Economic complexity, tourism, energy prices, and environmental degradation in the top economic complexity countries: fresh panel evidence

Abstract

The study explores the association between economic complexity index (ECI), tourism (TR), gross domestic products (GDP), gross domestic products per capita (GPC), and energy prices indices (EPI) on CO₂e using the top 18 economic complexity index countries data from 1990 to 2019. We employ the second-generation cointegration methods and cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) to analyze the short- and long-term association also Dumitrescu and Hurlin Granger causality test applied. The results of Pesaran and Yamagata slope heterogeneity and Pesaran CD test confirm the presence of cross-sectional unit relationship and slope heterogeneity across countries, while positive long- and short-term associations were found among ECI, GDP, and CO₂e. Also, TR, GPC, and EPI decrease carbon emissions both in the long and short term . Moreover, Augmented Mean Group (AMG) techniques verified and support these findings. The outcomes of the Dumitrescu and Hurlin Granger causality test showed that any policy aim at ECI, TR, GDP, GPC, and EPI has a considerable impact on CO₂e. Based on the rigorous empirical analysis, we suggest that economic complexity, tourism, GDP, GPC, and energy prices would help alleviate high economic complexity countries' environmental degradation challenges.

Keywords: CO2 emissions; CS-ARDL; Economic complexity; Energy prices; GDP; Tourism.