Ecological footprint, tourism development, and country risk: International evidence

This research empirically explores the economic-, tourism-, and country risk ratings-induced Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by employing ecological footprints (EFs) as indicators of international environmental degradation. To account for distributional heterogeneities across countries as well as possible asymmetric relationships among variables, we apply a quantile regression approach by using panel data from 123 countries spanning 1992-2016. Our findings partially support that income, tourism, and country risk EKCs (i.e., inverted U-shape relation) exist in grazing land and forest land, signifying that these 2 types of land are sacrificed (increased) and then shift toward enhancing more environmental protection lifestyles as GDP, tourism revenues, and country risk ratings further rise. Conversely, U-shape relations generally exist in carbon-absorption land, cropland, and fishing ground, implying that growths of tourism, GDP, and country risk ratings have shifted from enhancing more environmentally protective policies to encouraging EF-consuming lifestyles for these EF components. In addition, we uncover that income development is largely responsible for increases in EF, while tourism generally and salient decreases forest land and grazing land. We also confirm the income EKC hypothesis in European countries. Tourism increases (reduces) fishing ground at lower (higher) fishing quantiles, suggesting the asymmetric impacts of tourism across different quantiles. The political risk rating shows a mostly positive impact on EF than those of economic and financial risk ratings, denoting the important impact of a country's political rating on environment degradation. Overall, the findings herein advocate the need for analysis that considers heterogeneities across countries, different EF quantiles, and different EF components in the tourism-, economic-, and country risk-induced EKC estimations. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study empirically explores the impact of economic, tourism, and country risk on environmental degradation using ecological footprints as indicators. Findings suggest the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curves in grazing land and forest land, while different relationships are observed in carbon absorption land, cropland, and fishing ground. Additionally, political risk rating has a significant impact on environmental degradation.