33, January.
    15. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Ben Khediri, Karim, 2016. "Financial development and environmental quality in UAE: Cointegration with structural breaks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1322-1335.
    16. Ahmed Imran Hunjra & Tahar Tayachi & Muhammad Irfan Chani & Peter Verhoeven & Asad Mehmood, 2020. "The Moderating Effect of Institutional Quality on the Financial Development and Environmental Quality Nexus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-13, May.
    17. Sudeshna Ghosh, 2018. "Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Energy Consumption in Agriculture: A Causality Analysis for India," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(2), pages 183-207, December.
    18. Bui Hoang Ngoc, 2022. "Do Tourism Development and Globalization Reinforce Ecological Footprint? Evidence From RCEP Countries," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, December.
    19. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Ahmad, Nawaz & Alam, Shaista, 2016. "Financial development and environmental quality: The way forward," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 353-364.
    20. Sanu, Md Sahnewaz, 2019. "Re-examining the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in India: The Role of Coal Consumption, Financial Development and Trade Openness," MPRA Paper 107845, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2019.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tourism development; Environmental Kuznets curve; CO2 emissions; ARDL; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Z32 - Other Special Topics - - Tourism Economics - - - Tourism and Development

    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:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04270-1. 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.