María del P. Pablo-Romero

Tourism and GDP: A Meta-analysis of Panel Data Studies

This article provides a meta-analysis of a selected sample of 87 estimates from studies based on panel data techniques published through until 2012. The purpose is to obtain a summary measure of the effects of tourism on economic growth by applying models for both fixed and random effects. The results show a positive elasticity between GDP and tourism, although the magnitude of the effect varies according to the methodological procedure employed in the original studies for empirical estimates. In this sense, when estimates exclude other explanatory variables of economic growth, elasticities are overvalued.

An economic evaluation of public programs for internationalization: the case of the Diagnostic Program in Spain.

This paper evaluates the Diagnostic Program in Spain which is a publicly funded program to promote internationalization of companies located in Andalusia (south of Spain). The methodology used is the propensity score-matching. The treatment group consists of companies which participated in the Program until 2008. The control group has companies which planned to participate in the Program but had not done so up to that date. The response variable measures the ratio of export to total sales for each company. Four covariates have been taken into account: activity, location, sales and number of employees. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the companies that participated in the Program improved their ratio of exports to total sales by about 10 percentage points.

Research Note: Exploring the Effect of Tourism on Economic Growth in the Spanish Provinces and Autonomous Communities, 1999–2008

The authors explore the extent to which tourism contributed to the economic growth of the different Spanish provinces and autonomous communities in the period 1999–2008. The results obtained by panel data analysis show that the elasticity of the provincial productivity with respect to tourism is equal to 0.10 when overnight stays of foreign tourists are taken as the indicator of provincial tourism, and 0.11 when total overnight stays are taken as the indicator. The results also show that the elasticity of the productivity of the autonomous communities with respect to tourism is slightly lower than the elasticity of the provincial productivity.

Taxes Incentives to Promote Res Deployment: The Eu-27 Case

The share of renewable energy source (RES) in gross final energy consumption was 10.3% in the European Union (EU-27) in 2008; the remaining 89.7% was covered through the use of conventional fuels such as natural gas or oil products (Eurostat, 2010). The renewable energy share in gross final energy consumption was used for the production of heat (5.5%), electricity (4%) and transport fuels (0.8%). Deployment of RES contributes to two of the four targets of the EU-27 energy strategy: the need to reduce primary energy dependency and the stress of demand on primary energy resources. In addition, the Green House Gas (GHG) abatement due to a more intensive use of RES contributes to improve the EU-27’s target related to climate change, this being the fourth target in its energy strategy. From a legal point of view, The Green Paper (EC 1996), which was the first attempt of establishing a common policy on renewable energies in the European Union, settled down the goal of duplicating the contribution of RES in the gross domestic consumption in 15 years. From the year 1996 until the present, the European Union has developed an intense ruling activity around the promotion of RES. An important step forward the construction of the Community framework about harmonized fiscal treatment was the passing of the Directive (EC, 2003/96), that restructures the community regime about taxation over energy products and electricity. In order to improve on energy efficiency, the most important EU policies for the households sector are the EPBD (EPC 2. Gross final consumption of energy from renewable sources for heating and cooling (H & C); and 3. Final consumption of energy from renewable sources in transport. IEA (2009) has recently pointed out that part of renewable energies growth is due to strong policy support. Therefore, policy measures to promote RES are becoming an interesting issue in its deployment.

Tourism capital: Index for the Spanish provinces through confirmatory factor analysis

In this study, a new conception of the relationships between competitiveness, tourism, and economic growth is proposed. The naturally occurring or inherited tourism resources within the territory, together with productive resources and the relationships between them, are the determining elements of the capacity of the economy to grow. The analysis of this new conceptual framework implies the need to assess the productive factors on the one hand, and the tourism capital (TC) on the other, the latter being measured by some kind of indicator that is not affected by the productive factors. In this study, a TC index is developed for the first time in the literature. It is calculated for the Spanish provinces in 2014, by using synthetic indicators constructed from a weighted average of the initially proposed indicators, where the weight of each of these is obtained through a confirmatory factor analysis. The TC index may allow future empirical studies to analyze how tourism affects economic growth, in relation to other productive factors.

Relationship between economic growth and residential energy use in transition economies

This paper analyses the relationship between economic growth and residential energy consumption in 12 transition economies during the 1995–2013 period, by testing the EKC hypothesis. Urbanisation, population density, transition level and structural change have been included in the estimate process as control variables. The estimate results are compatible with the EKC hypothesis. However, the turning point has not been reached, although Russia is close to it. The results also show that, for countries with low income levels, the economic growth has been reducing the residential energy consumption, which may be related to efficiency gains. Nevertheless, for countries with higher income values, the economic growth has increased the residential energy consumption. Therefore, it may be adequate to establish energy efficiency measures in households and buildings, and promote the use of renewable energy, in order to reduce environmental problems. The results also show that the elasticity values are not constant over time and countries. These differences make it recommendable to adapt the energy policy to each country. The results also show that the urbanisation, higher transition level towards a market economy, and the structural change of the economy towards to one that is more tertiary based, have positive effects in reducing residential energy use.

Tourism, Competitiveness and Economic Growth: A New Analytical Model

This study reviews the theories relating to competitiveness and the indicators used for its measurement on the one hand and the studies that relate tourism and growth on the other, with the purpose of establishing the links that exist between both concepts. This enables a model to be defined in which some factors that affect tourism competitiveness combine with capital and work to determine economic growth. The provision of inherited tourism resources, together with the provision of productive resources, and the links between them are the determining elements of the capacity of an economy to produce and therefore to grow.

The different contribution of productive factors to economic growth in Mena countries

The aim of this study is to analyse the extent to which different productive factors, and the relationships that exist between them, affect the economic growth of productivity in ten Middle Eastern and North African ( MENA ) countries during the period 1990-2010. A translog production function is estimated by using panel data and the contribution of the factors to growth is calculated. The results show a positive effect of the physical and human capital on productivity and high complementarity relationships between them, both factors being essential in determining economic growth. However, the magnitude of their contribution varies substantially between the ten countries considered. Thus, the capitalisation of the economies and the improvement of the human capital seem to be key policy elements of economic growth in these countries. Nevertheless, a considerable part of the economic growth cannot be explained by these factors, particularly in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.