IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cns/cnscwp/200614.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How fast are small tourist countries growing? The 1980-2003 evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Rinaldo Brau
  • A. Lanza
  • F. Pigliaru

Abstract

We analyze the empirical relationship between growth, country size and tourism specialization by using a dataset covering the period 1980-2003. We find that tourism countries grow significantly faster than all the other sub-groups considered in our analysis. Tourism appears to be an independent determining factor for growth, and the reason for that is neither because they are poorer than the average, nor because they are very open to trade. Another finding of our paper is that small states are fast growing only when are highly specialized in tourism. In contrast with some previous conclusions in the literature, smallness per se is not good for growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Rinaldo Brau & A. Lanza & F. Pigliaru, 2006. "How fast are small tourist countries growing? The 1980-2003 evidence," Working Paper CRENoS 200614, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    • Handle: RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200614
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://crenos.unica.it/crenos/node/246
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://crenos.unica.it/crenos/sites/default/files/wp/06-14.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feenstra, Robert C., 1996. "Trade and uneven growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 229-256, April.
    2. Valente, Simone, 2005. "Growth, Conventional Production and Tourism Specialisation: Technological Catching-up Versus Terms-of-Trade Effects," Natural Resources Management Working Papers 12139, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    3. repec:lan:wpaper:899 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Gene M. Grossman (ed.), 1996. "Economic Growth," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, volume 0, number 553.
    5. Harvey W. Armstrong & Robert Read, 1998. "Trade and Growth in Small States: The Impact of Global Trade Liberalisation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 563-585, June.
    6. Easterly, William & Kraay, Aart, 2000. "Small States, Small Problems? Income, Growth, and Volatility in Small States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2013-2027, November.
    7. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    8. Alessandro Lanza & Anil Markandya & Francesco Pigliaru (ed.), 2005. "The Economics of Tourism and Sustainable Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3876.
    9. Read, Robert, 2004. "The Implications of Increasing Globalization and Regionalism for the Economic Growth of Small Island States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 365-378, February.
    10. 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.
    11. Armstrong, H. & De Kervenoael, R. J. & Li, X. & Read, R., 1998. "A comparison of the economic performance of different micro-states, and between micro-states and larger countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 639-656, April.
    12. Armstrong, Harvey & Read, Robert, 1995. "Western European micro-states and EU autonomous regions: The advantages of size and sovereignty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 1229-1245, July.
    13. Briguglio, Lino, 1995. "Small island developing states and their economic vulnerabilities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(9), pages 1615-1632, September.
    14. Armstrong, H W & Read, R, 2000. "Comparing the Economic Performance of Dependent Territories and Sovereign Microstates," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 285-306, January.
    15. repec:lan:wpaper:898 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. M. Thea Sinclair, 1998. "Tourism and economic development: A survey," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(5), pages 1-51.
    17. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    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. Brau, Rinaldo & Lanza, Alessandro & Pigliaru, Francesco, 2007. "How Fast are Small Tourism Countries Growing? Evidence from the Data for 1980–2003," MPRA Paper 82776, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Read, Robert, 2004. "The Implications of Increasing Globalization and Regionalism for the Economic Growth of Small Island States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 365-378, February.
    3. Anna Maria Pinna & Vania Licio, 2013. "Measuring insularity as a state of nature. Is there a case of bad geography," ERSA conference papers ersa13p706, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Fabien Santini & Fatmir Guri & Audrey Aubard & Demetrios Psaltopoulos & Robert Read & Sergio Gomez y Paloma, 2014. "EU Island Farming and the Labelling of its Products," JRC Research Reports JRC84949, Joint Research Centre.
    5. M. Del Gatto & C. Mastinu, 2015. "Geography, Cultural Remoteness and Economic Development: A Regional Analysis of the Economic Consequences of Insularity," Working Paper CRENoS 201503, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    6. Yongzheng Yang & Hong Chen & Shiu raj Singh & Baljeet Singh, 2013. "The Pacific Speed of Growth: How Fast Can It Be and What Determines It?," IMF Working Papers 2013/104, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Harvey W. Armstrong & Robert Read, 2002. "The phantom of liberty?: economic growth and the vulnerability of small states," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 435-458.
    8. Rinaldo Brau & Adriana Di Liberto & Francesco Pigliaru, 2011. "Tourism and Development: A Recent Phenomenon Built on Old (Institutional) Roots?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 444-472, March.
    9. M. Deidda, 2014. "Insularity and economic development: a survey," Working Paper CRENoS 201407, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    10. Vania Licio & Anna Maria Pinna, 2021. "Measuring insularity as a state of nature," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(4), pages 979-1004, August.
    11. Rinaldo Brau & Alessandro Lanza & Francesco Pigliaru, 2007. "How Fast are Small Tourism Countries Growing? Evidence from the Data for 1980–2003," Tourism Economics, , vol. 13(4), pages 603-613, December.
    12. Andreas Freytag & Christoph Vietze, 2013. "Can nature promote development? The role of sustainable tourism for economic growth," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 16-44, March.
    13. Harvey W. Armstrong & Robert Read, 2020. "Size And Sectoral Specialisation: The Asymmetric Cross‐Country Impacts Of The 2008 Crisis And Its Aftermath," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 891-921, August.
    14. Easterly, William & Kraay, Aart, 2000. "Small States, Small Problems? Income, Growth, and Volatility in Small States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2013-2027, November.
    15. Lino P. Briguglio & Melchior Vella, 2015. "Labour demand in the EU and returns to scale: A production function approach," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(8), pages 1103-1116, December.
    16. Liou, F. M. & Ding, C. G., 2002. "Subgrouping Small States Based on Socioeconomic Characteristics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1289-1306, July.
    17. Stanley Brunn, 2015. "Philatelic Boosterism: Tourism Stamps Of Small Island States," International Journal for Responsible Tourism, Fundatia Amfiteatru, vol. 4(2), pages 23-52, December.
    18. Henrik Hansen & Derek Headey, 2010. "The Short-Run Macroeconomic Impact of Foreign Aid to Small States: An Agnostic Time Series Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(5), pages 877-896.
    19. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 1994. "Endogenous Innovation in the Theory of Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 23-44, Winter.
    20. Yasmina Reem Limam & Stephen M. Miller, 2004. "Explaining Economic Growth: Factor Accumulation, Total Factor Productivity Growth, and Production Efficiency Improvement," Working papers 2004-20, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    small states; growth; tourism; cross country comparisons;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cns:cnscwp:200614. 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: CRENoS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/crenoit.html .

    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.