Tourism, economic growth, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in China

Abstract

In this article, we for the first time applied the vector error correction model (VECM) Granger causality approach to investigate the short-run and long-run causal relationships among tourism, economic growth, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for 30 Chinese provinces over the period 2000–2017. The results implied that the analyzed variables became stationary at their first differences. The panel cointegration tests indicated the presence of a long-term equilibrium relationship among these four analyzed variables. Results from the VECM Granger causality tests suggested that the bidirectional short-term causalities were statistically confirmed between gross domestic product (GDP) and tourism. Additionally, we found that some unidirectional short-run causalities existed running from energy consumption to other analyzed variables and bidirectional long-run causalities existed between CO2 emissions and GDP, CO2 emissions and tourism, and GDP and tourism. Moreover, we also found the existence of unidirectional long-term causalities running from energy consumption to other analyzed variables. Based on these findings, we highlighted some key policy implications to develop China’s sustainable tourism.