Sakiru Adebola Solarin

Investigating the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in Kenya: an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach

This study investigates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in Kenya using the time period of 1980–2012. To achieve the objective of this study, the ARDL approach was utilized. To prevent any estimation errors and unreliability in the model, the Narayan and Narayan (Energy Policy 38:661–666, 2010) approach was used to control the multicollinearity problems in the regression. The outcome of this research revealed that fossil fuel energy consumption, GDP, urbanization, and trade openness increase air pollution mutually in the long run and short run. However, renewable energy consumption mitigates air pollution in the long run and the short run. Moreover, financial development also reduces air pollution, but only in the long run. Based on the results, the EKC hypothesis does exist in Kenya. From the findings of this research, few policy recommendations were provided to help Kenya for reducing its air pollution levels.

Tourist arrivals and macroeconomic determinants of CO2 emissions in Malaysia

This paper investigates the determinants of carbon dioxide emission with special emphasis on tourism development in Malaysia. Within a multivariate framework, which includes real GDP, energy consumption, financial development, and urbanization, cointegration and causality tests were applied to determine the relationship in the variables. The results reveal long-run relationships between the series and a positive unidirectional long-run causality running from tourist arrivals and the other series to pollution. The study fails to establish any causal relationship between tourism and economic growth in the long-run. These findings suggest that tourist arrivals are active contributors to pollution, but arrivals do not translate into sufficient upsurge in GDP. It is recommended that policy-makers should entrench cleaner energy programmes in their tourism development policies.

Natural gas consumption, income, urbanization, and CO2 emissions in China and India

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of natural gas consumption, output, and urbanization on CO2 emission in China and India for the period, 1965–2013. A cointegraton test, which provides for endogenously determined structural breaks, has been applied to examine the long-run relationship and to investigate the presence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the two countries. The presence of causal relationship between the variables is also investigated. The findings show that there is a long-run relationship in the variables and natural gas, real GDP, and urbanization have long-run positive impact on emission in both countries. There is no evidence for EKC in China and India. The findings further suggest that there is a long-run feedback relationship between the variables. The policy inferences of these findings are discussed.

Assessing the effectiveness of the policies to boost hydropower consumption

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate, with the view to determine the effectiveness of blueprints that are designed to boost hydroelectricity use, the unit root properties of hydroelectricity consumption in 50 countries for the period from 1965 to 2012. Design/methodology/approach – A newly proposed non-linear unit root test is used for the purpose of estimations. Findings – The results show that 26 countries (which are mostly developing countries) or 52 per cent of the total sample have unit roots in their hydroelectricity consumption series. Practical implications – The policy implication of these results is that policies associated with the enhancement of hydroelectric power use are likely to be effective in several cases, especially in the developing countries. Originality/value – The main contribution of this paper is that we estimate the non-stationarity of hydroelectricity series within a non-linearity framework. Failure to use a non-linearity method in the presence of non-linear data-generation...

The effect of military expenditure on stock market development: panel evidence from system GMM estimates

This paper examines the impact of military expenditure on stock market development in 36 countries over the period 1989–2010. Within a panel framework, the system GMM estimates is utilised to test the relationship with an array of control variables. We augment the traditional measure of military expenditure–military burden, with a newly constructed comprehensive index – Global Militarisation Index. Overall, the results show that military spending has a negative and significant effect on stock market performance in the selected countries.

Revisiting the Convergence Hypothesis of Tourism Markets: Evidence from South Africa

The purpose of this article is to examine the convergence hypothesis in South Africa’s tourism markets over the period January 2000–December 2011. To check the existence of convergence, the study follows existing papers by applying a unit root test on the difference series and a cointegration test on the original series of visitor arrivals. Premised on geographical dimension, we further investigate cluster-based convergence within African and overseas source markets in South Africa. The results provide evidence for long-run convergence in tourism markets. Furthermore, the findings of cluster-based convergence provide greater support for the convergence within African and overseas source markets, respectively. These findings imply that previous policies aimed at boosting total visitor arrivals in South Africa have been successful, and maintaining such (or similar) strategies may continue to enhance international visitor arrivals in the country. JEL Classification: L83, O47, O55

Nonlinearity convergence of tourism markets in Seychelles

We implement a new approach to test the convergence hypothesis in Seychelles within a nonlinearity framework. This is the first study to consider a nonlinearity process in investigating convergence in tourism markets and the first study on convergence of tourism markets in Seychelles. We support the convergence hypothesis in Seychelles tourism markets with nonlinearity test.

Income convergence dynamics in ASEAN and SAARC blocs

This paper examines whether convergence of real income exists among the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries for the period covering 1970–2009. Univariate Lagrange Multiplier (LM) unit root tests with structural break(s) are employed to check for the incidence of stochastic convergence, which is necessary for conditional convergence as proposed in the neoclassical model. We further examine the presence of β-convergence, which is considered as the sufficient requirement for conditional convergence. Test results suggest convergence among ASEAN members, with the absence of convergence in SAARC member countries.

Global financial crisis and stationarity of tourist arrivals: evidence from Mauritius

The purpose of this research note is to examine whether shocks such as the recent global financial crisis of 2007–2009 had a permanent or transitory effect on tourist arrivals in a developing country – Mauritius. Principally premised on a new nonlinear unit root test, the results show that tourist arrivals are stationary. The implication of these findings is that the shocks inclusive of those induced by the latest credit crunch had a temporary impact on tourism markets in Mauritius.

September 11 attacks, H1N1 influenza, global financial crisis and tourist arrivals in Sarawak

If visitor arrivals are stationary, it means that external shocks arising from crisis events, such as economic crisis in key origin markets, terrorism threats, or health scares in the host country will only have a temporary impact on visitor arrivals (Narayan, 2005). However, if visitor arrivals are non-stationary, then the shocks will have a permanent impact on visitor arrivals, which implies that it will take a very long time for industry to recover, and therefore, policy-makers must play an active role in the recovery process (Lean & Smyth, 2009; Narayan, 2005). Given the importance of the policy implications from testing whether or not visitor arrivals are stationary, the topic has attracted the attention of some scholars. Bhattacharya and Narayan (2005) investigated whether shocks to the flow of visitor arrivals to India were transitory or permanent and found that shocks were only temporary. Lean and Smyth (2009) reached the same conclusion for Malaysia. This study extends the line of literature by looking at whether the shocks to the tourism markets in Sarawak have a permanent or temporary impact. Sarawak, which lies on the island of Borneo, is the largest state in Malaysia. Tourism industry is important to the Sarawak’s economy and it is a significant contributor to its gross domestic product. Given the importance of tourism, the state has experienced several shocks that have affected its tourism industry, especially between the period of 2000 and 2011, including the 11 September 2001 attacks, Influenza A (H1N1) scare, and the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. This study contributes to the existing literature on shocks to the tourism sector in two aspects. Contrary to the previous studies that have focused on country-level data, the study considers the stationarity of arrivals at a state level. Using country-level data may create an aggregation bias problem and therefore offer little guidance for policy-makers when formulating tourism marketing for different states within a country, especially when there are differences between each federating states like in Malaysia. The second contribution is the use of the Wu and Lee (2009) unit root test which does not only provides for nonlinearity but also cross-sectional dependency in the visitor arrivals. The failure to make provisions for nonlinearity and cross-sectional dependency, when examining the stationarity of visitor arrivals may lead to biased findings (see Kapetanios, Shin, & Snell, 2003).